Archives for 2018

Mrs. T is back in the hospital, this time in Connecticut rather than on the road. Unlike her last hospital stay, which was the direct result of a life-threatening crisis, this one isn’t as scary. She went to UConn John Dempsey Hospital eight days ago to undergo a routine test intended to monitor the progress of the chronic respiratory disease for which she will ultimately undergo a double lung transplant. While she was there, her doctors discovered that she had developed a staph infection at the site of the central line implanted in her chest through which she receives intravenous medication around the clock. Such infections are not uncommon and can be potentially dire, so she was hospitalized for treatment the very next day. Alas, one thing led to another, as often happens with central-line infections, and she’s been cooling her heels at UConn ever since.

The good news is that the infection is now under control. The bad news is that Mrs. T’s compromised central line had to be pulled—a procedure that proved to be far more painful than either of us expected—and it won’t be possible for the doctors at UConn to insert a new one until next week. For reasons too complicated and frustrating to explain in this space, she can’t spend the intervening time at home in Connecticut. Instead, she must remain in John Dempsey Hospital, where she’ll continue to receive the intravenous antibiotics necessary to ensure that the infection is gone for good. The initial stages of her treatment were inescapably unpleasant and things got pretty rough over the weekend, but Mrs. T, though she’s still in a fair amount of pain, is now resting more or less comfortably.

I’ve rearranged my work schedule to be with her, driving into New York to see shows and returning to Connecticut immediately afterward. Would that John Dempsey Hospital were a bit closer to our place in Storrs! No such luck, though: I spend two hours on the road each day, not counting the time needed to drive to Manhattan and back, as I did on Sunday afternoon to see a press preview of Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem at Lincoln Center. Fortunately, I’m accustomed to writing under adverse circumstances, and I’ve already knocked out a couple of Wall Street Journal columns in Mrs. T’s hospital room, which is brand-new and surprisingly spacious and attractive. While we’d rather be spending Thanksgiving somewhere else—anywhere else, truth to tell—we’re both well aware that things could be a whole lot worse.

My new routine is now set in stone. I commute from home to the hospital at midday and return at night. During the drive, I think about whatever I’m writing and listen to new albums and old favorites, taking my meals en route or in the hospital cafeteria (the minestrone is excellent). I continue to tape podcasts from Connecticut via Skype, and I’ve been amusing myself after visiting hours by working my way through Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin novels for the umpteenth time.

Mostly, though, I sit with Mrs. T, playing music for her on my MacBook, chatting idly about this and that, and doing everything I can think of to distract her from the comprehensively disagreeable fact that she’s stuck in a hospital bed again. She is, as always, coping gallantly with the situation, and her doctors and nurses, who couldn’t be nicer, are all doing everything in their power to ensure that she’ll return home next week in far better shape than she was when she arrived last week.

As for me, I’m where I belong and where I want to be, looking after my life’s companion. For that inestimable privilege, I will unhesitatingly give thanks come Thursday, and no matter what the UConn hospital kitchen dishes up that day, I’ll eat it with gratitude. I know how lucky I am.

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Billie Holiday sings Cole Porter’s “Easy to Love” in 1936. The band includes Ben Webster on tenor saxophone and Teddy Wilson on piano:

From 2008:

When Dad was on the road alone
And dined, alone, at night,
He wanted everything to be
Not passable, but right:
“A perfect baked potato
Demands the utmost care.
The only way to order steak
Is medium, not rare.”…

Read the whole thing here.

“The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.”

Bertrand Russell, “Freedom Versus Authority in Education”

The twenty-second episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or downloading.

Here’s an excerpt from American Theatre’s “official” summary of the proceedings:

This episode, the critics talk about the musical spectacle King Kong: what it means for Broadway going forward, how long it might last, and whether it will one day earn a place on Joe Allen’s infamous wall of flops.

Then the critics speak with Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and playwright Kenneth Lonergan about the Broadway production of his play The Waverly Gallery, as well as the different skill sets required in writing for the stage and screen, not to mention his method for getting into the minds of the characters he creates.

To close the show, the critics recall times their critical quotes were taken out of context in the advertising for shows, and discuss their feelings on Beetlejuice at the National Theater in D.C., American Son Broadway, and Melissa Errico’s new album Sondheim Sublime.

To listen, download the latest episode, read more about it, or subscribe to Three on the Aisle, go here.

In case you missed any previous episodes, you’ll find them all here.

Titus Techera, who hosts a podcast for the American Cinema Foundation on which he and his guests discuss important films of the past and present, invited me back to talk about Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity on his latest episode. Our hour-long chat is now available on line.

Here’s Titus’ summary of our conversation:

Titus and Terry Teachout talk about the pluperfect noir: Double Indemnity, written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Every element of the all-American tragedy is present here, for the first time. We talk about the conflict between love and law, the different claims of eroticism and friendship, and also where insurance stands to the all-American future.

To listen to or download this episode, go here.

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The original theatrical trailer for Double Indemnity:

A scene from the film:

“One of the essential features of madness is psychic exposure. A mad person sheds the thin layer that ordinarily masks the chaos of inner life from the outside observer. He walks in the world stripped of the psychological skin with which the ‘sane’ shield themselves.”

Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel (courtesy of Jess Epstein)

In today’s Wall Street Journal I review two new issue-driven New York shows, The Prom and Natural Shocks. Here’s an excerpt.

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In the wake of the midterm elections, the pollsters are telling us that America is growing even more politically polarized, and that we’re less willing than ever before to listen to those with whom we disagree. If that’s so, what effect will this heightened polarization have on the world of theater, a one-party state whose citizens usually vote for the most progressive candidate?

For my part, I expect to see fewer political plays whose purpose is to persuade the unsure, and more that seek instead to lift the spirits of true believers, rather in the manner of an old-fashioned revival meeting. Fortunately, there’s more than one way to stimulate the faithful. Witness “The Prom,” the new Broadway musical about what happens when Emma (Caitlin Kinnunen), a small-town lesbian, tries to take Alyssa (Isabelle McCalla), her closeted girlfriend, to the senior prom. The results are a bit sanctimonous in spots, but most of “The Prom” is really, really funny—and much of it, to my happy surprise, is funny at the expense of the good guys….

It starts out not in middle America but on Broadway, where Barry Glickman (Brooks Ashmanskas) and Dee Dee Allen (Beth Leavel), a pair of preposterously self-centered stage stars, have just gotten the worst reviews of their lives for a musical in which the critics blitz them for being “aging narcissists.” In order to change the narrative, they resolve to become celebrity activists, teaming up with two other actors suffering from mid-career crises (Angie Schworer and Christopher Sieber) and flying to Edgewater, Indiana, to lend a hand to Emma and Alyssa. Instead, they make matters worse by condescending to the natives…

Mr. Ashmanskas, who specializes in Paul Lynde-type parts, gives a performance that is not merely campy but affecting….

Would that there were anything half so surprising about “Natural Shocks,” the new one-woman play by Lauren Gunderson, whose work is popular throughout America but rarely seen in New York. I was much taken with Ms. Gunderson’s “The Book of Will,” which I saw last summer at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, but this time around she’s given us an all-too-predictable 70-minute monologue by a battered wife (Pascale Armand) whose husband collects guns. Like “The Prom,” “Natural Shocks” is an example of what I call the theater of concurrence, whose practitioners take for granted that their audiences agree with them about everything and thus assert instead of arguing…

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Read the whole thing here.

Excerpts from The Prom: