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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Devil in a red dress

February 8, 2019 by Terry Teachout

In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column, I review a Rhode Island production of Macbeth. Here’s an excerpt.

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Even in our present age of proud cultural illiteracy, “Macbeth” has managed to remain ubiquitous. It is, with “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet,” one of the three Shakespeare plays whose name is still universally known to people who don’t go to the theater, and it gets produced with consistent regularity, with good reason. Not only is it Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, but “Macbeth” is as clear as it is compact, a tale of ambition run rampant whose plot and characters are so firmly rooted in the dark side of human nature as to be archetypical…

Still, Shakespeare’s plays do fluctuate in popularity from season to season. When I read that Trinity Repertory Company was putting on what the press release calls a “contemporary telling” of Shakespeare’s so-called “Scottish play” staged by Curt Columbus, the artistic director, I checked my records and was surprised to discover that five years had gone by since I’d last seen “Macbeth.” Inspired to make a field trip, I drove up to Rhode Island, where I saw—not at all to my surprise—a very satisfying “Macbeth.”

While Mr. Columbus’ production is contemporary, it’s not conceptual. Shakespeare’s text, though trimmed a bit and fitted out with what’s-past-is-present trappings—Macbeth is first seen running on a treadmill—has not been obscured by a skein of let’s-do-“Macbeth”-in-a-zoo notions that are at least as likely to obscure its meaning as they are to illuminate it….

At least to my eye, Mr. Columbus means for us to see Ms. Atwood’s Lady Macbeth as noticeably younger than her hapless spouse (which would explain the treadmill, not to mention his trendy buzzcut). Indeed, Mr. Hantman’s deliberately ineffectual Macbeth comes off as a film-noir chump, a natural fall guy who can’t help but succumb to the wiles of the blond femme fatale. Ms. Atwood plays her part exceptionally well: Her Lady Macbeth is a doe-eyed millennial in leggings and running shoes—later on she dons a blood-red dress—whose pretty face is a mask that hides her viperine will to power….

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Read the whole thing here.

Replay: George Stevens and Claudette Colbert appear on What’s My Line?

February 8, 2019 by Terry Teachout

George Stevens and Claudette Colbert appear as the mystery guests on What’s My Line? John Daly is the host and the panelists are Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and James Mason. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on September 30, 1956: 

(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

Almanac: Joseph Addison on hatred

February 8, 2019 by Terry Teachout

“If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.”

Joseph Addison, The Spectator (July 24, 1711)

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, ran earlier this season at New Orleans’ Le Petit Theatre. It previously closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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