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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for March 2021

Keep the (virtual) crowds coming

March 26, 2021 by Terry Teachout

In this week’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I talk about the role of streaming video and other online content in the post-pandemic world. Here’s an excerpt.

*  *  *

The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival recently announced that André De Shields, lately of “Hadestown” and one of the best actors in New York, will be playing the title role in a new production of “King Lear” that will open in June—outdoors and in front of a socially distanced live audience…if.

That ominous monosyllable wasn’t part of the announcement, of course, but it might just as well have been. Everybody knows that the restarting of the arts in America is contingent on the success of mass vaccination and the tamping down of potentially dangerous Covid-19 variants. Yet that isn’t stopping arts organizations from preparing to reopen their doors for the first time since lockdowns began a year ago this month….

Despite all this hopeful news, the specter of Covid-19 still haunts the arts. Yet we are nonetheless seeing the first stirrings of a post-Covid arts world, and when it comes to pass, we’ll find out whether America’s arts institutions have truly learned the lessons of audience engagement taught by the pandemic….

*  *  *

Read the whole thing here.

Letters from lockdown

March 26, 2021 by Terry Teachout

A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the 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 American Theatre’s “official” summary of the proceedings: 

Once a month, Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal; Elisabeth Vincentelli, contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker; and Peter Marks of the Washington Post get together to talk about what’s going on in the American theatre.

On the anniversary of the theatre shutdown, we reached out to our listeners to write to us with their reflections, thoughts, and feelings about the past year. And write to us they did: from Illinois, Iowa, Connecticut, New York, and beyond, telling stories of loss, redirection, and unwavering hope for the future.

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

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

Replay: Noël Coward sings “Uncle Harry”

March 26, 2021 by Terry Teachout

Noël Coward sings his “Uncle Harry” on TV in 1955:

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

Almanac: Somerset Maugham on the secret of playwriting

March 26, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“But I think the secret of playwriting can be given in two maxims: stick to the point and whenever you can, cut.”

Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up

Lookback: on eating fresh corn and tomatoes

March 23, 2021 by Terry Teachout

From 2017:

My mother, who grew up during the Great Depression, never quite got over the miracle of canned vegetables. While my family must have eaten fresh corn on the cob at one time or another, I can’t remember our doing so. Most of the corn I ate back then—always with extreme reluctance—was spooned out of a dish….

Read the whole thing here.

Almanac: George Saintsbury on humorless people

March 23, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it.”

George Saintsbury, A Last Vintage

Just because: Fredric March appears on What’s My Line?

March 22, 2021 by Terry Teachout

Fredric March appears as the mystery guest on What’s My Line. John Daly is the host and the panelists are Steve Allen, Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Margaret Truman. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on March 21, 1954:

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

Almanac: Brian Friel on memory

March 22, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“To remember everything is a form of madness.”

Brian Friel, Translations

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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, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [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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