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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for June 2021

Snapshot: Weather Report plays “Black Market” in 1976

June 30, 2021 by Terry Teachout

Weather Report, featuring Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul, performs Zawinul’s “Black Market” at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976:

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

Almanac: Steve Reich on canon formation

June 30, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“Expansion should continue, but you don’t have to tear down the house you’re living in to invite guests in.”

Steve Reich, interviewed by Neil Fisher (London Times, June 29, 2021)

Lookback: on being disagreed with in public

June 29, 2021 by Terry Teachout

From 2010:

I don’t go out of my way to read everything that gets written about me, but I do see a fair amount of it in the ordinary course of my working day, and it never fails to strike me that a considerable number of the people who write about the pieces that they read, whether by me or anyone else, haven’t actually read them. Or, to be exact, they read until they encounter a statement with which they disagree, at which precise moment they stop reading, boil over, and start clicking away at their keyboards with what they imagine to be annihilating fury….

Read the whole thing here.

Almanac: Steve Reich on the morality of creative artists

June 29, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“The idea that great artists become the most exemplary human beings is a romantic wish, but demonstrably not the case.”

Steve Reich, interviewed by Neil Fisher (London Times, June 29, 2021)

Just because: Herbie Hancock talks about Miles Davis

June 28, 2021 by Terry Teachout

Herbie Hancock talks about Miles Davis in an undated TV interview:

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

Almanac: Laurence Olivier on acting

June 28, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“If I wasn’t an actor, I think I’d have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights. Art is a little bit larger than life—it’s an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.”

Laurence Olivier, quoted in Foster Hirsch, Laurence Olivier

A time capsule from South Africa

June 25, 2021 by Terry Teachout

In today’s Wall Street Journal, I review a regnional webcast of Athol Fugard’s ”Master Harold”…and the Boys. Here’s an excerpt.

*  *  *

Athol Fugard, South Africa’s greatest playwright, is no longer produced in the U.S. as often as he used to be. The reason for this, however, is a happy one: Now that apartheid, the subject matter of most of his plays, is a thing of the past, they have inevitably lost some of their immediacy. Today they are period pieces—but the best of them are also great plays, dramatically vital time capsules that re-enact a hideous episode in history, and they continue to work superlatively well onstage.

What I’ve been wondering about ever since Syracuse Stage announced that it was reviving “‘Master Harold’ . . . and the Boys,” the 1982 play that made Mr. Fugard famous, is the impression that would now be made by a work about apartheid by a white author. The notion that people of color should be telling their own stories has lately hardened into something not far from an orthodoxy, and “‘Master Harold’”—which is set in 1950 and tells the story of the deteriorating relationship between Hally (Nick Apostolina), a white teenager, and Sam and Willie ( L. Peter Callender and Phumzile Sojola ), two 40ish Black servants who helped to raise him and whom he regards as friends—doesn’t fit into that framework. But “‘Master Harold,’” lest we forget, is Mr. Fugard’s story, too, a semi-autobiographical dramatization of a shameful episode from his own youth, and he tells it so powerfully that you’ll feel at evening’s end that you’ve had a privileged glimpse into another, sadder world….

*  *  *

Read the whole thing here.

The trailer for ”Master Harold”…and the Boys:

We’re still here

June 25, 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: 

After a few months off, the critics are back! We talk about the reopening of live theatre, discuss which plays are coming back (and which not), and make predictions about what Broadway audiences will look like and expect. Other talking points: the Pulitzer for Drama, collaborations among regional companies last year, and the lasting impact of digital theatre….

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.

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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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