• Home
  • About
    • About Last Night
    • Terry Teachout
    • Contact
  • AJBlogCentral
  • ArtsJournal

About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

You are here: Home / Archives for ldemanski

TT: Almanac

June 24, 2011 by ldemanski

“Always providing you have enough courage–or money–you can do without a reputation.”
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

TT: With humble apologies to Cole Porter…

June 23, 2011 by ldemanski

…I offer this new lyric to an old song in the hope of making certain careless theatergoers think twice:

Turn off your cellphone,
Start powering it down.
Turn off your cellphone
Or your fellow men will frown.
If it rings at the end of
The Crucible,
All the ushers will treat you as gooseable.
If you chat when you ought to be si-o-lent,
Then assume that your date will get violent.
We’re all sick of the buzzing and ringing
That detracts from the acting and singing.
Turn off your cellphone
Or get out of town.

* * *

Cole Porter’s “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” sung by Lee Wilkof and Michael Mulheren in the 1999 Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate:


TT: So you want to see a show?

June 23, 2011 by ldemanski

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.


BROADWAY:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Jan. 8, reviewed here)

• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical, G/PG-13, perfectly fine for children whose parents aren’t actively prudish, reviewed here)

• The Motherf**ker with the Hat (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes July 17, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• Play Dead (theatrical spook show, PG-13, utterly unsuitable for easily frightened children or adults, closes July 24, reviewed here)

IN CHICAGO:

• The Front Page (comedy, PG-13, extended through July 17, reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:

• A Little Journey (drama, G, closes July 10, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK ON BROADWAY:

• The Importance of Being Earnest (high comedy, G, just possible for very smart children, closes July 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO:

• Porgy and Bess (operatic musical, PG-13, closes July 3, reviewed here)

CLOSING SATURDAY ON BROADWAY:

• The House of Blue Leaves (serious comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:

• Old Times (drama, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN GLENCOE, ILL.:

• Heartbreak House (serious comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:

• Follies (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY ON BROADWAY:

• Born Yesterday (comedy, G/PG-13, reviewed here)

TT: Almanac

June 23, 2011 by ldemanski

“Q. Do you care about reviews?
“A. Of course you care. I don’t read them, but you don’t really have to–you know what they are with the way people respond. There’s nothing in the world more silent than the telephone the morning after everybody pans your play. It won’t ring from room service; your mother won’t be calling you. If the phone has not rung by 8 in the morning, you’re dead.”
David Mamet (interview, New York Times, May 27, 2011)

TT: Snapshot

June 22, 2011 by ldemanski

“The 100 Greatest Movie Threats of All Time,” compiled by Harry Hanrahan:

(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

TT: Almanac

June 22, 2011 by ldemanski

“The thing about men that don’t talk much is that they don’t usually learn much, either.”
Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

TT: Almanac

June 21, 2011 by ldemanski

“Occasionally the very youngness of the young moved him to charity–they had no sense of the swiftness of life, nor of its limits. The years would pass like weeks, and loves would pass too, or else grow sour.”
Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

TT: Here, but not here

June 20, 2011 by ldemanski

I’m taking a couple of days off from the blog, the theater, New York, and life itself. (Regular readers won’t need to be told why!) The usual theater-related postings and daily almanac entries will, needless to say, continue uninterrupted, and I’ve also rolled over the Top Five and “Out of the Past” modules of the right-hand column for your delectation. I’ll also post the weekly “Snapshot” video on Wednesday. Otherwise, I’m elsewhere.
See you a little later in the week.

« Previous Page
Next Page »

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...]

Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on E-mail

@Terryteachout1

Tweets by TerryTeachout1

Archives

May 2025
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Jan    

An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Terry Teachout, 65
  • Gripping musical melodrama
  • Replay: Somerset Maugham in 1965
  • Almanac: Somerset Maugham on sentimentality
  • Snapshot: Richard Strauss conducts Till Eulenspiegel

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in