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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

Almanac: John Milton on loneliness

January 8, 2021 by Terry Teachout

In solitude
What happiness? who can enjoy alone?
Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Almanac: Benjamin Franklin on mobs

January 7, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“A Mob’s a Monster; Heads enough, but no Brains.”

Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack

Snapshot: Alec Guinness plays Hitler in the bunker

January 6, 2021 by Terry Teachout

A scene from Hitler: The Last Ten Days, directed by Ennio De Concini and starring Alec Guinness as Adolf Hitler:

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

Almanac: Tacitus on power

January 6, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“Power is never stable when it is boundless.”

Tacitus, History

Lookback: tentative axioms of a novice stage director

January 5, 2021 by Terry Teachout

From 2011:

Directing is mainly listening. The director’s first job is to ensure that the actor speaks the text in such a way as to make it intelligible to members of the audience who have not already seen it on the printed page.

When you’re talking, you’re not listening….

Read the whole thing here.

Almanac: Rochefoucauld on the flaws of great men

January 5, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“It is the prerogative of great men to have great defects.”

Rouchefoucauld, Maxims

Just because: William Walton in conversation

January 4, 2021 by Terry Teachout

William Walton talks about his life and work and is seen conducting his own music:

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

Almanac: Rochefoucauld on talent

January 4, 2021 by Terry Teachout

“There are some bad qualities which make great talents.”

Rochefoucauld, Maxims

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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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