2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
"I know what the power of silence is. When I used to play in clubs, everybody was loud; there was a lot of noise. So I would take my mute off the microphone, and I would play something so so…
In today's Wall Street Journal, I review a webcast by Arkansas's TheatreSquared of Lauren Gunderson's The Half-Life of Marie Curie. Here's an excerpt.
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I've been hearing g…
Tyrone Power appears as a guest on Person to Person, hosted by Edward R. Murrow. This episode was originally telecast live on December 20, 1957, by CBS:
(This is the latest in a series o…
"If anyone not a moron has determined to kill your husband, he will be killed. Nothing is simpler than to kill a man; the difficulties arise in attempting to avoid the consequences."
Rex Sto…
A Terry Teachout Reader, my self-anthology, came out sixteen years ago. I've published hundreds of pieces on various subjects since then, and I have no plans to put together a sequel to theÃ…
"They are the greatest living masters of the subtlest and kindliest of the arts."
Rex Stout, Too Many Cooks
Continue reading Almanac: Rex Stout on the fine art of cooking at About Last Ni…
Lenny Bruce appears on The Tonight Show. This episode, which was portrayed on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, was originally telecast by NBC on April 5, 1959:
(This is the latest in a seri…
"The more one suffers, the more, I believe, has one a sense for the comic. It is only by the deepest suffering that one acquires true authority in the use of the comic, an author…
From 2006:
One of my mother's most treasured heirlooms is a copy of the second edition of Our Baby's First Seven Years, the "baby book" in which she set down the particulars of my early c…
"There is nothing fine about being a child: it is fine, when we are old, to look back to when we were children."
Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living
Continue reading Almanac: Cesare Pa…
I long ago lost count of the number of times that Satchmo at the Waldorf, my one-man-three-character play about Louis Armstrong, has been produced. I do, however, take note whenever I hear o…
Julian Bream talks about and plays Malcolm Arnold's Guitar Concerto live in 1991, accompanied by Barry Wordsworth and the BBC Concert Orchestra:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and…
"Whatever the old girl says, do"do it!"
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Continue reading Almanac: Dickens on wifely advice at About Last Night.
In today's Wall Street Journal I review American Players Theatre's reading of Lydia R. Diamond's Smart People. Here's an excerpt.
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Lydia R. Diamond's "Smart People," a har…
A scene from NBC's 1960 telecast of the musical version of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin and adapted and directed for the stage by Jerome Robbins. The song is by Carolyn Leigh and Moose…
"To die will be an awfully big adventure."
James M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Continue reading Almanac: James M. Barrie on death at About Last Night.
Not long after Hilary died, an old friend of mine who is also a psychiatrist said something that stayed with me: "You should try to reach a point where you can see your marriage to her as a …
"VLADIMIR: Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. (He listens.…
Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dance the death scene from Kenneth MacMillan's ballet version of Romeo and Juliet. The score is by Prokofiev:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and …
"There is an art in taking the whiplash of suffering full in the face, an art you must learn. Let each single attack exhaust itself; pain always makes single attacks, so that its bite may be…
From 2015:
Milwaukee contains five buildings designed by Wright, most of them private residences. More often than not, his houses were commissioned by people who had a fair amount of money t…
"Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past."
Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History
Continue reading Almanac: Walter Benjamin on happi…
I miss Hilary and, I expect, always will. I gather that's what happens when you lose a partner in the heartbreakingly unexpected way I did. Just the other day I muttered to myself, "Darling,…
I've written a "Sightings" column for today's Wall Street Journal about the reason why so few regional theater companies are webcasting their shows. Here's an excerpt.
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A scene from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
Continue read…
