Monday, May 25, 2015
A curious item in The New York Times of December 28 gave me pause--actually more than a pause: theatrically speaking, a whole intermission.
SOURCE: John Simon at 05:58PM[SHARE]It is New Year's Day 2011 and what thoughts does this generate in my 85- year-old head? Another tooth has broken and fallen out; it will have to be replaced, however expensively.
SOURCE: John Simon at 05:58PM[SHARE]Under the title “List! List! O, List!” a quotation from "Hamlet" (as what isn't?), I checked in at New York magazine December 22, 1975, against Ten Best Lists, which I abhor.
SOURCE: John Simon at 05:58PM[SHARE]Four rehearsals before the opening of the recent revival of the stage Dracula, director Paul Alexander fired leading actress Thora Birch. Four performances after opening, the revival of the …
SOURCE: John Simon at 05:58PM[SHARE]Above is a link to an Arts Beat blog post by Charles Isherwood which mentions the fact that I took issue with Jeremy Gerard covering Spiderman and noting that Jeremy has succeeded me at Bloo…
SOURCE: John Simon at 05:58PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 21, 2011
This is a blog post about tennis. Please bear with me on the somewhat circuitous path leading to it.The aristocratic German nymphomaniac, Countess Franaziska von Reventlow, has in her charmi…
SOURCE: John Simon at 09:18AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 14, 2011
I read on the Internet that Anthony Weiner's (or Whiner's) troubles stem from a typo he committed on Tweeter: @ instead of D, turning a private misdemeanor into a public offense. Typos are p…
SOURCE: John Simon at 12:42PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 1, 2011
I just read about the arrest of Ratko Mladic, the Serbian ethnic cleanser, and my thoughts went back to Yugoslavia, the lost country of my childhood. Of course, everyone's childhood is a sor…
SOURCE: John Simon at 09:11PM[SHARE]Sunday, May 22, 2011
I have often wondered about graffiti, the spray-painted writs on walls I perceive from the windows of my computer train. What person or persons can be responsible for them? How do their perp…
SOURCE: John Simon at 11:41PM[SHARE]Monday, May 16, 2011
Almost as old as the debate about which comes first, the words or the music, is the question of what music means. Otherwise put, is the music saying something specific that the listener can …
SOURCE: John Simon at 10:11AM[SHARE]Sunday, May 8, 2011
The current issue of Harvard Magazine contains the following quotations: "In any battle between the literati and the p…
SOURCE: John Simon at 09:32PM[SHARE]Monday, April 25, 2011
Why Bertrand Tavernier is not considered up there with the world's greatest filmmakers is a mystery to me. It must have something to do with the vagaries of distribution, the absence of hype…
SOURCE: John Simon at 10:49PM[SHARE]Saturday, April 9, 2011
This week's sermon is chiefly about false analogy, one of the major ills that plague (not plagues"the subject is plural, ills) our once reasonably healthy English.Is anything more parlous th…
SOURCE: John Simon at 12:37AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 6, 2011
French Without Tears is the title of the charming playwright Terence Rattigan's first comedic hit. But this post is not a tribute to Rattigan's centenary now being celebrated wherever Englis…
SOURCE: John Simon at 11:02PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Herewith some reflections on this year's Academy Awards from a longtime film critic currently not reviewing movies. Of course I watched the Oscars as I always do; they provide the kind of en…
SOURCE: John Simon at 11:42AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 24, 2011
If you ride an elevator often enough"especially to and from a high floor"you can turn this experience into a psychological study of your neighbors, both the two- and four-legged kind. Such c…
SOURCE: John Simon at 11:57AM[SHARE]Saturday, February 19, 2011
We know, of course, that the dog is man's best friend. But how reciprocal is this friendship? Is man also the dog's best friend? When I see Yor…
SOURCE: John Simon at 10:53AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 17, 2011
School days, school days! Something just reminded me of good old Perkiomen School in Pennsburg, Pa., where I put in a couple of turbid semester…
SOURCE: John Simon at 12:57PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Far be it from me to put classical concertgoing above theatergoing, or vice versa. Both afford pleasure and have their important place in civilized life. But I must concede that concerts, ev…
SOURCE: John Simon at 09:18PM[SHARE]Sunday, February 6, 2011
Often I have been asked to write my memoir. My negative answer was always based on never having kept a diary, and not being anywhere near memorious enough. Example: What's the good of having…
SOURCE: John Simon at 10:24AM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Because the charming secretary of my primary physician is called Althea, I read her the last stanza of Richard Lovelace's "To Althea, from Prison." I quoted from the old Everyman Library's M…
SOURCE: John Simon at 04:28PM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 19, 2011
I logged on this morning to write about the Spiderman delay--one last time--but before doing so, thought I'd read up on what some of my colleagues posted on the topic this week. We hav…
SOURCE: John Simon at 04:53PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The road to hell is, as we know, paved with good intentions. But there is a less well-known road that also leads to hell, or some lesser hells.…
SOURCE: John Simon at 12:02PM[SHARE]Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Four rehearsals before the opening of the recent revival of the stage Dracula, director Paul Alexander fired leading actress Thora Birch. Four performances after opening, the revival of the …
SOURCE: John Simon at 01:01PM[SHARE]Friday, January 7, 2011
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/theater-talkback-why-waiting-to-review-makes-sense/Above is a link to an Arts Beat blog post by Charles Isherwood which mentions the fact that I …
SOURCE: John Simon at 04:53PM[SHARE]Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Under the title "List! List! O, List!" a quotation from Hamlet (as what isn't?), I checked in at New York magazine December 22, 1975, &nb…
SOURCE: John Simon at 10:23PM[SHARE]Saturday, January 1, 2011
It is New Year's Day 2011 and what thoughts does this generate in my 85- year-old head? Another tooth has broken and fallen out; it will have to be replaced, however expensively. …
SOURCE: John Simon at 12:13PM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 29, 2010
A curious item in The New York Times of December 28 gave me pause--actually more than a pause: theatrically speaking, a whole intermission. It concerns the musical Spider-…
SOURCE: John Simon at 12:34PM[SHARE] 
