Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Jimmy Rushing sings, plays piano, and talks about his career on an episode of Jazz Casual, originally telecast by KQED-TV on October 26, 1962. The host is Ralph J. Gleason: (This is the late…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“You will be old-fashioned one day. It’s more shocking than getting old.” Enid Bagnold, The Chalk Garden
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, December 13, 2016
From 2006: It is at times like these that I bless the name of Thomas Edison, and recall Shakespeare’s words: Death makes no conquest of this conqueror,/For now he lives in fame though not …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“I shall continue to explore the astonishment of living.” Enid Bagnold, The Chalk Garden
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, December 12, 2016
Sir Thomas Beecham leads the Chicago Symphony in a 1959 TV performance of Love in Bath, his own ballet suite drawn from the music of Handel and arranged by Beecham: (This is the latest in a …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:15AM“One can lie— But truth is more interesting.” Enid Bagnold, The Chalk Garden
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMFriday, December 9, 2016
In the online edition of today’s Wall Street Journal, I review a new off-Broadway musical, the stage version of The Band’s Visit. Here’s an excerpt. * * * As delightful as well-done bi…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMEdward R. Murrow interviews Marlon Brando on Person to Person. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on April 1, 1955: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appea…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AMFRED Plays, novels, songs—they all have a “subtext,” which I take to mean a hidden message or import of some kind. So subtext we know. But what do you call the message or meaning that&…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, December 8, 2016
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 St…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“First cameras turn against you, then mirrors.” Whit Stillman (posted on Twitter, October 12, 2016)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, December 7, 2016
Son House introduces and sings “Death Letter Blues” in 1968: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment w…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, December 6, 2016
As a result of the recent redesign of The Wall Street Journal, my drama reviews will now appear throughout the week rather than on Fridays only. In today’s paper I cover the Broadway trans…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMFrom 2003: I’m glad to be a self-made man, and I also find it surprisingly useful to have been born into a small-town family. For one thing, the experience of growing up in southeast Misso…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“Beauty frightens and offends the nihilist. It’s a reproach to his sense of unbounded self-importance. Beauty cannot be ignored, so it must be vandalized.” Patrick Kurp, “‘Our Live…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, December 5, 2016
Sid Caesar is interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on Person to Person. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on October 1, 1954: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“No one wants advice, only corroboration.” John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, December 2, 2016
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the new musical version of A Bronx Tale. Here’s an excerpt. * * * When should a movie be turned into a Broadway musical? “Never” is a big word…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AMBroadway by Light, a 1958 documentary film by William Klein. The musical score is by Maurice Le Roux: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Mo…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals—and you know it.” Ed Solomon, screenplay for Men in Black
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, December 1, 2016
In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column I write about the immersive-art trend. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Not counting “Hamilton,” Broadway’s hottest musical is “Nata…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:30AMHere’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 St…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:15AM“Taste has no system and no proofs.” Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp”
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMWednesday, November 30, 2016
George Shearing and Neal Swainson perform Henry Mancini’s “Dreamsville” at the Munich Philharmonie in 1992: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this s…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:05AM“For me, something is in good taste if I can accept it, understand it, and judge it as valuable property.” George Shearing (interviewed in Leonard Lyons, The Great Jazz Pianists: Speakin…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, November 29, 2016
From 2006: I lost my mother in Wal-Mart last Friday. This sounds less like a true-life event than the first line of the sort of song you might hear on the radio in Smalltown, U.S.A., but it …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“It is only a dying cause which can attain to perfect taste.” John Buchan, A Lodge in the Wilderness
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, November 28, 2016
I have a theory that you don’t become a full-fledged adult until you’ve weathered the death of someone with whom you are intimate, not in distant memory but at the actual moment of that …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMThe Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys perform “Worried Man Blues” on Rainbow Quest, a TV series hosted by Pete Seeger. This episode was taped in 1965: (This is the latest in …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail. You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even t…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AM 
