Wednesday, March 30, 2016
“Why, you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire.” Mark Twain, “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, March 29, 2016
I recently finished reading the first two installments (the third volume has yet to be completed) of Charles Moore’s authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher. Forgive the cliché, but I c…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMFrom 2006: Somebody asked me once if I were a frustrated musician. “No,” I said, “I’m a fulfilled writer.” But that doesn’t mean I never think about what might have been, much le…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“In memory everything seems to happen to music.” Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, March 28, 2016
I went to see the Paul Taylor Dance Company (it’s changed its name, but I can’t get used to the new one) at Lincoln Center on Saturday afternoon. Regular readers of this blog may recall …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMGwen Verdon sings “I’m a Brass Band,” from Sweet Charity, on The Ed Sullivan Show. The words are by Dorothy Fields and the music is by Cy Coleman. This performance incorporates Bob Fos…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“As happier men watch birds, I watch men. They are less attractive but more various.” Evelyn Waugh, A Tourist in Africa (courtesy of Patrick Kurp)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, March 25, 2016
In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I review two New York shows, an off-Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Widowers’ Houses and the Broadway premiere of Bright Star. Her…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMA scene from the American Playhouse TV version of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Jack Hofsiss. Tommy Lee Jones plays Brick, Jessica Lange plays Maggie, Kim Stanley …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal entry, June 20, 1831
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, March 24, 2016
In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column I take note of the contemporary relevance of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Political novels …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AMYet he was jealous, though he did not show it, For jealousy dislikes the world to know it. Lord Byron, Don Juan
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, March 23, 2016
Pilobolus Dance Theater performs an excerpt from Walklyndon, choreographed in 1971 by Robby Barnett, Lee Harris, Moses Pendleton, and Jonathan Wolken: (This is the latest in a series of arts…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:15AM“Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it.” George Saintsbury, A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMTuesday, March 22, 2016
From 2006: I found this questionnaire in my e-mailbox earlier today and thought it might be fun to answer it in public: • What time did you get up this morning? Eight a.m. • Diamonds or …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“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 authority which …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, March 21, 2016
I first became aware of Dudley Moore when I saw 10 and Arthur, two hugely successful films of my youth that are no longer well remembered (though Arthur is still funny, albeit politically in…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMMartha Raye and Red Skelton in an undated rehearsal for an episode of The Red Skelton Show. These uncensored rehearsals were referred to by TV insiders as “The Dirty Hour”: (This is the …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“I think that comedy is the quintessential human reaction to the fear of death.” Umberto Eco (interviewed in the Paris Review, Summer 2008)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, March 18, 2016
In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I review the off-Broadway premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold On to Me Darling and the new Broadway revival of She Loves Me. Here’s an excer…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMLang Lang plays Bartók’s Piano Sonata at a concert in Japan: (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“The maxim ‘Nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelt shorter: ‘Paralysis.’” Winston Churchill, memorandum to General Hastings Lionel Ismay, December 6, 1942
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, March 17, 2016
“I cannot pretend to feel impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.” Winston Churchill, “Painting as a PastimeR…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, March 16, 2016
I rarely have the luxury of seeing stage shows twice—my crowded reviewing schedule doesn’t allow it—but I did manage in recent days to see Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility for the s…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AMHarry James and His Orchestra play Ernie Wilkins’ “Blues for Sale” on The Big Record, followed by a performance of “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You” featuring Helen Forrest, Jam…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“A man has his beliefs: his arguments are only his excuses for them.” George Bernard Shaw (quoted in Michael Holroyd, Bernard Shaw: 1856-1898, The Search for Love)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, March 15, 2016
From 2006: When you cross the fiftieth meridian, as I did last month, you’re more than likely to feel the need for some kind of change, especially if your life has been running fairly smoo…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“I’m going to see a play of mine day after tomorrow which opened about a month ago, and it will be full of things which will be different. And some of it will be slightly out of focus, a…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, March 14, 2016
Fred Astaire performs “One for My Baby,” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, in The Sky’s The Limit, directed by Edward H. Griffith. This is the film in which the song was introduced. R…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:15AM“You cannot write tragedy without a sense of humor; the lack of it produces something turgid and dull. Wit must be the underpainting of all dark writing.” Gene Lees, Portrait of Johnny: …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, March 11, 2016
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review four New York shows, Familiar, Eclipsed, Blackbird, and Disaster! Here’s an excerpt. * * * Danai Gurira is the zombie-whacking star of “The Walk…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:30AM 
