Tuesday, April 23, 2019
From 2009: One of my closest friends, a writer whom I admire greatly, has dedicated his latest book to me. I was one of the first people to suggest that he write it, and he claims to have pr…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“To modern educated people, it seems obvious that matters of fact are to be ascertained by observation, not by consulting ancient authorities. But this is an entirely modern conception, wh…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, April 22, 2019
Patricia McBride and John Clifford dance George Balanchine’s Tarantella, set to the music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, in an undated telecast: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:01AM“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak.” John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson (February 2, 1816)
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:00AMFriday, April 19, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Journal drama column I review two Broadway openings, Lucas Hnath’s Hillary and Clinton and a revival of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This. Here’s an excerpt. * * …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AMHumphrey Bogart endorses major-league baseball in an undated TV commercial filmed and originally telecast in the Fifties: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object o…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, April 18, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the Broadway transfer of Hadestown. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Does the Broadway musical have a future? Only if a new generation of artists wa…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM“The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep.” Eric Hoffer, The Ordeal of Change
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, April 17, 2019
Blossom Dearie sings and plays “I Like You, You’re Nice” on an episode of Parkinson, originally telecast by the BBC in 1972. The music is by Dearie, the lyrics by Mahriah Blackwolf: (…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“What real power can buy, of course, is anonymity.” Samuel R. Delany, Neveryóna
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, April 16, 2019
Harry Jenks, for many years the ballpark organist for the Kansas City Royals, died in 1980. He was already mostly forgotten by then, and scarcely anyone recognized his name when I wrote abou…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMFrom 2009: A good biographer will do just about anything to comb snippets of apocrypha out of his book. Fortunately, Louis Armstrong almost always told the truth about himself, but anyone wh…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“So long as a man’s power, that is, his capacity to realize what he has in mind, is bound to the goal, to the work, to the calling, it is, considered in itself, neither good nor evil, it…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, April 15, 2019
Lili Kraus plays Mozart’s D Minor Fantasy, K. 397, in a rare kinescope of a 1957 TV performance: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this spa…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“I began to really feel victory in defeat as there is defeat in the most radiant victory. The two are one and the interplay is man’s life until he is so free that he is not aiming at any…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, April 12, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review two important musical revivals, Oklahoma! on Broadway and The Cradle Will Rock off Broadway. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Never have I seen a r…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AMAn hour-long radio adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, originally broadcast live by ABC on September 29, 1946 as an episode of Theatre Guild On the Air. Wilder plays the Stage Mana…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement—but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a r…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMThursday, April 11, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Review I review the world premiere of Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, the first theatrical presentation of The Shed, New York’s new arts center. Here’s an excerpt. *�…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AM“I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more—the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures …
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMWednesday, April 10, 2019
The Modern Jazz Quartet performs on Japanese TV in 1961. Milt Jackson is the vibraharpist, John Lewis the pianist, Percy Heath the bassist, and Connie Kay the drummer: (This is the latest in…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.” Joseph Conrad, Victory
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMTuesday, April 9, 2019
From 2009: Art’s near-magical power to work this mental miracle is the reason why we turn to it in times of stress–yet I’d be lying if I told you that my trip to the Met was the best t…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“It’s only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.” Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMMonday, April 8, 2019
It struck me a couple of months ago that Mrs. T’s recent travails had made her even more deserving than usual of a just-because-I-love-you present. Since she now spends most of her time at…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMMademoiselle, a 1977 French TV documentary about Nadia Boulanger directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. Also interviewed are Leonard Bernstein and Igor Markevitch. The dialogue is in French with Eng…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM“I often tell myself now—Stravinsky has no other notes, or no more notes to work with, than I have, or anybody else. We all have to choose between the same ones. So the important thing i…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:00AMFriday, April 5, 2019
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review a new Broadway production of King Lear. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Not so long ago, Glenda Jackson’s “King Lear” would have come as a su…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AMIn today’s Wall Street Journal I review the Broadway transfer of Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Rarely has a new play by a modestly w…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:02AMGlen Campbell and the Smothers Brothers sing “Thank You Very Much” on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. This episode was originally telecast by CBS in February of 1968: (This is the la…
SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:01AM 
