2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
Mrs. T and I were in truly dire straits a year ago today, enough so that I tremble now to remember what we were going through. Alas, things have been just as bad for us in recent weeks, but …
From 2004: The last sound I heard before I got in my rental car this morning and headed for the Smalltown city limits was a train whistle. My brother tells me that more freight trains have b…
"Those who lack humour are without judgement and should be trusted with nothing." Clive James, "Exploring the Medium"
"With Lawrence in Arabia," a 1927 silent film featurette about T.E. Lawrence. This newsreel-style film, which Lowell Thomas showed to audiences as part of a lecture about Lawrence's exploits…
"She was too haughty to deny herself that luxury of the proud-minded"a sense of justice." Sylvia Townsend Warner, Summer Will Show (courtesy of Levi Stahl)
In today's Wall Street Journal I review the Irish Repertory Theatre's off-Broadway revival of Dion Bouciault's London Assurance. Here's an excerpt. *Â Â *Â Â * Here's the good news: …
A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the bimonthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or d…
Dave Frishberg's "The Difficult Season," sung and played by Frishberg at Lincoln Center in 2002: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space…
"The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers." W.H. Auden, foreword to The Vik…
"If you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another mask?" Graham Greene, The Comedia…
Peter Warlock's "Bethlehem Down," performed by Stephen Cleobury and the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, in 2016: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that …
"It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result com…
Two years ago, Mrs. T and I made plans to spend Christmas on Florida's Sanibel Island, our beloved home away from home, for the first time ever"but then her doctors told her in no uncertain …
Louis Armstrong recites Clement Moore's "The Night Before Christmas." This was Armstrong's last commercial recording. He made it at his home in Queens on February 26, 1971, five months befor…
"Others, one suspects, are afraid that the crossing of space, and above all contact with intelligent but nonhuman races, may destroy the foundations of their religious faith. They may be rig…
Lennox Berkeley's "I sing of a maiden," performed by Stephen Cleobury and the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, in 2016: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos…
"Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love." Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
In today's Wall Street Journal I review the off-Broadway premiere of Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, Stephen Adly Guirgis' new play. Here's an excerpt. *Â Â *Â Â * Stephen Adl…
Shirley Temple is interviewed by Michael Parkinson on Parkinson. This episode was originally telecast by the BBC on July 22, 1972: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-rel…
"When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are t…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column I recall the career of Boris Karloff, who was as fine a stage actor as he was a movie star. Here's an excerpt. *  *  * Chuck …
"Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark." William James, "Robert Gould Shaw: Oration upon the Unveiling of the Shaw Monument"
Many of you will likely have seen the update on Mrs. T that I posted in this space on Monday. It was, as is our custom, a cheery, reasonably optimistic description of what happened to her ov…
In today's Wall Street Journal I offer a brief summary of key trends in American theater during the past decade, part of an ongoing series of reports by the paper's arts critics. Here's a…
The forty-third episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for lis…
