2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, which appears in the paper's online edition, I review an important off-Broadway revival of Juno and the Paycock. Here's an excerpt. *  *Â�…
The twenty-eighth 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 l…
Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version, starring John Gielgud and Angela Baddeley, adapted for radio by Cynthia Pughe, and originally broadcast by the BBC on January 30, 1958: (This is t…
"I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth." Christopher Hampton, The Philant…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I discuss a new book about one of the world's most important film-music composers. Here's an excerpt. *Â Â *Â Â * Which classical v…
"The fate of all people who imitate others to achieve authenticity is to live a lie." Theodore Dalrymple, "Exposing Shallowness" (The New Criterion,June 2000)
Two new magazine pieces by me have been published in the past few days. One of them, my latest monthly essay for Commentary, is about Western movies: Stagecoach set the tone for Wester…
Buddy Rich sings Cole Porter's "All of You" and plays an impromptu blues on an undated episode of "In Melbourne Tonight," an Australian TV series. This segment is thought to have originally …
"What moves men of genius, or rather, what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough." Eugène Delacr…
From 2009: Everybody who knows about jazz knows about "West End Blues." I doubt, though, that most people know where the song, written by Joe Oliver, Armstrong's mentor, got its name…. Rea…
"The ego is an opinion-generating mechanism, one that calls into question the impossibility of perpetual motion." Patrick Kurp, Anecdotal Evidence, Feb. 10, 2019
With one exception, the various brushes with death that I've reported in this space have heretofore been experienced and survived by Mrs. T. No more: I got back on the scoreboard late last F…
A reel of TV commercials created by Stan Freberg: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
 "When people cannot write good literature it is perhaps natural that they should lay down rules how good literature should be written." George Saintsbury, The Book of the Queen's Doll…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I review two premieres, John Guare's Nantucket Sleigh Ride and Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. Here's an excerpt. *Â Â…
Laurence Olivier is interviewed by Michael Parkinson about his film career on Cinema. This program was originally telecast by Granada Television on November 19, 1970: (This is the latest …
"Here, as else- and every-where in criticism, not only the hardest thing but also the hardest thing to get recognized when attained, is the appreciation of difference without insisting on su…
"As has been suggested above, the Book of History is the Bible of Irony: and, it may be added, the newspaper is a sort of key to that book though no doubt they change positions very frequ…
Playhouse 90's TV version of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," originally telecast live by CBS on November 6, 1958. The adaptation is by Stewart Stern and the telecast was directed by Ron…
"Droll thing life is"that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself"that comes too late"a crop of unextingui…
From 2009: I see a good many pre-1970 musicals as part of my duties as drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, and it occurred to me the other day to draw up a list of the best ones. Her…
"Majorities are generally wrong, if only in their reasons for being right." George Saintsbury, The Book of the Queen's Dolls' House
Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten, and the London Symphony perform "When most I wink, then do my eyes best see," the final movement of Britten's Nocturne. The text is by Shakespeare. This perfor…
"Fanatical and, as it were, monomaniacal efforts to prove a thing true often bring indifference to telling falsehoods about it." George Saintsbury, The Book of the Queen's Dolls' House
In today's Wall Street Journal I review two Broadway musicals, the transfer of Be More Chill and a new revival of Kiss Me, Kate. The first is terrific, the second lousy. Here's an excerpt. *…
