2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
I went to see a play in Rhode Island last Monday. I'd planned to bring Mrs. T with me, but she was under the weather when the time came to hit the road, so I ended up going by myself, leavin…
Sir Thomas Beecham is interviewed by Peter Brook on the BBC. This interview was filmed in London on October 30, 1958: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related video…
"A great actor is a conscious humorist. A show-off. He must have a taste for the bizarre, the unusual. He must savor the abnormal, else how can he portray the normal?" Michael Powell, M…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I review a Rhode Island production of Macbeth. Here's an excerpt. * * * Even in our present age of proud cultural illi…
George Stevens and Claudette Colbert appear as the mystery guests on What's My Line? John Daly is the host and the panelists are Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Jam…
"If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you." Joseph Addison,…
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…
"There is one rule that works in every calamity. Be it pestilence, war, or famine, the rich get richer and poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it." Will Rogers, Daily Teleg…
I turned sixty-three today. Tonight Mrs. T, her father, and I are going to see Moses Pendleton's Momix, a modern dance troupe that's new to her and which I haven't seen for longer than I can…
Perry Como sings "Lucky to Be Me" (from On the Town), by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. This performance was originally broadcast on NBC's Chesterfield Supper C…
"Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles." François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
From 2009: Mr. Elegant Variation has posted a list by James Wood of what he regards as the best British and American writing since 1945. The list was drawn up in 1994 and consists in the mai…
"Our understanding of the thought of the past is liable to be the more adequate, the less the historian is convinced of the superiority of his own point of view, or the more he is prepared t…
The original trailer for Corn's-a-Poppin', Robert Altman's first film, released in 1956: To learn more about the history of this film, go here. (This is the latest in a series of a…
"It is very natural that clever young men should be rather odious. They are conscious of gifts that they do not know how to use. They are exasperated with the world that will not recognize t…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I review a small-scale off-off-Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! Here's an excerpt. * * * Eugene O'Neill…
In my latest Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I talk about They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson's new World War II documentary, and the way in which it uses digital techni…
Titus Techera, who hosts a podcast for the American Cinema Foundation on which he and his guests discuss important films of the past and present, invited me back to talk about Jacques Tourne…
Henri Matisse, filmed while working on "Young Woman in White, Red Background": To view the finished painting, go here. (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos tha…
"Work, play"at sixty our powers and tastes are what they were at seventeen. Old men in the bad old days used to renounce, retire, take to religion, spend their time reading, thinking"thinkin…
"If I wasn’t an actor, I think I’d have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights. Art is a little bit larger than life"it…
Frank Sinatra sings Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" (from A Little Night Music).This performance, taped in front of a live audience, was originally telecast by NBC on November 1…
"By the time an actor knows how to act any sort of part he is often too old to act any but a few." W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up
From 2009: A great man (or woman) is too big to cram into a book-sized box. The best that you can do is offer a summary of the current state of knowledge about him, written from your own poi…
"Movie actors are just ordinary mixed-up people"with agents." Jean Kerr, Mary, Mary
