2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
Ivy Compton-Burnett admitted in old age that she could no longer read the novels of Jane Austen, which she loved, because she knew them so well that they could no longer hold her attention. …
Jeri Southern sings "Do I Love You (Because You're Beautiful?)" on The Jonathan Winters Show. The song was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for the score of Cinderella. Th…
"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the …
In today's Wall Street Journal I review off-Broadway productions of two shows by Alan Ayckbourn. Here's an excerpt. * * * Alan Ayckbourn, England's comic Chekhov, is also a famously accompli…
Salvador Dali appears as the celebrity guest on an episode of I've Got a Secret, originally telecast by CBS on February 25, 1963. Garry Moore is the host and the panelists are Bill Cullen, B…
"Genius is unquestionably a great trial, when it takes the romantic form, and genius and romance are so associated in the public mind that many people recognize no other kind. There are othe…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column I pay tribute to the late Peter Shaffer. Here's an excerpt. * * * The obituaries for Peter Shaffer, who died the other day at the age of 90 …
"I aint got all that many regrets. I could imagine lots of things that you might think would make a man happier. I think by the time you're grown you're as happy as you're goin to be. You'll…
The Wall Street Journal has given me a second drama column this week in which to review the Public Theater's Central Park production of The Turn of the Screw. Here's an excerpt. * * * "The T…
A rare kinescope of Woody Allen doing his standup routine on British TV in 1965: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and …
"My daddy always told me to just do the best you knew how and tell the truth. He said there was nothin to set a man’s mind at ease like wakin up in the morning and not havin to decide …
A fast-growing number of the magazines and newspapers that I read on line are now imposing rigid limits on free articles-per-month for non-subscribers. I know why they do it, and I couldn't …
From 2006: Lauren and I went to the Empire State Building observatory today, an undertaking that entails standing in line for at least an hour (unless you pay extra for an "express" ticket, …
Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding. William Shakespeare, Coriolanus
Palm Beach Dramaworks' production of Satchmo at the Waldorf closed yesterday afternoon after a month-long run. The occasion was necessarily darkened, for me and everyone else, by what happen…
Denny Zeitlin plays his composition "Quiet Now" at the 1983 Berlin Jazz Festival: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and…
"It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people cant be governed at all. Or if they could I never heard of it." Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review a Washington-area revival of Floyd Collins. Here's an excerpt. * * * "Floyd Collins," the 1996 musical in which Adam Guettel and Tina Lan…
Groucho Marx sings "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" in At the Circus, directed by Edward Buzzell and released in 1939. The words are by Yip Harburg and the music is by Harold Arlen: (This is the l…
"I believe that in India 'cold weather' is merely a conventional phrase and has come into use through the necessity of having some way to distinguish between weather which will melt a brass …
"I don't believe that the ordinary people in fact resemble the normal description of the masses, low and trivial in taste and habit. I put it another way: that there are in fact no masses, b…
Twitter, like the world itself, is populated partly by thoughtful, open-minded people and partly by knee-jerking robots of flesh and blood who are incapable of reacting other than automatica…
An extremely rare film clip of Carol Channing performing the title number from Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! in 1965 with members of the original Broadway cast. This is a (mostly) silent film…
"You know, more often than not, a so-called ambitious fellow is simply showing off for someone he loved a darn sight more than the job he's doing. A woman, usually. A woman who thinks he's a…
From 2006: Of the giving of prizes there is no end, and it’s hard to think of a single one, however ostensibly prestigious, that hasn’t been devalued by the promiscuity and/or la…
