2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
"Most people in my day went on stage to annoy their parents." Robert Newton (quoted in Charles Duff,The Lost Summer: The Heyday of the West End Theatre)
On Saturday afternoon I went directly from Penn Station to New York's Center for Italian Modern Art to see an exhibition of some forty-odd paintings and works on paper by Giorgio Morandi. Hi…
Merrill Ashley, Maria Calegari, Susan Pillarre, Stephanie Saland, Marjorie Spohn, Tracy Bennett, Victor Castelli, and Robert Weiss of New York City Ballet dance the slow movement from George…
"Nevertheless, just as one of our young men had during these days in London found the air peopled with personal influences, the concussion of human atoms, so the other, though only asking to…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review John Doyle's Classic Stage Company revival of Peer Gynt. Here's an excerpt. * * * American stagings of "Peer Gynt" are scarce to the poin…
"Back of the Mike," a promotional film about sound effects on radio produced by the Jam Handy Organization for Chevrolet in 1938: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that …
"If you attack stupidity, you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life, and you will make small progress against it." Robertson Davies, The Tabl…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column I hold forth on the subject of books about art that are both thorough and opinionated. Here's an excerpt. * * * Some books take a lifetime t…
"Art lies in understanding some part of the dark forces and bringing them under the direction of reason." Robertson Davies, A Voice from the Attic
In a popular culture, fame is cheap. That's what Andy Warhol meant when he said that in the future, everybody would be famous for fifteen minutes. (Remember JenniCam?) It's also what I had i…
Junior Brown sings and plays "Highway Patrol" in an undated TV clip: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
"Men of action, I notice, are rarely humble, even in situations where action of any kind is a great mistake, and masterly inaction is called for." Robertson Davies, The Table Talk of Samuel …
From 2006: Every film shot on location, whether in whole or in part, is a home movie in which bits and pieces of history are embedded, and I find myself growing increasingly fascinated by th…
"Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend the boundaries of literary art, wants to explore new dimensions of the human spirit, and…
"I saw a woman in Central Park today wearing a T-shirt that said 'America Was Never Great,'" a friend of mine tweeted over the weekend. I wasn't surprised to hear it. My country contains man…
Andrew Davis leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the prelude and "Angel's Farewell" from Sir Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. The vocal soloist is Catherine Wyn-Rogers. This…
"All the time you spend tryin to get back what's been took from you there's more goin out the door. After a while you just try and get a tourniquet on it." Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Ol…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I report on the premiere of Chicago Shakespeare's Tug of War: Foreign Fire. Here's an excerpt. * * * It's become common"even fashionable"to mount …
Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim sing a bossa nova medley on Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim. This program was originally telecast by NBC on November 13, 1967: (This …
"What I do with my life is of my own doing. I live it the best way I can." Frank Sinatra, interviewed by Walter Cronkite in 1965
"In all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance. This affirmation lies…
I just finished One-Man Band, the third volume of Simon Callow's Orson Welles biography. It's the first new book I've read from cover to cover since I got back from directing Satchmo at the …
Candid Camera pays a visit to Moscow at the height of the Cold War. This episode was originally telecast on CBS in October of 1961. To read about how it was made, go here. The hosts are Alle…
"Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are 'vowed' to the service of mankind, yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regi…
An expatriate friend whom I haven't seen for years recently sent me a present, a pair of tiny crystal flamingos that she intended as symbols of my marriage to Mrs. T. I was amazed"the two of…
