2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
Duke Ellington talks with Goddard Lieberson about his version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite in a 1960 Columbia Records promotional film: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related v…
"Men act through self-interest; and if they do things you wouldn't do, you'd better not assume it's because you have a nobler character. There are noble and disinterested actions done every …
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I write about the off-Broadway premiere of John Patrick Shanley's Prodigal Son and a revival of Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play in Coral Gable…
Bill Monroe and Doc Watson play "Sally Goodin" at the 1990 Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, W…
"In the millionaire Undershaft I have represented a man who has become intellectually and spiritually as well as practically conscious of the irresistible natural truth which we all abhor an…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column I take a closer look a theatrical controversy in Los Angeles that made national headlines. Here's an excerpt. * * * You may have heard about…
"To be broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe." Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men
Jascha Heifetz and Emanuel Bay perform Fritz Kreisler's transcription of "Dance of the Blessed Spirits," from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related video…
"In truth, poverty is an anomaly to rich people: it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell." Walter Bagehot, "The Waverley Novels"
I love aphorisms and epigrams, perhaps because I have no gift for coining them. The brilliantly precise concision that allows writers like La Rochefoucauld, Chamfort, and Karl Kraus to say b…
From 2006: One of Garner's albums was called The Most Happy Piano, and that sums him up very nicely. As Joseph Epstein wrote of H.L. Mencken, "He achieves his effect through the magical tran…
"The poor are used to stifling any expression of their despair, because they must get on with life, with work, with the demands made of them day after day, hour after hour." Georges Simenon,…
I turned sixty on Saturday. Mrs. T and I didn't throw a party, though. That might have been fun, but we were staying at Florida's Biltmore Hotel, which is surely enough of a celebration for …
Jimmy Durante sings "September Song" on The Jimmy Durante Show. The song is from the score of Knickerbocker Holiday, by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill. This episode was originally telecast …
"Memory is a great artist, we are told; she selects and rejects and shapes and so on. No doubt. Elderly persons would be utterly intolerable if they remembered everything. Everything, nevert…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review a show in Sarasota, Florida, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe's revival of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. I also take note of th…
The video for Donald Fagen's "New Frontier," directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, originally released to promote Fagen's 1986 solo album The Nightfly: (This is the latest in a series…
"When everything's working right, you become transfixed by the notes and chords and the beautiful spaces in between. In the center of it, with the drums, bass and guitar all around you, the …
"How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!" Eric Hoffer, "Thoughts of Eric Hoffer, Including: 'Absolute Faith Corrupts Absolutely'" (New York Times Magazine, April 25, 1971)
Bob Elliott, who died yesterday at the age of ninety-two, was the longer-lived member of Bob & Ray, a much-loved comedy team whose subtle, at times near-surrealistic routines were devel…
Dustin Hoffman talks about how he became an actor in a 1968 CBC interview: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday…
a href=”http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/INK-BOTTLE.jpeg”>All we are not stares back at what we are. W.H. Auden, The Sea and the Mirror: A …
From 2006: I do solemnly swear that I will never again review a new recording of the complete Brandenburg Concertos. If you want to get my attention, you'll have to think of another way, pre…
"Just because we’re born as SOBs doesn’t mean we have to live that way." Roger Ebert, review of Groundhog Day (Chicago Sun-Times, February 12, 1993)
Rachel Symes wrote a very nice piece for Sunday's New York Times about Rupert Holmes' Remember WENN, which has the distinction of being the first original TV series ever to air on AMC. WENN …
