2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
My very good friend Ricky Riccardi, one of the world's foremost authorities on Louis Armstrong and a colleague as amiable and forthcoming as Satchmo himself, has just written a lengthy and v…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I write about a Chicago-area revival of Doubt and the Broadway premiere of An Act of God. Here's an excerpt. * * * What does a thriving drama comp…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column I pay tribute to the underappreciated Roy Webb. Here's an excerpt. * * * Here's a pop quiz for film fanatics: What do these 10 movies have i…
This is just to remind you that the latest episode of Theater Talk, in which Susan Haskins and Michael Riedel discuss the Broadway season just past with Ben Brantley, Peter Marks, John Simon…
"None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and wh…
"One of my heroes is the writer William Maxwell, also no longer around in his earthly shape. Late in his life, he began taking piano lessons and working his way through some simple classical…
I got an e-mail yesterday afternoon from Patti Wolff, interim artistic director of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, informing me that the entire run of S…
I confessed the other day to being "the kind of guy who loves Stephen Sondheim and John Wayne." (So, incidentally, is David Thomson.) Apropos of this daring admission, a reader writes: I tho…
Paul Paray leads L'Orchestre National de l'ORTF in an undated performance of the orchestral version of Emmanuel Chabrier's Bourrée fantasque: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related…
"Listen, Delly, I know it doesn't make much sense when you're sixteen. Don't worry. When you get to be forty, it isn't any better." Alan Sharp, screenplay for Night Moves
Having recently acquired a very handsome lithograph by Romare Bearden, Mrs. T and I weren't planning to buy any more art any time soon. Sometimes, though, you can't say no, and when Milton A…
From 2005: Very few people who don't write for a living understand that writing is work, much less that a writer who is sitting in a chair, reading a book or staring absently into the distan…
"Only in extinction is the collector comprehended." Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library"
When I was a youngster, I played in my high school's band and orchestra, sang in two different choirs, took violin and piano lessons after school, acted in plays and musicals, went to classi…
Perry Como and Don Ameche in a live TV commercial for Polaroid Land cameras, originally seen on The Perry Como Show in 1959: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appea…
"Marketing is what you do if your product is no good." Edwin Land (quoted in Christopher Bonanos, Instant: The Story of Polaroid)
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review a Boston revival of Moss Hart's Light Up the Sky and an off-Broadway remount of Annie Baker's The Flick. Here's an excerpt. * * * Moss Ha…
"What do I need with the theater"a cockamamie business where you get one roll of the dice from seven middle-aged men on the aisle who hated Mickey Mouse when they were kids." Moss Hart, Ligh…
"The Frame," KPCC's "daily report from the world of art, entertainment, and culture," had me on as a guest today to talk about Louis Armstrong and the West Coast premiere of Satchmo at the W…
Whenever you write a book or play in which a famous person of the relatively recent past is portrayed, it's more than likely that you'll sooner or later meet somebody who knew the person in …
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 Wal…
"Laziness has become the chief characteristic of journalism, displacing incompetence." Kingsley Amis (quoted in Eric Felten, "Drinks Before Lunch with Kingsley Amis," Weekly Standard, Nov. 5…
I flew out to Los Angeles yesterday morning for Tuesday's sold-out preview of Satchmo at the Waldorf, which officially opens tonight at Beverly Hills' Wallis Annenberg Center for the Perform…
I've never had what it is now the custom to call a "bucket list." I'm pretty sure this is because I'm not one to think in terms of long-range goals. Don't be bored has always been my Prime D…
A 1973 telecast of the opening scene of Rodeo, danced by American Ballet Theatre, followed by an interview with Agnes de Mille. The choreography is by de Mille and the score is by Aaron Copl…
