"Has it really happened that way, though? To go back to my paragon, Pauline Kael, she was perceived as shaping the course of Hollywood, and I'm not sure she did when you look back at it. Cul…
From 2011: For the most part I've only talked about it in passing on this blog, but a year ago I started writing a one-man play about Louis Armstrong and Joe Glaser, his longtime manager. (T…
"It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest." Anton Chekhov, "On the Road" (trans. Constance Garnett) Continue reading Almanac: Chekhov on dying at About Last Night.
The situation under the third lockdown is, if anything, worse than in March because the freelancers don't have anything to fall back on. "In telephone interviews this week, four theater free…
In my latest Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I write about the appeal of widescreen films. Here's an excerpt. *  *  * We've all heard about the perilous state to wh…
Artie Shaw plays his "Concerto for Clarinet" with his big band in the 1940 film Second Chorus, directed by H.C. Potter: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related video…
"Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it." Anton Chekhov, "On the Road" (trans. Constance Garnett) Continue reading Almanac: Chekhov on faith a…
Swinging the Dream, a 1939 musical that flopped after 13 performances despite (or because of?) having a cast of 150 and three bands. It's being revived, rewritten, and live-streamed during t…
He said that "the timeline hinged on the country reaching an effective level of herd immunity, which he defined as vaccinating from 70 percent to 85 percent of the population." In addition, …
"It's like what 'Michelangelo' said, right? He's working with the marble and taking away everything that's not the sculpture. And let's put Michelangelo in quotes, 'cause was he really the o…
In Friday's Wall Street Journal I review the Mint Theater's webcast of Lillian Hellman's Days to Come. Here's an excerpt. *Â Â *Â Â * One of the few welcome surprises of 2020 was the…
In solitude What happiness? who can enjoy alone? Or, all enjoying, what contentment find? John Milton, Paradise Lost Continue reading Almanac: John Milton on loneliness at About Last Nigh…
"Since pay equity leads to higher quality work, any company interested in having the best product to share with their community will center pay equity within their company because the benefi…
"Arts workers in the NHS, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, actor Michael Balogun and theatre company 20 Stories High are among those recognised in this year's The Stage 100 list, which has been…
"A Mob's a Monster; Heads enough, but no Brains." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack Continue reading Almanac: Benjamin Franklin on mobs at About Last Night.
"The folks behind Encore Monthly, a brand new magazine about theatre that just published its first issue …, think the time is ripe to provide theatregoers, deprived as we are of theatre we…
Disney bought the rights to the specially shot and edited footage of the Broadway production and planned to release it in movie theaters " until the pandemic changed everything and the show …
A scene from Hitler: The Last Ten Days, directed by Ennio De Concini and starring Alec Guinness as Adolf Hitler: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that …
"Power is never stable when it is boundless." Tacitus, History Continue reading Almanac: Tacitus on power at About Last Night.
"While there have been times during the past year when theatre and all who work in it have felt helpless, unloved and ignored, there is also plenty of evidence that it does matter and can ma…
"Jared Mezzocchi has been systematically exploring what Zoom and the editing program Isadora can offer theatre practitioners during the pandemic. He has been working in the field for over a …
"Time will tell if theater grantmakers adopt the coalition's demands en masse, and some of the demands have yet to make it into grantmakers' toolboxes in a meaningful way. But at the very le…
From 2011: Directing is mainly listening. The director's first job is to ensure that the actor speaks the text in such a way as to make it intelligible to members of the audience who have no…
"It is the prerogative of great men to have great defects." Rouchefoucauld, Maxims Continue reading Almanac: Rochefoucauld on the flaws of great men at About Last Night.
At a running time of 51 minutes, and with perhaps only half the numbers required for a full adaptation of the 2007 animated Oscar-winner, this "Ratatouille" is a mere appetizer. But with a w…