"At a time when an anonymous newcomer can turn out theater faster than an institutional battleship can, it's impossible not to feel grateful for even shaggy efforts to keep the art form aliv…
Peter Marks: "Putting the most positive spin I can muster on the stricken field I cover " identifying the best of what has transpired in the worst of theatrical times " requires a look beyon…
My "Sightings" column in this week's Wall Street Journal is about large-scale virtual presentations of famous works of art. Here's an excerpt. *  *  * The bad news is "Imme…
"To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable." Erich Fromm, Man for Himself Continue reading Almanac: Erich Fromm on death at About Last …
This week, 42 performances of 12 different shows will be staged. " The Stage
"He introduced a frank, original view of the nation onto the stage. … His characters collide with the expectations of white America, but they also collide with one another, in itself radic…
In York, they're taking the panto around to socially distanced audiences at community centres in every neighborhood. In Coventry, they're streaming from a studio and using sound effects in p…
The Paul Taylor Dance Company performs an excerpt from Taylor's Musical Offering, set to the music of Bach and accompanied by the Orchestra of St. Luke's. This performance was filmed on J…
"At that moment the realisation hit me"and has never left me since: true Philistines are not people who are incapable of recognising beauty; they recognise it all too well; they detect its p…
Says the chief executive of the theatre in the town of Malvern in Worcestershire, "The panto is crucial for the theatre, as we are unsubsidised, but also for the local economy, to which the …
From 2013: ' W. Jackson Bate, Samuel Johnson ' David Cairns, Berlioz…. Read the whole thing here. Continue reading Lookback: ten books that have stayed with me at About Last Night.
"The laugh can't be the goal, the line after is the goal." David Cromer (quoted in The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America, by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois) Co…
"What has happened, then, during this time without physical training spaces for artists? In the long months that have passed since isolation began, we have had to overcome the creative block…
Cinemas have reopened, but not theatres. Why? "Sources close to Minister for Arts and Culture Catherine Martin pointed to a 'complex environment for indoor live performances.'" " Irish…
"Happy Feet," a production number from King of Jazz, a 1930 film shot in early Technicolor, directed by John Murray Anderson, and starring Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. Bing Crosby and…
"I know what the power of silence is. When I used to play in clubs, everybody was loud; there was a lot of noise. So I would take my mute off the microphone, and I would play something so so…
This is the year when you could start now, watch a different Christmas Carol every day (streaming, obviously), and keep right on through to 2021. " American Theatre
"Lights Up, the latest phase of the broadcaster's Culture In Quarantine initiative, will feature a combination of premieres and older plays recorded for the first time. … The initiative be…
In today's Wall Street Journal, I review a webcast by Arkansas's TheatreSquared of Lauren Gunderson's The Half-Life of Marie Curie. Here's an excerpt. *Â Â *Â Â * I've been hearing g…
Tyrone Power appears as a guest on Person to Person, hosted by Edward R. Murrow. This episode was originally telecast live on December 20, 1957, by CBS: (This is the latest in a series o…
"If anyone not a moron has determined to kill your husband, he will be killed. Nothing is simpler than to kill a man; the difficulties arise in attempting to avoid the consequences." Rex Sto…
The DriveINSIDE theatre, which is approved for operating even under Britain's Tier 3 pandemic restrictions, will have a four-week run in Manchester in March before touring the rest of the UK…
A Terry Teachout Reader, my self-anthology, came out sixteen years ago. I've published hundreds of pieces on various subjects since then, and I have no plans to put together a sequel to the�…
"They are the greatest living masters of the subtlest and kindliest of the arts." Rex Stout, Too Many Cooks Continue reading Almanac: Rex Stout on the fine art of cooking at About Last Ni…
Theatres that normally function as places of gathering, storytelling and entertainment have found themselves playing a very different role in the age of coronavirus. " The Stage