Terry Teachout's Blog, page 195

TT: Almanac

"Fellow hobbyists share something important to them which the outside world considers unimportant and frivolous, so that in a small way all hobbyists are social outcasts; a true social outcast can become less noticeable in their midst."

Richard Stark, The Rare Coin Score

TT: Just because

From the 1943 film Du Barry Was a Lady, Tommy Dorsey plays "Well, Git It!" with Ziggy Elman on trumpet and Buddy Rich on drums:



(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)

TT: Wheel this Barrow out of town

In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I do the job on Bonnie & Clyde . Here's an excerpt.

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"Bonnie & Clyde" isn't the worst musical to open on Broadway in the past decade. It isn't even the worst Frank Wildhorn musical to open on Broadway in the past decade. (That would be "Dracula.") It is, however, quite sufficiently bad enough to qualify for the finals of this year's What-Were-They-Thinking Prize. Why would anyone not obviously deranged put money into a show with music by a composer whose last three Broadway outings tanked? And who thought it was a good idea to write a commodity musical whose title gives the impression that "Bonnie & Clyde" is based (even though it isn't) on a 44-year-old movie that is no longer well remembered save by upper-middle-aged baby boomers? Nor have Mr. Wildhorn and his feckless collaborators managed to beat these long odds: "Bonnie & Clyde" is so enervatingly bland and insipid that you'll leave the theater asking yourself why you ever liked musicals in the first place....

As awful as Ivan Menchell's book is--and it's hopeless--it's the score that makes "Bonnie & Clyde" unendurable. Mr. Wildhorn's tunes sound like half-remembered middle-of-the-road AM-radio ballads from the '70s, touched up with banjo and dobro to give them a theme-park period feel. Don Black's gimcrack lyrics range from the instantly forgettable to the indelibly horrific...

Everybody in "Bonnie & Clyde," Laura Osnes and Melissa van der Schyff in particular, can sing. The ability to act, alas, does not appear to have been so widely distributed among the members of the cast, though the phony-sounding regional accents might be confusing the issue somewhat....

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Read the whole thing here .

TT: Almanac

"It is a grotesque misapprehension which sees in art no more than a craft comprehensible perfectly only to the craftsman; art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand. But I will allow that the critic who has not a practical knowledge of technique is seldom able to say anything on the subject of real value."

W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

TT: So you want to see a show?

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 Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

BROADWAY:

• Anything Goes (musical, G/PG-13, mildly adult subject matter that will be unintelligible to children, closes Apr. 29, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Chinglish (comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes Apr. 29, reviewed here)

• Follies (musical, PG-13, adult subject matter, closes Jan. 22, reviewed here)

• Godspell (musical, G, suitable for children, reviewed here)

• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical, G/PG-13, perfectly fine for children whose parents aren't actively prudish, reviewed here)

• Other Desert Cities (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

• Private Lives (comedy, PG-13, closes Feb. 5, reviewed here)

• Seminar (serious comedy, PG-13, closes Mar. 4, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

• Dancing at Lughnasa (drama, G/PG-13, closes Jan. 15, reviewed here)

• Avenue Q (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children capable of enjoying a love story, reviewed here)

• Million Dollar Quartet (jukebox musical, G, off-Broadway remounting of Broadway production, original run reviewed here)

CLOSING SOON ON BROADWAY:

• Venus in Fur (serious comedy, R, adult subject matter, closes Dec. 18, most performances sold out last week, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY OFF BROADWAY:

• The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (monologue, PG-13, reviewed here)

CLOSING SUNDAY IN GLENCOE, ILLINOIS:

• The Real Thing (serious comedy, PG-13, reviewed here)

TT: Almanac

"The quality of the artist depends on the quality of the man and no one can excel in the arts who has not, besides his special gifts, moral rectitude; I would not deny, however, that this may exhibit itself in a form that is surprising and fantastic."

W. Somerset Maugham, preface to Theatre

TT: Almanac

"It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive."

W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

TT: Snapshot

Truman Capote appears on The Dean Martin Comedy Hour in 1974:



(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

TT: Almanac

"I was suffering from that mysterious self-consciousness which often attacks the adolescent, a malady as agonising and overwhelming as seasickness or stage fright."

Francis Wyndham, "Obsessions"

TT: Stocking stuffers

National Review asked me (among others) to make some Christmas gift recommendations. To find out what I suggested, go here and scroll down.