“To orchestrate a Broadway show is a backbreaking job, one that requires special training of a kind that most songwriters don’t have–and that many would be incapable of completing in any case. The ability to write a good showtune is unrelated to the ability to score it…”

“Most artists are perfectly happy to leave well enough alone, secure in the knowledge that they got it right the first time (even if they didn’t). On the other hand, revised versions of well-known works of art are quite a bit more common than you might suppose, and it turns out that more than a few great artists were near-compulsive tinkerers…”

“Nowadays the conflict-of-interest cops would come down hard on any editor who dared to permit a Broadway director to double as a drama critic. So much the worse for journalistic standards! It was precisely because Harold Clurman had worked with people like Inge, Odets, O’Neill, Miller and Williams that he was capable of writing with such lapidary insight about their virtues and flaws…”

“Since many theater companies now encourage playgoers to recycle their programs, why not place two transparent recycling containers in the lobby after the show, one marked CHEERS and the other JEERS? That strikes me as a neat and practical method of reaping the benefits of booing while simultaneously minimizing its incivility…”

“It took far too long for the worm to turn, but the world finally caught up with Horton Foote, just in time for him to revel in its acclaim. Not that relative obscurity had ever stopped him from working. On the contrary, he kept on getting better and better…”

“I do think it fitting that there should be one place in the world where Wagner’s music is not played in public solely because of the hateful ideas of the man who wrote it…”

“Most people–critics included–look at paintings and see reputations. Andrew Wyeth disappeared behind his reputation many years ago, and since then it has been all but impossible to sweep away the haze of words that hides his paintings from view…”

“If August Wilson is a major playwright, then surely part of the proof of his stature lies in the ability of his work to speak to all men in all conditions. This explains why white audiences can appreciate his plays, and why white directors can stage them, too, so long as they do their cultural homework…”