Katie N Johnson | Miami University (original) (raw)

Books by Katie N Johnson

University of Michigan Press, 2023

The early drama of Eugene O’Neill, with its emphasis on racial themes and conflicts, opened up ex... more The early drama of Eugene O’Neill, with its emphasis on racial themes and conflicts, opened up extraordinary opportunities for Black performers to challenge racist structures in modern theater and cinema. By adapting O’Neill’s dramatic writing—changing scripts to omit offensive epithets, inserting African American music and dance, or including citations of Black internationalism--theater artists of color have used O’Neill’s texts to raze barriers in American and transatlantic theater.

Challenging the widely accepted idea that Broadway was the white-hot creative engine of U.S. theater during the early 20th century, author Katie N. Johnson reveals a far more complex system of exchanges between the Broadway establishment and a vibrant Black theater scene in New York and beyond to chart a new history of American and transnational theater. In spite of their dichotomous (and at times problematic) representation of Blackness, O’Neill’s plays such as The Emperor Jones and All God’s Chillun Got Wings make ideal case studies because of the way these works stimulated traffic between Broadway and Harlem—and between white and Black America. These investigations of O’Neill and Broadway productions are enriched by the vibrant transnational exchange found in early to mid-20th century artistic production. Anchored in archival research, Racing the Great White Way recovers not only vital lost performance histories, but also the layered contexts for performing bodies across the Black Atlantic and the Circum-Atlantic.

University of Iowa Press, 2015

In early twentieth-century U.S. culture, sex sold. While known mainly for its social reforms, th... more In early twentieth-century U.S. culture, sex sold. While known mainly for its social reforms, the Progressive Era was also obsessed with prostitution, sexuality, and the staging of women’s changing roles in the modern era. By the 1910s, plays about prostitution (or “brothel dramas”) had inundated Broadway, where they sometimes became long-running hits and other times sparked fiery obscenity debates. In Sex for Sale, Katie N. Johnson recovers six of these plays, presenting them with astute cultural analysis, photographs, and production histories. The result is a new history of U.S. theatre that reveals the brothel drama’s crucial role in shaping attitudes toward sexuality, birth control, immigration, urbanization, and women’s work.

The volume includes the work of major figures including Eugene O’Neill, John Reed, Rachel Crothers, and Elizabeth Robins. Now largely forgotten and some previously unpublished, these plays were among the most celebrated and debated productions of their day. Together, their portrayals of commercialized vice, drug addiction, poverty, white slavery, and interracial desire reveal the Progressive Era’s fascination with the underworld and the theatre’s power to regulate sexuality. Additional plays, commentary, and teaching materials are available at brotheldrama.lib.miamioh.edu.

Cambridge University Press, 2006

The prostitute, and her sister in sin - the so-called 'fallen' woman - were veritable obsessions ... more The prostitute, and her sister in sin - the so-called 'fallen' woman - were veritable obsessions of American Progressive Era culture. Their cumulative presence, in scores of controversial theatrical productions, demonstrates the repeated obsession with the prostitute figure in both highbrow and lowbrow entertainments. As the first extended examination of such dramas during the Progressive Era, Sisters in Sin recovers a slice of theatre history in demonstrating that the prostitute was central to American realist theatre. Such plays about prostitutes were so popular that they constituted a forgotten genre - the brothel play. The brothel drama's stunning success reveals much about early twentieth-century American anxieties about sexuality, contagion, eugenics, women's rights and urbanization. Introducing previously unexamined archival documents and unpublished play scripts, this original study argues that the body of the prostitute was a corporeal site upon which modernist desires and cultural imperatives were mapped.

Theatre Reviews by Katie N Johnson

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2023

This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill''s play "Welded," which was performed in New Ross, Ire... more This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill''s play "Welded," which was performed in New Ross, Ireland, in 2023

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2020

This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece "Long Day's Journal Into Night" performe... more This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece "Long Day's Journal Into Night" performed at Tao House, California

Theatre Journal , 2018

Theatre review of "Woyzeck in Winter" by Conall Morrison in Galway, Ireland

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2017

This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night" directed by Jonathan... more This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night" directed by Jonathan Kent in New York

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2015

Theatre Review of "Anna Christie" in Paris by Anna Christie by Jean-Claude Carrière

Eugene O'Neill Review, 2014

This is a theatre review of Simon Godwin's production of O'Neill's play "Strange Interlude" at Lo... more This is a theatre review of Simon Godwin's production of O'Neill's play "Strange Interlude" at London's National Theatre.

Theatre Journal, 2013

Theatre review of The Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt performed by the Donmar Warehouse in Lon... more Theatre review of The Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt performed by the Donmar Warehouse in London.

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2013

Theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" staged at London's Apollo Thea... more Theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" staged at London's Apollo Theatre with David Suchet and Laurie Metcalf; directed by Anthony Page.

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2013

Theatre Review of Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" by Southwark Theatre in London and directed by... more Theatre Review of Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" by Southwark Theatre in London and directed by Kate Budgen

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2012

This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie" performed at London's Donmar Warehou... more This is a theatre review of Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie" performed at London's Donmar Warehouse featuring Jude Law and Ruth Wilson

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2009

Theatre review of the Neo-Futurist's production of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude"

Articles & Book Chapters by Katie N Johnson

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2024

Pauline Lord’s article “My Anna Christie” (1922) was an important intervention in the discourse r... more Pauline Lord’s article “My Anna Christie” (1922)
was an important intervention in the discourse
regarding Progressive Era brothel dramas.
Describing how she researched and originated
the title role in “Anna Christie,
” Lord’s article was
also one of the few pieces about the play written
by a woman during this time period. When the
piece appeared, contexts for understanding “Anna
Christie” had shifted: whereas previous prostitute
plays had been censored for obscenity, Eugene
O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” garnered the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama. “My Anna Christie” followed
in the wake of two pioneering actresses who
portrayed courtesans or sex workers and wrote
about it: Mrs. Leslie Carter and Mary Shaw. “My
Anna Christie” examines sexual exploitation,
abandonment, and double standards of sexuality,
conjuring sympathy for Anna’s character. More
significantly, Lord interviewed prostitutes as part
of her research. Rather than sensationalizing or
denigrating sex workers as “The Social Evil,” Lord
sought to understand them.

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2023

“The Silver Bullet” might be best understood as the lesser-known twin (or Irish cousin?) to The E... more “The Silver Bullet” might be best understood as the lesser-known twin (or Irish cousin?) to The Emperor Jones—a fragment that would never be fully drafted, or ever performed. Nonetheless, “The Silver Bullet” offers insights into O’Neill’s evolving thoughts about colonial misrule, Black sovereignty, Indigenous agency, and the breaking of color lines for actors of color.

Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Plays by Women: the Twenty-First Century, 2021

MELUS, 2019

At its core, The Emperor Jones was a film aimed at critiquing empire while also evoking the Afric... more At its core, The Emperor Jones was a film aimed at critiquing empire while also evoking the African diaspora. Yet the film was created by a team of Irish American artists. While scholars have attended to Eugene O’Neill’s investment in Black culture (both positively and negatively), less discussed are the ways in which Blackness and Irishness intersect in the film adaptation of The Emperor Jones, one of the most intriguing examples of early twentieth-century black cinema created by Irish Americans.

Theatre Journal, 2017

In 1923 the Algerian actor Habib Benglia played an uncanny Emperor Jones for the nation that c... more In 1923 the Algerian actor Habib Benglia played an uncanny Emperor Jones for the
nation that colonized his own. On the stage of Paris's Odeon Theatre, one of France most esteemed national performance venues, the French-speaking Benglia—a colonized
subject—assumed the role of a colonizer (Brutus Jones) in a play that has been central
in discussions of racial performativity, empire, and diaspora. Benglia performed th tensions between empire and colonial subject, embodying the spectacle of a failing emperor—a despotic ruler who is destroyed by the indigenous people of the island This essay shows how this Franco-African performer deployed and subverted tropes of
empire while performing The Emperor Jones. It argues that these performative iteration of Jones mark not only a vital lost performance history of O'Neill's groundbreaking
drama, but also the layered contexts and performative valences for performing bodies
across the black Atlantic. From the 1923 Odeon performance of L'Empereur Jones, to its
1950 Parisian revival, to re-performances of the Congo Witch-Doctor in his Montpa nasse nightclub, Benglia was undoing empire while performing roles from O'Neill's drama about imperfect imperial rule.

The Theatre of Eugene O’Neill: American Modernism on Stage, 2017

The early production history of The Emperor Jones serves as a case study of what I am calling “ra... more The early production history of The Emperor Jones serves as a case study
of what I am calling “racing Broadway”: the process by which intersectional and intra-racial artistic traffic between Harlem, Greenwich Village, and Broadway shaped the contours of American theatre. An unlikely, though central, figure linking these co-extensive projects was Eugene O’Neill. While scholars have written about the Village as a hub for theatrical experimentation and home to O’Neill and the Provincetown Players, relatively little attention has been paid to the collaborations between downtown and uptown, between the emerging modernist (and, largely white) theatre artists and the Harlem theatres. Too often, historical treatments of performers focus on their Broadway careers, thus effacing much of their
body of work and half of the theatrical map. For decades, The Emperor Jones was a piece that resonated with a variety of black theatre artists beyond the Village and Broadway, effectively paving the way for Harlem productions, an all-black opera adaptation in midtown, and Body and Soul (1925), a race film by Oscar Micheaux that borrows many plot details. In spite of these
innovations, many artists who stepped into Brutus Jones’s boots have faded into obscurity. This essay seeks to restore their work to the historical record.

University of Michigan Press, 2023

University of Iowa Press, 2015

Cambridge University Press, 2006

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2023

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2020

Theatre Journal , 2018

Theatre review of "Woyzeck in Winter" by Conall Morrison in Galway, Ireland

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2017

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2015

Theatre Review of "Anna Christie" in Paris by Anna Christie by Jean-Claude Carrière

Eugene O'Neill Review, 2014

Theatre Journal, 2013

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2013

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2012

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2009

Theatre review of the Neo-Futurist's production of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude"

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2024

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2023

Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Plays by Women: the Twenty-First Century, 2021

MELUS, 2019

Theatre Journal, 2017

The Theatre of Eugene O’Neill: American Modernism on Stage, 2017

Prostitution and Sex Work in Global Visual Media: New Takes on Fallen Women, 2017

Moulin Rouge! appears at first glance to be the quintessential postmodern film about prostitution... more Moulin Rouge! appears at first glance to be the quintessential postmodern film about prostitution. While Moulin Rouge! offers a funky-if not campy-take on the turn-of-the-century Parisian underworld, it nonetheless resurrects very old dramaturgical devices in retelling the story. Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! is an unmistakable retelling of two nineteenth-century stories, intertwined as a postmodern mash-up: Puccini's opera La bohème and Dumas fils' nineteenth-century melodrama Camille. In Luhrmann's hands, the film reifies the dramaturgical pattern of killing off prostitute figures and cloaks it in an aesthetic I call consumptive chic.

University of Michigan Press, 2017

Over one hundred years ago, the Strobridge Company, a powerhouse lithographer, created astonishin... more Over one hundred years ago, the Strobridge Company, a powerhouse lithographer, created astonishingly beautiful posters for America’s top performers. With its new technology and low-paid immigrant labor, Strobridge lithography mass-produced stunning posters about American popular entertainments that ultimately dominated the market. From lowbrow circus acts to highbrow Belasco extravaganzas, Strobridge posters were the ultimate “show off” in advertising blockbusters and flops alike. Moreover, by employing famous artists, the posters constituted some of the most gorgeous artwork of its day. Finally, this article also gives an extended reading of the very first billboard erected in America, which promoted Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I examine the performative valence of this billboard in the center of Cincinnati, specifically how it became a “thing-in motion” in representing the scene of Eliza crossing the river, with a view of the Ohio River behind the billboard itself. Specifically, I wish to interrogate how a dynamic group of people—immigrants, African Americans, whites, working classes, and moneyed elites—gathered at a liminal spatial site (Fountain Square in Cincinnati) to interact with the very pressing (and still on-going) story of slavery raised by Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Time and space—North and South, antebellum and post-Civil War—collide in this moment. All these case studies seek to show how the technological advances championed by Strobridge need to be considered as a performative objects--as projections, but also as interventions in, the cultural moment in Reconstruction America.

Eugene O'Neill Review, 2015

Jules Bledsoe, one of the great African American singers, composers, actors, and activists in twe... more Jules Bledsoe, one of the great African American singers, composers, actors, and activists in twentieth-century US culture, is often missing from historical reports of his time. Yet he originated the role of Joe in Show Boat, performed in the first European tour of the operatic version of The Emperor Jones, and composed and arranged important operas, spirituals, and an “Ode to America,” dedicated to President Roosevelt. In spite of these accomplishments, Jules Bledsoe has not been given the attention he deserves as an artist of talent, determination, and indomitable spirit. This article seeks to write Bledsoe back into the historical record more broadly and into O’Neill studies in particular. In so doing, I show that the role of Brutus Jones haunted Bledsoe throughout his career, from his rise to stardom abroad as an opera singer to his untimely death at the age of forty-three. In excavating the Emperor’s remains, it becomes clear that Bledsoe was a key figure in the rise of modern American theater, opera, and in the struggle for racial equality.

Modern Drama, 2009

During the 1922 Broadway season, two popular plays literally took the stage by storm. In what may... more During the 1922 Broadway season, two popular plays literally took the stage by storm. In what may strike post-Katrina audiences as a somewhat uncanny coincidence, these two dramas – Rain and The Deluge – were both based on the aftermaths of natural disasters: specifically, torrential downpours, the breaching of a levee, and the struggle to regenerate in the wake of catastrophic destruction. In another seemingly uncanny coincidence, although both dramas have virtually all-male casts, both also feature one central female character, a down-on-her-luck “fallen” woman called Sadie. In addition to featuring natural cataclysms (surely meant as a counterpoint to moral ones), both The Deluge and Rain recycle a classic hooker- with-a-heart-of-gold story – a tale about a repentant prostitute called Sadie who reconciles with her scarlet past. As I have argued elsewhere, dramas with prostitutes form the backbone of what was then called brothel drama, a vital subgenre of American modern theatre. Whereas the brothel genre as a whole waned in the early 1920s in conjunction with anti-prostitution reform, representations of scarlet women lived on in a new prostitute figure.

Querying Difference in Theatre History, 2007

At the turn of the twentieth century, plays about prostitutes and fallen women flourished across ... more At the turn of the twentieth century, plays about prostitutes and fallen women flourished across the stages in America. Harkening back at least to Camille (1852), the hooker-with-a-heart-of gold character appeared again and again in what became known as a genre unto itself: the brothel drama. More than seventy years after Camille first appeared, and after countless other prostitute plays had packed theatres across the nation, a drama featuring an African American courtesan—Lulu Belle—finally took Broadway by storm. In this essay, I examine David Belasco's 1926 landmark production of Lulu Belle, a story of a black cabaret singer who toys with men for both sport and money, only to meet a tragic end. Lulu Belle is astonishing not only because it featured a black courtesan—a figure that, with the exception of Goat Alley, was missing altogether in American mainstream drama of the day—but also because Lulu Belle featured a large cast of over one hundred black actors and played successfully in mainstream theatres, running for 46l performances. In re-examining its performance history, I explicate the significance of Lulu Belle within the context of early twentieth-century American drama, particularly within the popular subgenre of "brothel drama".

The Gay and Lesbian Review, 2007

An analysis of the 1922 censorship debate surrounding the English-speaking premiere of "The God o... more An analysis of the 1922 censorship debate surrounding the English-speaking premiere of "The God of Vengeance" on Broadway

Theatre History Studies, 2006

Long remembered for Fiskes' pioneering realistic acting in the title role, Salvation Nell signifi... more Long remembered for Fiskes' pioneering realistic acting in the title role, Salvation Nell significantly influenced the development of modern American drama. Not since Mrs. Warren's Profession's closing in New York in 1905 had a playwright ventured to represent prostitution onstage. Yet, not only did Salvation Nell escape Anthony Comstock's censorship clutches; it was widely perceived as groundbreaking during its time. This essay's focus is twofold: first, I draw attention to the significance of Salvation Nell in the larger project of constructing what we might cal "salvationist" sexuality - self-sacrificing female sexuality that is juxtaposed with the perceived dangers of prostitution; and second, I pressure our understanding of American realism and assess the cultural work of staging what became known as "slum realism."

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2004

Given the tumultuous history history of prostitute characters in theatre, Eugene O'Neill's play "... more Given the tumultuous history history of prostitute characters in theatre, Eugene O'Neill's play "Anna Christie," achieved a kind of strange respectability by garnering the Pulitzer Prize for the 1921-22 season. "Anna Christie" not only escaped the attention of New York censors, but also captured one of the most legitimating prizes in the theater. By 1921, the prostitute play had captured an uncanny respectability in the theatre.

Journal of American Drama & Theatre, 2003

An analysis of Rachel Crothers's feminist play about prostitution (what I call brothel drama), Ou... more An analysis of Rachel Crothers's feminist play about prostitution (what I call brothel drama), Ourselves.

Theatre Survey, 2003

In 1913, the play characterized in the popular press as "unquestionably the most widely discussed... more In 1913, the play characterized in the popular press as "unquestionably the most widely discussed play of a decade" was not a brilliant interpretation of a classic, one of Shaw's problem plays, or one of David Belasco's realist inventions. The production that took the country by storm, Eugène Brieux's Damaged Goods (Les Avariés), was the first play on the American stage to deal openly with syphilis as a central theme. Though celebrated at the time as "The Greatest Contribution Ever Made by the Stage to the Cause of Humanity," this forgotten play merits the modern scholar's attention not only because its immense popularity has been overlooked or because it broke what turn-of-the century narratives called the "conspiracy of silence." Rather, this essay will argue that the performance history of Damaged Goods, far from marking a threshold-crossing freedom in sexual discourse in Progressive Era America, reveals how Progressives utilized the stage to normalize and reinforce the social centrality of bourgeois marriage, reproductivity, and traditional gender norms, much as they had wielded other discourses to study, contain, and discipline sexuality during previous decades. While this regulation of sexuality rested upon a conservative agenda that the ostensible liberalism of the play obfuscated in its (and even our) own day, the play's portrayal of prostitution demonstrates a rather clear, though vexed, relationship between contagion and the dangers of unsanctioned sex.

Theatre Journal, 2002

By 1893, the fallen-woman/courtesan figure had appeared on the American stage often enough for M... more By 1893, the fallen-woman/courtesan figure had appeared on the American stage often enough for Martin Meisel to call 1893 "the season of the triumph of the Courtesan Play." What makes David Belasco's production of "Zaza" so significant is not that it recycled the Camille plot, or that it showcased Belasco's realistic stagecraft, but rather that it signaled a larger cultural pattern in early twentieth-century American drama and culture. Premiering
on the cusp of the new millennium, Zaza marks the beginning of a shift in representation, whereby fallen women?perceived to be courtesans or prostitutes became central characters not only in American drama, but also in popular culture. ]Zaza's premiere intersected with this growing vitality of cultural forces (such as antiprostitution reform, eugenics, sexology, and criminology) that scrutinized and policed fallen women's sexuality.Zaza can be seen as a worthy watershed moment in a continuum of plays harkening back to Camille. independence that encouraged audiences and critics to view her as a courtesan. The cultural work of staging Zaza in the United States hinges precisely upon both the conflation of sexually active women,
music hall performers, and whores?and the juxtaposition of these fallen women with women who adhere to sexual propriety Zaza therefore provides us with a useful example of how the turn-of-the-century theatre produced plots that reinscribed heteronormative, reproductive desire, even while these same plays supposedly portrayed novel, and often scandalous, sexual themes

Selling the Indian: Commercialism and the Appropriation of American Indian Cultures, 2001

Co-written with Tamara Underiner

American Drama, 1999

An analysis of the reality-based TV show COPS

ATQ: 19th-Century American Literature & Culture, 1996

An analysis of the fallen woman character in the play "Sapho" as portrayed by Olga Nethersole

Eugene O'Neill Review, 2015

Co-authored with J. Chris Westgate. This is a co-authored foreword as performance review editors... more Co-authored with J. Chris Westgate. This is a co-authored foreword as performance review editors of the Eugene O'Neill Review.

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2015

This is my foreword as performance review editor of the Eugene O'Neill Review.

Eugene O'Neill Review, 2016

This is my foreword as performance review editor of the Eugene O'Neill Review.

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2017

This is the foreword as performance review editor of the "The Eugene O'Neill Review"

Theatre Journal , 2005

Book Review of: Composing Ourselves: The Little Theatre Movement and the American Audience by Dor... more Book Review of: Composing Ourselves: The Little Theatre Movement and the American Audience by Dorothy Chansky published by Southern Illinois University Press

American Studies Journal, 2013

This is a book review of David Savran's "Highbrow/Lowdown: Theater, Jazz, and the Making of the N... more This is a book review of David Savran's "Highbrow/Lowdown: Theater, Jazz, and the Making of the New Middle Class"

Uni-Taschenbücher, 1993

Book review of Erika Fischer Lichte's "Kurze Geschichte des deutschen Theaters (Short History of ... more Book review of Erika Fischer Lichte's "Kurze Geschichte des deutschen Theaters (Short History of the German Theatre)"

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2015

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2017

The Eugene O'Neill Review, 2015

Jules Bledsoe, one of the great African American singers, composers, actors, and activists in twe... more Jules Bledsoe, one of the great African American singers, composers, actors, and activists in twentieth-century US culture, is often missing from historical reports of his time. Yet he originated the role of Joe in Show Boat, performed in the first European tour of the operatic version of The Emperor Jones, and composed and arranged important operas, spirituals, and an “Ode to America,” dedicated to President Roosevelt. In spite of these accomplishments, Jules Bledsoe has not been given the attention he deserves as an artist of talent, determination, and indomitable spirit. This article seeks to write Bledsoe back into the historical record more broadly and into O'Neill studies in particular. In so doing, I show that the role of Brutus Jones haunted Bledsoe throughout his career, from his rise to stardom abroad as an opera singer to his untimely death at the age of forty-three. In excavating the Emperor's remains, it becomes clear that Bledsoe was a key figure in the rise of...

Theatre Journal, 2002

... of the prostitute. Zaza's premiere intersected with this growing vitality of cultural fo... more ... of the prostitute. Zaza's premiere intersected with this growing vitality of cultural forces (such as antiprostitution reform, eugenics, sexology, and criminology) that scrutinized and policed fallen women's sexuality. In light of these ...

Modern Drama, 2007

tively written scripts. Heilpern is at his best when describing the world of showbiz, where acces... more tively written scripts. Heilpern is at his best when describing the world of showbiz, where access to the best theatres and star actors depends not only on one’s talent but also on the people with whom one dines and parties. After the success of Look Back in Anger, Osborne’s unexpected entrance into that world gave him the confidence to produce some of his very best work: The Entertainer (1957), Luther (1961), Inadmissible Evidence (1964), and A Patriot for Me (1965). Ultimately, it also destroyed him. The rest of the biography reads like a cautionary tale about an artist’s overreaching: too much money, too many wives and mistresses, too much booze and too many pills, and finally, paralysing anxiety about his rapidly waning success. Osborne wanted to be loved for saying the wrong things. He discovered that, as he grew older, his audience became less forgiving.