Assuming that all goes well, the blog that has occupied this space largely unaltered since 2003 will have undergone a radical change in appearance soon after or by the time you get around to reading these words. Doug McLennan of ArtsJournal, which hosts "About Last Night," has moved the main site and all of its affiliated blogs to a new platform and in the process has optimized them for viewing on handheld computing devices. This necessitated a dramatic redesign, and when Doug pulls the switch at some point today, you'll see what he's wrought.

Even as I was ArtsJournal's very first blogger, so am I the very last one to move to the new platform. I put it off for as long as I could, not wanting to have to stand on my head, technically speaking, while simultaneously finishing a Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington and moving my first play to an off-Broadway theater. But the time has come, so here goes nothing.

I've taken this opportunity to scrap most of the various modules in the right-hand column, which I no longer update with any consistency and so decided had become superflous. But all the other features of "About Last Night" remain intact. I hope you like what you see, and I hope you'll continue to visit me regularly.

Needless to say, various things will undoubtedly go wrong along the way. Bear with me as I grope my way into a brave new world--and do not adjust your set.