Category: people

Four years ago pianist Keith Jarrett was struck with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so severe it all but ended his career. He could barely get out of bed. Now he’s back and talking about it. “Nobody gets CFS who isn’t always trying to do three or four things at a time. If you’re a couch potato, I don’t think you’d be likely to get this. So if you’re doing something new that’s almost an athletic event, and then inside it is this intellectual and emotional component that requires all your abilities every time you do it, and you’re starting from zero every time… well, it’s almost a perfect disease for me to have gotten.” – The Guardian

Turns out Stalin’s 28-year-old grandson is an artist – a painter – and judged a good one by those who have seen his work in London and Glasgow. Just one problem – what about those views of history he’s all too happy to share? “Stalin was a truly great man,” he says. “He was a great ruler like Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar. He cannot be erased as if he did not exist. I do not like it when people pretend he did not really happen in history.” – The Times (UK)

In 1932 the Nicholas brothers were the youngest dancers ever to showcase at the Cotton Club and the first performers allowed to mix with a white audience. They danced with George Balanchine, Gene Kelly, and can count Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov as some of their biggest fans.  After a life of tap dancing around racial barriers, chasing women, and approaching life with gusto, Harold Nicholas died this month at age 79. – LA Weekly

Director Roman Polanski – exiled from the U.S. since a 1978 conviction for statutory rape – is now being sued by Artisan Entertainment which claims he siphoned $1 million in VAT refunds into a private bank account after the release of the film “The Ninth Gate.” – Sydney Morning Herald

The theatre world gathers to memorialize producer David Merrick. “It was Mr. Merrick’s difficult, enigmatic personality that pervaded the memorial yesterday. While several speakers expressed a love of the shows he created, few conveyed a comparable love of the man.” – New York Times

Placido Domingo miscalculated when he took on directing the Washington and Los Angeles opera companies. He thought he’d be about finished singing by now. But at age 60 the voice still works, and the conducting, directing and singing are easily three full time jobs. What next? – The Telegraph (UK)

He was the Giant of Theatre in the 1980s, producing one mega-musical hit after another. Cameron Mackintosh is “one of Britain’s 200 richest people, estimating his personal wealth at $600 million. He owns seven theaters in the West End of London. He was knighted in 1996 for his services to British theater.” But in the past decade he hasn’t had much luck. He’s hoping that will change with his latest show, opening in London this week. – New York Times

Martin McDonagh seemed to have it all three years ago. Coming from nowhere, suddenly “several of McDonagh’s ferociously comic and unsettling plays” won great reviews and top literary prizes in the US and Europe. But then there was a drunken squabble with Sean Connery at an awards ceremony, “some cranky critical backlash and a few damning interviews” and McDonagh retreated. Now he’s back with a new play. – Seattle Times

What was it that made John Ruskin the greatest art and social critic of the Victorian age? A new book is great at exploring his life; less successful at capturing his rhetorical lightning. – Boston Globe

— dies at age 75 after complications from surgery. – CBC