The legendary Kirov Ballet returns to America. Tobi Tobias: “Granted, today’s Kirov corps is not the ensemble it once was, with every head inclined just so, every wrist angled exactly, every leg raised in arabesque to some preordained height, the uncanny unison work not mechanical but buoyed by the music. Still, the current group resembles the corps de ballet of the old days in kind if not degree, and it is a fine sight to behold. The rest of the dancing was dispiriting.”
Tag: 01.07.04
Theatre Hit Producers Will Be Made Back Into Film
The Broadway hit The Producers is adapted from a 60s movie. Now the stage update is being adapted further…as another movie. The movie will star Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, the thea production’s original stars.
Writer’s Guild President Resigns
The head of the Writer’s Guild of America has resigned after a 13-hour meeting with the union’s board of directors. “The upheaval at the union comes on the eve of critical negotiations with Hollywood studios and television networks over a new three-year contract on conditions for entertainment industry writers. The current contract expires in May.”
Report: Australian Theatre Crisis
An Australian government report declares that more than half of the country’s mid-size theatres are in financial difficulty. “The report warns of “a coming crisis, unless action is taken” to prevent a negative spiral of declining quality, audiences and sponsorship.”
After 18 Years: New Sydney Theatre
After 18 years of planning, the new Sydney Theatre opens. “Snuggled into one of Sydney’s most artificial topographies is a new house of artifice. Its facade, dominated by that huge romanesque proscenium, declares up front a commitment to reality remade. Yet, at the same time, Walsh Bay’s new Sydney Theatre, opening on Saturday, is profoundly shaped by intimacy. You can call it ironic. Or you can relax in the knowledge that probing this truth-illusion relationship is theatre’s core business.”
Shanghai Museums Being Forced Out
Shanghai has more than 60 private museums. But “after some 20 rough years, many private museums are now facing serious hardships in Shanghai, the birthplace of private museums. In the 1990s, the country had about 80 private museums. The figureincreased to 200 by 1996. But behind the glorious image of private museums, balancing thesheets is becoming a common problem facing almost all private museum owners. Insiders predicted that half of the private museums in Shanghai now have such problem.”
The 2 Columbus Circle Debate
All this angst about what to do with the peculiar building at 2 Columbus Circle in New York. Ada Louise Huxtable weighs in: “The most basic preservation question is not being asked at all. What will be lost, and what will be gained? The proposal being rejected out of hand is a promising solution by a talented young American practitioner that will reclaim an abandoned building of debatable merit for a desirable cultural facility. We do not lose the building; everything that is good about it will be retained – its size, its scale, and its intimate relationship to the street. What is bad about the building – the dark, cramped and virtually useless interior and those faux harem walls that close off spectacular views – will be changed.”