“Former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey’s bid to join the advisory board of the American Repertory Theatre was rejected last month because some members of the board were upset about the tone of her campaign for governor…. During a contentious March 19 meeting to consider Healey’s appointment, several members of the ART’s 40-member board criticized the Republican nominee’s unsuccessful campaign last fall, calling it mean-spirited and condemning a controversial television ad that highlighted Deval Patrick’s advocacy for a convicted rapist.”
Tag: 04.04.07
A Humana Less Cheery
“Superior artistry was mostly lacking at this year’s festival, unfortunately. The selections at the festival cannot be used as a barometer of contemporary American playwriting. New plays are produced by the dozens each year at regional theaters. But it was dispiriting to come away from immersion in new playwriting with little to celebrate.”
Fortini: Didion’s “Year” Is All About Control
Amanda Fortini sees Joan Didion exerting control in “The Year of Magical Thinking.” “For all her invocation of I, she is never truly confessional. Her autobiographical writing might be described as a literary fan dance, in which she seduces the reader through revelatory feints but ultimately exposes very little.”
Matthew Bourne’s Critic Problem
“The chief complaint against Matthew Bourne’s choreography is that it lacks invention. He has no signature voice, people say, no personal vocabulary of movement–what normally distinguishes a great choreographer. This much is true, but what Bourne has instead is a wide knowledge of dance, a strong memory, and an uncommon deftness in sampling eclectically in order to achieve the effects he wants.”
The Ultimate First-Nighter
“Leo Lerman knew everybody–except perhaps himself. He died at 80 on Aug. 22, 1994. The ultimate first-nighter, he apparently never missed the opening of a play, a nightclub, an opera or a musical. He also gave remarkably well-attended parties. His Journals are worth the price of admission for the guest lists alone.”
Pappano: Fat Soprano Story Was “Rubbish”
Antonio Pappano, the music director at London’s Covent Garden says the stories of the company canceling Deborah Voigt because she couldn’t fit into a dress were “rubbish.” “Let me tell you, that was just a bunch of rubbish, all that. That story has been done to death. It had nothing to do with the dress at the time. First of all, the dress is not that small…So that wonderful bit of publicity that happened to come out during the weeks when Deborah had a new album at the time was fantastically engineered and had nothing to do with anything.”
Slava’s Remarkable Career
It’s Mstislav Rostropovich’s 80th birthday. “No soloist in modern times has inspired more new works; no cellist in history did more to expand the instrument’s repertoire. Slava has given about 240 premieres, including concertos by the three Russian masters, the Frenchman Henri Dutilleux, the Estonian Arvo Paert and the Poles Lutoslawski, Panufnik and Penderecki.”
NJ Theatre Needs Cash To Survive The Week
“New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, which has presented Broadway stars and up-and-comers in plays and musicals since 1938, has run out of money and needs $1.5 million to survive the week.”
Has EMI Move Opened A New Music Era?
“Hopefully we will look back on this and see it as a significant official announcement in that it started a move by the other major labels to follow suit. Certainly at the moment it doesn’t look as if it’s going to create this snowball effect, but it leaves the other major labels in a slightly untenable position. I would be surprised if DRM existed to its current extent by the end of the year.”
Headlinicity: An Orchestra Changes Its Name
“Until this week, the orchestra that played in Virginia Beach was called – can you guess? – the Virginia Beach Symphony Orchestra. No more. On Sunday, the symphony changed its name. The new name is a single made-up word, and it doesn’t include ‘Virginia Beach’ or ‘orchestra.’ It is Symphonicity. Really.”