Horchow was the first retailer to sell high-end goods by mail-order catalog — without first opening a bricks-and-mortar store on the street to establish its reputation with buyers. He was so successful, he sold his mail-order outfit to the store that had hired him and inspired him: Neiman Marcus. Then he went on to win a Tony Award producing his very first show, which became a world-wide success. And this was when only one out of every 22 Broadway shows ever made its money back. – Art & Seek (KERA)
Tag: 05.02.20
Some Movie Theatres Reopen In Texas
Malls and other retail establishments reopened in the state as well. Movie theatres that reopened were showing older-run movies for $5. In one San Antonio theatre, “in an upscale shopping center called the Rim, business was steady — low for a Saturday in May, but higher than what might be expected in a state still grappling with a coronavirus outbreak that has killed nearly 900 people, 48 of them in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio.” – The New York Times
The Group Singing Of Our Own Dark Age
One of the last songs at this winter’s Youth Traditional Song Weekend emphasized standing together in song. Now, “the act of gathering to sing feels like something for a tenuous tomorrow. One can always sing alone, but social singers relish the exchange. The learning new songs from others, the jumping in with an impromptu harmony, the spontaneity, the shared emotion, the bad puns. (Always, the terrible puns.)” What’s a singer to do? – The Boston Globe
What, At A Bare Minimum, Does An Artist Need In Order To Make Work During A Lockdown?
Let’s start with graph paper (and an emphasis on making work instead of the reception of work). – Hyperallergic
What’s Going To Happen To Improv?
This isn’t a great time for teachers and performers of improv comedy. Caroline Martin, who taught at Upright Citizens Brigade: “I have seen and been invited to do improv shows online on Zoom and on Instagram, and I have declined because there’s something about it that fundamentally makes me sad. Zoom does not help comedic timing.” – Slate
Peter Jonas, Whose Innovations Changed Opera, Has Died At 73
Jonas ran the English National Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in his career, emphasizing “bold interpretive approaches to the great yet elusive and multilayered operas of the past.” And he changed the options for opera houses’ rotations: “He championed overlooked 20th-century works, reached out to living composers and presented many premieres. Yet he also made the case that Baroque operas were not just fare for early-music aficionados but also compelling music dramas.” – The New York Times
Author Sarah Perry Says Books, And Writing, Felt Useless For A While
Perry (The Essex Serpent) couldn’t even go into her study at first; books seemed items of contempt. But: “Recently I have concluded that all this amounts to a kind of failure of courage. As lockdown continues, I find my imagination has not faltered against this hard reality, but has itself grown harder. Everything which was sad before is sadder now, but everything which was wonderful is more wonderful. Imagination roots itself in feeling, and the novel I’d been working on grew larger and more vivid while my back was turned.” – The Guardian (UK)
Reporting The Box Office – From 1922
There’s literally nothing to report for the box office this week of 2020, so why not go back in history and see what was going on 98 years ago, during the first year of box office reporting? “The surprise of the week came at Clune’s, where The Isle of Zorda, at a scale of 25 cents for matinees and 35 at night, got better than $7,000 at a house that usually does around $3,500. The feature is being held over, although this week business is falling below that done last week.” – Slate
A Spanish Film Director Has Completed The First Feature Of This Crisis, Filmed Entirely In Lockdown
“It is a documentary not about the coronavirus, but about the intimate experience of the confinement that is obviously transformed into a film with dramatic, comical moments, especially touched by introspection, waiting, fear at times. There is more music and silence than dialogue.” And there are celebrities, but the director wants them to be a surprise. – El País
Remembering That Undefinable Quality Of Actor Irrfan Khan
Khan, who was only 53 when he died earlier this week, had a quality common in French cinema but rarely embraced in Bollywood: He was jolie laide, beautifully ugly or ugly beautiful, but more than that as well. “In a classic, movie sense, he might be said to be a loser type. Yet … Khan’s regal height, his sensuous, animalistic features, give him the air of a god among mortals. Yet, his extraordinary physicality is cut with hallmarks of normalcy.” – Vulture