Ben Brantley has high praise for an Arabic-language adaptation of Shakespeare’s ferocious history play now appearing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Playwright-director Sulayman Al-Bassam has moved the royal power struggles to a modern-day Persian Gulf state – with an American Henry Tudor and with Richard’s opening soliloquy replaced with a furious introduction by Queen Margaret.
Tag: 06.11.09
More Obama Arts News: Michelle Launches White House Music Series
“The first installment, set for Monday [June 15], will feature members of the Marsalis family (father Ellis and two of his sons, Wynton and Branford), who will play jazz for about 150 students. The White House also said that country and classical events will be scheduled.”
A Rescue Fund For Russian Films
“Pledging a ‘calm and straightforward’ process by a company with a reputation for transparency and Western standards of corporate governance, [a Russian World Studios official] said that up to eight projects [suspended due to the recession] would be chosen for support in the next 18 months, with finance averaging $2.5 million per project.”
Fela! Headed To Broadway
Bill T. Jones’s widely praised musical about Nigerian singer-activist Fela Kuti moves to the Eugene O’Neill Theater this October. The show had a very successful Off-Broadway run in 2008 and won Lucille Lortel Awards for outstanding musical, choreography and costume design.
Not Just The Arena: Gehry Dismissed From Atlantic Yards
“Atlantic Yards is really through with Frank Gehry. An award-winning architect, Mr. Gehry will not be designing any of the 17 buildings planned for the 22-acre development in Brooklyn on which he has labored for the past six years, a spokesman for the architect confirmed Wednesday. … His designs just cost too much, the developer said.”
Martha’s Vineyard’s Bunch Of Grapes Makes A Comeback
“After being gutted by a fire last year on the Fourth of July, Bunch of Grapes Bookstore is scheduled to reopen with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday morning at the Main Street location in Vineyard Haven, Mass., that has been home to a bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard for the past 45 years.”
In The Basement Of The Frick, A Bowling Alley Lies Idle
“Every now and then in New York City, you will come across a thing so perfectly useless it reminds you of an old idea you managed to forget: Superfluous things are often beautiful, and beautiful things are generally superfluous in the end.” One such useless thing is “the century-old bowling alley in the basement of the Frick Collection, the mansion/museum on Fifth Avenue that houses an amazing array of European art.”
House Subcommittee Okays Increases For NEA, NEH
“The House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior has approved a bill that sets the annual budgets for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities at $170 million each for the 2010 fiscal year. The current appropriation for these agencies is $155 million each and President Obama had requested an increase to $161 million.”
Post-Preview, Biennale Is Calm Now But Unremarkable
“Organized by Daniel Birnbaum, this 53rd version of the venerable Biennale is tidy, disciplined, cautious and unremarkable. If any show can be said to reflect a larger state of affairs in art now, this one suggests a somewhat dull, deflated contemporary art world, professionalized to a fault, in search of a fresh consensus. It has prompted the predictable cooing from wishful insiders, burbling vaguely about newfound introspection and gravity.”
Shortlist For UK Prize Honoring Good Public Design
“An environmentally friendly ringroad and a school sports hall made from recycled freight containers are among the 24 finalists competing for Britain’s top public architecture prize. One of the projects, picked from 125 submissions of new work from the public sector, will be chosen to win the ninth Prime Minister’s award for Better Public Building in October.”