- New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company raised the curtain this week on the $25-million restoration of its Broadway home – the controversially renamed American Airlines Theatre. “As for the protests that accompanied the theatre’s renaming after a corporate donor, [RTC Artistic Director Todd] Haimes said he was comfortable with his decision, and was amply prepared for the outcry. ‘Within five years all the theatres will be renamed for corporations, and no one will notice.’” – Theatre.com
Tag: 06.27.00
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Twenty-five years ago Robert Altman’s “Nashville” was going to change the world of movies. “Here was an artist putting the machinery of popular culture to work for the sake of art, yet entering into the spirit of popular culture and partaking of its energy too. That was the dream: the power of popular art combined with the complexity of fine art, high and low not at war, and not blurred indistinguishably into each other, but embracing.” What happened? “Jaws” captured the audiences, and the rest is history. – Salon 06/27/00
TALES FROM THE ART CRYPT
Richard Feigen is one of the foremost dealers in Old Master paintings – and a famously difficult personality. His new book illuminates some of the more shadowy corners of the art world. “There is, for example, a scathing account of the shenanigans several years ago at the Barnes Foundation, the fabled museum outside Philadelphia, when trustees attempted to sell off holdings in violation of its founder’s will – an attempt Feigen all but single-handedly scotched. Or there’s his comparing the exhibitions policy at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, with its ‘random mixture of box-office frivolity with serious art,’ to ‘a nice girl of good family who just once in a while goes out and turns tricks for some pocket change.’ ” – Boston Globe
EPIC, PART II
By the time he died in 1992, author Alex Haley had amassed boxes of research for another novel in the tradition of his “Roots” epic. His estate went searching for a writer to take over the project, and came up with a novelist who writes in the supernatural suspense genre and is a former Miami Herald feature writer. – Chicago Tribune
WHO’S REALLY READING?
“Now sprouting at every portal, community forum and chat room near you, online book discussions have been lauded as the ”stickiest” thing since grape Bubble Yum.” But, are they really any more popular than the old coffee-klatch variety? Are they really getting people to read more? And, most importantly to publishers, is all the marketing of online book clubs doing anything to boost sales? – Inside.com
EPIC, PART II
By the time he died in 1992, author Alex Haley had amassed boxes of research for another novel in the tradition of his “Roots” epic. His estate went searching for a writer to take over the project, and came up with a novelist who writes in the supernatural suspense genre and is a former Miami Herald feature writer. – Chicago Tribune
STAR SEARCH
The 37-year-old Leeds International Piano Competition has launched the careers of a surprising number of world-class pianists, and now ranks alongside Russia’s Tchaikovsky competition as one of the world’s most esteemed showcases in the piano world. So it’s no surprise the competition received a record 298 recital tapes from potential entrants this year, each hoping to join the roster of past winners. “Murray Perahia, Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida – the list reads like the best-selling rack of classical music stores the world over.” – CNN (Reuters)
NOT JUST ANOTHER JAZZ FESTIVAL PREVIEW
This advance of a jazz festival set for St. Petersburg, Russia, takes an unusual turn in the second paragraph – with band members singing songs calling the Russian president “Pinochet,” and taunting the police with “it smells of police near the stage.” Talk about an invitation to getting beaten up (which of course is exactly what happens). – St. Petersburg Times (Russia)
IN LOVE WITH MAVERICKS
Some thought that the San Francisco Symphony’s just-concluded festival of 20th Century music would be a hard sell. “Well, they reckoned without Michael Tilson Thomas. It’s my belief that people flocked to these concerts in large part because they believed him when he promised that the shows were going to be exciting and fun, and they kept coming back because he made good on that promise.” – San Francisco Chronicle
NOW THAT IT’S COSTING US MONEY…
Piracy of intellectual property has been big business in the former republics of the Soviet Union, and frankly, government hasn’t done much to curb it. But local governments are beginning to take the issue more seriously, and the reasons are simple: lost sales and jobs, police raids and expensive legal disputes over famous patents and trademarks, as well as uncollected taxes, excises and customs duties. Conservative estimates place losses to businesses and governments in the Baltic states, Russia and other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States at billions of dollars this year. – Moscow Times