Bayreuth Debut Is Mixed For Intended Successor

Reviews for Katharina Wagner’s Meistersinger were mixed at best. “It was definitely not the stuff embraced by traditional Wagnerites. But if Wagner was concerned, she did not show it Thursday. ‘They didn’t understand it,’ she told The Associated Press of the negative voices. She said she was relieved and insisted that — no matter what the final judgment of Wednesday’s premiere was — she was ready to take over from her father ‘if the conditions were right’.”

The Economics Behind A Broadway Stagehand Strike

“Nothing happens in a Broadway theater without one or more of the industry’s 350 union stagehands getting paid. That won’t change. This makes Broadway producers crazy. Every time a contract comes up for renegotiation, they complain that IATSE’s work rules are responsible for skyrocketing production costs. The result, they say, is fewer shows produced, a higher failure rate of the ones that are produced, and inevitably, higher ticket prices. And they’re right, sort of. The stagehands have a pretty good deal.” But there are other factors…

Bookstores Offloading Those Comfy Couches

“Just a decade ago, the trend in the bookstore industry was to fit nooks and crannies with big chairs for browsing, which, it was hoped, would spur buying. The idea was to recast the bookstore as a community place or an extension of the home. But now the availability of so-called ‘soft’ seating – overstuffed chairs and sofas – is on the decline at some bookstores, done in by various complications: homeless squatters, overly enthusiastic young lovers, food trash left behind.”

The Evolution Of The Movie Trailer

Movie previews are so last decade. Sure, a few people might watch your trailer and remember your movie months later when it hits theaters, but wouldn’t it be more effective to create an entire online universe in which your movie is secretly the center of the action, and challenge gamers and hackers and lurkers to discover the truth behind the ominous mystery you’ve placed before them, and to do it all with a veneer of seriousness that makes the participants feel like they’re actually part of something? Well, wouldn’t it?