Just What Theatre Needs: A Madonna-In-Malawi Musical

“Every afternoon this month in a converted Edinburgh church half a dozen Malawian dancers wear ‘Adopt me’ T-shirts in Mercy Madonna of Malawi,” Toby Gough’s “reverse Black-and-White minstrel show” at the Fringe. “The ‘Madonna’ whose eye they are trying to catch is a strapping black man in a platinum blonde wig and pink negligee who sings ‘Last night I dreamed of Malawi’ to the tune of the Material Girl’s early hit ‘La Isla Bonita’.”

What Keeps New Audiences From Opera? Price, Says Opera Boss

San Diego Opera general director Ian Campbell: “Price is the greatest obstacle to attendance at opera performances. … It is noticeable that whenever an opera company or orchestra offers inexpensive, subsidized seats to students, they are snapped up. If San Diego Opera had sufficient contributed income to offer all seats at, say, $10 each, we would never have to advertise.”

Will The Decline Of Newspapers Be Replayed With Television?

“It’s much harder these days for a major advertiser to find the concentrated mass of eyeballs it needs to reach in order to boost its sales numbers. … [This may well lead to] a vicious cycle in which television audiences fragment, so advertisers stop paying big bucks to run commercials on TV shows, so the funding for the shows dries up, so the quality of the shows declines, so the audience begins to flee even faster.”

Out-Of-State Film Tax Incentives Have Domino Effect In LA

“Hollywood’s competition is now states like New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan and Louisiana — states that never had much film and television production before” but now use tax incentives to lure on-location production that used to happen in Los Angeles. “That exodus, in turn, affects the entire Los Angeles economy: the caterers, store owners, dry cleaners, restaurants and even Hollywood’s biggest prop house, 20th Century Props, which went out of business last week with a huge auction.”

At Edinburgh Fringe, Sex Is A Hotter Ticket Than Usual

“[T]his year’s recession-hit fringe is more sex-crazed than ever. The Chippendales are on at the Gilded Balloon; Jane Austen’s Guide to Pornography is at the Zoo Southside; porn star Ben Dover is billing himself ‘innocent till proven filthy’ at the Underbelly; and Ashley Hames, sometime reporter for cable TV sex show Sin Cities, is at the Pleasance Courtyard telling some disturbing tales about his adventures with ‘sexual astronauts’.”

After ’08 Fiasco, Fringe Society Gets Set For Major Revamp

“The new Fringe Society structure is expected to be in place in time for next year’s festival. [Edinburgh’s] Fringe Society was set up in the late 1950s, when a constitution was drawn up, setting out the policy of not vetting or censoring shows. … However in 1959 there were 19 companies attending the Fringe; this year there are more than 2,000 shows.”

A Westchester Farm Becomes A Colony For Composers

“Under a multimillion-dollar public-private partnership, Copland House will offer composers’ residencies, workshops, and public concert series. The mansion–still furnished with the original four-poster beds, fainting chairs and free-standing bathtubs–will provide the living quarters, while the farm buildings are given over to artists’ studios. A unique characteristic of the program will be its emphasis on collaborative residencies….”