“The Washington Shakespeare Company, that Arlington outpost of offbeat treatments of classic plays, is going where no D.C. enterprise has ever quite gone before, offering up a whole evening of Shakespeare — in Klingon.”
Tag: 08.29.10
Armloads Of FranzenMania (Before The Book Is Out)
Jonathan Franzen’s new book is the most anticipated publishing event of the year. “Within this Franzenfrenzy there is the whiff of Franzenfury, or Franzenfreude, as the novelist Jennifer Weiner has called it.”
A Broadway Theatre Gem Restored
“Today, with many theaters occupied by long-running shows, and Off Broadway more or less defunct as a commercial option, there’s no such thing as an undesirable Broadway theater. And so the Belasco has been closed for a little more than a year now, to undergo a $14.5 million stem-to-stern renovation by the Shubert Organization, which has owned the theater since 1948.”
Rock And Roll Museum Turns 15 (And All’s Good)
“The Rock Hall turns 15 this week. And there is much to celebrate. The not-for-profit institution is on solid financial ground, thanks to the establishment of a $5 million endowment. Attendance is up. And an overdue redesign of the museum interior is right around the corner, while the hall’s long-awaited library and archives are taking shape.”
Australian Photographers Protest Government Fees For Taking Pix
“Different levels of government have imposed rules concerning some iconic landmarks, including Sydney Harbour, the city’s Bondi Beach and Uluru in the north, once known as Ayer’s Rock. Photographers say the rules are inconsistent and many fees are exorbitant.”
Drag Culture – It’s Not Just For Men Anymore
“For decades, drag has exalted, luxuriated in, and caricatured certain ideas of how it seems to be a woman. It’s part tribute, part exploitation. Drag has used women. Now women, clearly, are using it back.”
Detroit Symphony Musicians OK Strike
“The two sides have been deadlocked in a battle over steep pay cuts that would, in the most contentious proposal on the table, leave base salaries for veteran players at $73,800 in three years, 29% lower than the $104,650 they make today.”
Tune-Up – Fixing The Bad Notes
“The music we hear is never quite what the musicians make. Did you really imagine that Paul McCartney sat down with a string quartet when he sang Yesterday? Or that the voice you hear on an opera album is necessarily the diva’s?”