From its opening in 1770 up to the French Revolution, the ornate 660-seat theater hosted fewer than 20 performances. (Each show burned through several thousand very expensive candles.) “But in a revolution of sorts for the theatre some 30 performances have been scheduled for the 2009-2010 season alone.”
Tag: 09.21.09
Enron, The Play, From The Financial Sector’s Point Of View
“When Enron premiered at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester in July, the critics went a bit bonkers. Enron is a Citizen Kane for our time, said one. ‘Aristotle himself would relish the hubris,’ gushed another.” Finance professionals had a slightly different take.
Dallas’ Ultra-Flexible Theatre (Movable Balconies Included)
“The Dallas Arts District Theater was a magnificent piece of crap. … Fortunately, its replacement, which hosts its first production in October, is a worthy successor. The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre was designed by New York megafirm Rex to be an enormous Transformer that can suit almost any directorial whim.”
And What Is This Particular Attack On The NEA About?
“You mean to tell me all those links [from angry conservative web sites] are about an August 10th conference call that tried to wrangle up support for the current President’s National Day of Service – a call in which not one cent of the NEA’s $155 million budget was dispensed or even offered?”
L. Frank Baum: Do Pay Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain
“In 1900, a 44-year-old L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and became the father of the American fairy tale. … [He] was uniquely suited for this task. He was poised at the crossroads of his era – swept up in burgeoning feminism, the acceleration of new technologies, and the rise of huckster salesmanship.”
O’Keeffe And Stieglitz, The Heloise And Abelard Of American Art
“Tucked into the catalogue for [the big new O’Keeffe exhibit at the Whitney] are excerpts from recently unsealed letters – sometimes steamy, always emotional – that O’Keeffe wrote to the man who encouraged, marketed, photographed, married, and cheated on her.”
New Musicals Need A Stronger Support System
“[W]ithout new blood being pumped into the genre, we’ll end up trapped in a theatrical Twilight Zone populated entirely by drag queens, film adaptations, and greatest hits CDs. Even the Edinburgh fringe, an invaluable platform for new material, seems to treat musicals with vague embarrassment and a lack of critical seriousness.”
Boris Johnson Talks Up Suggested Admission At Museums
“The mayor of London … said the US model, where visitors are more robustly asked to pay ‘suggested’ or ‘recommended’ entrance fees, might be better” than the UK’s free model. Johnson “said an American youngster had berated him in New York, asking why London had free museums and not – for example – free hamburgers.”
Philly Report Contradicts Arts-World Assumptions
“People of color are far more likely to participate in some cultural activity during the course of a year than are white people. Ditto families with children over childless couples. Yet people who attend a performance or a museum are not likely to return within a year, or maybe even longer.”
Piracy Will Hurt Young Artists, Elton John Argues
“Sir Elton John has come out in support of measures to crack down on music piracy,” explaining in a letter that “the unchecked proliferation of illegal downloading … will have a seriously detrimental effect on musicians, and particularly young musicians and those composers who are not performing artists.”