Kushner’s B’way Musical Smashes Records In Chicago

“Tony Kushner’s complex musical ‘Caroline, or Change’ struggled to survive on Broadway. But thanks to a fine production from Charles Newell and a star turn from E. Faye Butler, the show has turned into the biggest hit in the long history of the Court Theatre. … With ‘Caroline,’ Court has been doing around $10,000 in sales a day–which is a boffo box-office performance for a theater with only about 250 seats.”

Cruddy Economy, Gas Prices Hurting Craft-Show Artists

“The craft show life. You might call it the artist’s rendition of a traveling salesman. It’s set-up on Thursday, pack-up on Sunday, with selling in between. Often, there are only a few days before the next show.” Humble as it may seem, it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. “Still, rising gas, motel, and other costs are cutting into profits, forcing some to leave the business….”

With Experiment In Art And Science, Empac Wins Soundly

“The concert hall of the 21st century has arrived. And the building that encases it would be remarkable if it had only that. The 1,200-seat hall in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute here (Empac, to its friends), which opened over the weekend, seemed a notable acoustical success on brief early exposures.”

Banksy (And Animatronic Friends) In The Great Indoors

“The rumors are true: Banksy is — or was, or has been — in town, and he’s doing more than just painting, or hiding.” The graffiti artist’s handiwork has been spotted downtown recently, “and on Wednesday a Banksy piece was unveiled at 89 Seventh Avenue South (near Bleecker Street) in Greenwich Village. This one is not a mural but an installation: a mock pet supply shop, filled with animatronic creatures….”

IRS Auctions Marshall Frady’s Papers For Back Taxes

“In the end the fate of the life’s work of Marshall Frady, an early proponent of ‘new journalism’ and a biographer of Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama, the Rev. Billy Graham and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, came down to 15 minutes in a windowless room in Midtown on Wednesday. There, 123 boxes of Mr. Frady’s papers … were auctioned off to Emory University for $10,100.”