“Everywhere you turn there’s a stage luminary. (Look, there’s Robert Morse!) All these familiar faces provide a welcome distraction from the reality that this three-act farce (performed with two intermissions) is a big snore.”
Tag: 11.17.16
This Idea Of Progress? It’s A Fairly New One (And Shouldn’t Be Taken For Granted)
Why might people in the past have been hesitant to embrace the idea of progress? The main argument against it was that it implies a disrespect of previous generations. As the historian Carl Becker noted in a classic work written in the early 1930s, “a Philosopher could not grasp the modern idea of progress … until he was willing to abandon ancestor worship, until he analyzed away his inferiority complex toward the past, and realized that his own generation was superior to any yet known.”
In The Time Of Trump, The Arts Might Actually Flourish
“The United States may be entering a time of great conservative reactionism, but it will be also, due to its unique traditions, a place of unfettered expression. This is a state whose extreme conservatives – unlike those anywhere else – value free speech above almost any other right. So banning expression of any kind is not going to be possible, even under the most troglodytic of Trumpian administrations. The protest art will flourish.”
China In The Years Before Mao, Where They Were Slingin’ The Jokes Left And Right
“China in the early 20th century, my book’s focus,” says historian Christopher Rea (whose book, says the Times, is “hilarious”), “was, to put it mildly, a rough and tumble place. But it fostered a whole industry of mirth populated with cultural figures from hack jokesters to respectable writers slumming it as humorists.”
Pianist Lara Downes On How The Role Of The Artist Has Suddenly Changed
“I’m glad I got up and went to work on Wednesday morning. This job of mine—it’s changed now. I’m a performer, and in hard times, this job gets harder. I make music when the nation mourns, and my music can sound like hope. I can find a quiet smile even in my sadness. I can help people find their dreams and their promise. This is my job now.”
A First? Scottish Ballet Plans An All-Digital Season
The project, titled “Under the Skin,” is “said to be the first time a ballet company has curated a month-long programme of projects made for the format.”
A Monet Haystack Sells For $81.4 Million
Monet did 25 paintings for his Meules (“Grainstacks”) series, and this one’s unusual coloring makes it one of the best. (It was also one of the few in private hands.)
Lincoln Center Goes To Barnard College For Next President
Debora L. Spar, who studied ballet from girlhood through college, has had a very successful tenure as president of Barnard, where the students evidently adore her. She takes the Lincoln Center helm at what the Times‘s Michael Cooper calls “a delicate moment.”