Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) has been talking about writing a show for Broadway called “Spamalot.” “But opposition to “Spamalot” has come from an unexpected quarter: Plans are also afoot for a revival of the classic Lerner and Loewe musical “Camelot” on Broadway that same season. Those producers aren’t keen to share even part of their title. Recently, an attorney from “Camelot’s” production team faxed a note to the Monty Python people suggesting that since “Camelot” got there first (it was originally produced in 1961, while “Holy Grail” was released in 1975), perhaps the “Spam” folks should consider changing the moniker of their production.”
Tag: 11.24.03
Indies Sue Hollywood Over Screeners
Ever since Hollywood banned the use of “screeners” – advance copies of films distributed to critics on DVD – movie folk who make their livings outside the world of big corporate studios have been crying foul. This week, the small-timers fought back, filing a lawsuit to overturn the industry ban. “More than a dozen companies joined in the lawsuit against the movie studios’ trade group in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Monday, saying the partial ban will ‘chill the financing of independent films’ by limiting the awards they can receive.”
Met Opera To Take A Midwinter Nap
Ticket sales at the Metropolitan Opera haven’t been great in recent years during the weeks following the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. So the Met has announced that it will be taking a two-week break in the middle of its season, beginning in January 2004. “This will be the first midseason break since the Met began in 1883,” and it may not be the only change the company makes to its schedule. Executive director Joseph Volpe says that the Met is also considering replacing its Monday night performances with Sunday matinees.
Montreal Concert Hall In Jeopardy
For years, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra has been begging for a concert hall of its own, with the sort of acoustics that turn a good orchestra into a great one. Last year, the MSO finally got its wish, when the provincial government agreed to fund a $300 million complex including a concert hall and music conservatory. But the promise of funding was made by the Parti Quebecois, which is no longer in power, and this week, the ruling Liberals announced that the price tag for the MSO project is just too high, and that it plans to seek private donations to bolster government funds. Opposition leaders are voicing concern about the dangerous precedent that could be set by moving towards an American-style system of private arts funding.
The Tiger Woods Of Short Stories
John Updike is master of the short story, writes Louis Menand. “The whole idea is to make language perform its own little supernatural act, which is to turn marks on a page into an emotion, an effect, an apparition of something that is not there, a ghost. You could say that the complexity of the machinery used to produce this is hidden beneath the surface of the writing, except that the writing is the machinery, just as sex is only bodies. The satisfaction comes from the creation of a feeling where there was no feeling, only words, or flesh, or golf balls. People like Updike, or Tiger Woods, make you aware, by what they do, that this satisfaction is possible in life, and that it can be as supreme a satisfaction as there is.”
A New “Chants Laureate” For Football
Football chants are a staple of any game. But art they art? Apparently so. Next year a sponsor has put up money for a £10,000-a-year “chants laureate” to be chosen from stadium crowds. “His or her role will be to rove round matches and ‘compose chants observing key moments within the season’. The search to recruit the new bard is to be led by five judges headed by the poet laureate Andrew Motion, who is paid a mere £5,000 in his 335-year-old post for composing verses for the royal family.”
The Art Of Marketing (Yes, It Is An Art)
“The position of marketing in the arts is not and never has been a sufficiently high priority. There is an old saying that if a show is successful, it is great art; if it fails, it is bad marketing. To market the arts means you have to accept that it is a product like everything else – obviously not something that sits well with some artists.”
TV: The Year Of The Flop
“For the first time in the 55-year history of prime-time television, no single new network series can be called a hit. Already – only two months into the season – some analysts are characterizing 2003-2004 as The Year of the Flop.”
New Museum Of World Literary Heritage
A new museum of world literary heritage has opened in Switzerland. The new museum contains “manuscripts and volumes ranging from an Egyptian Book of the Dead through Shakespeare folios to a first edition of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.”
Symphony-Sur-Jumbotron
Pop concerts have employed jumbo video screens at performances for years. This year the Vancouver Symphony is trying them out – “four remote-controlled video cameras strategically positioned in the hall, used to “simulcast” performances on screens measuring 2.2 by 2.7 metres, to the left and right of the stage.”