“It’s three years since Kevin Spacey became artistic director of [London’s] venerable Old Vic Theatre, where John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier cast big shadows… Slammed repeatedly by the critics, roughed up by interviewers in glossy magazines, and condemned by outraged snobs for daring to take time away from the Vic to appear in a Superman movie, Spacey has had [a] bumpy showbiz ride… But this season, Spacey has become a hero, delivering such a moving and richly layered performance as O’Neill’s wasted, drunken womanizer that there is rarely an empty seat these nights at the Old Vic.”
Tag: 12.13.06
Not The Kind Of Visibility They’d Hoped For
There was a time, not so long ago, when blacks were nowhere to be found on American TV and movie screens, unless they were playing one-dimensional criminals. These days, blacks, as represented by the now-ubiquitous hip-hop culture, are everywhere in the mass media. But the incessant stereotyping is no less pernicious: “For all its universal cultural influence, hip-hop evokes the most negative representations of its creators – images of gun-toting drug dealers, the apathetic baby daddies, the irresponsible down-low brothers.”
Bringing Back An Architect’s Vision
Yale University’s famously influential art gallery designed by architect Louis Kahn has reopened following a three-year restoration. “The university lavished the spectacular sum of $44 million – enough to finance an entire new museum – on reconstructing Kahn’s loftlike gallery, replacing its entire steel-and-glass window wall… Although the Yale gallery now looks brand new, the Polshek architects initially despaired over their ability to correct its severe structural problems without compromising the architect’s vision.”
Rutgers Picks An Architect For Its Transformation
“With a cylindrical glass academic building and a new undulating landscape that will extend the campus right to ‘the banks of the old Raritan,’ the Mexican architect Enrique Norten has won the competition to reimagine the historic Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey… Undetermined is how much the overall project will cost and how long it will take. Rutgers hopes to raise much of the money from public and possibly private sources.”
Presumably, It’ll Show Up On YouTube Soon
Daniel Wakin says that while the opera world is full of outsize egos, Roberto Alagna’s onstage tantrum this week is one for the ages. Moreover, Alagna’s subsequent ban from the La Scala stage affects more than just a week’s worth of ticketbuyers in Milan. “The cancellations will also probably trouble executives at Decca Classics, which was making a DVD of the production. No decision has been made about whether to issue it.” UPDATE: Here’s the video of the walkout
Hollywood Reporter Cuts Staff
The venerable Hollywood Reporter, which has been covering the entertainment business for 75 years, is cutting ten staff positions in what is being described as a significant overhaul. “Seven of the cuts were from the editorial side of the trade publication; three from the business side. Several lower-level editors received promotions and reassignments in the shuffle.”
High Fidelity Hits An Insurmountable Low
Less than a week after it opened to blistering reviews and public indifference, the musical version of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity was officially killed off by its disappointed producers. Part of the problem may have been that the hipster rock music that permeated the book and movie of the same name was nowhere to be found in the Broadway version, despite the fact that the plot largely revolves around it.
A Quiet Philanthropic Power Bails Out Edinburgh
The family foundation of pianist Carol Colburn Hogel has donated £500,000 to allow the Edinburgh International Festival to clear some of its mounting debt. “Grants from the Dunard Fund, financed by the family business, have run from concerts by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to exhibitions at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. This year alone it will give away about £1.5 million. It has also built a reputation as a donor that responds quickly, without layers of red tape.”
An Unlikely Country Does Music Ed Right
Musically speaking, Venezuela is best known for “pulsating salsa and down-home folk ballads, songs with bawdy lyrics played on four-string guitars and maracas. But for 31 years, an ambitious state program aimed at instilling a love of classical music in children — particularly poor children — has drawn the admiration of conductors from as far away as Berlin and Boston, while producing musicians who have excelled in Europe’s most hallowed concert halls.”
Sticker Shock Puts Bakersfield PAC On Hold
Plans for a new performing arts center in Bakersfield, California, are in flux after the initial cost estimate for the project came in at a whopping $341m. If built, the center would play host to the Bakersfield Symphony and other area arts groups, but several of the project’s prominent backers pulled their support after seeing what it would cost.