“An armed robber held up a popular Church Avenue cafe while a writers’ group was meeting there [last] Thursday night … He grabbed three Apple laptops and one iPad before fleeing on foot, police said.”
Month: November 2014
Police Raid Paris Manuscript Museum Over Alleged Ponzi Scheme
“Paris’s Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, an institution devoted to ancient manuscripts and historic letters, was raided by French authorities on Tuesday for its apparent role in a fraudulent investment scheme masterminded by the museum’s founder, financier Gérard Lhéritier.”
ArtPrize Is Expanding To Dallas
The world’s richest art competition, with $200,000 prizes awarded by jury and public vote, is stretching beyond its Grand Rapids home for the first time. ArtPrize Dallas, which will be administered independently, will open its first edition in April 2016.
“Serial” Addresses The Backlash Directly (More Or Less)
“Up until now, it has seemed a little bit like Serial was occurring in a vacuum, removed from the fandom and hubbub surrounding it. But on this week’s episode – which came after a week of mounting backlash online and a public statement on Reddit from a man claiming to be Hae Min Lee’s brother – the show seemed to reach a brand new level of self-awareness.”
Metropolitan Opera’s Deficit Swells To $22 Million
“Weaker-than-expected contributions and ticket sales [last season] combined with expenses related to the company’s labor talks to create its most serious shortfall in decades. … The deficit for the 2013-14 season was roughly eight times that of the previous season.”
Use Your iPhone At The Orchestra Or Opera? In Philly, Sure!
“The technological barbarians are at the gate – and are being welcomed graciously. Only three years after an errant ringtone during the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony sparked an international uproar, two august Philadelphia institutions are telling audiences to keep their phones on – within particular limits.”
Return Of The Repressed? John Cameron Mitchell Will Be Playing Hedwig On Broadway
The writer and original star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch “said he was initially reluctant to play Hedwig again after his yearlong run downtown and then in a 2001 film adaptation. But as he watched [Neil Patrick] Harris, Andrew Rannells and Michael C. Hall in the role over the last seven months, … ‘I was kind of itching to do it, and if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it, because I’ll be too old.'”
Roman Polanski’s Vampire Musical Is Still Undead
“For those who savor a good Broadway catastrophe, Dance of the Vampires is near the top of the shortlist of infamy. But for the Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski, that flop 2002 musical, based on his 1967 film The Fearless Vampire Killers, deserves – no, demands – another chance.” And it’s getting one, in Paris.
Becoming The World’s Tallest Ballet Dancer Wasn’t Easy
Fabrice Calmels (6’6″): “I knew I had the technique and could do a lot of things principal dancers could do and I wanted my chance. But everyone was like, ‘You know, I think you’re really tall. I don’t think you’ll ever have a career. I think you should be doing something else from ballet.’ And when you’re young, that really f***s with you.”
“A Capacious Sensibility” – Mike Nichols As Theater Director
“It made perfect sense that the man who was one of the original producers of the musical Annie was also the Broadway director of Hurlyburly, David Rabe’s cocaine-strewn drama about Hollywood hedonists. Or that after hitting box office gold with the musical spoof Spamalot, he switched gears and concentrated on dramas by Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller and Harold Pinter … He had tremendous instinct not only for what was funny but what could grab an audience, surprise them, wake their minds, move them to indignation or, better yet, tears.”