“The musical, estimated at $20 million—at the time, likely the most expensive in Broadway history—opened at the Palace Theatre. The critics dismissed it as a theme park show. The Broadway crowd snubbed it too, giving the 1994 Tony for best musical to Stephen Sondheim’s short-lived Passion. But the family audience flocked to it. It became a blockbuster.” – Vanity Fair
Author: Douglas McLennan
Is Calling Beethoven By Only His Last Name Racist?
“On the one hand, then, initiatives toward diversity and inclusion are placing new names on concert programs, syllabi, and research papers, names that might not have been there 10 or 20 years ago—or even last year. But these names are appearing next to those that have been drilled deep into our brains by the forces of the inherited canon. This collision between increasing diversity and the mononyms of music history has created a hierarchical system that, whether or not you find it useful, can now only be seen as outdated and harmful.” – Slate
NY Museums Reopened. But Are They Sustainable At 25 Percent?
Over a month after most of New York’s most prestigious museums reopened to the public, they are experiencing an existential crisis, fueled by the state-mandated reduced capacity of 25 percent. While the public face of New York City museums welcomes back these visitors with a smile and the promise of a safe experience, administrators behind the scenes anxiously wonder how long they can feasibly stay at that meager occupancy without making significant cuts to staffing or programming. – The New York Times
Unpacking The New Stack Of Boxes At University Of Chicago
This is a bold building by, and for, bold thinkers — even if we don’t know yet whether it is truly meets the test of form that follows function. – Chicago Tribune
Strand Bookstore Puts Out SOS, Is Overwhelmed With Support
Owner Nancy Wyden said “the call for help produced a boom in business on Saturday: a single-day record of 10,000 online orders, so many that the website crashed. That day was also the best single day in the month of October that the flagship store, near Union Square, has ever had, and the best day ever at the Strand’s Upper West Side branch, which opened earlier this year. In the 48 hours since the plea went out, the store processed 25,000 online orders, compared with about 600 in a typical two-day period.” – The New York Times
The End Of Fashion Photography As We Know It
The fashion world is in crisis: It is producing too much, moving too fast, and, with worrying frequency, offending consumers due to an inability to pivot convincingly from a position that champions a censoriously narrow vision of beauty. Brands are closing, and magazines are folding or becoming fully digital. Can the fashion photograph, of the sort that has littered bedroom walls and been reposted again and again on Instagram or Tumblr, survive? – The New York Times
Indigenous Musicians Take On Bolsonaro In Brazil
The sociopolitical perspective driving Kaê’s music connects with a recent cultural movement gaining popularity among urban Indigenous artists, known as Indigenous futurism. Kaê says it is about “daring to envision ourselves in the future, and using new technologies to enhance Indigenous visibility”. – The Guardian
Artists Auction Future Royalties For Cash Today
While Royalty Exchange might sound like a dating service for those in the peerage, it’s actually a company geared to assisting artists looking to auction off some of their most valuable assets: their royalties and residual rights. Royalties and residuals are contract-guaranteed percentages doled out to creators and performers based on the use or performance of works they were involved in. And participation in a hit song, movie or TV show can mean they rack up pretty fast. – Los Angeles Times
Online Learning Platforms Report 400 Percent Enrollment Increases
While these more traditional education platforms have seen huge spikes in users and funding during the pandemic, consumers have also demonstrated a growing appetite for online classes geared toward entertainment and enrichment. MasterClass is adding more content, while Airbnb and Instagram Live have emerged as learning hubs, with influential instructors teaching everything from dance to poetry writing to cocktail making. – Fast Company
The Problem With UK Literary Prizes
In a country where publishing is so concentrated in the hands of just a few conglomerates who have acquired some of Britain’s most successful small presses, the chances of British novelists who are neither English, nor published by major London publishers, winning seems to be getting smaller. And for non-English UK novelists published by small presses (self-published works are ineligible for the Booker), the Booker is simply not a plausible option. – The Conversation