“When Enron premiered at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester in July, the critics went a bit bonkers. Enron is a Citizen Kane for our time, said one. ‘Aristotle himself would relish the hubris,’ gushed another.” Finance professionals had a slightly different take.
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
What’s Wrong With Bringing Suggested Admission To UK
The mayor of London is promoting the idea of museums imposing US-style suggested admission prices — a plan too “woolly” to work. “A more honest way forward would be to move museums into a ‘National Trust’ arrangement, with charges for one-off visits but also annual or lifetime passes to entice people to return frequently.”
Explaining Akram Khan
“Bengali boy from south London learns Indian dance, tours with a British theatre director based in France, studies in Brussels, then goes global. Now the world’s his oyster.”
The Male Gaze, Redirected
“In recent years, the increasing frankness of breast cancer PSAs has been a bright spot of adult sensibility in what is Americans’ generally neurotic relationship to the female anatomy.” New public-service spots, most notably one called “Save the Boobs,” “leverage male lechery to an astonishing degree.”
Dallas’ Ultra-Flexible Theatre (Movable Balconies Included)
“The Dallas Arts District Theater was a magnificent piece of crap. … Fortunately, its replacement, which hosts its first production in October, is a worthy successor. The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre was designed by New York megafirm Rex to be an enormous Transformer that can suit almost any directorial whim.”
Calif. Shakespeare Theater Embarks On Major Renovation
“Demolition of the 20-year-old ‘temporary’ buildings that house public restrooms and a refreshment stand, as well as dressing rooms and offices, will begin Oct. 12, after the last show of the season.”
In Praise Of The Season’s Literary Riches
“Why so many major books now? Publishers always make a push before the holiday season, but that doesn’t account for the sudden feast this year.”
Brandeis Report: Rose Museum Should Remain Open
“A Brandeis University committee examining the future of the Rose Art Museum will recommend today that the museum remain open to the public, eight months after the financially strapped college threatened to shutter the renowned facility…. It does not take a stand on the most controversial part of Brandeis’s plan, the potential sale of its $350 million collection.”
The Bookies Have A Nobel Favorite: Amos Oz
“Ladbrokes has backed Oz at 4/1 to take the 10m Swedish Krona (£815,000) prize, ahead of Algerian novelist Assia Djebar at 5/1, Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo at 6/1 and American novelists Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth at 7/1.”
National Theatre Audiences Are Biggest In Years
“The highest attendance figures for seven years helped the National Theatre to a £456,000 surplus, its annual report revealed today. … The total programme of 25 productions in 2008/2009 was seen by 817,000 paying audience members,” while “[h]ouses were on average 93 per cent full.”