“The major record labels plan to start selling digital songs today for a dime apiece. The catch: You can’t carry them with you on an iPod. … The Web song is stored online and can be listened to only through a computer’s Web browser.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Preservationists Cry ‘Halt’ At Provincetown Playhouse
“Members of historic preservation groups held a demonstration and news conference at noon Monday in front of the Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments, calling on New York University or the city to halt a plan that would demolish most of building while preserving the facade and the walls of the historic theater within it.”
$10 Million In Grants Aimed At Ending Workshop Hell
“[T]he Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recently awarded nearly $10 million to playwriting organizations and theaters in the hopes of getting more fresh voices before an audience.” The “grants are a result of a three-year study into the particular problems new plays encounter” — the most notorious being, as any playwright could tell you, workshop hell.
Financier Puts Record-Setting Degas On Auction Block
“Henry Kravis, co-founder of the leveraged-buyout firm KKR & Co. LP, has asked Sotheby’s & Co. to auction an Edgar Degas work in his collection estimated to fetch more than $40 million, according to two New York dealers. … He has locked in a ‘guarantee’ from Sotheby’s to receive an undisclosed amount regardless of the sale’s outcome.”
Chicago Shakespeare Dominates At Jefferson Awards
“Following up on its regional Tony Award, Chicago Shakespeare led Chi’s Joseph Jefferson Awards on Monday night, taking home five trophies. … This year marks the first time the Jeff Awards have separated overall production and design noms into two categories, large and midsize, based on the annual budgets of the theaters and not the size of the venue.”
Wall Street Wealth Is No Longer A Sexy Story Line
“As they have watched their 401(k)’s shrivel in recent weeks, entertainment executives have started to grapple with how best to reflect the global economic crisis in movie and television story lines, or whether to bring the topic up at all.”
Entertainment Industry Retrenches For Credit Crunch
“No one, it seems, will remain immune from the widening meltdown, which has already triggered a dramatic drop in consumer spending. Showbiz sectors that have prided themselves on being recession resistant in the past look more vulnerable now. This is largely due to the economic underpinnings of the congloms that control the industry.”
Reports Of Art Market’s Death Somewhat Exaggerated
It was a rough weekend at the contemporary art auctions, yes, but “the art market, while diminished, is by no means dead and buried.” After all, “big profits were still being made.” On the other hand: “One record that was set was the time in which these auctions – usually long-drawn-out affairs – were completed due to lack of bidding.”
How To Weather Economic Storm? Dickens Will Tell You.
In reading Charles Dickens, the closer we get, “the more we start to recognise: the scramble for credit, financial scandal, panic. … And not only can we find parallels in his novels with the current crisis, we can also learn from them how to survive and triumph over it.”
Operatic Splendor Returns As Productions Go Traditional
“Not so long ago, making a fanfare about big frocks and fancy sets in opera was the preserve of that crowd-pleasing impresario Raymond Gubbay. Heaven forbid that you uttered the words ‘authentic’ or ‘spectacular’ inside a ‘serious’ opera house.” But times have changed. “Ironically, going traditional has become the new radical – a shortcut to standing out from the concept crowd.”