“First it was suspected counterfeit chairs, and now, counterfeit tickets – the Palace of Versailles is having a rough year. Five employees of the opulent tourist attraction were indicted for fraud on Monday, after French police confirmed a fake ticket conspiracy suspected by innocent colleagues.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
This Should Be A Perfect Time For Nancy Grace, But Her Show Just Got Cancelled. What Happened?
“The past few years have been dominated by headlines about criminal justice and sexual assault – the latter has lately consumed even the coverage of the 2016 campaign. The cultural appetite for grim true crime storytelling, meanwhile, has never been so keen. We are seemingly more susceptible than ever to both Grace’s material and her method, to narratives about sexual violence and to blunt outrage. What happened to Nancy Grace?” Laura Bennett figures it all out.
What Would Shakespeare Make Of All These Novelists Reimagining His Plays?
Adam Gopnik, reviewing several titles in the Hogarth Shakespeare Project: “We are supposed to say that he would be pleased, but in truth he would be puzzled. … The low-key, chastened, anti-dramatic movement of Anne Tyler’s imagination – no marvels or events, really, just inner action rebounding off half-spoken idea – would have baffled him. This sells? He was used to getting half of London on their asses for a play, and he knew you needed bloody scenes and children baked in pies to do it.”
Broadway’s Only African-American Lead Producers Talk Shop
“Stephen C. Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey are out to change the game on Broadway. The only black lead producers in that space, the pair runs a company, Front Row Productions, which has as its explicit goal to diversify the Great White Way. Among their credits: They brought Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed to Broadway last season and are currently working to bring both The Wiz and Black Orpheus to Broadway.”
Creativity Is Not What A Lot Of People Think It Is
“There’s a critical misunderstanding of the over-used C word. The first thing most of us think of when we hear that someone is creative is: artist, poet, musician, or entrepreneur. That’s not to say that creative people don’t fall into those categories, but what I’m suggesting is that creativity is a state of mind rather than a set of skills in a particular area.”
Why Are Classical Audiences Fascinated By Child Prodigies?
“Is it a sense of magic, or the feeling that perhaps a higher power does exist and bestows talent upon the chosen? Is … Is it the victory of nurture over nature, like a tamed tiger at Siegfried and Roy’s? To be able to juggle, all you need is excellent physical coordination. The spectacle of a child playing a Scarlatti sonata is more than that – it can be seen as a kind of acculturation to a specific, Western tradition. A kid playing adult music is performing adult emotions. She is concentrated and well-dressed, not wild and silly.”
So Who Nominates Writers For The Nobel Prize, Anyway?
“The Nobel Prizes are always shrouded in secrecy, the prize for literature, which will be announced tomorrow morning, no less than the rest. But we do know something about the process.”
He’s A Ballet Star, A Drag Queen, And A Pop Singer
“Pushing boundaries is something of a habit for [James] Whiteside, 32, who joined American Ballet [Theater] as a soloist in 2012 and became a principal a year later. Yes, he professionally plays Prince Charmings, but he also leads alternative artistic lives: as a pop singer, JbDubs, and drag queen, Uhu Betch.”
America’s Oldest Music Group
“Music has been a part of America’s history since the very beginning. In fact, America’s oldest continuously active professional music organization predates Washington, D.C.”
It Took 30 Years To Get ‘Dreamgirls’ To The West End, Says Producer
Sonia Friedman: “And so for years and years, many great producers have tried and been thwarted. I just kept persisting, and anyone who knows me knows I don’t give up. I just kept trying to get the rights. I tried so many times and failed.”