Author: Matthew Westphal

Explosion And Fire: Latest Snafu To Beset Construction Of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum

Two pots of hot tar took flame at an entrance to the old palace that’s being rebuilt to house the ethnographic collections of Berlin’s various museums. The incident sent black smoke through the city, but actual damage was limited to discoloring of the building’s façade. The $700 million project has been bedeviled by schedule and cost overruns as well as controversy over the contents of its collection, which includes a number of the Benin Bronzes. – Artnet

L.A. Phil Cancels Rest Of Regular Season, Cuts Musicians’ And Staffers’ Pay

“Payroll reductions of 35% in the aggregate will include the layoffs of 94 part-time employees and pay cuts of more than 35% for the leadership team, the orchestra said. Orchestra members will receive 65% of their weekly minimum scale beginning April 20.” Music director Gustavo Dudamel will forgo his salary. The Philharmonic will maintain health insurance for all full-time employees. – Los Angeles Times

Broadway Theatres Will Remain Closed At Least Through June 7

“Even though the [Broadway] League has extended the shut down, many Broadway insiders don’t expect performances to resume until July at the earliest, with some predicting that theaters will stay dark into September. The extended closure will likely mean that more shows that were eyeing limited runs will instead opt not to open at all, a fate that has already befallen the likes of Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen and a revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Laurie Metcalf.” – Variety

Montreal’s Franglais Rap: Multi-Culti Creativity Or Threat To The Survival Of French In North America?

“To their legions of fans, the groups give voice to the bilingual vernacular of a multicultural city, marinated by its past French and British rulers, the forces of globalization and successive waves of immigration. … But they have also spawned a backlash in Quebec, … where critics have castigated them as self-colonizers who are ‘creolizing’ the French language and threatening its future.” – The New York Times

Small Consolation: Museums’ Hit-&-Miss Attempts to Engage Audiences Via “Virtual Exhibitions”

Too much of museums’ existing online content, now being repurposed, reminds me of “park and bark” — the great opera stars of yesteryear, standing stock-still at center stage and belting out their arias. By contrast, I found much to admire in purpose-built content that some museums managed to put together on the fly. – Lee Rosenbaum

Another Landmark Postmodern Dance Piece You Can Perform At Home

Last week it was one by Yvonne Rainer. This week it’s Trisha Brown’s 1971 Roof Piece, in which “dancers scattered themselves across the roofs of SoHo and played a dance version of the game Telephone.” Recently members of the Trisha Brown Dance Company got together on Zoom to do an adaptation they call Room/Roof Piece — and they recommend that you get some friends together and do the same. Here’s how. – The New York Times

‘Tiger King’, The Most Watched TV Show In The U.S., Is An Ethical And Moral Dumpster Fire

“[The series is] the latest and most acute iteration of a Netflix trend toward extreme storytelling; the more unfathomable and ethically dubious, the better. The point is virality — content so outlandish that people can’t help but talk about it. … America right now, in the midst of a pandemic, is reliant on collective behavior, adhering to rules, and taking sensible precautions to avoid danger. Tiger King is the TV equivalent of licking the subway pole.” – The Atlantic