“On 16 May, the NT Live broadcast of This House played to 45,000 people in cinemas around the UK. … Another 20,000 watched overseas. More will follow with encore screenings. Since the first such broadcast in 2009 – when Helen Mirren’s Phèdre was seen by 50,000 people worldwide – NT Live has achieved a total audience of 1.3 million.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Christie’s Pulled Works From Auction Over Forgery Concerns
“Christie’s withdrew ten works by Brazilian artists from its auctions of Latin American art in New York last month … ‘pending additional research’, says a spokeswoman for the auction house. All of the works came from the Rio de Janeiro-based Ralph Santos Oliveira collection.”
Sorry, Most People Aren’t Going To Finish Reading Your Article
“TL;DR” isn’t just an obnoxious crack, we’re afraid. Farhad Manjoo looks at some depressing statistics on how people read online – and how much they’ve actually read when they tweet or share a link.
Can China’s Equivalent Of Colonial Williamsburg Become A Hotbed Of High Culture?
“About 75 miles southwest of Shanghai is a beautifully restored, 1300-year-old ‘water-town’ called Wuzhen where Chinese tourists flock each year.” Yet with a landmark new performing arts center and an equally new international theater festival that’s both artistically challenging and a big box-office success, Wuzhen is making a bid to become a cultural destination along the lines of Avignon, Aix, and Edinburgh.
Royal Albert Hall Did Record-Breaking Business In 2012
“With a wide-ranging programme that included the BBC Proms, Cirque du Soleil, concerts by Gary Barlow and Emeli Sande, boxing and tennis tournaments and the world premieres of Skyfall and Titanic in 3D, … [the London venue] reported a record year for business in 2012 with operating income growing 4.3% to £16.8 million to produce an operating surplus of £4.5 million.”
Esther Williams, 91, Aquatic Movie Star (And Godmother Of Synchronized Swimming)
“With her beauty, sunny personality and background as a champion swimmer, Williams shot to stardom in the 1940s in the ‘aqua musical,’ an odd sub-genre of films that became an enormous hit with the moviegoing mainstream, fanned popular interest in synchronized swimming and turned Williams into Hollywood’s Million Dollar Mermaid.”
Watch One Of The First Female Standups Own The Room On Live TV
“At a time when many moms on television were paragons of domesticity, [Jean] Carroll’s act lampooned that image. In this clip, she’s dressed in a party dress, a choker, and heels. (She often wore fancy clothes to perform.)”
Save The Tungsten Stage Light!
“More than 2,000 people from around the world, including the heads of lighting at prominent venues such as the National Theatre in London and New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, have joined a campaign aimed at protecting the traditional tungsten light bulb in stage productions.”
How A Turkish Game Show Undermined Censorship Of The Protests
“The country’s three main television networks (including CNN Turkey) have almost completely ignored the demonstrations … That’s because government censors are allowed to restrict news media when ‘public health and morals, national security, public order, public safety, and the unity of the land are at stake.’ But that didn’t stop one wily show from finding its way around the media blackout.”
Manchester International Festival Cancels New Rite Of Spring
“The work, which was to be directed by Romeo Castellucci and conducted by Perm Opera artistic director Teodor Currentzis, will not go ahead because the production is ‘not yet possible in the format that the artist has envisioned’, according to an MIF spokeswoman.”