Author: ArtsJournal2

Making The (Big) Leap From Edinburgh Fringe To Broadway

The musical Six is about – what else – the wives of Henry VIII, a musical inspired by Beyoncé and Ariana Grande. That makes it an obvious candidate for Broadway, right? Yep: “The show started out in a 100-seat venue at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 before moving to London’s West End. It will open at New York’s 1,000-capacity Brooks Atkinson Theatre next February.” – BBC

NYCharities Just Disappeared, Taking Thousand Of Small Dance Companies’ Dollars With It

This is not a pleasant story. “In theory, NYCharities was a small dance company’s dream. Free to use, the nonprofit acted as a clearinghouse for companies to accept credit and debit card donations online. It also allowed companies to sell tickets to galas and events, set up recurring donations and even give donors the option to pay processing fees themselves—an important feature for dance companies with small budgets.” And then? Well, it stopped transferring money, returned no phone calls, and disappeared. (Now the NY Attorney General is investigating.) – Dance Magazine

What Do The Original ‘Lion King’ Animators Think Of The New, Heavily CGI Version?

One animator said, “I will only get myself in trouble if I comment on the ‘other’ version,” so there’s that point of view. Another: “I think some of my colleagues forget that when you work on a Disney movie, you don’t own it. They own it. You get paid to work there, which is a great privilege. It’s an amazing company. You get to work on this great stuff. But when you walk away, it’s their movie and they can do what they want with it.” – HuffPost

It’s Time To Let ‘Miss Saigon’ Go – Forever

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen: “Fantasy cannot be dismissed as mere entertainment, especially when we keep repeating the fantasy. Fantasy — and our enjoyment of it — speaks to something we deeply want to believe. The enjoyment of this show is based on the privilege that the audience feels, the privilege of not being that Asian woman who kills herself, the privilege of seeing the world from the viewpoint of the powerful white male savior who can both be so attractive that a woman would kill herself over him and be so paternal that he can adopt the mixed-race child who will stand in for childlike Asia, in need of Western benevolent guidance.” – The New York Times

Participatory Theatre At Its European Roots

During a conference on “Bürgerböhne” – or participatory theatre for citizens – “it became clear to me that not all countries—or even communities—have the same ideas about how participatory theatre projects work or ‘should’ work, and, on top of this, what the role of the artist, within these communities, is.” What’s the same, and what changes in different theatres across the world? – Howlround

D.A. Pennebaker, Documentary Filmmaker And Bob Dylan Mythmaker, Has Died At 94

Pennebaker’s documentary filmmaking stretched across more than six decades, and in that time, he “chronicled a who’s who of other pop music and entertainment world figures and icons over the course of his long career, including John Lennon, David Bowie, Jane Fonda, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry and the Monterey Pop Festival.” Then there’s Dont Look Back. – Los Angeles Times

More Than A Year After 40 Artists Withdrew From A London Museum, They’re Still Demanding Answers

The timeline: Last August, “more than 40 artists removed their work from the exhibition Hope to Nope at the Design Museum in London after the museum housed an event hosted by the arms manufacturer Leonardo. At the time, the museum assured the protesting artists, who organized in a group named Nope to Arms, that it will review its due diligence policy related to commercial and fundraising activities.” Or … not, apparently. – Hyperallergic