Author: ArtsJournal2

This Broadway Star Would Love To Make Theatre More Affordable

Playing Eliza Doolittle right now on Broadway, Laura Benanti (whom people might know as the actor who has played Melania Trump on The Late Show) says, “If I could wave a magic wand, ticket prices would be affordable so that people could bring their families, and it doesn’t become theatre for a rich audience. It can be more theatre for the masses.” – The Stage (UK)

Trend: Symphonies Playing New, Non-Film Music By Film Composers

Sure, you’ve got your Harry Potter scores and your Star Wars celebrations (that’s all John Williams, of course), but the real hot trend with film composers now is getting their non-film work into symphony halls. “Adventurous programmers are seeking new works by established film composers in hopes that audiences have developed a thirst for similarly melodic, even exciting, music by names they recognize even if there are no images to accompany them.” – Variety

Ballet Musicals Are Rare, And Super Demanding

We don’t mean Oklahoma! either, though, yes, there’s a ballet in it. This is something different: “It’s very difficult to cast a ballet musical; the Marie ensemble requires dancers with a strong background in classical ballet, but also the ability to sing — while on pointe! — and act. ‘They’re rare,’ said Stroman, ‘but it makes them even more special.'” – Seattle Times

In The WGA Versus The Talent Agencies, Showrunners And Screenwriters Back Their Union

The issues concern who gets fees for packaging TV shows and movies (the agents get those fees now), and whether agencies have conflicts of interest around certain shows. But the point is that “the letter of support issued Saturday is significant because of the immense clout showrunners and prominent screenwriters possess in Hollywood.” – Variety

Is All Hope Gone For Hastings Pier?

This story has a lot of questions attached, about money and selling to someone who has had other companies go bad, etc., but – “First, it’s worth asking why piers in general are so troublesome and troubled – for tales of burning, failing, closing piers, or of piers falling into questionable hands, or any news item enabling the headline “The End of the Pier Show”, have become part of the national story. There is the decades-long struggle to rescue the rusting remnants of the West Pier at Brighton, the dismantling of Colwyn Bay’s pier in 2018, the addition of Blackpool’s three piers to the World Monuments Watch list of buildings at risk, also in 2018. It’s also worth asking why Hastings in particular went wrong.” – The Observer (UK)

Many American Film Critics Missed This, But ‘Suspiria’ Is About The Guilt At The Heart Of German History

The more German history you know – no, not only about the Nazis, but yes also about the Nazis – the more you’ll understand how very, very much cultural work this movie is doing. The movie “explores the trauma of our world by embedding [a] fable in a historical past which holds terrifying prospects for our future.” – Medium

How Miami Became A Book Town

Mitchell Kaplan founded Books & Books in 1982, a time when Miami was seen as a place of drug running, diet culture, and political unrest – and certainly not literary culture. But, well, “thirty-seven years, an international book fair and eight additional locations later, Kaplan is celebrated as the man who turned Miami into a book town, and one of the foremost literary centers in the world.” – The New York Times