This season on Broadway illustrated the worth of good directors. “The battle between art and commerce on what we occasionally still call the Great White Way, continues as ever. But the happy surprise this year is that if you focus on the ample good work being done — and ignore the largely crass cacophony of the season’s musical fare, or the soulless star vehicles that will always be around — you might just be able to convince yourself that it’s a fair fight.”
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The Complicated Robbins
“By all accounts Jerome Robbins was a complicated, sometimes joyful, sometimes tortured, often angry man, so it is no surprise that his reputation remains complex. At his best, at least, Robbins managed to bend classical dancers and steps to his purposes. However uneven his ballets may have been — and Balanchine had some clunkers too — there are those of us who remain deeply moved by Robbins’s greatest late ballets: those made after he had rejoined the City Ballet fold in 1969, the prodigal son, and was working in a largely classical idiom with Balanchine-trained dancers.”
Salsa’s Superstar Label Gets Back In The Game
“In its heyday, from the late 1960’s through the 70’s, Fania, like Motown, had a superstar-packed roster, a virtual monopoly on salsa’s A-list.” But the label fell on hard times. “Dozens of its most important recordings are out of print, and others were so shoddily transferred to CD — often directly from the original vinyl — as to be virtually unlistenable. Now, though, a Fania revival is stirring.”
The Architect And The Developer – Where’s The Public Interest?
“There was a time when government took an interest in big urban planning projects.” Increasingly, though, government plays only a marginal role. “Bigger social concerns, like housing for mixed incomes, equal access to parks and transit, and vibrant communal spaces, which were once the public’s purview, now increasingly fall to developers to address or not, as they see fit.”
The Small Missouri Orchestra That Marshalls A Big Orchestra
Marshall, Missouri is a small town of about 12,000, but its pride and joy is its symphony orchestra. “Marshall for years has touted itself as the nation’s smallest city with its own symphony. The designation may be apocryphal — contenders include the Red Cedar Symphony in Rice Lake, Wis., population 8,350 — but no one can deny that Marshall is mad about music. More than just the brass and woodwinds, a Marshall Philharmonic concert is a testament to the ties forged in small-town America.”
Getty Decides On A Transparent Future
The Getty will make public much of its finances. “We have some reputation rebuilding to do, and one way to do it is to be open and transparent. This grew out of the reforms that were passed by the board of trustees at the April meeting.”
Steve Wynn Goes On A Buying Spree
“In the past eight weeks he is believed to have spent at least £30m at auction: a world record £5.5m for a 14th century Ming vase in Hong Kong on Tuesday night, and almost certainly the world record for a Turner in April, more than £19m for a sparkling view of the Grand Canal in Venice.”
Pakistan Bans Da Vinci Code
Pakistan has a small Christian community. But they’ve been protesting the movie. “Culture Minister Ghulam Jamal said the film was blasphemous. The screen adaptation of Dan Brown’s book revolves around the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their descendants survive today. A number of states in India have banned the film, although the federal censors have cleared it for release.”
More Indian States Ban Da Vinci Code
“The release of the movie could have led to demonstrations and trouble,” said Andhra Pradesh’s special chief secretary, Paul Bhuyan. Andhra Pradesh is the seventh Indian state to have banned the screening of the film, which was released in May.”
Reinventing the Ballerina
Everyone’s been talking about American Ballet Theatre’s spectacular male dances. But Gillian Murphy offers a new model for a woman dancer, writes Apollinaire Sherr.