Ontario arts gets a big boost from the province’s new budget proposal. “Not only announced increased tax incentives for film and new media, $10-million for the Ontario Heritage Trust and $15-million for libraries ($8-million of that for digital libraries and another $1-million for servers in the province’s far north) — there was also a much-hoped-for $49-million over three years to help complete Toronto’s cultural building projects.”
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The Problem With Books? Storage
“Books, it turns out, inflame a particular kind of passion. They inform, they amuse, they provoke. They keep us company and lull us to sleep. They give manifest evidence of our intellect. They show off our interests and our values. And when we’ve run out of places to put them, they prove extremely difficult to part with.”
A Plan To Jam Cellphones In Theatres
“This past week the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) pondered blocking cellphone signals as a way to improve the cinema experience. The idea was a hot topic in the nation’s gambling capital this past week when theater owners from coast to coast met to preview the summer lineups from movie studios and trade tips on combating falling movie theater attendance. The 6,000-strong membership of NATO voted to authorize its board to look into changing federal laws that currently prevent them from using cellphone-jamming equipment in theaters.”
Sitcoms – Thanks, But I’ll Watch The Classics
People are watching more sitcoms on TV these days. But they’re not watching the new shows. Indeed, new sitcoms have bombed this season, while viewers stick with the classics of the past 30 years. “The viewers say we’re not going to tolerate mediocrity any more because we’ve got the classics and there’s a lot of competition out there.”
You’re A Movie Critic? I Hate You!
Movie reviewing is a tough beat, writes Geoff Pevere. “You can fill newspapers with page upon page of global atrocities, injustices and outrages and expect very little by way of indignant outrage expressed by your readers. But suggest they might have been wrong about loving Star Wars? For this you bring down the wrath of the heavens.”
Ouzounian: Rings Is Dull
The reviews are in on Lord of the Rings, the musical. Toronto Star critic Richard Ouzounian had an unexpected reaction: “From the morning last March when this city first heard that a stage version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy would be having its world premiere here, some people hoped it would be magnificent, others feared it might be foolish. But no one ever thought it would wind up being dull. Yet somehow that’s the most fitting word”
“Rings”: It Makes The Movie Look Better
“Artistically, the stage version makes the movie seem that much more impressive. Neither a straight drama nor a traditional musical, the new production succeeds only as a dazzling spectacle. Even so, you’ll need to bone up on the books just to follow what’s going on, let alone enjoy the ride. Or better yet, get the DVDs, which for all their interminable length demonstrate how material as intractable as Tolkien’s can be made dramatically addictive.”
Lord of the Rings” Onstage – Unfinished Business
“The blueprint for the adaptation — a heroic, if misguided, undertaking billed as a hybrid of drama, music and spectacle — is now in place. All it needs is an engaging storytelling approach, an emotional arc, credible performances and a more coherent musical score. In other words, what’s missing from this adaptation is the essence of theatre itself as that divine place for sharing stories and forging emotional connections between the audience and the performers.”
Brantley: “Rings” Is Lost In Space
This ambitious effort, writes Ben Brantley, is “a murky, labyrinthine wood from which no one emerges with head unmuddled, eyes unblurred or eardrums unrattled. Everyone and everything winds up lost in this $25 million adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s cult-inspiring trilogy of fantasy novels. That includes plot, character and the patience of most ordinary theatergoers.”
“Rings” – It Takes More Than Money To Make Theatre
“Behold a paradox. “Lord” is now viable on stage because of the popularity of the movies. Yet even at this stunning budgetary level, theater can’t compete with film unless it finds its own, distinctive language. That hasn’t sufficiently happened here. And as a result, the iconography of the show isn’t fresh enough. Yet, at least.”