Charles Spencer says West End theatre has had a great year: “During 25 years of covering London theatre, I can’t remember a stronger season for drama in the West End. The producers have really raised their game this year, offering big stars in numerous quality productions of first-rate plays.”
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A Good Year For UK Dance
“Eyes were raised to far horizons, and suddenly you could begin to see it stretching 20 years. Sadler’s Wells moved into production, dance buildings are completing for Rambert and Siobhan Davies, and the spectacular new Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff is a dance gateway for the neglected west.”
Why Are People Staying Out Of Movie Theatres?
“These days it’s not necessarily a question of which film to see, but whether to go to the movies at all. Increasingly, the public is becoming more vocal about its unhappiness with some of the unpleasant circumstances it now associates with moviegoing.”
Major Italian Stolen Antiquities Bust
Italian police have busted a 74-year-old who plundered thousands of ancient artifacts. “Officers who raided the man’s home found 9,000 antiquities stolen over a period of years as well a sophisticated restoration lab, metal detectors and other devices used by amateur archaeologists. Thousands of Etruscan and Roman terracotta vases, polychrome mosaic tiles, pieces of travertine and multi-coloured marble that once adorned Roman villas were recovered.”
Levine Remakes Boston Symphony
“The BSO is playing better, and more consistently, than it has in years. Levine is not presenting much more contemporary repertoire than Seiji Ozawa did, but he apparently enjoys a more challenging kind of music, and he is programming it in a more systematic way.”
Last Minute At The Dallas Symphony
The Dallas Symphony has a new way of selling tickets. Patrons pay a monthly “retainer”. The plan “allows patrons to pay a monthly fee in exchange for the best available seat at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center – generally seats that went unsold or were returned by subscribers.”
Enzo Stuarti, 86
Stuarti “appeared in more than a dozen Broadway productions, including “Around the World in 80 Days,” “South Pacific” and “Kiss Me Kate.” He performed under the names Larry Lawrence and Larry Stuart before taking the name Enzo Stuarti, his son said. Stuarti was a frequent guest on television talk shows, including the Ed Sullivan Show, the Mike Douglas show and the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”
Tokyo, City Of Orchestras
“There is more of it here than in any other city in the world. Not only is more going on here than in London or Berlin, but one of the great attractions of over-the-top Tokyo is that it makes everything feel different. Tokyo is chock-full of concert halls and, better yet, concert halls full of listeners. Where other musical capitals consider themselves lucky to have two or three important large venues for concerts and opera, Tokyo and its outskirts boast 10, plus many more medium- and smaller-sized halls. The city is also home to about a dozen symphony orchestras.”
Korean Publishers Burned On Fake Cloner
“South Korean publishers rushed to put books on celebrated scientist Hwang Woo-suk on store shelves only to find him embroiled in a scandal and their products becoming one of the biggest flops of the holiday season.”
Kapoor Named To Tate Board
Sculptor Anish Kapoor has been chosen to replace Chris Ofili as one of three working artists on the Tate board of directors. “He fills a vacancy created when Ofili – whose Upper Room was controversially purchased by the Tate in March – came to the scheduled end of his reign there last month. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who is in charge of re-appointments, is believed to have chosen Kapoor from a shortlist of two given to him earlier in the year.”