“When Les Misérables turns 20 this weekend it looks likely to become the longest running musical of all time, on course to overtake Cats next year and, on the evidence of one night last week, still inspiring people to squeeze a little tear for Eponine and applaud the noble forbearance of Jean Valjean.” The question is – Why?
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Denver Center’s New Look Director
What kind of changes will mark Kent Thompson’s new regime at the Denver Center Theatre Company? “Some kind of change not only was coming, but necessary. But how sweeping that change should be to one of the nation’s few remaining resident regional theater companies would be only Thompson’s second major test. The first had been how he would craft an 11-play season that would invigorate the company with more urgent and underrepresented voices.”
Dopey Radio Host Attacks Plans For Bourgeois Sculpture
A radio talk show host in Seattle assails a planned sculpture for an outdoor sculpture garden by Louise Bourgeois. Why? Because it’s of a nude father and son on a fountain. And this is bad because…
Getty Antiquities Dealers Quits After Loan Questions
Embattled Getty antiquities dealer Marion True has resigned after the Getty raised questions about her failing “to report certain aspects of her Greek house purchase transaction in violation of Getty policy. ‘In the course of the Getty’s discussions with Ms. True on this matter, she chose voluntarily to retire.’ True, 56, faces trial in an Italian court on charges that she conspired with dealers who were trafficking in looted antiquities. In its statement, the Getty said she was retiring to devote her full energies to her defense. Internal Getty records obtained by The Times show that museum officials knew three years ago about the loan True obtained for the vacation home. The Getty declined comment on the documents.”
Marion True Resigns From Getty – And The Italian Charges?
“Ms. True goes on trial in Rome in November on charges of conspiring to receive illegally exported artworks. Reached by telephone, Maurizio Fiorilli, a lawyer for the Italian Culture Ministry, said that the departure of Ms. True might provide an occasion for the Getty to reopen negotiations with Italy. ‘It could be the basis for a gesture of good will on the part of the Getty to discuss with the Italian government the objects that it has’.”
A New Orleans Art Entrepreneur Tries To Rebuild
“Jonathan Ferrara was a gallery owner, an innkeeper and a colorful and driving force in New Orleans’ up-and-coming visual arts scene. Hurricane Katrina wiped that canvas nearly clean, and it left Ferrara – a man who has gone about life in bold brushstrokes since graduating from Towson High School 20 years ago – unsure what to do next…”
Chicago Chamber Orchestra Folds
The Chicago chamber orchestra Concertante di Chicago is “suspending operations after 20 seasons because of the increasing difficulty of attracting new audiences and raising its budgets in an uncertain arts economy, officials said. In recent years Concertante has had trouble filling that 400-seat facility. ‘We looked into the future and were concerned about what we saw with audiences. We play to a generally older crowd, and frankly they were falling by the wayside. When we looked to see who was coming up behind them, we were not encouraged’.”
Artist: I’ll Let My Art Rot Rather Than Bow To Ransom Demand
“The son of prominent Canadian sculptor Haydn Davies says his father is prepared to let one of his most famous works decompose in a field rather than surrender to what he terms the ‘ransom demands’ of the Ontario community college that originally commissioned, then dismantled the piece.”
Rare Map Thefts Rock Libraries
Rare map dealer E. Forbes Smiley III has been caught and charged with the theft of maps from Yale’s library. Smiley, who has been “buying and selling rare North American maps and atlases for more than a decade, scheduled to make another court appearance here on Monday, the case is turning into an embarrassment for prestigious libraries and elite collectors from Chicago to London. A field marked by tweedy scholarship in quiet, climate-controlled vaults has been rattled by disclosures of maps disappearing amid lax security and suspicions that big-money deals were being made with too few questions asked.”
Doctor Atomic – Some Kind Of Masterpiece
“Some of the evening sputters, most of it is a forceful blend of tenderness and urgency leavened with occasional touches of graveyard wit. But any piece crowned by a stretch of writing as visionary and as stubbornly unforgettable as that Act 1 finale is already some kind of masterpiece.”