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Belfast’s Lyric Shrugs Off Extinction

Belfast’s Lyric Theatre has staved off demise with an injection of cash fundraising. “The Lyric is Northern Ireland’s only producing theatre. It famously kept its doors open during the Troubles, with actors such as Simon Callow sometimes performing to a background of bombs and gunshots. Neeson, born in Ballymena, called it his “Belisha beacon of light”. During blackouts, actors would hold candles and ask the audience to hold lamps. But the Lyric’s rotting building has been described as squalid. Backstage, the actors cannot flush the toilet during a performance.”

Right Stuff – Hollywood Right Organizes Its Own

“Some outnumbered Republican entertainment workers not only yearn for equal access to filmmaking in famously left-leaning Hollywood but also consider themselves at war against a hostile left-wing majority, with battles being waged on the Internet, in books, at film festivals and even in nightclubs (hence a comedy troupe named the Right Stuff). They’re even — gasp! — organizing in groups like the Hollywood Congress of Republicans, which sponsors luncheons at which celebrities including Ben Stein and Morgan Brittany offer moral support to a like-minded political minority that is sick of being mocked by industry taste-setters.”

Theatre For A New Century (But How?)

“The closure of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s controversial play Behzti at the Birmingham Rep last December exposed a troubling conflict in British theatre. So how does the theatre industry progress into the 21st century, ticking all the right multicultural and ethnicity boxes while reserving the right to be offensive, or at least critical, in its discussion of our increasingly fragmented society and its faiths?”

The Wacky Economics Of Movie Advertising

Turns out movie studios are spending much more on advertising their movies than they take in. In 2003, they spent, “on average, $34.8 million to advertise a movie and earned, on average, just $20.6 million per title. Even if the studios had made the movies for free—which, of course, they didn’t—they would have lost $14.2 million per film on the theatrical run.”

Study: “G” Movies Outperform “R’s

A study by a group that promotes family movies says that “G”-rated movies are more profitable than those rated “R”. “The study, released Tuesday by The Dove Foundation, showed that the average G-rated flick was 11 times more profitable than its R-rated counterpart, but the film industry made more than 12 times as many R-rated as G-rated movies from 1989-2003.”

RSC Gives London Another Try

The Royal Shakespeare Company is returning to London, performing in three theatres owned by Cameron MacIntosh. “It is hoped Tuesday’s deal, to last over the next five years with theatre producer Sir Cameron, will provide a more stable future for the RSC, which receives almost £13m of public funding.”

What Is It About That Harvard Brand?

“Why does Harvard continue to dominate its rivals, at least in terms of reputation? It’s not as though its degrees guarantee great jobs. According to research from the University of Pennsylvania, the percentage of top executives at Fortune 100 companies who were Ivy League undergrads dropped from 14% to 10% from 1980 to 2001. A study by Spencer Stuart, the executive search firm, shows that as of 2004, Harvard no longer owns the No. 1 ranking as the university attended by the most CEOs of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies (just under 4%). The school that caught up to it: the University of Wisconsin.”

Saltz: Art Auction As Slave Market

Jerry Saltz isn’t a fan of art auctions: “Contemporary art auctions are bizarre combinations of slave market, trading floor, theater, and brothel. They are rarefied entertainments where speculation, spin, and trophy hunting merge as an insular caste enacts a highly structured ritual in which the codes of consumption and peerage are manipulated in plain sight. Everyone says auctions are about “quality.” In fact, auctions are altars to the disconnect between the inner life of art and the outer life of consumption, places where artists are cut off from their art. Auctions have nothing to do with quality.”

Another One Goes Down – Palahniuk’s Readings Inspire Fainters

Chuck Palahniuk has been having difficulty reading from his story Guts on his recent tour. “So far, 67 people have fainted while I’ve read Guts. For a nine-page story, some nights it takes 30 minutes to read. In the first half, you’re pausing for so much laughter from your audience. In the second half, you’re pausing as your audience is revived.”