Almost half the musicians for Les Miz in London’s West End will lose their jobs when the show moves to a smaller theatre next month. “Nine musicians out of 21 will be replaced by an electronic synthesiser, of a kind being used for the first time in the West End. US producers have said the Sinfonia synthesiser “gives more bangs to the buck than musicians”.
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Attack On English Arts Funding
A new report for British MP’s criticizes the way lottery money is awarded to arts groups. “It attacks Arts Council England for wasting lottery and taxpayers’ money to bail out venues such as the Royal Opera House and Sadler’s Wells in London, and for not putting enough cash into working-class areas or attracting more diverse groups to theatres.”
FCC Considers A New Technology Future
The Federal Communications Commission is considering regulatory changes that will change the way most people use telephones and the internet. The internet could be accessed over electrical lines, while phone service could be provided over the internet. One commissioner says that America “stands at the threshold of a profound transformation of the telecommunications marketplace.”
Japanese Culture Seeps In To Korea
For 50 years after World War II, South Korea banned Japanese culture from the country. But in 1998, some of the restrictions were lifted. Since then, “Japanese movies, video and computer games, songs and albums are not sweeping through the Korean Peninsula like a tycoon, but are seeping in through cultural osmosis brought on by gradual market integration.”
Urban Comes To Broadway
Three new productions featuring African-Americans are coming to Broadway. “Theatergoers today typically have to go to venues well beyond the neon lights of Times Square to find plays that address modern cultural struggles and ideas that aren’t set to music. The triptych of African-American tales spanning the post-World War II era to the present will temporarily add more color to Broadway’s palette, but along the way may also prompt a discussion about what really constitutes diversity on US theater’s most high-profile road.”
UK Tax Policy Change May Kill British Film Industry
The British tax department “has shut a loophole which offered tax relief to film investors, fearing it was being abused.” As a result, say some critics, the healthy British film industry may be devasted as investment dries up.
UK Tax Change – Movies Need Time To Adapt
“Few in the industry defend the tax-avoidance schemes as a means of raising film funding. Indeed, many believe that the cash the schemes has attracted into the industry has led to a flood of substandard films, produced for tax-avoidance rather than artistic reasons, which have little hope of securing a cinema or television showing. What the industry objects to is the lack of warning about the move. This has left filmmakers about to go into production with no time to raise alternative funding.”
It’s Poetry, Not Flowers For Valentine’s
What does the love of your life want for Valentine’s Day? Nope, not flowers. It’s poetry. “In a survey of 1,000 people for the Spoken Word Publishing Association, 19% said they would prefer loving words. The only gift they wanted more than this was one which puts deeds before words – a holiday mini-break.”
Prado Attacked For Plans To Show Contemporary Art
Spain’s Prado Museum is being attacked over plans to show contemporary art alongside Spanish masters Velázquez, Goya and El Greco. “The Prado’s director, Miguel Zugaza, ignited the controversy by inviting Miquel Barceló, who has used insects, meat and rotten plants in his works, to exhibit alongside some of the Madrid museum’s greatest paintings.”
Bush’s NEA Increase Proposal – Just Hot Air?
George Bush proposes increasing the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts by $18 million. But in arts circles, “suspicion of Bush’s motives, however, is widespread. Why in the world is this president offering a palm frond to the arts, even a modest one, while cutting other domestic programs in a $2.4 trillion budget that’s heavy on defense and military spending and simultaneously aimed at deficit reduction?”