“Chicago has nearly 200 theater companies, and for at least the last decade it has been the only city in the United States, and one of the few in the world, with a theatrical scene as vibrant as New York’s. This season more than a dozen of these companies are presenting works by new playwrights as well as veterans like August Wilson and Stephen Sondheim. The appearance of so many world premieres within the space of a couple of months reflects the deep pool of Chicago-based dramatic talent and the city’s growing appeal to playwrights and producers from other parts of the country.”
Blog
Stolen Art – Staking A Claim
The Art Loss Register’s Sarah Jackson on recovering art stolen by the Nazis: “In the past, provenance was important to establish value. Today, provenance is taking center stage because of liability. The law is changing slowly, but remorselessly, in favor of the victim. Once there is a known Holocaust survivor of a known work of art, it becomes virtually unsalable. For commercial art dealers, the choice is stark, because the buyers will choose an alternative that is not a tainted work of art.”
Women’s Writing Is More Than Chick Lit
“It may sound ridiculous, but judging by the clichéd offerings in the bookshops at the moment, much of the great romantic writing by women would never have seen the light of day if it had been submitted to today’s publishers. Manderley would have sustained minor fire damage. Rochester’s blindness would become acute hay fever. Cathy and Heathcliff would have had near-death experiences, survived, married. You get the picture. Now I’m not knocking the writers who succeed in either the chick-lit or the mummy-lit genres. However much we enjoy these books, and I do, they provide a pretty limited literary diet. Why should we be forced to endure a long summer on a selection of novels where tragedy is a sick nanny and failure is a lacklustre dinner party?”
What We Read – BBC Poll Tells All
The BBC revealed the preliminary results of its poll to find out Britain’s most-loved books. “Most of the usual suspects, and a few surprises, were on the list drawn from 7,000 titles nominated. The top 20 and the overall winner will be revealed in the autumn, after a summer of live radio and television, and online Big Read events. A poll by the BBC attracted 140,000 votes, four times as many as for the Great Britons last year. The corporation established elaborate precautions against ballot rigging and block voting, so it must be true that Jeffrey Archer’s ‘Kane and Abel’ is hugged to the nation’s heart, along with Winnie the Pooh, David Copperfield, and Jane Eyre. .”
Movie Industry Fights Copy Software
The movie industry is suing to block software that allows consumers to make copies of their DVDs. “The powerful Motion Picture Association of America argues that this type of software circumvents the anti-copying digital ‘locks’ that studios employ on DVDs, which would be illegal under the 1998 copyright law. There are typically no such locks on music CDs. The Motion Picture Association maintains that consumers aren’t permitted to make personal backups of DVDs, saying a movie buff whose disc becomes scratched needs to buy a new one.”
Farewell to Les Miz
Les Miserables has closed. The Cameron Mackintosh show about the lives and loves of peasants in the time of the French revolution ran on Broadway for 6,680 performances over 16 years. It spawned countless national and international tours, and remains one of the most popular musicals of all time. But post-9/11 fallout and the general misfortunes of Broadway in recession combined to compel the producers to put an end to the adventures of Jean Valjean, Inspector Javert, and the orphan Gavroche. Still, Mackintosh says he has no regrets.
Frank Rich To Bill Bennett: Blame It On Tupac
“It is almost too perfect that Las Vegas, the city where Tupac Shakur was murdered in 1996, would be the undoing of William Bennett. In 1995, Mr. Bennett, serving as America’s self-appointed cultural commissar, made a target of Tupac, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and other practitioners of gangsta rap. They were public enemy No. 1 in his relentless battle against what he was fond of calling ‘the filth, sewage and mindless bloodletting of the popular entertainment industry.’ Mr. Bennett was above such vulgarity. He had been secretary of education. He had attacked the National Endowment for the Arts for perpetrating junk. He had anthologized Plato and Aesop in The Book of Virtues. But the guy just couldn’t keep away from Vegas.”
Innovative In The Sense Of Stupid
Dave Barry is America’s preeminent humor columnist, and for some time now, he has been fascinated by the predilection of British art museums for “paying large sums of money for works of art that can only be described as extremely innovative (I am using ‘innovative’ in the sense of ‘stupid’).” Having previously questioned the legitimacy of Martin Creed’s flickering lights, Barry is now doubled over by the news that artist Ceal Floyer has won a major award for a bag of trash. “To judge from the photograph in the Times, it is a standard black plastic garbage bag, just like the ones you put your garbage in, except of course that you have to pay people to haul your garbage bags away, whereas Ms. Floyer got $47,000 for hers.”
The RSC-Barbican Split, One Year On
When the Royal Shakespeare Company severed its ties with London’s Barbican Arts Centre last year, both sides insisted that the split was for the best. The RSC would be able to focus more intently on its core mission without having to work around the Barbican’s schedule, and the Barbican would be free to become a center for international touring theatre. But a year later, neither of the divorcees appears to be doing all that well, and speculation has begun about the potential for an eventual reconciliation.
Is London’s Boom Killing The Thames?
“Everything that makes London look like London is being destroyed. Such is the cry of the latest panic over London’s architectural landscape, this time inspired by Renzo Piano’s plan to build Europe’s tallest skyscraper, a 1,016ft glass shard, at London Bridge. In this instance the outcry centres on its impact on the river, and last month’s public inquiry into the project heard a lot about the damage the tower threatened to do to the historic views of the Thames.
But it is already far too late. There are no historic views any more. As a journey downriver, from Hammersmith in the west all the way to Wapping and Deptford in the east, reveals, the damage has already been done.”