Whatever happened to Sister Wendy? The nun/art historian seems to have dropped off of UK TV screens. “Sister Wendy offered a layman’s view of painting; that was her charm, and the source of her popularity. That, and the simple fact that anybody with a gimmick on prime-time TV is bound to be a hit no matter what they do, whether it’s nuns and paintings or suited spivs with antiques. Here was a nice lady who evidently knew her Arshile Gorky from her El Greco, reassuring us we needn’t worry about all that high-falutin elitist nonsense they teach in art schools. All you need do is look at a painting and feel.”
Blog
Death Of The Sitcom
Is the TV sitcom dying? “For the fourth year in a row, when the television season ends this month, there will be only two comedies among the 10 most-watched network shows in prime time: ‘Friends’ on NBC and ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ on CBS. Only in the late 1950’s and the early 1980’s have there been such prolonged periods with so few mass-appeal television comedies.”
A Twain For The Stage
Mark Twain was not a successful playwright. “This fall, however, the University of California Press is publishing a three-act play it says is not only worthy of Twain’s legacy as America’s greatest humorist but that also has already been optioned by a Broadway producer.”
“Hairspray” Likely To Sweep Tony Nominations
Tony award nominations are due out Monday. Early betting is that “Hairspray, the smash musical hit based on the cult John Waters film about a chubby high school girl, is likely to sweep the 2003 Tony Award nominations.
Failure To Communicate – Why America Doesn’t Translate
Is it any surprise that Americans have such a narrow sense of other cultures? “About 3% of the fiction and poetry published in the United States in 1999 was translated (approximately 330 out of the total 11,570 fiction and poetry titles published). America compares unfavourably to almost every other country and most unfavourably to western Europe, the region closest to an ideological sibling. There, Germany translates the most works – about six times as many as the US each year. Spain is close behind, while the French publishing industry exceeds the US by four times. Without translations, Americans, who are notoriously monolingual, have access only to the perspectives of those who write and speak in English; thus the ideas of millions are lost to them.”
Critic: Surviving The Middle
Dominic Papatola says the toughest thing about being a critic is surviving the middle. “Working the edges is the most satisfying part of this gig: Any critic who tells you there isn’t perverse fun in writing a really nasty review is either lying to you or so generous he really shouldn’t be in the business. And the experience of a truly sublime night of theater is worth enduring 50 bad ones. But what of those nights that are neither black nor white — the scores and scores and scores of shows that run in a spectrum from pretty bad to pretty good? Those are the ones that will kill you — or burn you out, anyway — and there are lots of them.”
Trailer Fatique
Has anyone noticed there seem to be more trailers at the movies these days? Yes. “It’s the strongest marketing tool at a studio’s disposal. They’ve done surveys that indicate that moviegoers absolutely love trailers. But there is a point at which it becomes too much. What is that point? What number of trailers is optimal, and what number results in trailer fatigue?”
Censored In America
Think censorship isn’t alive in America? Just look around, writes Linda Winer – a movie of an opera doesn’t make it to TV, an talented actress gets blackballed for her political views, a movie about Castro gets canned…
Mid-Size Threat – Mid-Size Arts Take Biggest Public Funding Hit
If states like New Jersey eliminate their arts funding it will be inconvenient for large arts groups. Most small groups won’t notice because they’re small, have small budgets, and don’t count on public funding. But for mid-size groups… it’s a life-threatening situation.
A New Take On Dracula And Films About Dance
A new black-and-white silent film of a dance set to the story of Dracula captures movement on screen in a fresh way. “Made for the CBC, ‘Dracula: Pages From a Virgin’s Diary’ adapts choreographer Mark Godden’s ballet as a black-and-white silent melodrama, and happily, it marks a frenzied, hallucinatory departure from what viewers have come to expect from both Dracula and dance movies.”