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A Highly Visible Strike

“Strikes by performing artists are rare, and the public reaction to them is usually quite different from the reaction to strikes by others, like steelworkers or construction workers. Broadway is a highly visible business, important to New York’s image and economy, and the public, not just New Yorkers but tourists from across the country, will pay great attention to this strike. It is not clear whether the public, in this case theatergoers, will buy the musicians’ argument that a minimum number of musicians are needed to maintain the vitality of pit orchestras or the producers’ argument that smaller orchestras — and perhaps virtual, electronic orchestras — might be acceptable to improve the economics of producing musicals and to help more survive.”

How A Strike Shut Down Broadway Musicals

Broadway producers were “stunned” that stagehands and actors decided to support the musicians strike. The producers evidently “thought that the stagehands’ union had given strong back-channel signals that they would not side with the musicians” But hopes for a quick settlement were dashed over the weekend when producers cancelled performances.

New Hope For Old Vic

The Bristol Old Vic is the oldest working theatre in Britain, its main house, originally the Theatre Royal, built in 1766 by William Halfpenny. You happen upon it like a jewel that has strangely parted company from a ring. But dilapidation – however severe – is not the theatre’s most pressing concern. For the truth is – although everyone is too polite to be forceful about it – that the Bristol Old Vic has been an artistic casualty for years now, suffering from underfunding and weak leadership.” But now, finally, things might be looking up…

Censorship Or Taste?

Do some books cause more harm than they’re worth? Critics are asking the question in regards to a Canadian book that resurrects details of horrible crimes committed a decade ago. “Karla Homolka, a diabolical criminal will be a free woman in 2005, after serving only 12 years for heinous crimes against schoolgirls in a quiet Ontario town.” Should the public know more about Homolka “before she disappears into Canadian society, perhaps to commit more crimes under the camouflage of a new name and an altered appearance?” But in dredging up details, “the families of the victims are publicly traumatized once again” and some booksellers have declined to carry the book.

Where Are The New Protest Songs?

Peace rallies trot out protest songs that are decades old. “Some mutter darkly that there are more songs out there but corporate radio is keeping them off the air. The notorious list of ‘banned’ songs – everything from John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ to the entire oeuvre of Rage Against the Machine – the radio conglomerate Clear Channel issued after Sept. 11 only adds fuel to such suspicions. But no one names a great song that’s not getting played.” Are they out there?

Is America Forgetting How To Dance?

In a period when audiences for classical music, museums and opera have grown, the dance audience has shrunk. “Between 1993 and 2000, attendance in the United States for large ballet companies (with budgets of more than $6 million) fell by 25 percent. Audiences for mid-sized companies (with budgets that are $6 million or less) dropped 18.7 percent, according to Dance/USA. It is dramatically clear. By all measurements, audiences for ballet are down.”

Why Baltimore Doesn’t Dance

Why doesn’t Baltimore have a significant dance company? “It’s not only that we don’t have a major resident dance company. We also don’t present key professional touring companies from around the U.S. Rightly or not, Baltimore has a reputation as a city that doesn’t appreciate dance, a reputation fueled by very public failures of flagship troupes.”