A documentary aired in the UK that showed a Chinese performance artist “apparently eating a stillborn baby” sparked only 15 calls of protest to the TV station. “An estimated 900,000 tuned in to see the documentary, which went out at 2300 GMT on Thursday. It was beaten in the ratings by the 1997 movie Beverly Hills Cop II, which attracted 3.4 million viewers.”
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Disney Sues Blockbuster Video
“In a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Los Angeles, Disney alleges that starting in 1997, Blockbuster Inc. failed to account for missing videos, improperly charged the Burbank-based company for some promotional costs and prematurely sold videos before their rental life was finished.”
All Moves, Few Words – Broadway’s Surprise Dance Hit
“One of the great surprises of the current Broadway season is that Twyla Tharp’s ‘Movin’ On”, which received mixed reviews and was in well-publicized trouble on the road, is such a hit. The only words uttered onstage are those of the songs and a drill sergeant’s occasional bark. The rest is told in pure dance movement, from the smallest details of everyday life on Long Island in the 1960’s to the savage roar of the battlefield. Still, it is all intensely believable to audiences, particularly Vietnam veterans. Most of the performers have come not from Broadway but from the relatively arcane worlds of classical ballet and mainstream modern dance.”
Little Movies Played Big In ’02
In a great and profitable year for Hollywood, it was a great (and profitable) year for small independent films. “Movies such as “Bowling for Columbine,” “One Hour Photo,” “Monsoon Wedding,” “Empire,” and even the obscure French film “Brotherhood of the Wolf,” made 2002 one of the most successful years ever for specialized fare.”
What Is The Lure Of American Culture?
American culture is everywhere. But why? Why would the world be interested in globalized American culture? “Due to its multi-ethnic and multi-cultural composition, especially in the formative years of modern entertainment culture around 1900, American popular culture was faced with the challenge of a market that anticipated the present global market on a smaller scale. This led to the development of broadly comprehensible, non-verbal forms of performance, relying preferably on visual and auditory forms of expression. Before Americanization of other societies could occur, American culture itself had to be ‘Americanized’.”
Arts Building Boom – End Of An Era?
There is a global ‘rash’ of new theatres and especially concert halls, but the fastest growth is in America, a conference of the International Society for the Performing Arts reported last month. Will the boom continue? Historically, “theatre-building is the sort of thing people do at the end of a golden era (as at the turn of the 20th century) when confidence is high and wealth is ample. Now, tax revenues are weak and wealthy donors less wealthy. The curtain may be about to fall, at least for an intermission.”
Can The Arts Find A Place On TV?
“PBS has always held exclusive claim to being ‘the arts channel,’ of course, mainly because networks shrink from fine-arts programming as ratings poison. But even so, the marriage between public broadcasting and the arts has, at times, seemed a superficial one.” An experiment at Maryland Public Television illustrates the problems, starting a debate “ranging from how producers can compellingly cover the arts, to whether anyone will watch it, and ultimately, if art and television can get along at all.”
More Adventures With Disney – “Destination” Theatre
Admissions at Disney’s theme parks are down 25 percent since 2001. What to do? How about theatre? Disney has hired some A-list creators to come up with “a new era in theme-park entertainment.” It’s theatre presented continuously in 40-minute loops. First up: “a 40-minute version of the ‘Aladdin’ story, using the score from Disney’s animated film. It will run continuously in the brand new ‘Broadway-style’ Hyperion theater in Disney’s ailing California Adventure Park. ‘We’ve coined a new phrase – destination entertainment’.”
Building Shakespeare’s Dream
A group of Americans is hoping to build the theatre Shakespeare imagined his plays being performed in. “If all goes well, western Massachusetts will become home to the world’s first historically accurate reconstruction of the Rose Playhouse. But if all goes well, western Massachusetts will become home to the world’s first historically accurate reconstruction of the Rose Playhouse.”
Please Release Me – Treasured 50s Recordings Entering Public Domain
A treasure trove of recordings made in the 1950s is about to slip out of copyright. “Copyright protection lasts only 50 years in European Union countries, compared with 95 years in the United States, even if the recordings were originally made and released in America. So recordings made in the early- to mid-1950’s — by figures like Maria Callas, Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald — are entering the public domain in Europe, opening the way for any European recording company to release albums that had been owned exclusively by particular labels.”