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Play It Baby One More Time

Hmmmn… did Baz Luhrmann steal the pizzazz for his Broadway Boheme from his Movie Moulin Rouge? (or is it the other way around?) Stack up both productions side-by-side and “even the same small details (both feature little people and nuns in cameo roles)” are similar. “Shameless copycatting? Or a lesson from the if-it-works-once-try-it-again school? You decide.”

Three Tremors

Say what you will about the Three Tenors phenomenon (and critics have said plenty). But for legions of fans, the 3Ts have provided real thrills (how else do you explain tickets costing thousands?). But long after these weary voices ought to have packed it in, they’re still at it, and in Minneapolis this week, even the diehard fans didn’t seem impressed. “The whole feeling of the evening was stiff and uncomfortable. Audience response was relatively subdued until the end, the final medley. The only real ovation came after Pavarotti’s signature ‘Nessun Dorma’ during which he delivered one good solid but very effortful high note, for him the only one of the evening.”

A Whitney Museum In Miami’s Future?

Miami is hot off of hosting Art Basel Miami Beach. And the city is trying to flesh out its population of resident museums. The city is in talks with New York’s Whitney Museum to open a branch in South Florida. And “Miami Mayor Manny Diaz hopes to capitalize on the energy created by Art Basel and is looking to museums in Europe, where he’s already written to the president of Madrid’s Museo del Prado.”

Play Bank

All this energy that goes into finding and developing new plays. Then what – they go into some box somewhere, never to be seen again? A Cabadian playwright wondering why Canada has been unable to develop a real theatrical canon, proposes a repository of plays that can be revisited an restaged. “The idea is not new, but it is eminently worthwhile. It’s a question of how it’s structured . . . You don’t want to create a museum of Canadian plays.”

Sydney’s International Ballet Competition

For the first time in its history, the Genee International Ballet Competition is being held outside of London. The finals played out in Sydney over the weekend. The 16 finalists includes 10 Australians, five from Britain and one from Thailand. But “with two-thirds of the 89 aspirants coming from Australia, and the bulk of the remainder from Britain, how truly international was the competition?”

What A Lottery Can Do (Should It Do?)

In Scotland, the National Lottery has, for the last eight years injected millions of pounds into sport, heritage, health, education and the arts. The massive infusions of cash have been used to “improve buildings, facilities and the well being of communities. It’s been very successful: the Scottish Arts Council alone has invested £170 million in arts facilities and activities up and down the country, not just for flagship buildings, but for dozens of musical instruments, children’s workshops and skills training.” Now Scots are being asked if the money’s going to the right places…

Diversity Coalition is Criticized

Two years ago a coalition of American minority groups banded together to press TV networks to diversify. The group claims some limited successes, but its supporters are criticizing some of its efforts, and “two of the four networks – NBC and Fox – have bluntly challenged the group’s credibility, calling it misguided, unwieldy and unfocused.”

Can Architecture Overcome Its Ideology?

“What does it mean to say that an architect, considered in his capacity as an architect, espouses an ideology? Think about it: Did Brunelleschi have an ideology? Did Alberti? Did Stanford White? They certainly had opinions about what made good architecture: they embraced some things and disparaged others. But having an opinion is not the same thing as espousing an architectural ideology.” But with Modernism, we’re dealing with a different animal…