Atlanta’s main presenter of touring Broadway musicals proposes to build a new school and theatre – “a laboratory-like theatrical environment where, over a period of 10 to 12 weeks, all aspects of a show can be presented to a live audience, revised, shown again, revised again . . . until a Broadway-ready project has emerged.” The theatre says the project would be a “one-of-a-kind incubator of new musicals that would make Atlanta an invaluable stop on the road to New York.”
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“Mad Professor” Wins Turner Prize
Keith Tyson has won this year’s Turner Prize. “The 33-year-old former Cumbrian shipyard worker, dubbed the ‘mad professor’ for his fondness for exploring ideas from the outer limits of cod science and his outlandish proposals for giant neon dinosaurs and the like, had been the bookies’ favourite. As the artist with the best jokes, he was also the public’s first choice.”
Best Of The Lot?
“Though art critics were underwhelmed by Tyson’s submissions to the Turner Prize exhibition, describing him as being at the soft end of the conceptual movement, he will probably escape the hilarity and condemnation which greeted last year’s winner, Martin Creed, whose sole exhibit was a room in which the lights turned on and off every few seconds.”
Chew You Up, Spit You Out
Think being nominated for the Turner is the answer to an artist’s prayers? Not always. “The Turner Prize picks up little-known artists and throws them, albeit briefly, into the eye of a news storm. Unlike actors at the Oscars, artists tend to be among the least well equipped to deal with the sudden, intense attention.”
SF Opera – Best Of The Rest?
Of course the Metropolitan Opera is America’s best – and biggest. But San Francisco is surely second (or third?) best?
Style Over Substance?
Was Michael Kinsley unethical as a judge for not reading all the nominees for this year’s National Book Awards? “The job of a book-awards judge starts with bookicide. Once you’ve decided a nonfiction book could not possibly win – because, say, its first 50 pages stink – you’re free to toss it. There’s no further reporting obligation. Kinsley appears to have leaped way over the line if he didn’t read even the opening pages of many nominated books…
Celebrating Boheme
Baz Luhrmann’s “La Boheme” opens in a flash of color on Broadway. “The show is far more respectful of its sentimental operatic essence than many of the lugubrious, experimental productions of old war horses at the Met. (Think ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ or ‘Il Trovatore.’) What Mr. Luhrmann and his extraordinary production designer (and wife), Catherine Martin, have done is find the visual equivalent of the sensual beauty and vigor of the score.”
Youth Appeal
“Luhrmann does not so much reinvent ‘La Boheme’ as repackage it. He makes a powerful case for wresting it out of the exclusive control of highbrow culture and into the realm of mainstream musical theater.
Baz’s Boheme – Surprisingly Flat
Does opera really belong on Broadway? “Opera lovers needn’t fear. Luhrmann hasn’t gone too far. A young, handsome cast sings the opera in Italian as written. The amplification is far subtler than the miserable Broadway norm and almost pleasurable. To compensate for singing that is not of a particularly high standard – though, for the most part, OK — there is a sense of intimacy and detailed bits of characterization that are hard to equal in a large opera house.”
Building As Picture Frame
The new Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is a signature art building like most new museum buildings. But curators say the building ought to be a supporting player to the art. “My job is to represent the artist. If an artist makes a big painting, they want it to look big. What I want is small spaces where I can make small paintings look big and big paintings look big, without compromise.”