“The two stars recently took a break from their intense final weeks of rehearsals” – Fleming as Nettie Fowler in Carousel and O’Hara as Despina in Così fan tutte – “to sit down at the Met and talk about what they had learned about each other’s turfs, share some of their insecurities and, at times, swap a little advice. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.”
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Alt-Righters Threaten To Burn Down Berkeley’s Revolution Books
“On March 3, a small team of conservative activists converged on Revolution Books in Berkeley, Calif. live-streaming their actions on Facebook with this description: ‘Infiltrating Berkeley’s Marxist Hive.’ ‘Fucking Commie scum,’ shouted one conservative activist, taunting the bookstore employees who met them at the door. He wore an American flag on his shoulders and a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat. ‘We’re gonna burn down your bookstore, you know that right?’ he said.”
One Of Three Male Choreographers For Program About ‘Woman’ Quits Project
“French choreographer Medhi Walerski has given up a commission from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens for next season after widespread criticism that the program for which he was hired, entitled Femmes, would feature new works by three men and no women. Mr. Walerski’s replacement, however, will be another man, the company says.
Netflix Says It Will Have 700 (!) New Shows In 2018
“Netflix, set to spend upwards of $8 billion on content in 2018, will have in the neighborhood of 700 original TV shows on the service worldwide this year, according to CFO David Wells. … In addition to original series, Netflix is planning to release 80 original films in 2018, chief content officer Ted Sarandos said last fall.”
Three Reasons Netflix’s 700-New-Shows Gambit Is A Bad Idea
First of all, argues Stuart Heritage, nobody, not even a poor old TV critic, can watch anything close to that much. Second, “Netflix is gaining a reputation as a provider that throws buckets of money at stuff nobody else wants. … Third, if this isn’t an unsustainable land-grab, I don’t know what is.”
*Of Course* ‘Sleep No More’ Performers Get Groped – And The Show’s Not Worth It
Lauren Wingenroth: “Last month, Buzzfeed News confirmed 17 instances of groping or sexual misconduct by patrons of the immersive theater show Sleep No More. Having experienced the show for the first time just a week before the story broke, I can’t say I was surprised by the accusations. … At every step of my two and a half hour journey through the show, I felt that the safety of the performers – and of the audience – was being compromised for the sake of an experience that just wasn’t worth the risk.”
The Arts Contribute 3/4 Of A Trillion Dollars To The U.S. Economy Each Year: NEA Study
“New data released Tuesday suggest that in a single year, the US arts and culture sector contributed a whopping $763.6 billion to the nation’s economy – more than the entire GDP of Switzerland. That translates into 4.2% of the US economy, suggesting that the arts and culture sector is worth almost as much as the food and agriculture industry (valued at around a trillion dollars a year).”
Construction On Rome’s Subway Turns Up Yet Another Ancient Treasure
“In the summer of 2016, while digging the new Metro C subway line in Rome, workers came across a rare archeological find, a 2nd-century CE Roman barracks. Late last week, archeologists uncovered the remains of a ‘commander’s house’ (domus) connected to the barracks, … complete with marble floors, mosaics, and frescoes.”
‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ Producers To Pay $60 Million In Malaysian Corruption Case
“Red Granite Pictures, the producer behind The Wolf of Wall Street, Dumb and Dumber To and other films, has agreed to pay $60 million to the U.S. government in order to settle allegations that it was funded in part by money siphoned from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund called 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB.”
Balakrishna Doshi Wins 2018 Pritzker Prize
This former assistant to Le Corbusier (whom he calls “my guru”) and Louis Kahn, now aged 90, is the first Indian architect to win the Pritzker. Relatively unknown in the West (all his built projects have been in India), Doshi is noted for bridging the gap between Modernism and traditional Indian architecture as well as for several complexes of low-cost housing.