Blog

Will “Hamilton” On Disney Bring A New Audience To The Theatre?

“Hamilton’s premiere on such an accessible platform marks a potential for genuine change and improvement in the future. I know that nothing will ever replace the feeling of being in a real-life theater, sharing a room with strangers experiencing the same extraordinary thrills. But if this is the best, most inclusive way to introduce more people to theater, then I am all for it.” – CNET

The Metropolitan Opera’s Uncertain Future

“We have raised $60m in funding over the past few months,” says Peter Gelb. “This has solved the immediate problem of the cancellation of the last weeks of the 2019-20 season and the loss of ticket revenue for this fall season, but it does not address the long-term economic challenge. We do not expect full audiences for some time and that is very significant.” – Financial Times

More Goodbye, Columbus, In Baltimore This Time

Protesters pulled down the status and dragged it to Inner Harbor, where they dumped it. “The Columbus statue was dragged down as people marched across the city Saturday demanding reallocation of funds from the police department to social services, a reassessment of the public education system, reparations for Black people, housing for the homeless, and the removal of all statues ‘honoring white supremacists, owners of enslaved people, perpetrators of genocide, and colonizers.'” – Baltimore Sun

When Artists Are No Longer Afraid To Speak Out

Atlanta-based actor Stephanie Peyton: “We’re all stuck with this whole COVID thing. And so we have nothing better to do than to be on our social media and see these new videos every day of Black men being shot, and women disappearing and children not being found. Not only are we seeing this every day, but we’re experiencing it every day. And it’s not just with police but it’s with our bosses, it’s with our schools, it’s with our housing, it’s everywhere. And so for us, it was getting to a point of being like, we’re gonna call this stuff out.” – Token Theatre Friends

Film Composer Ennio Morricone, 91

Mr. Morricone scored many popular films of the past 40 years: Édouard Molinaro’s “La Cage aux Folles” (1978), Mr. Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982), Mr. De Palma’s “The Untouchables” (1987), Roman Polanski’s “Frantic” (1988), Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso” (1988), Wolfgang Petersen’s “In the Line of Fire” (1993), and Mr. Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” (2015). – The New York Times

The UK Announces A 1.5 Billion-Pound Bailout For The Arts

After months of waffling – and infuriating the arts sectors in the UK – the Tory government finally came through. One playwright: “If this package is as ambitious as it looks, then conversations within our sector will now need to turn to what our recovery might look like in terms of protecting any gains made in recent years over inclusion, representation and diversity, and how this support can reach who need it most, particularly outside of London.” – The Guardian (UK)