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Filmmaker Who Spent 12 Years Shooting ‘Boyhood’ Will Spend 20 Years Shooting Sondheim Musical

Richard Linklater’s new long-term project is a silm adaptation of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, which traces, in reverse, the gradual, bitter estrangement of three longtime friends. Starring are Blake Jenner, Ben Platt, and Beanie Feldstein, the latter two themselves close friends since high school. – Los Angeles Times

Actor Valerie Harper, 80

“[She] amassed four Emmys during her time as Rhoda [Morgenstern] — three for her sidekick role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977, and one as the lead character in the spinoff Rhoda, which ran from 1974 to 1978 on the same network. She continued to act on television and in the theater for more than three decades, her stage roles ranging from the flamboyant actress Tallulah Bankhead to former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. But she was forever known as Rhoda — a reflection of the preservative power of reruns, and the enduring appeal of her signature character.” – The Washington Post

Art Dealer Who Kicked, Choked, And Banged Head Of His Girlfriend Sentenced To 20 Days In Rehab

London dealer Joseph Nahmad, 31 and part of a powerful multibillion-dollar family network of art dealers, got a suspended sentence of 14 weeks along with the rehab order from Judge Jeffrey Pegden, who told Nahmad, “There are mitigating factors. You are of good character and have taken steps to address your offending behaviour.” As compensation for her injuries, Pegden also ordered Nahmad to pay his victim £750 ($906). – The Daily Mail (UK)

Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie Make 2019 Booker Prize Shortlist

The Testaments, Atwood’s secrecy-shrouded sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, and Quichotte, Rushdie’s recently-released riff on Don Quixote, are joined on the list of six semifinalists by Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World; Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities; Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other; and Lucy Ellmann’s 1,000-page, single-sentence Ducks, Newburyport. – Irish Times

What Does The Kennedy Center’s New “Reach” Want To Be?

Phil Kennicott: “When the Kennedy Center was built, it was designed to fulfill a specific sets of needs and functions. Now it is has been expanded to enfold an unknown number of new functions and needs, in spaces that are flexible and multipurpose. On any given evening, the old building hums with activity, despite its dated interiors and problematic furnishings. In five years, let’s put the new building to the same test. If the majority of its new spaces are active and throwing off sparks, it will be a success. If not, the problem will almost certainly be a lack of institutional foresight rather than architectural planning.” – Washington Post

Kiril Petrenko Takes Over The Berlin Philharmonic And Wows

Mark Swed: “I’m not so sure I buy the mystique business. The ego issue is clearly complicated. But his two concerts in the Festspielhaus in Salzburg, the first a repeat of the Beethoven Ninth and second featuring a performance of Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto with Patricia Kopatchinskaja of speechless greatness, left no doubt about just how special Petrenko is.” – Los Angeles Times

The New Urban Crisis And How US Cities Rank

The original urban crisis of the 1960s and 1970s was a crisis of economic failure, spurred on by the movement of people, jobs, and industry to the suburbs; the hollowing out of city economics; and the concentration of poverty and economic disadvantage in urban centers. The New Urban Crisis is a crisis of success, brought on by the movement of affluent and educated people, and of knowledge and tech jobs, back to the urban center. – CityLab