Samuel Johnson was a failed teacher, who, in 1746 began work on his monumental Dictionary of the English Language. It was a labor designed to rehabilitate his reputation and redefine use of the English language. It took him nine years. April 15 marks the 250th anniversary of its publication.
Tag: 04.03.05
Does National Origin Matter In Dance?
“Look at the rosters of important American ballet companies, many once directed by former Balanchine dancers. At the Boston Ballet, 17 of 20 of the top dancers are foreign born and at least initially foreign trained. In San Francisco, only 4 of the 17 principals were born in this country. American Ballet Theater has long welcomed foreign-trained stars. The same pattern prevails in many other big companies. The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago still seems to be predominantly American, as does City Ballet, though it has always had foreign stars, too, like the Danish Peter Martins, its current director, or the French Sofiane Sylve. In our era of globalization, is this a problem, or merely a swing of the pendulum from internationalism to nativism and back again?”
Big Music, Movies Courting College Students W/ New Download Services
“In the search for online customers, entertainment companies are aggressively pursuing college students, who cannot remember life before the internet. This generation works off laptops more than it watches television, plugs into high-speed university networks, uses the web for homework and headlines — and on average carries around more than 1,000 songs on a hard drive. Already, dozens of schools are rolling out downloading services from Ruckus Network, RealNetworks, Napster and Sea Blue Media. So important is this university market that Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the world’s largest label, has paid the entire bill at some schools during trial semesters.”
Vegas Rediscovers The Theatre
Theatre and pop singers are big in Vegas right now. “Pop superstars and Broadway hits with their own dedicated theaters are the town’s new royalty. Resorts without such anchors are scrambling to catch up. And outside of town — most notably in New York — jaws are dropping at the huge sums now staked on wooing such entertainment.”
The Making Of A Lion King Musical
It’s been seven years since the Lion King went to Minneapolis for a tryout. “Every square foot of the theater — including the lobby, basement and bathrooms — was filled with costume stitchers, prop painters and carpenters, busily assembling the show. There was even a trailer in the parking lot, jammed with accountants.”
Cleveland Expansion Means Short-Term Frustration
“The $258 million expansion and renovation of the Cleveland Museum of Art, approved by trustees in March, ought to improve the museum vastly in six years. But in the near term, it means losing access to one of the greatest permanent collections in the country. By the end of this month, nearly 20 of the museum’s 70 galleries are scheduled to be closed for renovation. By June, the museum’s entire permanent collection will be out of sight for at least three years. Large portions of the collection will remain off-limits for another three years. Special exhibitions will continue through early January 2006, after which the museum will close completely for six months.”
Not Another Cleveland
The financial crisis currently enveloping Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre eerily mirrors the situation at the Cleveland San Jose Ballet several years ago. Cleveland-San Jose folded in 2000, but PBT officials insist that the same fate won’t befall their company, and further stress that the rumors of an impending merger with some other Pittsburgh-area arts group are extremely premature.
Terrorism, Meet Your Operatic Muse
“The escalating artistic arms race between London’s two rival opera houses, Covent Garden and the Coliseum, reached a new level of threat this weekend. Both venues are in the middle of staging block-busting versions of Richard Wagner’s epic and expensive Ring cycle, but audiences at the Coliseum last night were left reeling from more than the music after the English National Opera mounted a violent coup de thétre. In what will come to be regarded by opera fans as a moment of bizarre heresy – or of creative triumph – Brunnhilde, the leading character in the ENO’s new production of Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods, was portrayed as a suicide bomber.”
Left Coast Lurching Right?
Everyone knows that Hollywood is nothing but a bunch of self-aggrandizing liberals peddling their socialist claptrap to a gullible nation of consumers, right? Wrong. “Since the re-election of George W. Bush last fall, cultural conservatives have been flexing their muscles not only in the political arena but also on the entertainment front.” Will the next CSI spinoff be set in Crawford, Texas? Will MTV’s next Spring Break special stress abstinence and bedrock family values? Will Don Rumsfeld be the next James Bond? Anything’s possible…
Sweet Relief
The bizarre on-again, off-again story of the Broadway-bound (for now) revival of Sweet Charity is a whopper of a tale, even by theatre standards. “According to the show’s ad campaign tagline, the tale of Sweet Charity is that of ‘one woman’s belief that in the midst of adversity, she will find hope and the strength to know that someday all of her dreams will come true.’ The offstage story is of one revival’s belief that in the midst of adversity, it will find hope and the strength to know that someday some of its dreams and even, if one believes in miracles, a smidgen of profit will come true.”