“The Broadway show that President and First Lady Obama saw Saturday night got a big boost at the box office yesterday. The number of advance tickets sold yesterday for ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ was triple that of the previous Sunday, according to a production source.”
Tag: 06.01.09
Method Contemporary Gets Plum Prize At Horton Awards
“The 18th annual Lester Horton Dance Awards … handed the top honor, outstanding achievement in performance by a dance troupe, to Method Contemporary Dance Company for ‘This Is Not an Exit.’ … The awards, given by the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, cite excellence in performance, choreography, design, music and other categories for L.A.-area dance presentations.”
At BEA, Uncertainty Ruled — But That’s Not All Bad
The future was in the eye of the beholder at this year’s BookExpo America. “For major publishing conglomerates … there was a sense of retrenchment, a feeling that the business model had irrevocably shifted — although to what exactly, no one was quite sure. But for independent publishers … there was an air of possibility, the belief that the future was very much in play.”
Two Nonprofit Funders Spread Wealth Differently This Year
“Shubert Foundation coin will top $17.5 million this year, with about $12.5 million going to theater orgs — 6% more than in 2008. The Randall Grant, previously a $100,000 subsidy awarded to one production of a classic text, has been temporarily restructured to provide smaller grants for general operational support of a number of companies.”
As Income Plummeted, NYC Opera Fell $11.3M Into Red
“The embattled New York City Opera lost $11.3 million in the year ending June 30, 2008, when the company still believed that Belgian Gerard Mortier would lead it into a new era. According to City Opera’s tax return, provided to Bloomberg upon request, revenue, including ticket sales and income from donations and investments, fell 23 percent to $32.9 million. Expenses jumped 11 percent to $44.2 million.”
Google Sets Sights On Amazon-Dominated E-Book Market
“Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market. In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program … that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google. The move would pit Google against Amazon.com….”
Geoff Nuttall Is Spoleto’s New Chamber-Music Director
“The Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston has announced that Geoff Nuttall is the new director of chamber music, succeeding Charles Wadsworth. Festival General Manager Nigel Redden said Sunday night that Nuttall, the festival’s current associate artistic director for chamber music, will become director next season.”
Charles Ives’ Long Journey To Find His Musical Voice
“There’s a tendency for classical music aficionados to assume that composers are always and only themselves: Beethoven always Beethoven, Brahms always Brahms, Ives always Ives. The reality is that those composers, like all worthwhile artists, have gone through a more or less extended journey to escape from their models and to find a voice, to discover who they are.” Until he made that discovery, Ives did not sound like Ives.
Asia Has Developed A Big Taste For Western Musical Theatre
South Korea, producer Torben Brookman says, “has developed an enormous thirst for musicals, not just for Cats and Phantom, but also for new, cutting-edge work. Only in South Korea, Brookman says, is there an equivalent of an off-Broadway theatre circuit, where a city has streets full of small theatres, with seating capacities of 150 or 300, all showing a different musical. One small theatre in South Korea has been showing the cult musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch for two years.”
@BookExpo – Publishers Grapple With Electrons
“It should be no surprise that at BookExpo America, the publishing industry’s annual trade convention that ended Sunday in New York, publishers seemed to be putting their own stamps on the increasingly frenzied conversation about electronic books that has hijacked the business.”