Children’s theatre is booming across the US, but Chicago, despite its vast theater offerings, has long lacked a dedicated children’s theater. That’s about to change…
Tag: 06.07.05
Better Food, Blander Fare At Big Biz Colorado Dinner Theatres
“Dinner theater is big business in Colorado. Nine major venues generated about $9.2 million last year. Together they drew about 318,000 people – and that includes only the 550-seat Pinnacle’s first month in business. But dinner and a show can run anywhere from $25-$75, a number that keeps increasing along with the quality of the food. At those prices, patrons are becoming less likely to take a risk on edgier shows.”
How Returns Are Killing The Book Industry
“Returns are the dark side of the book world, marking not only failed expectations, but the crippling inefficiencies of an antiquated business. It’s a problem that’s only getting worse. The industry’s current economic model pushes publishers to generate a small number of blockbuster hits. But picking winners is a quixotic enterprise, and as publishers ship an ever-increasing number of books to stores, hoping to hit the jackpot every time, stores are sending an ever-increasing number back.”
Actress Anne Bancroft, 73
“Bancroft was awarded the Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of the deaf and blind Helen Keller. She repeated her portrayal in the film version. Yet despite her Academy Award and four other nominations, “The Graduate” overshadowed her other achievements.”
What Happened To Poetry?
“People no longer pretend to laud the poet or his craft. The Poet was once the man who wrestled with the Olympian concepts and brought them down to Earth mortal-sized morsels for the Saturday Evening Post. Poetry was the expression of truth and/or beauty professed through the rigors of language and form. When poetry meant Kipling, it had a certain valor and heft in the public mind. Now, that was a poem. By God it rhymed and you could march to it. Then came the new poets who shed the old styles as a useless encrustation of the old dead past, and they lost their claim on the popular mind. Now poetry was seen as a way to detail the author’s tormented, neurotic, indecisive inner life — by means of gassy exhalations devoid of form or discipline. I should know; I wrote miles of that stuff in college.”
Basically The Book Biz
Book Expo America attracts 30,000-plus booksellers, authors, editors and journalists to talk publishing. “The event briefly reconverts a modern business of e-mail, phone calls and faxes to a human one of smiles and handshakes, laughs and shared meals, and lots of giveaways: book bags, galleys, tchotchkes, and the heavy tomes exhibitors don’t want to repack and mail.”
English National Opera Adds Supertitles
The English National Opera says it will start using supertitles, even though its operas are performed in English. The company says that “research showed 61% of its audience was more likely to return to the Coliseum if surtitles were used. They will be introduced from March 2006, beginning with Vaughan Williams’ Sir John In Love.”
Philadelphia Museum In Half-Billion Dollar Expansion
“The Philadelphia Museum of Art is embarking on what would be the largest cultural expansion in Philadelphia history, an extremely ambitious, $500 million effort to expand and renovate its iconic building at the end of the Parkway.”
Eifman In America
In 1977, Boris Eifman organized the Leningrad New Ballet company, later called the St. Petersburg State Academic Theatre of Ballet. In the midst of state-run theaters, this was something to behold. The troupe was the only one in Russia that nurtured modern choreography — something beyond tutus and pointe shoes. It has evolved into Eifman Ballet, still state funded, but with plenty of outside investors as well. Eifman, a creator of more than 40 ballets is the only living Russian choreographer with a creative resume on a par with the most up-and-coming Western choreographers.”
King Tut On Marketing Steroids
The four-city tour of King Tut in the US that begins next week in Los Angeles is a marketing extravaganza. “Little about Tut II is like anything the museum world is used to, let alone the museum world of 1976-1979 when Tut virtually invented the blockbuster museum exhibit. For Tut II, museums are merely the venues, not the prime organizers, in large part because no museum could afford to insure the exhibit for its official value of $650 million. Also, Egypt has become a savvy negotiator determined to squeeze as many dollars out of Tut as possible.”