A Theatre With Dreams May Come…

Chicago performing arts groups are optimistic their new home will help build strong companies. “The original purpose behind this project was to provide stability to organizations such as ours that lacked a centrally located, permanent home in downtown Chicago. Our hope is that, as a consequence of our participating in this new venue, we can help each other build audiences.”

The Giller At 10

Canada’s Giller Prize for literature is ten years old. In a short time it has gained stature as a major literary prize that has elevated Canadian writers. “This year’s 10th anniversary edition of the Giller Prize will be broadcast live Tuesday in prime time on the CBC national network in addition to its regular home on Book TV, the first time it has had that level of exposure. Authors who have won the Giller have become internationally celebrated, and those on the short lists have gone from marginal to famous figures.”

Digital Singles Outsell CDs

“Digital tracks are outselling physical singles by a growing margin, a sign that consumers increasingly are embracing the brave new world of Internet downloading. Digital download sales outpaced physical singles 857,000 to 170,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures for the week ending Oct. 26. That’s slightly more than a 5-to-1 ratio.”

Is Einaudi Our Most Popular Classical Composer?

Ludovico Einaudi is “Classic FM’s most requested contemporary composer. His latest album, Echoes, went straight to the top of the classical charts when it was released in September. It has sold 50,000 copies – enough to put it at number 40 on the pop chart. It isn’t the sort of music you would immediately associate with a concert hall. Certainly, it is perfect music if you’re doing something else at the same time as listening to it. And yet he has just performed to a packed Barbican, where he received a standing ovation.

Chapman Attacks Tate Modern: It’s Bad

Jake Chapman, a Turner Prize finalist, and “half of the pair dubbed ‘the Brothers Grim’, has unleashed an excoriating attack on the Tate Modern and Saatchi galleries, accusing them of threatening the future of art by bowing to the lowest common denominator. He called the Tate a ‘monument to absolute cultural saturation’ and said he would rather take a ride at Alton Towers than look at some of its contents. Charles Saatchi’s gallery was ‘simply an expression of one man’s ownership’.”

New Life For Tennessee?

Tennessee Williams’ plays have not worn well in recent years. But “nobody wrote like him – with the beautiful agony, compassionate brutality and sexually complicated women. On the other hand, no one overwrote like him either. Did the sexual revolution and gay liberation let the air out of his theatrical high-compression chambers? Are we so casual about our internal lives that even gorgeous imagery about sensual menace seems less majestic than ludicrous? If so, can his time come again? People in important places are betting that it can.”

Okay, So Lit Prizes Are Useful

Philip Marchand has not been a fan of literary prizes. But he has to admit: “Like it or not, our literary culture has discovered that it can’t do without prizes. And the success of the Giller Prize, in this country, has been remarkable — at least success measured in terms of public awareness. How has this come to pass? One explanation is television.”

The Producers Failing To Produce

“The Producers opened as a monster hit on Broadway. It was supposed to stay that way, packing houses for years. But it hasn’t turned out that way. “Less than three years after its incomparably auspicious opening, The Producers, in the eyes of many on Broadway, has become an underachiever. Its box office grosses, which set record highs — more than $1.2 million per week — in its first year, have fallen about 20 percent in the last 12 months. It now ranks below newer shows like Hairspray and Mamma Mia! as well as The Lion King.”