“Musical theatre has rarely been more buoyant in London, with 25 productions on show and reports of box-office records — such as Wicked earning nearly £800,000 in its first week. But while Sir Tim praised shows such as Billy Elliot and Blood Brothers, he said that there is no evidence of a new generation of writing talent.”
Tag: 11.06.06
Novels, The Hidden Budget-Buster
In a Shouts and Murmurs piece, Ian Frazier riffs on a New York Daily News item that suggested cutting costs by borrowing novels from the library instead of buying them in hardcover.
Northern Ireland – In Search Of A New Drama Strategy
“The five-year plan, due to be completed by February 2007, will be expected to ‘establish a clear vision of the development of drama within Northern Ireland with priorities and key actions for the arts council to implement’.”
Hair Of The Dancer
“During the mid-to-late 1970s, women on the cutting edge of choreography tended to hold equivalently radical views with regard to body hair, and a quite remarkable number of reviews from that period featured outraged references to unshaven armpits, coupled with wistful asides about the immaculate grooming standards upheld in ballet. Times and fashions change, along with political correctness. But hair does still mark a profound divide between ballet and modern dance – even if the focus has shifted from the women to the men, and from the body to the scalp.”
Heritage This
The whole “world heritage site” designation has become meaningless, writes Germaine Greer. “If ‘world heritage’ means anything, it should mean that the recovery of human history is not a matter for nation states, but for the international community. Rather than leaving it to the individual governments to struggle to produce the right kind of application couched in the current UN twaddle, together with the detailed maps and inventories demanded by Unesco, and then find funding to keep the sites intact, the survival of human heritage should be a global project.”
What’s So Perfect About Perfect Pitch?
“So-called perfect pitch is supposedly innate and only achievable at the youngest stages of life. But while it is advantageous for someone to have developed his or her tonal ear as a child, it by no means precludes one from ever learning to hear music in such a way.”
A Culture Of Guarantees?
More and more sellers of art at this fall’s auctions are asking for (and getting) guarantees. “Some 48 of the 168 works being offered at Sotheby’s two evening sales have guarantees. Christie’s has granted guarantees for 49 of the 168 works in its two evening sales.”
A Jackson Pollock For $5?
A former truck driver buys what she later comes to decide is a Jackson Pollock painting from a California thrift store. It cost $5. Is it really worth millions? An auction this week will tell the tale.
Prediction: CD Sales Down 50 Percent
A UK recording exec says CD sales will be half what they are now in three years. “We figure the value of CD sales will be 50% less in three years than it is now. We predict digital growth of 25% per year, but it is not enough to replace the loss from falling CD sales. By 2010 we will be 30% behind in terms of revenues. We have to reinvent.”
Radio 3: More Classical, Not Less
Britain’s Radio 3 denies it will be cutting classical music programming. “We’re doing full concerts. We are not going to do excerpts, we’re going to do concerts. The rumours come from a complete misunderstanding of what we do, leave alone what we are going to do.”