“Who would have thought, 20 years after the movie first hit the screens, now the merchandising kicks in. The Princess Bride had everything: Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles” — but, it’s now clear, insufficient product tie-ins. Enter the Dread Pirate Roberts action figure. Seriously.
Tag: 11.27.08
When Playwrights Can’t Let Go Of The Script
“Eugene O’Neill rewrote compulsively; Bertolt Brecht published three alarmingly different versions of Galileo; and Leonard Bernstein’s musical Candide burned through three book writers and lyricists (Dorothy Parker and James Agee among them). … Instead of inventing an entirely new work, playwrights instead reduce, reuse and recycle. But is this really good for the theatrical environment?”
Cardinal To National Gallery: Painting Belongs In Cathedral
“The Archbishop of Westminster has urged the National Gallery to give up a Renaissance masterpiece, calling it ‘a work of faith’ rather than art. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor says that The Baptism of Christ, painted by Piero della Francesca in the 1450s should be in Westminster Cathedral. … The painting has been in the gallery’s collection since 1861.”
Royal Academy’s Russian Show, Nearly Scuttled, Was A Hit
“An art exhibition which was threatened by a row between the UK and Russia became one of the Royal Academy of Art’s most successful exhibitions. Almost 400,000 people visited From Russia when it opened at the London venue earlier this year. The exhibition was almost scrapped over Russian authorities’ fears the art could be seized while on British soil.”
Old Masters As Old Reliables? London Sales Will Tell.
“Old masters, which are expected to weather the current market downturn better than contemporary art, are the focus of London auctions next week. The hype that caused the run-up in prices for contemporary works passed by this traditionally more stable sector.”
Disputed Mexican Art Collection Goes Into Hiding
“Somewhere a great collection of 20th-century Mexican art has been hidden. The works, by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and their contemporaries have been removed from a museum in Cuernavaca, about an hour south of [Mexico City], until further notice as a legal battle unfolds over the collection’s rightful ownership.”
Ballet BC’s Pain Not Spreading Through Canadian Dance (Yet)
“The Canadian ballet world sympathizes with Vancouver’s pain, but it can’t actually empathize: Ballet administrators across the country report only slight softening in tickets sales and none of the disastrous shortfalls experienced by Ballet British Columbia, which laid off all its staff this week.”