“Just at the moment when Hollywood North has moved into meltdown mode, with deep-pocketed U.S. movie and TV producers running away from Toronto instead of to Toronto, Broadway North also has become a vanishing act. With the early closing of The Producers and Hairspray, open-ended, long running $8-million or $10-million musicals have become an endangered species in this town… For now, Toronto has reverted to taking limited runs of big touring shows. Where there used to be four long-run musicals in town, now there is only one.”
Tag: 12.12.04
Is There Still A Need For Gay Theatre?
The Twin Cities-based theatre company known as Outward Spiral has called a “town meeting” to discuss its future. At issue is not so much the cost of doing business – Spiral has always been a low-budget company – but whether there is still a place for a gay-themed troupe in an age when mainstream theatre regularly features gay characters and issue-themed plays. “It sounds scary and foreboding, but it’s a healthy conversation. Just as none of us is immortal, so does not every arts organization need to live forever. Art, like life, has cycles, and people who claim to have the perception and insight to produce art should be able to use those same skills to ascertain when an arts group has reached the end of its useful life.”
MacMillan To Scots: People Think We’re Philistines
Composer James MacMillan says recent events in Scottish arts have portrayed his country in a bad light. “Many people outside Scotland are beginning to speculate that Scotland is a philistine country, and I find this very troubling. I find it insulting but I can understand why it’s coming about because the indications from the top are precisely that. Those in power, those in the government, those associated with some of the arts provision in Scotland are giving marvellous impersonations of being philistines.”
The History Of Classical Music – Re-evaluated
Is it possible anymore to tell a coherent history of “classical” music? Richard Taruskin attempts it with a six-volume 3,800-page new history. “Taruskin’s chef-d’oeuvre, however, is a feast of contrarian ideas, with enough spice to sting the palate of anyone with a stake in telling the old stories in the old way. It aims for nothing less than the revaluation of practically everything you thought you knew about “classical” music.”
Art School Grant Raises Eyebrows
A new art school in Philadelphia has scored a major grant from the Delaware River Port Authority, and some officials are asking how a small-scale start-up operation could be awarded a quarter of a million dollars in bridge toll proceeds (nearly twice the school’s entire annual operating budget) while other, more established arts groups go begging. The answer appears to be that school officials have friends in very high political places – friends who lobbied hard for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to approve the grant quickly and quietly.
Philly’s Christmas Glut
The end-of-the-year holiday season is make-or-break time for many performing arts groups, and in large cities like Philadelphia, where dozens of groups are competing for audience, getting a big enough slice of the ticket revenue pie becomes crucial, and difficult. “In the last three years, the Philadelphia Orchestra has added eight holiday concerts, supplementing its traditional two performances of Handel’s Messiah and its yearly New Year’s Eve concert. The Philly Pops, which in 2000 gave its first holiday-themed concert, now offers six. The Kimmel Center itself also has added holiday shows such as the Vienna Boys Choir. Smaller arts groups also are relying ever more heavily on holiday receipts.”
Yes Men And Their No-No’s
Recently, the Yes Men hoodwinked media by issuing a dummy statement on the tenth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. “Somewhere between satire and surrealism, activism and absurdism, the Yes Men seem likely to wreak embarrassment and confusion for some time to come, and not even the censure that followed the ‘Bhopal incident’ seems to have dimmed their determination.”
London’s Royal Academy In Trouble
“The Royal Academy of Arts, the body that has represented Britain’s leading artists for more than 200 years, is facing a grave financial crisis. Its splendid corridors are riven with talk of plots and bad management, and unless it scores another blockbusting hit with the ‘Turks’ exhibition, to be staged next year, it may have to sell more of its assets. A new president will be elected on Tuesday, in Vatican-style seclusion, inside the academy’s stately home, Burlington House in London’s Piccadilly. But when the 80 academicians on the general assembly have made their decision, their newly anointed leader will become the figurehead of an organisation saddled with potentially crippling money problems.”
Computer Model Predicts Book Sales
A new computer model is proving accurate in predicting how books will sell. “Information about a book travels through the network of potential buyers in two possible fashions: exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous shocks come from sources outside the system they affect, like billboards or newspaper articles; endogenous shocks are made up of very small exogenous shocks that happen in a coordinated fashion, like word-of-mouth recommendations. The model predicts how sales will decline after they peak according to how the peak occurred.”
Suing Wal-Mart For Obscene Lyrics
The parents of a 13-year-old are suing Wal-Mart for selling music with “obscene” lyrics. “The lawsuit seeks to force Wal-Mart to censor the music or remove it from its stores in Maryland. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 for every customer who bought the CD at Maryland Wal-Marts, and also naming record label Wind-Up Records and distributor BMG Entertainment in the legal action.”