ArtsJournal Classic

AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only

DANCE

    IDEAS

    • Broadway’s Next Stage Comes With Lifeboat Drills

      Good Morning,

      Cruise lines have quietly become one of the largest employers of musical theatre performers, and they’ve stopped commissioning schlocky revues in favor of real productions (The Guardian).

      The container keeps moving faster than the field’s map of it. Microdramas — vertical, two-minute, phone-native — are already spawning microsports (The Hollywood Reporter). And a Bay Area critic argues classical music is now underground music (San Francisco Classical Voice) — not an obituary, a repositioning. Underground scenes have workable economics, while mainstream-adjacent ones don’t.

      Meanwhile Hollywood posted the biggest box office weekend in history on the strength of exactly two titles (Variety). Not hard to guess which.

      Against all that, London’s Royal Ballet and Opera says it needs £60 million simply to keep its building open (The Times).

      Also today: Mozart’s best librettist ended up an American, and his descendants are still here (The New York Times).

      All of our stories below.

    • Some Cruise Lines Are Shifting Onboard Entertainment From Schlocky Revues To Legit Theatre

      Okay, they’re not doing Long Day’s Journey Into Night or Titus Andronicus; after all, the audience is on vacation. But cruises from the UK have started presenting professional productions like Come From Away and the RSC staging of The Constant Wife. Ambassador Cruise Line even has a playwriting competition. – The Guardian

    • Are These The 25 Most Significant Sculptures Of The Modern Age?

      To choose the 25 most important works of sculpture made since 1945, we asked a panel of experts to gather at the New York Times building in March. – The New York Times

    • Torn To Shreds: The Writers Workshop

      Joyce Carol Oates is known for her strict style. One of her students once described her crossing through the first several pages of a story and asking: “What’s the point?” I commiserated with him, but he looked at me and said: “No, that’s what I want. To be ripped to shreds.” – The Guardian

    • You Know About Microdramas. Get Ready For Microsports.

      “Brett Morris, the CEO of World 1, wants you to watch his ‘Microsports,’ which he describes as ‘entirely original sports where world titles are won or lost in 30 seconds.’” – The Hollywood Reporter

    ISSUES

    MEDIA

    MUSIC

    PEOPLE

    • Broadway’s Next Stage Comes With Lifeboat Drills

      Good Morning,

      Cruise lines have quietly become one of the largest employers of musical theatre performers, and they’ve stopped commissioning schlocky revues in favor of real productions (The Guardian).

      The container keeps moving faster than the field’s map of it. Microdramas — vertical, two-minute, phone-native — are already spawning microsports (The Hollywood Reporter). And a Bay Area critic argues classical music is now underground music (San Francisco Classical Voice) — not an obituary, a repositioning. Underground scenes have workable economics, while mainstream-adjacent ones don’t.

      Meanwhile Hollywood posted the biggest box office weekend in history on the strength of exactly two titles (Variety). Not hard to guess which.

      Against all that, London’s Royal Ballet and Opera says it needs £60 million simply to keep its building open (The Times).

      Also today: Mozart’s best librettist ended up an American, and his descendants are still here (The New York Times).

      All of our stories below.

    • Some Cruise Lines Are Shifting Onboard Entertainment From Schlocky Revues To Legit Theatre

      Okay, they’re not doing Long Day’s Journey Into Night or Titus Andronicus; after all, the audience is on vacation. But cruises from the UK have started presenting professional productions like Come From Away and the RSC staging of The Constant Wife. Ambassador Cruise Line even has a playwriting competition. – The Guardian

    • Are These The 25 Most Significant Sculptures Of The Modern Age?

      To choose the 25 most important works of sculpture made since 1945, we asked a panel of experts to gather at the New York Times building in March. – The New York Times

    • Torn To Shreds: The Writers Workshop

      Joyce Carol Oates is known for her strict style. One of her students once described her crossing through the first several pages of a story and asking: “What’s the point?” I commiserated with him, but he looked at me and said: “No, that’s what I want. To be ripped to shreds.” – The Guardian

    • You Know About Microdramas. Get Ready For Microsports.

      “Brett Morris, the CEO of World 1, wants you to watch his ‘Microsports,’ which he describes as ‘entirely original sports where world titles are won or lost in 30 seconds.’” – The Hollywood Reporter

    PEOPLE

    • Broadway’s Next Stage Comes With Lifeboat Drills

      Good Morning,

      Cruise lines have quietly become one of the largest employers of musical theatre performers, and they’ve stopped commissioning schlocky revues in favor of real productions (The Guardian).

      The container keeps moving faster than the field’s map of it. Microdramas — vertical, two-minute, phone-native — are already spawning microsports (The Hollywood Reporter). And a Bay Area critic argues classical music is now underground music (San Francisco Classical Voice) — not an obituary, a repositioning. Underground scenes have workable economics, while mainstream-adjacent ones don’t.

      Meanwhile Hollywood posted the biggest box office weekend in history on the strength of exactly two titles (Variety). Not hard to guess which.

      Against all that, London’s Royal Ballet and Opera says it needs £60 million simply to keep its building open (The Times).

      Also today: Mozart’s best librettist ended up an American, and his descendants are still here (The New York Times).

      All of our stories below.

    • Some Cruise Lines Are Shifting Onboard Entertainment From Schlocky Revues To Legit Theatre

      Okay, they’re not doing Long Day’s Journey Into Night or Titus Andronicus; after all, the audience is on vacation. But cruises from the UK have started presenting professional productions like Come From Away and the RSC staging of The Constant Wife. Ambassador Cruise Line even has a playwriting competition. – The Guardian

    • Are These The 25 Most Significant Sculptures Of The Modern Age?

      To choose the 25 most important works of sculpture made since 1945, we asked a panel of experts to gather at the New York Times building in March. – The New York Times

    • Torn To Shreds: The Writers Workshop

      Joyce Carol Oates is known for her strict style. One of her students once described her crossing through the first several pages of a story and asking: “What’s the point?” I commiserated with him, but he looked at me and said: “No, that’s what I want. To be ripped to shreds.” – The Guardian

    • You Know About Microdramas. Get Ready For Microsports.

      “Brett Morris, the CEO of World 1, wants you to watch his ‘Microsports,’ which he describes as ‘entirely original sports where world titles are won or lost in 30 seconds.’” – The Hollywood Reporter

    THEATRE

      VISUAL

      • Our Complicated Relationship With Boredom

        Boredom isn’t merely the result of a boring external environment, as a schoolchild might think, or inadequate mental resources, as my mother suggested. It is either a mysterious nexus of dysfunction or a healthy adaptive function (it’s complicated) that afflicts both individuals and societies at large. – Portico Quarterly

      • Guardrails For AI Didn’t Work. So Bring In The Philosophers

        “Efforts [to stop the generation of harmful content] were initially focused around putting in simple black-and-white guardrails, such as forbidding a model from talking about bombs entirely. But these proved clumsy and easy to circumvent. Now, companies are pursuing methods that lean heavily on a philosophical understanding of right and wrong.” – The AI Humanist

      • America Is Losing Its Public Gathering Spaces

        According to its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages—which counts business establishments by industry down to the county level going back to 1990—the U.S. has lost a fifth of its movie theaters and nearly a third of its bowling alleys since 2001. – Fortune

      • Google Briefly Allowed AI Manipulation Of Google Earth Satellite Images. Bad Idea

        Google briefly allowed anyone to create AI-modified versions of satellite imagery available in Google Earth—before quickly reversing its decision as people shared examples of AI-generated pictures that illustrated the potential for misinformation and disinformation. – Ars Technica

      • Question: Is It Even Possible To Make Non-Creepy Smart Glasses?

        Sure, everyone has phones, but “the phone still needs to be pulled out, held up, and have its camera activated to capture a photo or film a video. Smart glasses, with small built-in cameras and the user’s ability to obfuscate the recording notification, are much sneakier.” – Wired

      WORDS