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- Two Pittsburgh Theatres Merge
Pittsburgh’s theater community is betting that a business deal of its own — the merger of the Pittsburgh CLO and the Pittsburgh Public Theater — will pay off. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- When Superfans Go Too Far
In recent years, celebrities have attempted to set boundaries for their adoring, sometimes obsessive fans. – The New York Times
- Theatre That Hadn’t Shown A Movie In 35 Years Has Highest Ticket Sales In The Country For “Odyssey”
The venue, which hadn’t shown a first-run movie for 35 years, has announced it’s the highest grossing theatre in the country for Christopher Nolan’s mythological epic on the film format. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Samantha Morton Says She’s Gotten No Acting Work Since She Finished Shooting For “The Odyssey”
A two-time Oscar nominee who’s widely expected to get another nomination for her performance as Circe, Morton said, “I’ve got really good agents and a manager, but at the end of the day, I’m 49. I do believe I’m a good actor, (but) there are other good actors out there.” – Variety
- John Caird: Broadway Has Become Disneyfied
Caird concluded that Broadway’s significant cost meant it might now “no longer necessarily be people’s choice of where to put a show, which is maybe a good thing”. He added: “Maybe some sanity will return [to Broadway].” – The Stage
- Who Is Buying Massive Quantities Of Books?
We know that something mysterious is afoot. Someone—if not more than one group or company—has been snapping up massive volumes of books from shops around the world. – The Atlantic
- The Big Estate Sales That Are Reshaping The Art Market
The list of collectors whose art has arrived at auction over the past two years reads like the society pages of decades past. Some died; others have merely reached an age when keeping several hundred million dollars’ worth of paintings around no longer seems quite as important as it once did. – ARTnews
- Bruno Campanella, Opera Conductor Known For Bel Canto, Is Dead At 83
After emerging internationally in the late 1970s, he established himself as one of the leading specialists in the operas of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. He guest-conducted at most of the world’s major opera houses and served as music director of the Teatro Regio in Turin for three years in the 1990s. – Moto Perpetuo
- As Broadway Struggles, London’s West End Thrives — With Less Expensive Tickets
“The West End is capitalizing on lower production costs, cheaper ticket prices and government tax relief to drive attendances to new heights. … Staging a show in New York now costs three to five times what it does in London, producers say.” – The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
- Major Museums Are Forming Partnerships To Buy And Share Artworks
“Pooling resources now reflects a broader shift away from the competitive collection building of the 19th and 20th centuries. Increasing financial pressure plays an undeniable role, but so does a growing appetite for deeper institutional ties and shared expertise.” – Artnet
- Dallas’s Perot Museum Of Nature And Science Seems To Be Planning A Big Expansion It Hasn’t Announced
The news comes from a filing the museum made last week with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation; management has also filed with the city of Dallas for a construction permit. Work is expected to start early next year. – The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
- Disney To Allow TikTok Creators To Use Clips From Its Films And TV Shows
“Neither company shared financial details of the agreement, although it follows the collapse of a $1 billion (£745 million) deal between Disney and OpenAI which would have let people use its characters in AI-generated videos.” – BBC
- Contemporary Art Museum Of Raleigh Is Selling Its Building
The museum paused its exhibitions and other activities last year due to financial troubles. The board and management have not announced any permanent closure; their statements indicate that they hope to keep operating without a permanent home. – The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC)
- What Wagner Lovers Put Up With To Be At Bayreuth
Hard, uncomfortable seats built for 19th-century-sized bodies. No air conditioning and poor ventilation in high summer. The preferences, not to say whims, of the composer’s great-granddaughter because she’s the boss. Years-long waits for expensive tickets. Pricey drinks at intermission. The Wagnerites say it’s all worth it. – The New York Times
- Free, free, free. It matters!
Good Morning,
Sadiq Khan defends free museum admission with a number that’s hard to argue: London visits to formerly paid institutions rose about 151% in the decade after the charges came off (LBC). Access as a core strategy.
The same logic surfaces twice more today. San Diego is launching an arts pass covering 40-plus organizations across the county and metro Tijuana (The San Diego Union-Tribune). And bands watching the average top-tour ticket climb from $84 to $130 in a decade have started offering their own $20 seats (The Wall Street Journal).
The return on that isn’t only attendance. The Smithsonian is absorbing a sustained White House pressure campaign, but the public’s love of the museums is holding it up — including among people otherwise receptive to the attack. This runs straight through free entry (The Atlantic).
Which makes Justin Davidson’s verdict on building hyperflexible theatres sting. Moving walls, precision lifts, rooms that expand on command — and the revolution arrives as anticlimactic and overpriced (Curbed).
All of our stories below.
- Taking John Cage’s “As SLow aS Possible” Into A Whole Other Dimension
“A rare chord change on Wednesday — from seven notes to eight once an A4 pipe was added — represented the completion of about 4% of the 639-year endeavor of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt. … The’“ORGAN²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)’ composition is scheduled to finish on Sept. 4, 2640.” – AP
- What We Lost When Video Rental Stores Went Away
The early video store was often a place to talk as well as to shop, and the persona and expertise of retailers and clerks structured the consumer experience of home video as much as the shelves on the wall. – MIT Press
- The Problem With Super-Flexible High-Tech Performance Venues
Justin Davidson on New York’s Perelman Arts Center and The Shed: “Now the boldest experimenters can take advantage of walls that move at the touch of a button, precision lifts, rooms that shrink and expand, projected images (on) moving surfaces. … Yet the revolution, now that it’s here, feels anticlimactic and overpriced.” – Curbed (MSN)
- The Edinburgh Fringe Is Huge. But Is Success Just Getting Bigger?
Edinburgh has wrestled with for years: what is tourism actually for? If the answer is simply “more visitors, more spending”, the city will keep winning by numbers while residents feel they are losing by experience. – The Conversation
- David Ellison Makes His Case For The Paramount/Warner Merger
I want to build a company with the strength and resources to deliver for those audiences who turn to us, for the storytellers who rely on us and for the country that dreamed this all up. – The New York Times
- Why Is Music Being Released On Vinyl Missing What’s In The Digital Versions?
It’s the year’s worst pop trend: fans paying the highest price to pre-order what is ostensibly the most desirable, collectible or elaborate edition of an album are instead receiving incomplete or unpolished versions of the music. – The Guardian
- This Standup Comedian Sold Out Arenas In His Homeland — And Angered The Government. Now He’s Figuring Out American Humor.
Pandji Pragiwaksono was a household name in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country. In a Netflix special last year, he made fun of the president and was interrogated on criminal charges. Now he’s in New York, working comedy clubs, learning which routines don’t translate, and preparing for his first English-language tour. – Variety
- The Difficulties Of An AI For Africa
- The Video Game Industry Is Collapsing. Why?
As movies and shows like “Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Fallout” prove Hollywood has finally figured out how to successfully adapt video games — after years of failure so deep a “video game movie curse” moniker was coined — the makers of those games are in disarray. – The Wrap (MSN)
- Sure, Attack The Smithsonian. But Americans Really Love It
Even now, as the museum complex continues to face a pressure campaign from the White House, public fondness for the Smithsonian—for its free entry and eclectic collections—is hard to break among those otherwise receptive to President Trump’s anti-institutionalism. – The Atlantic
- Building An AI Program To Generate K-Pop Choreography
Youngjun Choi, who has created dance routines for some of South Korea’s biggest pop stars (including BTS), and Joon Jung, a choreographer-turned-tech exec, co-founded the startup MVNT to build an AI system for dance, much like Suno, the generative AI music platform. – Business Insider
- English National Ballet Suffers Cyberattack
ENB said some customer email address and business contact information “may have been included in the affected data” from the cyber attack and that it was taking the matter seriously. – The Standard
- Author Denies He Used AI To Write Book That He Sold For Millions
The author accused of using artificial intelligence to craft the debut novel that landed him a multimillion-dollar book deal said he was innocent and that the claims against him were racially motivated. – The Wall Street Journal
- Concert Ticket Prices Soared. Some Bands Are Figuring Out Discounts
A decade ago, the average ticket to a top 100 tour went for $83.74, according to Billboard Boxscore. By 2024, that had risen to $130.36. That’s before taxes, fees and additional markups if tickets end up on the secondary market. – The Wall Street Journal
- Fra Angelico’s First Major Altarpiece Restored After Five Centuries Of Disrepair
The Fiesole Altarpiece, painted in the 1420s, suffered its first damage during an updating in 1501; it was subsequently broken up, had some of its parts looted or sold off, and was gnawed by wood-boring insects. The work has now been restored to roughly its 1501 condition with an ingenious spring-fitted wood frame. – Artnet
- Benjamin Alire Sáenz, First Latino Author To Win PEN/Faulkner Prize, Has Died At 71
In poems, short stories, novels, and two widely-praised (and occasionally censored) books of young-adult fiction, he drew on his gay identity and on life on the US-Mexico border around El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. He received the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2013 for his story collection Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club. – AP
- Russian Airstrikes Have Destroyed Almost Three-Quarters Of Ukraine’s Book Output This Year
Just since May 1, Russian drones and bombs have damaged or burned at least 9.65 million books. That equals 74% of the Ukrainian publishing industry’s output so far in 2026 and nearly 29% of books printed throughout the country in all of 2025. – United24 Media (Ukraine)
- Judge Sets Very Expensive Date For Paramount-Warner Bros. Antitrust Trial
The trial of the lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys-general seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is now scheduled to start next March 2. The problem: Paramount will owe a fee to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders of $7 million per day from Oct. 1 until the deal closes. – Variety
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan Writes Defense Of Free Museum Admission
“Until 2001, many of the capital’s most important cultural institutions required visitors to pay for entry. … It’s impossible to overstate just how revolutionary this (change) was. In the decade after free admission was introduced, visits to formerly paid-for museums in London increased by around 151%.” – LBC (UK)
- San Diego To Launch An Arts Pass Program
The San Diego Arts Pass — inspired by New York City’s Culture Pass, Britain’s National Art Pass, and the like — will offer purchasers reduced-price or free admission to over 40 organizations, including the Old Globe, San Diego Symphony, and La Jolla Playhouse, in San Diego County and metro Tijuana. – The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)