Yearly Archives: 2021
When Yiddish-Speaking Puppets Roamed The World
Puppetry had never been part of the Yiddish theater tradition, but in 1920s America, they were all the rage. So in 1925-26, a pair...
Will Self: How Should We Be Reading?
"There’s always this quality of endeavor about reading—and at the same time, in cognitive terms it’s hard work. When someone reading complex passages of...
How Paris Theatres Keep Putting On Plays While The Pandemic Has Stopped Public Performances
Shows were running in the French capital for a few months last year, before a big new wave of COVID infections led to a...
Guggenheim Museum Names Its First Black Deputy Director
Naomi Beckwith, 44, who since 2018 has served as senior curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, will oversee collections, exhibitions, publications, curatorial...
This Broadway Chorus Boy Is Dancing TikTok Duets With The Great Tap Stars Of...
"Cory Lingner … using the app to tap alongside some of the most iconic movie stars, including Gene Kelly, Gregory Hines, Ann Miller...
Do We Want Uplifting Entertainment In These Difficult Times? Not Me!
"The temptation to simplify morality when social injustice is rife is understandable, but reading Dostoevsky makes me impatient with the schematic bent of our...
With Michael Apted Gone, Can His ‘Up’ Documentaries Keep Going?
Beginning in 1964 with Seven Up!, Apted made a series of nine films, shot at seven-year-intervals, following the lives of a group of 14...
Howard Johnson, Pioneering Virtuoso Of Jazz Tuba, Dead At 73
"Before Johnson, in instances wherein the tuba was part of a jazz arrangement, it was typically confined to bass parts. Johnson demonstrated a prowess...
Amazon Sued For Colluding With Big Five Publishers In E-Book Price-Fixing
"The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York on January 14 by Seattle-based firm Hagens Berman, … currently names only Amazon as...
Two Baritones Learned That Where They Were Working When The Pandemic Hit Made All...
Jarrett Ott and Steven LaBrie met in music school in Philadelphia and remained friends as they moved to New York and their careers grew....
Atlanta’s High Museum Receives Major Gift Of 19th-Century French Art
"The gift, from Atlanta collectors Irene and Howard Stein, which includes sculptures, prints and posters, is part of a larger bequest made by Steins,...
In Ontario, Even Livestreamed Performances Without Audience Are Now Banned
As the number of COVID cases continues to spike, "organizers behind a number of livestreaming concerts and theatre shows in Ontario say the province's...
After High-Profile Robberies, Germany To Spend Millions On Security For Arts Venues
"The German government has announced that it will hand out €32 million ($38 million) this year to national cultural institutions undertaking modernization projects, including...
This Year’s Kennedy Center Honorees
The Kennedy Center Honors announced today that the lifetime artistic achievement recipients for its 43rd ceremony will be choreographer and actress Debbie Allen; folk...
Why You Can’t Stop Watching “Bad” TV
“Consolatory entertainment” is a better term for such programming. There is consolation in the simple pleasures of ordinary conversation, shared enjoyment and of laughing...
The Wrenching Realities Of Gentrification
Gentrification is one of the most pressing – and polarising – issues confronting cities today. In popular discussions, defenders of gentrification tend to paint...
Smithsonian Abandons $2 Billion Redo Of National Mall Castle
The Bjarke Ingels Group proposal was unveiled with great fanfare in late 2014 as a reimagining of the campus on the southern edge of...
COVID Is Killing American Indian Tribal Leaders And Their Culture
“It’s like we’re having a cultural book-burning,” said Jason Salsman, a spokesman for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in eastern Oklahoma, whose grandparents contracted the...
Trump, Insurrection And Classical Architecture
Before the attempted coup, architecture critics were debating the lasting impact of the president’s executive order decreeing that federal buildings should be in classical...
We Need A Moratorium On Comparisons To Orwell’s ‘1984’
Especially for some folks, writes former high school English teacher Rachel Klein. "'This is just like 1984!' the right-wing mob cries as it changes...
Capitol Offense: Metropolitan Museum Blasts “Domestic Terrorism” by “Treasonous Rioters”
Throwing caution to the winds, the Metropolitan Museum today went beyond the more measured words of a few other museums in its angry call...
Riccardo Muti Speaks Out About Met Opera’s Treatment Of Its Orchestra Musicians
“My appeal is to give back to the musicians of the Met the dignity which we all deserve and the hope that they...
Negro Ensemble Company: A Brief History Of A Pathbreaking Theater Group
The NEC's roots lay in a drama workshop for Harlem youth that founder Robert Hooks ran in a makeshift theater in his apartment until...
Global Culture? It Won’t Really Ever Happen
"Populations across the globe today may devour Starbucks, KFC, and Coca-Cola. They may enjoy Italian opera, French couture, and Persian carpets. But no matter...
Why Horror Films Were So Popular In 2020, The Most Horrible Year In Recent...
"The past year … saw the horror genre take home its largest share of the box office in modern history. In a year where...
