Broadway has gotten so expensive that American plays are now opening in London instead — flying the whole cast over and renting a West End theater still works out cheaper (The New York Times). Pair that with the Kennedy Center patrons left wondering how to fill a two-year void (The New York Times), and you have a picture of American performing arts institutions pricing — or politicking — themselves out of their own homes. The one counterpoint: Washington National Opera got Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha onto a stage just two months after losing its home, and it worked (The New York Times).
Simon & Schuster has hired a former Amazon executive as its new CEO — the first outside hire in the company’s memory (AP). Russia is returning to the Venice Biennale, and the backlash is sharp: “the claim that culture is above politics is never neutral,” reads one open letter (ARTnews). And in Germany, the culture commissioner is apparently consulting the domestic intelligence agency before approving funds to independent bookshops — because, as one observer notes, independent bookshops are dangerous precisely because they don’t optimize your curiosity, they derail it (The Guardian).
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