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Live Updates From The Tonys

At the preshow, “Buena Vista Social Club, a musical about a Cuban band, picked up awards for choreography, sound design and orchestrations, while Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel to the Netflix series, won for sound, lighting and scenic design.” - The New York Times

What Can We Expect From Tonight’s Tony Awards?

“Singing robots. Undead frenemies. A dead train robber, and a dying cave explorer. A fumbling group of spies, and a bumbling group of pirates. Also: Hamilton.” - The New York Times

Scorsese Is Finished With Cinemas

And that’s thanks to us, the great unwashed movie audience: He "explained that he found himself too distracted by the chat and mobile-phone disturbance from the audience to concentrate on the film.” - The Guardian (UK)

Why The Time Was Right For George Clooney’s Broadway Play To Get Broadcast On National TV

"The pressures that deformed the news in Murrow’s day have only grown more intense, and its defenses weaker. The last line of protection is those people sitting in the dark, watching George Clooney remind them what they have to do.” - Slate

Vienna Sends Strauss To Space

“Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away. Traveling at the speed of light, the music was expected to overtake Voyager 1 within 23 hours.” - Seattle Times (AP)

Imagining An R-Rated Star Wars

Maybe - but no sarcasm, please. "We already have umpteen animated takedowns – Robot Chicken’s fever-dream dismemberments, Family Guy’s fart-laced remakes – and they’re fine, in their way.” But not from the franchise itself. - The Guardian (UK)

In Madrid, Noise Complaints Leave A Stadium And Concert Venue Silent

At Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium, dozens of music gigs took place in 2024 - until September, when everything came to a (non-screeching) halt when the stadium’s neighbors sued over the noise. - BBC

U.S. Opera Companies Should Be Performing In English, The Language Their Audience Speaks

John McWhorter: “Sitting through a three-or-more-hour performance in a language we don’t understand is a peculiar cultural phenomenon, ... and it’s a big part of what keeps opera from reaching more people. ... The composers of yore had their works translated ... because they wanted audiences to understand what they were hearing." - The New York Times

Why Anthony Roth Costanzo Is Bringing Back $11-Or-Pay-What-You-Wish Tickets At Opera Philadelphia

The countertenor/company director allows as how yes, ticket revenue under the policy fell from 8% to 4% of the company’s budget — and then he runs through the ways in which the policy has brought newcomers to try out an art form which the wider world sees as elitist and uninteresting. - Broad Street Review (Philadelphia)

For Mexico, Trump’s Desired Tariffs Threaten A Flourishing Film Collaboration

“The United States is the country with which Mexico has co-produced the most films. In 2024, at least 21 films featured collaborations with artists from both countries” - but tariffs definitely threaten that number. - El País

Not All SFF Fans Are Dealing Well With The Sudden Success Of Romantasy

This might be a difference in purpose, but “whatever you think of the advent of romantasy onto the SFF scene, be assured that it isn’t a problem to be solved.” - Reactor

How Long Will The Emmys Ignore TV Audiences’ Obsession With Spies?

"Emmy voters like to reward series that are very clearly About Something, like commercialism or wealth or artistic genius or what a millennial is, and spy shows are not a genre I think viewers are trained to think of as being thematically dense.” - Vulture (MSN)

Who Will Win The Tonys – And Who Should Win?

It’s the biggest night of the year for Broadway. How will plays like Oh, Mary do? - The New York Times

The Extremely Tight Choreography Of The Broadway Show Operation Mincemeat

“It’s a show where you’re always thinking about the other people onstage. … Everyone is both lead and chorus, and you really can’t have an ego because it requires five minds to work as one.” - The New York Times

Broadway Musical Cancels Performance After Trump Fires Librarian Of Congress

“A brief statement from the show , which earned seven Tony nominations this month, said that it had decided not to perform at the library ‘upon learning of the termination of Dr. Carla Hayden.’” - The New York Times

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