It's all too real: "Philadelphia is the poorest of the country's 10 largest cities, and its school district has long suffered from chronic underfunding. The average Philly school is also more than 70 years old — most don't have central air conditioning and were built using lead and asbestos." - NPR
It just needed a couple of Brooklyn plumbers, a princess, and the Mushroom Kingdom to bring it back to life. (Super Marios Bros. generated numbers, both in the U.S. and abroad, "that one Hollywood trade news site called 'plumb insane.'") - The New York Times
Adam Platt: "As you move from one pleasantly distracting set piece to another, pondering when to ingest the lemon-flavored edible in your pocket, it feels like playing hooky — a reprieve from the hushed, ponderous solemnity of the Establishment museums and galleries." - New York Magazine
"There is no question that, because of their size, Dallas's big seven arts groups depend more heavily on attendance than others in the region. Here, we take a look at the big seven and how they're coping." - MSN (The Dallas Morning News)
A good example of this is Cartoon Network which advertises itself as targeting a core audience of boys and girls aged 6-12, now though most of its viewers are over the age of 18, with 75% of its viewers are now over the age of 18 and 43% over the age of 30, according to Statista. - CordCuttersNews
"When the curtain comes down on the Music Venue Trust’s (MVT) #OwnOurVenues fundraising drive, it is expected to have raised close to £2.2m, a hemi-demi-semiquaver away from the £2.5m that it set out to achieve." - The Guardian (UK)
"Lead producer Mike Bosner … and his team enacted the old-school practice of preview pricing: selling tickets for a show's pre-opening period at a significantly lower price point than after the show's official opening — and advertised this accordingly." - Broadway News
"Front-of-house staff facing violent assaults, theatregoers urinating in fire exits and mass brawls in auditoriums were among the incidents uncovered by the report from the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU). … Almost half (45%) said they had considered leaving the industry due to poor audience behaviour." - The Guardian
The culture editors at El País had been considering starting a reading group for several years, but they only went ahead and launched the project in late 2022. In five months, the club had grown to over 1,100 members in Spain and Latin America. - Nieman Lab
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey are back, baby (in September) - without lions, tigers, or bears, but with a lot of roadies to handle all the gear. "You can’t downscale. ... You really have to reimagine and reinvent." - Fast Company
Since the final in Liverpool sold out in 40 minutes, theatres across the UK will show the final. "Organisers say the screenings will encourage fancy dress and singalongs." - BBC
When the BBC announced plans to close the UK's only full-time professional chamber choir right before its century mark, 140,000 people signed a petition - and alternative funders stepped in. - BBC
The equipment for making professional-looking films has never been more inexpensive or accessible. There are people writing creative scripts; there's always an abundance of talented actors; there's a whole scene building around microbudget indies. But how do you get the wider world to notice? - Esquire
"While the general consensus among industry experts is that digital access provides an opportunity for Broadway to reach new audiences and tap new revenue streams, they told TheWrap that there are many financial and logistical challenges that stand in the way of a broader rollout." - Yahoo! (TheWrap)
"In devising an onstage gateway to Ally’s imagination, 'We were like, what if the portal is actually her notebook?' said Sammy Lopez, co-director. 'And what if we gave the audience the opportunity to jump into the notebook with Ally?'" - The New York Times
