In the current staging, Sweeney's barbershop is above the stage; when he slits a customer's throat, he pulls a lever that sends the victim down a slide into Mrs. Lovett's basement. Under the tag "A Bad Idea Worth Considering," Rebecca Alter points out that slide's underutilized revenue potential. Wheeeeee! - Vulture (MSN)
Kevin Roose: "My column about the experience was probably the most consequential thing I’ll ever write — both in terms of the attention it got … and how the trajectory of A.I. development changed. … It's been a year of growth and excitement in A.I. but a surprisingly tame one." - The New York Times
"Our goal is to shift industry standards. Capitalism swallows its own critiques, and we really are dedicated to waiting to scale. We have ambitions for Jupiter, not only to be a magazine, but we want to grow an institution that really is a home for writers, a home for thinkers and a home for artists." - Chicago Tribune (MSN)
"CNN boss Mark Thompson is looking to fund his digital-first transformation by cutting anchor salaries — currently more than $50 million — as he seeks to remake the ailing cable network into a U.S. version of the BBC," where he was Director-General (2004-2012) before becoming New York Times Co. CEO (2012-2020). - TheWrap
Over the past year, faculty groups dedicated to academic freedom have sprung up at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, where even some liberal scholars argue that a prevailing progressive orthodoxy has created a climate of self-censorship and fear that stifles open inquiry. - The New York Times
Buenos Aires-born, Berlin-based dancemaker Constanza Macras also choreographed the warped courtly dance and the chase/fight in the woods in The Favourite. She says that working in film offers something "that you never get in theater. … The camera is really a choreographic work as well." - The New York Times
It's "a scourge of selfie-takers backing into paintings and other objects. As many visitors are increasingly more interested in stunting for the ’gram than having an ecstatic art experience, art insurers hope to promote more rigorous protections." - Hyperallergic
"A series of recent updates to (Arts Council England) policies … were met with fury from artists, writers and musicians. … Within hours, ACE issued a statement recognising the strength of feeling over the guidance and said it would 'publish an updated version' as soon as possible." - The Guardian
"(His) buyout of approximately $415 million of Audacy's debt would make his Soros Fund Management the largest stakeholder of the second-largest radio company in the U.S. when it emerges from chapter 11 reorganization." - Inside Radio
Last year, public outrage caused the broadcaster to abandon its plan to dissolve the 20-member BBC Singers. Now the network has announced a partnership between the Singers and the VOCES8 Foundation that's evidently meant to provide more revenue, though the Foundation will not give direct financial support. - BBC Music Magazine
"The change will affect prizes for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature to begin including authors 'who maintain their primary, long-term home in the United States, US territories, or Tribal lands' regardless of their citizenship status." - Mother Jones
All labor action planned for February has been called off as the company and the Musicians' Union have come to a revised agreement about the instrumentalists' fate when ENO moves from London to Manchester. - The Guardian
“Biological extinction, that’s not the point. The light of humanity and our understanding, our intelligence — our consciousness, if you will — can go on without meat humans.” - Jacobin
"A number of programming staff at a major ACE-funded organisation recently described to me how they were investigated by its HR department after inviting a gender-critical artist to speak. Their jobs are now in doubt because they “exposed audiences to dangerous ideas”. - Unherd
