As controversy continues over Michelle Terry, artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe (and able-bodied), casting herself as Shakespeare's only explicitly disabled character, actors with disabilities who have played the role themselves weigh in. - The Guardian
Having seen audience members, viewing an admired staging considered as close as possible to the 19th-century original, laugh and applaud at inopportune times, Matthew Paluch considers whether the aesthetic and mentality of the ballet are too far from our own — or whether the problem is more basic. - Gramilano (Milan)
A potential Swift appearance at Super Bowl LVIII alongside her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, has already prompted the MAGA right’s culture-war pugilists into a conspiracy-fueled froth about how this NFL season has been rigged to boost Biden. - Rolling Stone
"It hews so closely to the real-life absurdities of the Cold War, with two saber-rattling superpowers escalating an arms race that could only end in mutual annihilation. … Some of the best bits barely have to reach for a joke: Kubrick merely points out the folly behind modern man’s greatest fear." - The Guardian
Edward Teller? John von Neumann? Herman Kahn? Wernher von Braun? "Despite all the speculation, Kubrick never clarified the character's origins. So did he base Strangelove on one of them, all of them, or none of them? … The most compelling candidate ... is the only one who sounded nothing like him." - BBC
Rather than ceasing to exist, the museum will continue on as a spaceless institution that provides long-term loans and as an organization that will facilitate research. - ARTnews
"The trumpet soloist materialized in different parts of the virtual room … Flutists appeared and vanished. … At one point, when I tried giving one of the cellists a needed shoulder massage, the virtual musician seemed to standoffishly crumble in my hands. (The project's mastermind) shrugged. 'Well, he is German.'" - Classical Voice North America
Dance sells everything from Nike to Pepto Bismol, and now we have TikTok. But concert dance as an art form is a hard sell. Yet when new audiences get the opportunity to experience dance, they often fall in love. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"London-based ballad publishers commissioned, bought and distributed songs which were performed in ale houses, markets and town squares, hoping that people would buy the song sheets." Says historian Christopher Marsh, "It was the first time in history that people tried to publish songs to make money, to make hits." - The Guardian
"Amr al-Madani, the chief executive officer of the Royal Commission of AlUla, … is accused of personally benefiting from contracts (worth $55 million) given from King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, a (Saudi) scientific research agency, for the company he co-owns." - ARTnews
"Hallmark rose from the sixth-most-watched cable network at the top of October to the third-most-watched the week of Nov. 20, when it won out over CNN and MSNBC in total eyeballs. … It’s time to admit that Hallmark movies are actually just Hollywood movies — and specifically rom-coms." - The New York Times Magazine
"No critic since Kenneth Tynan was better able to capture in vivid, richly metaphoric language the unique brilliance of a stage performance." Charles McNulty pays tribute to his professor/colleague/friend, who was a longtime professor at Yale's School of Drama and wrote for, among others, The Village Voice. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
"The Alabama Public Library Service has voted not to renew its American Library Association membership. This comes after some in the state have accused the ALA … of promoting Marxism, supporting keeping sexual content in libraries, and discriminating against religious organizations." - Book Riot
"Following legislation introduced in states like Massachusetts, Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico, legislators in New Jersey introduced a newly revised Freedom to Read Act into the (state) Senate." - Book Riot
