According to the Broadway League’s annual Demographics of the Broadway Audience report for 2018-19, admissions for the season hit an all-time high of 14.8 million, with attendees from outside the U.S. numbering 2.8 million and nonwhite audience members at 3.8 million (both records). – Playbill
English Villagers Lose Hundreds Of Thousands Of Pounds As Their Church’s Bible-Themed Musical Collapses In Debt
An evangelical parish called The International Church in the Midlands village of Mansfield Woodhouse encouraged its members to donate thousands (it would be “giving to God”) to develop a show about Adam and Eve, titled Heaven on Earth, that would tour to stadiums around the UK. The project has now gone bust, with debts of £2.6 million. — BBC
The End Of Authors? Hardly!
“The dictionary meanings of words are only potentially meaningful until they are actually employed in a context defined by the relation between author and audience. So how did it happen that professors of literature came to renounce authors and their intentions in favor of a way of thinking — or at least a way of talking — that is without historical precedent, has scant philosophical support, and is to most ordinary readers not only counterintuitive but practically incomprehensible?” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Stratford CT’s American Shakesepeare Theatre Burns To The Ground
The mayor called the structure an “iconic and historic theater that holds a special place in the hearts of Stratford residents.” The fire was just devastating, she said. – Hartford Courant
Chinese Censorship Is Complicated. It’s Why Orwell Isn’t Censored…
Here’s the rub: Monitors pay closer attention to material that might be consumed by the average person than to cultural products seen as highbrow and intended for educated groups. (An internet forum versus an old novel.) As a result, Chinese writers are watched more closely than foreign ones. — The Atlantic
An Oscar Contender Stirs Guilt – And Soul-Searching – In Mexico’s Middle Class
Roma depicts the relationship of a woman doing housekeeping and nanny work to the family for which she’s working. They like her a lot, but they treat her with an off-handed sense of ownership that may seem appalling to viewers. The film “has also prompted serious soul-searching about the plight of poorly paid and often-unprotected domestic workers in Mexico, where, nearly five decades after the period depicted in the film, inequality remains rife, racism stubbornly persists and social mobility seems to have stagnated.” – The Observer (UK)
When Contemporary Lit Professors Decided To Agree That The Author Is Dead
Whether or not most lit professors agree with that (Roland Barthes) statement now, “authors certainly had it coming.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
What Would It Take To Mute – And Prosecute – R. Kelly?
After a six-part documentary series on Lifetime in which dozens of women and women’s families came forward to accuse the singer of abusing and molesting young women and teenage girls, prosecutors say he’d be hard to try because “bringing a case is difficult without cooperating victims.” – The New York Times
Will Anyone Buy Troubled UK Entertainment Chain HMV?
The chain, which accounts for a third of all physical music sales in Britain and a quarter of all physical DVD sales, had a terrible holiday season and is going under – but there are offers with those “hoping to buy the long-established music retailer, which employs 2,200 people, [given] a deadline of Tuesday to submit bids.” – The Guardian (UK)
Stephen King Angrily Tweets At Paper For Cutting Book Reviews, And Then Boom
The paper, Maine’s Portland Press-Herald, tweeted that it would restart regional book reviews if King – a Maine writer, of course – could bring in 100 new subscriptions. As of Sunday, the number was at 200 and counting. – The New York Times
How Can Artistic Leaders Focus On Culture, Not Just Their Institutions?
Not to be melodramatic, but, well, “This is a moment where we can either save the world or we don’t.” – HowlRound
A Classic Theatre Story, Missing Some Grit
Can you tell the story of Harlem’s Apollo Theater without being a booster? Nope, at least not in graphic novel form. “The remarkable institution is a microcosm of the world of black popular culture in all its highs and lows, achievements and setbacks — not to mention sustaining myths and necessary lies.” – NPR
Propwatch: the dagger in The Double Dealer
When a young comedy writing “springily reinvents the rules,” daggers may follow. – David Jays
Historic Shakespeare Theater In Connecticut Is Destroyed In A Fire
The theatre, built with the help of Lincoln Kirstein and Joseph Vernor Reed, and a stage where many actors, including Katherine Hepburn, had performed, had been vacant for years. – Connecticut Post