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)
"Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise,' which closed last Sunday, brought … in a total 793,556 visitors, or an average of 7,181 each day. The show’s A.I. and immersive V.R. experiences were largely ridiculed in the press, but they proved persuasive to new audiences." - Artnet
The dance unites a disparate group. "Unlike cities like New York and Toronto, D.C.’s Chinatown no longer feels particularly Chinese Chinese architectural motifs still decorate shops and an archway celebrating the relationship between D.C. and its sister city of Beijing looms over H Street.” - MSN (Washington Post)
Can any opera company withstand the blows of the 21st century? “The ongoing crisis in opera parallels a current 'free fall' … in American theater — with low ticket sales, slumping philanthropy and rising costs putting experimental platforms and long-standing institutions alike on indefinite hiatus.” - Washington Post
In the early 21st century, downloads were a thing, but now, downloading rather than streaming "is a purely performative gesture – it only ever happens as a result of some kind of factional culture war that somebody has the money and inclination to try to represent on the charts." - The Guardian (UK)
Was it No Child Left Behind? Common Core? COVID-19 school shutdowns? Or - as is the case for most people, from child to adult - the smart phone? - Slate
"Orchestra After 5" concerts begin with a cocktail hour in the Kimmel Center lobby, followed at 6:30 by a one-hour concert with an informal chat afterward. "If the goal was to lure listeners beyond the traditional base," writes Peter Dobrin, "it was a wild success." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Yes, the Hallmark Channel. After all, some have claimed Jane Austen’s extensive novels of manners (and so much more) as “romance novels,” and after all, Hallmark has declared this month “Loveuary." - NPR
"Some of the world’s most renowned museums" — among them the British Museum, SF-MOMA, MFA Boston, and van Gogh Museum — "have been using the marketing research technique to fine-tune exhibitions, develop marketing materials and ensure they entice the broadest possible audience." - The New York Times
In Boston as in many other places, "financial struggle has become a grim common denominator among theaters with different aesthetic identities and sense of mission.” Which companies will survive? - The Boston Globe (MSN)
“No one like Milo Rau exists in American theater, because commercial producers need to make money, and no government body is willing to match the generous artistic subsidies handed out by European governments. … Some of that subsidy will end up going to plays that disgust the audience." - MSN (The Atlantic)
Candlelight Concerts aren’t about digital projections, but are about curating and customizing full experiences. And that’s striking a major chord. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
