"Before the war, many comedians performed their sets in Russian and eyed major comedy festivals in Russia as the pinnacle of career achievement. ... the audience won’t laugh at jokes delivered in Russian, comedians say. Unless, of course, the Russian language is the butt of the joke." - The Atlantic
"Heading into 2024, one of the most noticeable things about the ties that unite the live theater-scape, from the Great White Way through to touring houses around the country, is how it is happily riddled with all that is Stephen Sondheim." - The Smart Set
Basically, indies. (And, don't tell the Oscars of 2025, but a lot of women directors crushed it at Sundance too.) In the Summers, the movie that won the top dramatic prize, "snuck up on us," wrote the jury. - The New York Times
It's not just TikTok - "The average song length peaked at 4 minutes 21 seconds in 1992," or about 30 years before TikTok came on the scene, but now, a need for quick-engagement dances and memes means the average song length is plunging again. - Washington Post
"Culture Pass Dallas was created by the Office of Arts and Culture and the Dallas Public Library in 2019. Six months after launching, the pandemic hit and put the program on hold. Now, the Office of Arts and Culture is prioritizing rebuilding (the free-admission program)." - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
"One way ..., perhaps, is to turn competition into cooperation. Maybe a path forward for theater is to write new rules of decorum — or to be the first to violate them. If theater goes viral, it should be on behalf of the artists’ intentions, not in spite of them." - San Francisco Chronicle
A user who listened to a show a few times, subscribed, but stopped listening would continue to count as a download indefinitely. Even better under the old rules: For people who listened to a show, dropped off for a while, but started listening again later, Apple would automatically download every show in between. - BoingBoing
One new TV "makes an image appear on what otherwise looks like a clear piece of glass." Another company has a screen that "looks more like an empty fish tank than a proper television set, with images that look like very nice holograms dancing around inside." But why? - Wired
The best children's books aren't meant for teaching, and "aren’t advertisements for anything—not even the important things. They’re an advertisement for reading itself; for the entertainment value of the world itself." - The Paris Review
Arifa Akbar: "Some trimmed-down Shakespeares – such as Simon Godwin’s Romeo and Juliet – are as rich as the originals, and not every staging of Much Ado About Nothing has to have its protracted comic interludes with Dogberry and his gang." Especially if it means missing the last train home from Stratford-upon-Avon. - The Guardian
The Reliable Sauce podcast "sounds as if you are listening in to a conversation (the hosts) might have over a coffee, or on the tube back from work." The key to its success: it was conceived and is run by 20-something journalists, not executives in suits. - Nieman Lab
"The (company is) offering 25,000 tickets at £25 as the theatre’s new artistic directors aim to 'throw open the doors' to a more diverse crowd. … The ticketing plan will be on offer for the entire season and sit alongside the existing TikTok £10 scheme for 14- to 25-year-olds." - The Guardian
"The more straight-faced, incendiary boo of displeasure has been all but silenced, bar lone tuts or harrumphs. But for centuries, theatregoing etiquette allowed for heckles and hisses alongside cheers and whistles, all permissible within the great debating chamber of drama." - The Guardian
Stop clapping so much! Stop drinking so much! Don't use your phone's flashlight to find your seats! And for pity's sake, stop eating potato chips during a movie or play! (And other possibly cranky advice from critics.) - The Guardian (UK)
At the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Mass., "the first speaker took the lectern at noon after the strike of eight bells. 'Call me Ishmael,' the famous opening words, sent a ripple of applause through the room." - Slate
