"Approximately eight times a week, 40 weeks a year, Broadway-sized crowds watch (the musical) Queen Esther in a town of 12,000 people in the Ozark Mountains." Theater/dance historian Joanna Dee Das writes that this success isn't about dumbing down — there are key factors here that big-city theaters are neglecting. - The Conversation
"New data from Nielsen shows that NFL games broadcast on the radio attract audiences so large that they outperform the top-rated stations in many markets. … A change in thinking about how radio is measured – which is by daypart, (unlike) program-focused TV – would show similar dominance by the audio broadcasts." - Inside Radio
"Asked why he had cut off his left ear, the artist replied that this was a misconception and he had in fact only cut off 'part of my earlobe.'" (The M d'O also has an immersive Van Gogh room in this show, proving that pop culture can influence even the French.) - The Guardian (UK)
"The debate over the series is growing increasingly heated as it becomes a surprising transatlantic export from the more traditionally buttoned-up Brits." - Washington Post
How the Barter Theatre in rural southwestern Virginia, Signature Theatre in metro DC, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas kept up contact and engagement with their communities through the lockdowns and afterward. - AP
The museum's founders wanted a place to remember "Compton’s rich history and creativity—the vacant buildings of Compton transformed by the artist collective Communicative Arts Academy in the 1960s and 1970s or Elliott Pinkney’s murals." - Los Angeles Times
"Helping people in theater take care of their children is part of core mission — an early initiative was hiring babysitters to watch children at auditions. Then the leadership realized that theater artists need audiences." - NPR
"Shorter concerts (27%), more matinee performances (24%), conductors speaking to the audience (20%) and being encouraged to keep phones on during a performance (11%) – these were just some of the things people would like to see at orchestral concerts, according to a new study." - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (UK)
In addition to those outside the opera house, "Berlin's mayor, its senator for culture and Ukraine's German ambassador have all criticised the opera for allowing the singer to return to its stage." - BBC
"We review every single play or musical that opens on Broadway," says Jason Bailey, an NYT culture editor. "We review hundreds of movies a year. ... That means we should also be reviewing and criticizing the biggest video game releases." - The New York Times
It's not all selfies: "People are still engaging, if only for a moment, with what’s hung on the wall or placed in courtyards and parks." - Oregon ArtsWatch
