“For decades, cassette players have carried the soul-stirring poetry of Sufi saints and the mystical melodies of Kashmiri instruments like the sarangi and santoor, and it’s long been a local ritual for families to gather around the warm hum of a tape player.” - Seattle Times (AP)
“Othello sales are next-level, seeming to reflect the appeal of the combination of two well-known actors with a well-known title, and also a 'Taylor Swift effect,' meaning that consumers are getting used to paying top dollar for live entertainment.” - The New York Times
Five years after the lethal coronavirus arrived, “the recovery has been uneven, but there are signs that audiences are finally coming back. Here’s a snapshot of where things stand.” - The New York Times
“As Peña and Dring committed to having the actors wrestle, and doing so smoothly and within budget, they hired two fighting directors — one as an intimacy director and another as a sumo consultant — to ensure safety, accuracy and precision.” - The New York Times
“‘We’re sort of really trying to ride a fine line of when we talk about the play and how we talk about the play,’ said Karla Hartley, the producing artistic director. ... 'So we don’t sort of draw the ire of certain people in the state government.’” - The New York Times
The film, especially its opening, combines “many types of beauty fused into one: photographic, geographic, choreographic, high kitsch and high camp. I’d distrust anyone who professes themselves unmoved by it in any way.” - The Guardian (UK)
Even though it’s unlikely (as of this writing) that Estou Ainda Aqui, or I’m Still Here, will win best pic or Fernanda Torres Best Actress, Torres imitators line the streets at Carnival, “drink beer, clutch plastic Oscars and deliver the impromptu acceptance speeches.” - The New York Times
“We should see Spotify rapidly expand its market presence not just in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, but shortly in Sweden and across Europe” - and, it’s predicted, using AI to expand in India as well. - The New Publishing Standard
No surprise: Oprah is still on top. Then there are the other three. Sorry, Natalie Portman: Your fans think you’re hot, but they don’t buy the books you pick. - The Cut
The glass-domed plaza between the Philadelphia arts center's venues was intended to be a welcoming public space. Yet it tends to be desolate during the day, despite years of efforts to liven it up. The design of the new café there doesn't help, but the space still has potential. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
“Broadway has seen more foot traffic and bigger audiences in the first month since the curtain went up on the congestion pricing era — though it’s too early for some to say whether the Manhattan tolls played a starring or a cameo role in such success.“ - amNY
Next season the company will experiment with scheduling consecutive performances of the same opera with different casts, this to save money by not moving sets in and out of the theater. There will be more performances of the most popular repertory staples and fewer performances of contemporary works on weekends. - AP
Who knew the fourth entry in what seemed a played-out story would prove both so well reviewed and so well attended? The film “accounted for 45% of the UK box office take over the weekend.” - The Guardian (UK)
“The adversaries-turned-allies famously shaped the course of American history, even though the two leaders met in person only three times .” - Los Angeles Times
