Stories

A New Documentary Shows Just How Much Movie-Makers Can’t Handle The Reality Of Michael Jackson

Capitalizing on his name is one things, as the fictional Michael heads to a billion-dollar take at the box office, but Netflix is also, rather disgustingly, cashing in. - HuffPost

The 1980s Centered A Neon-Colored End Of The World, And Now It’s All Coming To A Theatre Near You

Revisiting the 1980s, a decade whose “reality pulsed with cultural Balkanization, financial erosion, systemic disinvestment, and televised neurosis, the American theatre conjures a cultural imagination crowded with the outsiders, monsters, con artists, hungry things, and chosen kindred of the analog twilight.” - American Theatre

An Appreciation For Kanya King, Who Changed And ‘Revolutionized’ Black British Culture

The founder of the Mobo Awards was “engaging, self-effacing, funny, modest. Someone with so much to brag about but who was so humble. Her superpower, it turns out, was kindness and warmth.” - The Guardian (UK)

The Four Musicals That Are Counting On Broadway Shows Finally Turning A Corner

“There's a big reason it takes years for a fresh musical to land on Broadway. Cracking any story is a painstaking process. The same goes for crafting a songbook. Getting the two to coalesce? It's a delicate alchemy.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

Who’s Going To Win At The Tonys Tonight?

Can Jellicle Ball beat out the universally loved Ragtime? Will Lesley Manville’s British chops beat out Susannah Flood’s incredible performance in Liberation? Find out soon! - Vulture

Anthony Stewart Head, Star Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer And Ted Lasso, Has Died At 72

“One of his most formative experiences, he said, was seeing Tim Curry in the musical The Rocky Horror Show while in drama school as a teenager. He told The Guardian that it ‘ignited something in my core.’” - The New York Times

The Story Of Hong Kong’s Popular Music Can Tell The Tale Of The City’s History

Cantopop is "predominantly Hong Kong music that blends Chinese and western pop sensibilities.” - The Guardian (UK)

A New Edith Wharton Story Highlights The Human Inability To Deal With War

“The story, on two typed and undated manuscripts that appeared to be different drafts, centers on a dinner party hosted at the same table where, earlier in the war, an army surgeon had performed amputations.” - The New York Times

Mary Shelley’s Sisters

“Fanny’s few surviving letters testify to her interests in poetry, education, art history, literature, current affairs, social politics, and the wellbeing of her extended family. … She counted Aaron Burr (former USA vice president), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), Humphry Davy (scientist), Charles and Mary Lamb (writers)” as acquaintances. - LitHub

Two And A Half Centuries On, Someone May Have Figured Out The Mystery Of The Declaration Of Independence

Pretty cool: “Scholars have identified about 17 distinct broadside editions created in print shops across the colonies in July and August 1776, usually in runs of hundreds of copies.” One was anonymous - but perhaps not anymore. - The New York Times

The UK’s Heirloom Ceramics Sector Is In Deep Trouble

“The UK ceramics sector employs 20,000 people, half of them in the West Midlands, and is regarded as an indispensable to the economy” - but repeated blows are breaking even the ceramics for the defense sector. - The Guardian (UK)

California And Other States Are Possibly Suing To Block The Warner Bros. And Paramount Deal

One advocate for the lawsuit: “The consequences would be felt nationwide, from destroying CNN the way that Ellisons have devastated CBS to entertainment industry job losses and consumers losing access to independent voices and a competitive market.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

The French Open Finals Courts Get Choreographed Ballet Dances For Some Reason

Choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, no less. “Tennis doesn’t have a strong tradition of opening numbers — and certainly not of dance routines.” - The New York Times

The Movie Cars Ruined Pixar

“Pixar plummeted to the ground with such a force that I began to question my undying devotion to an animation studio. Could my beloved Pixar, which had already anthropomorphized so many things, really make something so upsetting and perplexing, and on so many levels?” - Salon

A Century On, Martha Graham’s Modern Dance Vision Still Matters Intensely

“Her choreography landed like a bomb in a landscape where vaudeville and ballet ruled the day.” - The New York Times

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