Not only is it the biggest opening ever for a Broadway musical adaptation, unseating the record set by the first film’s $112 million launch, it’s also the second biggest debut of the year behind “A Minecraft Movie’s” $162 million. - APNews
Determining what the nation did and did not read was the through line of Malcolm Cowley’s career. He was a great discoverer and nurturer of talent: Jack Kerouac, John Cheever, and Ken Kesey were among the writers he championed, and, of the critics he commissioned to produce reviews at The New Republic. - The New Yorker
The painting is valued so highly because it carries a deep personal and political history – and because the artist’s incredible skill once helped it serve as a life-saving disguise. - The Convseration
Pam MacKinnon will step down as artistic director of San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) at the close of the 2025-2026 season, ending an eight-year tenure with the company. MacKinnon was the theatre's fourth leader, joining in 2018. - Playbill
We "blame everything wrong with education on generative AI rather than acknowledge deep and justifiable concerns we have had for a while. Course Hero, Chegg and other providers had industrialized academic dishonesty before ChatGPT was launched." - InsideHigherEd
Arts schools, almost by definition, assume the centrality of the art itself. They reinforce the idea that the work is intrinsically valuable and that the public simply needs help recognizing that value. This is one of the most persistent and damaging assumptions in our field. - ArtsAnalytics
When was the last time you saw incredible CGI or other visual effects? Probably a tougher question to answer. That’s because VFX, like any other filmmaking tool, is invisible when done well. - Washington Post
“‘I’ve always tried to put a big moment in a song, but nothing, of course, worked as good as that one,' David Foster, who produced and arranged the song for Ms. Houston, said.” - The New York Times
Some hints, but nothing is certain: “AI ‘singers' often sound a little slurred. Consonants and plosives (hard sounds like ‘p' and ’t') aren't quite right. You might hear ‘ghost’ harmonies, where backing vocals appear and disappear at random.” - BBC
“As unbelievable as this situation might sound, it seems to be possible because the podcast isn't made of entirely new, original material. The performances by the ... actors appear to be from a 2010 audiobook recording of the New Testament.” - CBC
Vogel and her husband, a postal clerk, "bought thousands of works from future art stars like Sol LeWitt and Donald Judd, stashing them in their cramped one-bedroom New York apartment and eventually handing over the entire collection to the National Gallery of Art.” - The New York Times
“By her own admission, Zhao isn’t much of a Shakespeare connoisseur,” but she has thoughts on Hamlet, and Hamnet. “Grief keeps you in the past, but time is pulling you forward.” - Washington Post (MSN)
“Pick a film from either current releases or a curated archive, select a drink package for an extra $50 each, choose a 12-13 course gourmet meal off a seasonal menu for another $100 a head, and you have a ritzy night at the movies.” - The Guardian (UK)
