What is happening here represents just the latest, though perhaps the most glaring, iteration of an age-old conundrum. What expectations do we have — should we have — for artists and other ostensibly nonpolitical actors in a time of crisis? Is it incumbent on literally everyone to declare their allegiances? - San Francisco Chronicle
"Critic Hayley Levitt ... now finds herself in a state of bafflement when a comedy is just for laughs. Critic Zachary Stewart loves a good political play, but lately thinks a lot of creatives have gone too far in putting fashionable politics onstage — often in a cynical way." - TheaterMania
Before the performance, conductor Ivan Velikanov — a star on the Russian music scene hailed as "the new Teodor Currentzis" — came on stage, gave a short speech calling for peace and led the orchestra in Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." The opera followed. - DW
"Hazel" (formally, the Hazel Wright Organ) was the instrument of the Crystal Cathedral, from which Rev. Robert H. Schuller once hosted the Sunday morning show Hour of Power. After years of repair, Hazel is back home in what's now Christ's Cathedral in the Catholic Diocese of Orange County. - AP
Regardless of one’s opinions about Kitty Kelley, or her methodology, there can be no denying that her brand of take-no-prisoners celebrity journalism — the kind that in 2022 bubbles up constantly in social media feeds in the form of TMZ headlines and gossipy tweets — was very much ahead of its time. - The Hollywood Reporter
"His health was failing, but he gave every reading his histrionic last ounce. ... As Ruskin explained it, Dickens 'chooses to speak in a circle of stage fire.' The reason the books are melodramatic is that they are melodrama. If you're looking for something else, read Anthony Trollope." - The New Yorker
In the end, rather than dropping 12 categories altogether from the telecast, the Academy was able to satisfy ABC with the current plan, which will leave the network with more time to restore the sorts of ratings-drivers that were glaringly absent from last year’s telecast. - The Hollywood Reporter
The ruins of the Parthian city, located 70 miles southwest of Mosul, were occupied by ISIS from 2015 to 2017; as usual, they destroyed every ancient statue they could get their hands on. Three large Hatra sculptures have now been pieced back together, with more in progress. - The Art Newspaper
Consultants who "choreograph" sex scenes and ensure actors feel safe performing them are becoming common in film, TV, and theatre, but this production at Scottish Ballet is thought to be a first for classical ballet. And for this piece, Kenneth MacMillan's The Scandal at Mayerling, it makes sense. - The Scotsman
"Percy the Porcupine, the two-story creation, is covered in 2,000 foam quills and has an articulated nose the size of a 2-ton Volkswagen. And that's just the animal's head. The five fabricators (at Jim Henson's Creature Shop) ... decided to leave the body out of the equation." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
After several years of well-documented turmoil, WNYC had a new president and needed a new top editor. The newsroom badly wanted someone, preferably of color, who knew both the city and public radio deeply. They got a white Californian who'd spent her whole career at commercial newspapers. - Columbia Journalism Review
Executive Editor Scott Freeman: "In the summer of 2020, we were in another bad spot and it became obvious that our board planned to shutter ArtsATL. ... (Patti Siegel) suggested we put together a new board of directors and take over the publication. And that's exactly what we did." - ArtsATL (Atlanta)
"Russia has blocked TV Rain (also known as 'Dozhd,' Russian for 'rain'), its last independent news network, along with Echo of Moscow, one of its oldest radio stations, declaring them to be foreign agents." - Nieman Lab
"For more than 60 years, his prose distinguished the arts pages of the Financial Times, always with eloquence, panache, expertise and astounding wit." His colleague Alastair Macaulay describes him as "brilliant, outrageous, erudite, shocking, hilarious, mercurial." - Financial Times
In the 12 months since, something like $44 billion has been spent on about six million NFTs, usually issued to certify digital creations but sometimes for physical objects like paintings and sculptures.
