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Watch: “Music Man” Understudy Kathy Voytko Steps In At Last Minute. Hugh Jackman Pays Tribute

Jackman told the audience "Kathy, when she turned up at work at 12 o'clock could have played any of 8 roles. It happened to be the leading lady. She found out at 12 noon today and at 1 o'clock she had her very first rehearsal as Marion Paroo. This is unprecedented. - Broadway World

Painter Wayne Thiebaud, 101

Truth be told, Mr. Thiebaud was not really a Pop painter. Detractors sometimes tried to pigeonhole him as one or as an illustrator. In fact, like many of the historical artists he admired, he was a virtuoso of the everyday and its deep, subtle symbolism. - The New York Times

The Calculations Behind A Successful Christmas Movie

Welcome to element philosophy. Scriptwriters use them to tell their story, composers sprinkle scores full of sleighbells and producers use them to influence us to buy a ticket. “Element placement” dictates our emotional rollercoaster journey... - The Conversation

The Formula For A Good Christmas Song

Plenty of explicitly Christmas-themed songs will have certain musical characteristics, even though they’re always optional. These include a major key, an accessible pitch range and a moderate tempo, making them both easier to sing and easier on the ear. - The Conversation

All The Books That Won Big Prizes This Year

From the Pulitzer to the Booker, the Nebula to the Edgar, here are the winners of the biggest book prizes of 2021. - Bookmarks

Why Our Ideological Fights Descend Into Fights About What Words Mean

The well-rehearsed rhetorical drama over this kind of conceptual terminology is only one of the ways in which arguments over definitions and usage have risen to prominence and in some cases become almost synonymous with the desire for social change in recent years. - The Point

In The Middle Of The Night, Hong Kong Authorities Remove Tiananmen Memorial

The 26-foot-tall artwork, known as the “Pillar of Shame,” had stood at the University of Hong Kong for nearly a quarter-century and honored the hundreds, if not thousands, of students and others killed on June 4, 1989, when the Chinese military crushed pro-democracy protests. - Washington Post

American Contemporary Theatre Closes Its Acclaimed MFA Program

The program consistently ranked as one of the top five graduate acting schools in the country, after more than five decades educating such distinguished alumni as Denzel Washington, Anna Deavere Smith, Annette Bening, Elizabeth Banks and Anika Noni Rose. - San Francisco Chronicle

Man Buys $30 Drawing. Now It Could Be Worth Millions

“It was either a masterpiece or the greatest forgery I had ever seen,” he said. - The New York Times

Christkindlmärkte: A Brief History Of Germany’s Christmas Markets

The mercantile/community gatherings date back to at least the 14th century, and though they've since spread through much of the world, they're especially dear to Germany (where pandemic-induced cancellations hit very hard). Here's the story of the markets, from prune Zwetschgenmännle to hot Glühwein. - Quartz

An Iconic Chicago Building Is Saved

Chicago has a forest of imposing skyscrapers, and nothing else like this squat concoction of glass and steel that looks from the outside like a spaceship docked in the heart of the Loop, and reveals, on the inside, the city’s most vertiginous and spectacular atrium.  - Chicago Reader

How Jewish People Eating Chinese Food Became A Standard Part Of American Christmas

It's not only because Chinese restaurants were the only places open on Christmas back in the day … - Mental Floss

Is The Golden Age Of Travel Over?

The old way it was practised, at vast scale, and across increasingly porous borders, has begun to look like it might be a terminal casualty. At the time of writing, there are only memories, and the work of reorienting ourselves to a more inert and less hospitable world. - Aeon

A Small Ballet Company Bounces Back From Hurricane Ida

Flooding caused by the storm wrecked the studios of Roxey Ballet in Lambertville, NJ; said director Mark Roxey, "The building was submerged in water. It looked like everything had been flipped upside down and shaken in a snowglobe." Here's how the community came to the rescue. - Pointe Magazine

Is Paris’ Grand Palais Throwing Out Its Big Art Fair?

RX France is challenging the validity of the process, claiming that it has received two written commitments to the fairs from RMN-Grand Palais, the public body that owns the beaux-arts building, in 2019 and in 2021. - Artnet

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