Well, so says librettist Royce Vavrek. The subject matter — Abraham Lincoln grieving his young son Willie, who is stuck in the place between death and rebirth — would seem grim. So Vavrek and composer Missy Mazzoli took care to include humor and even joy. - AP
The sudden onset of war shuttered commercial galleries in central Tehran, cancelled scheduled solo exhibitions, severed shipping channels and destroyed the fragile domestic market that allows creators to pay rent and sustain studio practices. - The Guardian
In an expected development, shareholders for both Fox Corp. and Roku voted to approve Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of the streaming-video platform company. - Variety
Actor Alan Mandell, who died at 98, helped shape Los Angeles theater as a performer, director, administrator and arts supporter whose influence stretched from experimental stages to the Mark Taper Forum. - Los Angeles Times
The management of Chichester Festival Theatre said in a statement, “We were deeply shocked that a member of the company of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the victim of an appallingly abusive attack, aggressively hounded and physically pursued through the centre of Chichester, ... prior to the performance on Tuesday 13 October.” - WhatsOnStage (UK)
the stylistic choice to write in lowercase is a dead horse that’s been beaten, flogged, and beaten again—what my generation calls ran through. and yet, it’s having a moment. i had to investigate. - Wired
Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. - Axios
Rosalía left audiences in awe with her Saturday Night Live performance of “Reliquia” over the weekend, appearing to stand en pointe for nearly four minutes while singing. But ballet professionals aren’t convinced she pulled off the feat without some theatrical assistance. And, surprisingly, they don’t seem to mind. - Consequence
If a station’s broadcast license is owned by a public entity, including a state university, then government officials ultimately have power over the station. With the right having made public radio a political target, and with culture wars getting ever hotter, more officials have started using that power to interfere. - Columbia Journalism Review
The steps, known in Chinese as the “flash step”, “prodigal kicking the ball” and “black bear shaking fur,” took off from videos by professional dance instructors, and some people who are picking them up online (rather than in a class) are injuring themselves. - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Other Desert Cities starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, and Allison Janney grossed $2.1 million in its first week, behind only long-running juggernauts Hamilton, Harry Potter and Lion King. Other hits include Billy Crystal’s 360, A Few Good Men starring Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth, and Bowen Yang’s turn in Oh, Mary! - The Hollywood Reporter
Le Large is part of the Pointe des Arts, a €450 million cultural development (there are also a cinema, a hotel, and other amenities) on Île Seguin in the affluent inner suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. - ARTnews
Christophe Leribault says that improved security in the wake of the crown jewel robbery is not enough: leaking pipes, collapsing ceilings, and other problems with the deteriorating building could force the world’s most-visited museum to close to the public unless there’s an overhaul estimated to cost €700–800 million. - Euronews
“The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is being considered as a potential new member of the Smithsonian museum network, with members of a new congressional commission sworn in on Tuesday set to study the matter.” It would be the only Smithsonian museum outside metro DC or New York. - ARTnews
Along with Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, and Grace Bumbry, Arroyo was part of the first generation of Black singers to become opera stars on both sides of the Atlantic. A frequent guest on television talk shows, she was arguably the most personally beloved of the four. - The New York Times
