This isn't the first of Steve Bell's cartoons to draw accusations of anti-Semitic imagery in 40 years with The Guardian, but it could be the most poorly timed. It features Netanyahu cutting a Gaza-shaped hole in his abdomen; the likely association with Shylock's pound of flesh evidently escaped Bell. - AP
"A recent announcement by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of the return of 19 antiquities to Italy disclosed charges against veteran New York antiquities dealer Michael Ward, who has operated a gallery on the Upper East Side for nearly four decades." - Artnet
Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini announced that the annual license fee that supports the country's national broadcaster (as with the BBC) will be cut from €90 to €70. Salvini presented the move as a first step toward defunding RAI, a longtime goal of his far-right Lega party. - Reuters
"Netflix on Wednesday disclosed summertime subscriber gains that surpassed industry analysts’ projections, signaling the video streaming service’s crackdown on password sharing is converting former freeloaders into paying customers." - AP
For the second year running, Lynn Nottage tops the list, which includes nine women out of 20. (Lauren Gunderson, once the perennial leader, is now in eighth place.) Contemporary writers dominate; with Shakespeare omitted, the only canonical playwright, at no. 4, is August Wilson. - American Theatre
For those who keep count, works by female creators make up almost half the list (definitely half if you count Carole King), and three of the top seven are by BIPOC playwrights. (The two extra places on the list are because of ties.) - American Theatre
"The way we work together is as crucial as what we make, and that means acknowledging how badly we need each other’s ideas and artistry and experience—especially when it’s different from our own." - Howlround
The decision to retire was the product of a year’s worth of rumination, Ann Philbin explained, and now, at 71, she is ready to move forward. - Los Angeles Times
Nearly 60% of Americans say they have had to cut back on spending on live entertainment this year because of rising costs, according to a Wall Street Journal/Credit Karma survey of about 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted at the start of September. - Wall Street Journal
“This is a plan of managed decline, rather than an attempt to rebuild the company and maintain the world-class artistic output for which ENO is rightly famed." - The Guardian
“Steve Rubin did more for music criticism than anybody — first, in the searching articles he wrote as a young man; later, as a brilliant editor and meticulous judge of talent; and then as the founder and guiding force behind the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism." - San Francisco Classical Voice
Shaina Taub's show Suffs, which had a sold-out but critically-mixed premiere run Off-Broadway last year, will open on Broadway next April with a largely new creative team — and with Nobel Prize-winning girls' education advocate Malala Yousafzai and former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among the co-producers. - TheaterMania
There is a "very real fear that the algorithm will ‘forget’ artists if they do not keep up a steady flow of social posts and releases, and you have the foundation stones for music’s just-in-time economy." - Music Industry Blog
There are new rehearsal spaces for the ballet and orchestra (the latter equipped for studio recording), a big space for unloading and assembling sets, and plenty of new office space that will save the company €350,000 a year in rent to other landlords. - Gramilano (Milan)
That number represents a six-point drop from the most recent survey in 2017, amplifying alarm bells that the arts community is struggling to regain its pre-lockdown audience. - Washington Post
