“Rather than offering an escapist vision of a world unravaged by pandemic, I’ve taken reassurance from the way these shows offer an escapist vision of pandemic. They present quarantine conditions as a utopia in which creative laborers, isolated in a single space for an extended period of time, yield art validated through external adjudication. They have ‘flourished,’ instead of slowly sinking into their couches.” – The American Scholar
Building Audiences
Can The Movies Recover From The Pandemic?
Well, A Quiet Place II‘s boffo box office seems to indicate that people are sick of their living rooms and, one hopes, fully vaccinated and ready to go to the movies. – Variety
A Sound Check In Inglewood
How’d the dry run for the YOLA concert hall go? “It would be hard to imagine a less proper acoustic assessment, or a better real world one. The ensemble of student string players spent the pandemic practicing at home and taking instruction via Zoom. Yet their assignment, on only their third time back together, was the tricky first movement of Bach’s Fourth ‘Brandenburg’ Concerto. This also happened to be their introduction to a new hall with a startlingly lively presence unlike any venue they’d ever experienced.” – Los Angeles Times
30 Years Ago, SoundScan Completely Upended The Pop Music Business
“On May 25, 1991 — 30 years ago Tuesday — Billboard … started counting album sales with scanners and computers and whatnot, and not just calling up record stores one at a time and asking them for their individual counts, often a manual and semi-accurate and flagrantly corrupt process. … Virtually overnight, SoundScan changed the rules on who got to be a mega, mega superstar, and the domino effect — in terms of magazine covers, TV bookings, arena tours, and the other spoils of media attention and music-industry adulation — was tremendous.” – The Ringer
‘Let The People Pee Without Missing A Note!’ — Maybe Doing Two-Hour Operas With No Intermission Isn’t Such A Good Idea
For its first post-pandemic performances this fall, Lyric Opera of Chicago — based, it seems, on feedback from potential audience members and official guidelines last year — decided to keep all performances under two-and-a-half hours and eliminate intermission. When he reported this, writes Chris Jones, “my mailbox immediately filled up with one burning question from Chicago’s opera fans: When do I pee?” – Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
Smaller Museums Across U.S. Try To Reach Communities They’ve Missed Before
“This is an existential moment for museums across America, with many facing yawning budget deficits alongside calls for deep structural change — and visitors only trickling back through their doors as the pandemic’s chill on cultural life slowly lifts. For some directors of small and midsize museums, the events of the last 12 months have given fresh urgency to their outreach initiatives — particularly to Black communities — and their efforts to make their collections relevant to a restless and reform-minded younger generation.” – The New York Times
France Takes Its €300 Culture Pass For Young People Nationwide
“After a regional trial run, French president Emmanuel Macron is launching his program to fund cultural activities for young people nationally. Culture Pass, as the initiative is called, is now open to all 18 year olds in France, and will be extended to high schools across the nation in 2022.” – Artnet
Movie Theatres Are Begging Audiences To Return
Apparently, 70 percent of the moviegoing public – which is, let’s note, far higher than the percentage of fully vaccinated people in the U.S. – feel comfortable going to reopened movie theatres now. This week, “before the studios showed off trailers for their upcoming slate of movies, [Arnold] Schwarzenegger led the audience in a chant: ‘We are back. We are back. We are back …'” – NPR
Will Audiences Return To Movie Theatres?
Like so many businesses, the movie theater industry has been ravaged by the economic effects of the pandemic. Theaters were starved of audiences when lockdowns went into effect, and studios delayed new releases or, in some cases, put them out on streaming services. Some chains have shut down and others have declared bankruptcy. AMC Entertainment’s chief executive, Adam Aron, said this month that the chain had been “within months or weeks of running out of cash five different times between April 2020 and January 2021.” – The New York Times
Radio City Music Hall Set To Reopen At 100% Capacity, No Masks Required
The first scheduled event is the finale of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival on June 19. Only vaccinated people will be admitted. And how will management ensure that patrons are telling the truth about their shots? Said CEO James Dolan, “That’s a really good question, I have no idea.” – The New York Times
There’s A Brief Post-Lockdown Window For Britons To See Their Museums Devoid Of Tourist Throngs
And that seems like something to celebrate, and take advantage of, to a lot of museum directors. “We know that all museums’ audiences will be more local, which offers a great opportunity for arts and culture to sit at the heart of their communities, especially where those communities have experienced such hardship over the past year.” – The Observer (UK)
We Need Unconventional Art Now More Than Ever
After 15 months of COVID-19 restrictions, deaths, infections, fear, and all kinds of life challenges, we must have more public art. “It does a simple but essential thing: reminds everyday people that they are not alone in this bizzarro moment, and miraculously and fortunately, they are still alive and kicking.” – Hyperallergic
NPR Is Starting To Put Its Most Popular Podcasts On Traditional Radio
The traffic started out the other way, of course, with over-the-air programs being released as or adapted into podcasts. “But podcasting has turned into an incubator of sorts for new radio shows, with several now making their way to local airwaves. … Starting out as a podcast offers show creators a chance to explore and experiment while also building a following — which can help when the subject matter is inherently challenging.” – The Washington Post
Hollywood Is Now Producing Companion Podcasts To Movies And TV Series
Why? Money, of course: to put it in business-speak, the companion podcast “offers a new way for creators to diversify IP assets.” What’s the draw? “People want to spend more time thinking and talking about the shows that they’re watching, whether they’re binge-watching it or watching it once a week,” says HBO’s director of podcasts. “It’s on their mind, and it’s a platform that really complements their watching experience.” – The Hollywood Reporter
As Broadway Prepares To Reopen, Here’s How It Will (And Won’t) Be Operating Differently
“Ticket-buyers are being told they will be required to wear face masks (although it’s not clear how changing advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might affect that expectation). Theaters will have upgraded HVAC systems with virus-trapping filters. Most ticketing will be digital. And theaters are reserving the right to impose a variety of safety protocols” — on casts and crews as well as on audiences. “Prices, at least so far, are similar to what they were prepandemic, although premium prices are somewhat lower. … But it will be far easier to cancel or exchange tickets.” – The New York Times
Performance Venues And Museums In UK May Reopen Next Monday (Though Many Will Not)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced the lifting of a series of pandemic-related restrictions as of May 17; the new measures include the reopening of theatres, cinemas, concert halls, museums, and similar venues. However, social distancing requirements and capacity limits will still be in place, and many theatres say they can’t afford to reopen to only half-full houses. – BBC
La Scala Is Opening Again
With a 500-person limit, a record high in private funding, new digital streaming infrastructure, and a mandate to be more ecologically conscious, the Milan opera house and its new artistic director, Dominique Meyer, are ready to put the horrible experience of 2020 behind them. – The New York Times
NFTs Are The Newest Tulipmania
“Art NFTs put me in mind of film auteur Werner Herzog’s distinction between the ‘truth of accountants’ and ‘ecstatic truth.’ NFT mavens wax lyrical about the ‘authenticity’ of these tokens as if they are trading a semi-divine quality, yet the authenticity encoded by an NFT is the same kind encoded by a transaction number on a credit card statement. They are a dressed-up species of bookkeeping. What art needs is less auditing and more ecstasy.” – Los Angeles Times
Bandwagon Is Changing The NY Phil’s Relationship With The City
Instead of the whiff of noblesse oblige and platitudes about the uplifting nature of classical music, this is about working together. “The key phrases when Bandwagon 2 was announced last month were the desire to ‘center the voices of our partners’ and ‘utilize the Philharmonic’s resources to amplify the work of our collaborators.’ In less fancy terms, the orchestra is stepping back, giving over its stage and its money rather than hogging them.” – The New York Times
The Big Screen Experience Is Unparalleled
No matter what you’ve got in your house, there’s nothing like watching a movie in the theatre with scores of other people. Then there are the prices: “The fact that I know I’m being ripped off is, somehow, part of the charm. Have you got a statistic about the ludicrous mark-up on popcorn for me? Have you got a story about seeing it loaded into the back of the cinema in a dozen bin bags? Ooh baby, yes: talk nasty to me.” – The Guardian (UK)
One Of London’s Leading Theatres Says It Will Keep Live-Streaming Productions Permanently
“[Young Vic artistic director] Kwame Kwei-Armah told The Guardian the pandemic had changed theatre forever, with the livestreaming of plays becoming ‘hard baked’ into how the industry operates. [He] said that during lockdown he had resolved to ‘innovate, not just replicate’ resulting in a project titled Best Seat in Your House which will use multiple cameras and allow online audiences to change what they are looking at.” – The Guardian
Why Broadway Isn’t Restarting Until September
“With as many as eight shows a week to fill, and the tourists who make up an important part of their customer base yet to return, producers need time to advertise and market. They need to reassemble and rehearse casts who have been out of work for more than a year. And they need to sort out and negotiate safety protocols. But the biggest reason is more gut-based.” – The New York Times
The NY Phil Goes Traveling, In A Shipping Container
Last year it was a Ford F-250 pickup truck that saved the day, and the audiences around the city. “Bandwagon 2 will trade in the pickup truck for a 20-foot shipping container atop a semi truck, which will visit four parks around New York City for weekend-long residencies through May. … Tricked out with a foldout stage, video wall and integrated sound and lighting, the setup is now more arresting and theatrically attuned.” – The New York Times
Amazon Earnings Soar, Streaming Up 70 Percent
Video streaming — sometimes a throwaway in the company’s earnings announcements — was this time a centerpiece. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who is shifting to executive chairman this summer, noted that streaming has risen 70% compared with the same time a year ago. Prime Video, which has recently marked its 10th anniversary, served film or TV titles to some 175 million global members. – Deadline
Play Something, Netflix’s New Weapon Against Viewers’ Decision Fatigue
“Today, the company is launching Play Something, a new viewing mode designed to make it easier for the indecisive among us to quickly find something to watch. … The goal of this new shuffle feature is to eliminate, or at least ease, the Peak TV-era anxiety so many of us feel while trying to find something to watch” among the countless options available. – Vulture