|
12/12/2025 09:35 AM
|
|
D.L. Coburn, Playwright Of “The Gin Game,” Has Died At 87
|
 He was in his late 30s when he wrote the play, his first. It premiered in Los Angeles in 1976; it reached Broadway the following year, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, and ran for over 500 performances, winning Tandy a Tony and Coburn himself a Pulitzer. – TheaterMania
|
|
12/12/2025 09:01 AM
|
|
The Louvre’s Security Cameras Caught The Entire Jewel Heist — But The Security Guards Couldn’t See It
|
 “(The museum’s) security control room was not equipped with enough screens to watch every camera simultaneously, so the break-in was not watched in real-time. By the time guards had manually switched to the relevant live feed, nearly eight minutes after the heist began, the robbers were already getting away.” – Artnet
|
|
12/12/2025 08:36 AM
|
|
Arkansas Becomes First State To Sever Its Public Television’s Ties With PBS
|
 “The eight-member Arkansas Educational Television Commission, made up entirely of appointees of the governor, announced … that it planned to disaffiliate from PBS effective July 1, citing annual membership dues of about $2.5 million it described as ‘not feasible.’ … PBS Arkansas is rebranding itself as Arkansas TV and will provide more local content.” – […]
|
|
12/12/2025 08:00 AM
|
|
Broadway Had Its Second-Highest Attendance In History Last Season
|
 More than 14.7 million seats were filled in 2024-25, according to the latest audience-demographics report from The Broadway League. Among other findings is that, yet again, the average ticket-buyer is a 41-year-old, college educated woman whose household income is over $275K a year. – Deadline
|
|
12/11/2025 07:54 PM
|
|
Director of Marketing and Communications – Broadway in Hollywood & the Hollywood Pantages Theatre via TOC Arts Partners
|
Broadway in Hollywood and the Hollywood Pantages Theatre seek an energetic, driven, and forward-thinking Director of Marketing and Communications.
|
|
12/11/2025 07:45 PM
|
|
Good Morning
|
Today’s highlights: The big news is Disney’s embrace of AI: in a major move with enormous implications for content creation, Disney Will License Its Characters To OpenAI’s Video Platform And Invest $1 Billion In the Company (The Wall Street Journal (MSN)). This comes as the traditional film business faces its own potential extinction event, analyzing […]
|
|
12/11/2025 03:02 PM
|
|
Judi Dench On The State Of Her Memory And Her Eyesight
|
 The 91-year-old acting legend, who has age-related macular degeneration, stopped performing because she can’t see her way around a set or read a script anymore. And she says, “I can’t remember what I’m doing tomorrow, I swear to you,” but can still remember quite a lot of Shakespeare. – The Guardian
|
|
12/11/2025 02:32 PM
|
|
Can Literary Fiction Help Save Classical Music?
|
 Since 2020, well over a dozen novels have taken classical music as their setting. Of course, novels about classical music are nothing new. But what is notable about this recent surge in classical music fiction is that many of these texts center on a scathing critique of the industry itself. – Public Books
|
|
12/11/2025 02:04 PM
|
|
Why Does It Seem Like Every Major Cultural Institution In Melbourne Is Named After The Same Person?
|
 Well, because that person, Ian Potter, was extraordinarily generous, as his widow and his foundation continue to be. But when your sister gets angry because she was waiting for you at one Ian Potter Museum while you waited for her at another, you realize there must be a better way. – ABC (Australia)
|
|
12/11/2025 01:44 PM
|
|
“Nutcracker” From Behind The Stage
|
 Pittsburgh’s production has evolved its own traditions and superstitions. During some performances, performers pass a Heinz ketchup packet while onstage, like a hot potato. Whoever has it at the end loses. Another tradition: Dancers owe a dollar for every mistake. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
|
|
12/11/2025 01:31 PM
|
|
Americans’ Obsession With Renovation And Makeovers — And The White House
|
 The White House has explained the East Wing’s demolition as “renovation,” and the necessary prelude to a multimillion-dollar ballroom. This is the architectural equivalent of a celebrity-style makeover: a redo to admire as a luxury commodity, an old building rejuvenated, history erased. – The New York Times
|
|
12/11/2025 01:15 PM
|
|
Have Stripped Public Media Of Funding, Now Republicans Want To Cancel NPR, PBS Station Licenses
|
 The CPB is set to shut down after Congress approved President Trump’s request to rescind its funding. The Center for American Rights said the CPB shutdown should be used as an opportunity to reassign spectrum used by NPR and PBS stations to other entities. – Ars Technica
|
|
12/11/2025 01:01 PM
|
|
Poetry And Politics In The U.S., Then And Now
|
 Verse was used as a political tool going back all the way to the Revolutionary War. Walt Whitman considered poetry to democracy, which “waits the coming of its bards … in the twilight of dawn.” And the connection of poetry to politics continues today with Joy Harjo and Amanda Gorman. – JSTOR Daily
|
|
12/11/2025 12:31 PM
|
|
Mark Swed: LA’s Best Classical Music Of 2025
|
 Classical music’s survival instincts proved reliable. New leaders of L.A.’s arts institutions are bringing vitality to the region, empowering musicians and giving fans hope and optimism. – Los Angeles Times
|
|
12/11/2025 12:15 PM
|
|
Baritone Jubilant Sykes, Stabbed and Killed
|
 After the Santa Monica Police Department responded to a call about an assault at a house around 9:20 p.m., officers found Sykes, 71, with critical injuries consistent with a stabbing, the authorities said in a news release. He was pronounced dead at the scene. – The New York Times
|
|
12/11/2025 12:03 PM
|
|
How Do You Keep “Nutcracker” Costumes Looking Fresh For 30 Years?
|
 The National Ballet of Canada’s costumes, designed by Broadway mainstay Santo Loquasto, have absorbed a lot of wear, tear, and sweat over three decades. Here wardrobe chief Stacy Dimitropoulos, resident cutter Chris Read, and several company dancers talk about costume care and maintenance. – Toronto Life
|
|
12/11/2025 11:44 AM
|
|
The People Who Are Using AI To Do Their Thinking
|
 For this set of compulsive users, AI has become a primary interface through which they interact with the world. The emails they write, the life decisions they make, and the questions that consume their mind all filter through AI first. “It’s like a real addiction.” – The Atlantic
|
|
12/11/2025 11:35 AM
|
|
How Warner Bros. Sale To Netflix Could Change Movies
|
 In Hollywood, concern about whether Warner Bros. will remain a theatre-centered business is haunted by historical echoes of earlier seismic shifts in the movie business. It seems existential, perhaps portending the end of mainstream moviegoing. – The New Yorker
|
|
12/11/2025 11:15 AM
|
|
The Trumped Up Kennedy Honors
|
 Every detail of the ceremony appeared to have been plucked from Trump’s mood board, an indelible blend of revanchist impulses and eighties camp. – The New Yorker
|
|
12/11/2025 11:05 AM
|
|
Disney Will License Its Characters To OpenAI’s Video Platform And Invest $1 Billion In Company
|
 “The three-year licensing deal will let users generate videos using Sora, OpenAI’s short-form AI video platform, of more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar characters. … ChatGPT will also be able to generate images of Disney’s multibrand licensed characters.” – The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
|
|
12/11/2025 10:32 AM
|
|
Broadway Attendance From New York’s Suburbs Is Lowest In 30 Years
|
 “According to data released … on Wednesday, less than 13% of admissions in (2024-25) came from the surrounding New York suburbs, which was the lowest percentage on Broadway in 30 years. The demographic, which once made up 20% of the audience, has been trending down over the past few years.” – The Hollywood Reporter
|
|
12/11/2025 10:06 AM
|
|
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum To Open Its First Satellite
|
 And no, it’s not in Abu Dhabi. It will be in the south of the Netherlands, in the high-tech hub of Eindhoven. The new museum, planned to cover more than 3,500 square meters (37,673 square feet) near the city’s central railway station, is scheduled to open in six to eight years. – AP
|
|
12/11/2025 09:34 AM
|
|
Nathalie Stutzmann, Atlanta Symphony Music Director, Takes On A Second Position
|
 Next September, the French contralto-turned-conductor will begin a four-year term as music and artistic director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo in Monaco. She succeeds Kazuki Yamada, music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the UK. – Moto Perpetuo
|