Wednesday, March 6, 2024

How Subsidy for Big Tech Wrecked the Arts (and Journalism) by Douglas McLennan

Companies like Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Spotify, Apple and Google have subsidized what they offer (super-cheap or free content, faster service and better accessibility) to capture audience…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:48AM
Sunday, February 11, 2024

Some Thoughts on Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” Movie by Douglas McLennan

Maestro isn’t really a movie about Leonard Bernstein or his career, or even about music per se. It’s not really a “biopic,” in the traditional Hollywood sense of the word.

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:06AM
Friday, February 2, 2024

Is the Universal Translator Finally Here? by Douglas McLennan

We're entering a new age of global communication, and universal translators are only the first step. Avatars and synthetics will be as routine as today's TikTok video filters.

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:06AM
Sunday, January 7, 2024

How to Think About How AI will Change the Arts? by Douglas McLennan

At the moment "how to think about it" may be the most important place to start.

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:48AM
Wednesday, November 22, 2023

American Orchestras Could Learn Something from South Dakota by Douglas McLennan

Infinite choice of music in a few clicks sounds like a dream. In reality it can dull your desire and lead to what the social psychologist Barry Schwartz calls the “paradox of choice,” a …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:42AM
Monday, July 24, 2023

Inflection Point? A Crisis in Paying for Culture by Douglas McLennan

Our consumption of culture has never been higher. So why are culture producers melting down?

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:19AM
Friday, November 25, 2022

Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale by Douglas McLennan

It might seem like our current information glut is without parallel, but throughout history observers have worried about the impact of too much information on our ability to rationally proce…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:12PM
Sunday, June 26, 2022

UnderTow: What the new Edinburgh Fringe Tells us about a Post-COVID World by Douglas McLennan

How has COVID changed what people want when they decide to put down their screens and go out? We'll explore what Edinburgh thinks it is.  [More]

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:33PM
Wednesday, June 8, 2022

The UnderTow: The High-flying Oil Industry fears “Demand Destruction.” Should the Arts? by Douglas McLennan

Oil prices are at a record high. And profits are rolling in. But there's an intriguing phenomenon in the oil industry called "demand destruction." It means when prices get too high for too l…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:33AM
Tuesday, May 24, 2022

The UnderTow: Subscriptions are the New Business Model of Choice. So Why are Subscriptions Failing in the Arts? by Douglas McLennan

Is it the subscription model that’s not working or is it the way the arts do subscriptions? [More]

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:42AM
Sunday, April 24, 2022

This Week’s UnderTow: Why are Police Playing Disney Songs? And Why did this Orchestra Fire its Conductor for… Conducting? by Douglas McLennan

This week's podcast of The UnderTow, ArtsJournal's new weekly podcast, features three stories from the past week. Sometimes stories are not exactly about the things they seem to be about at …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:24AM
Thursday, April 14, 2022

Introducing our New Podcast: The UnderTow by Douglas McLennan

Today we introduce a new podcast -- ArtsJournal's "The UnderTow" - a more or less weekly deeper look at two or three stories from the past week. [More]

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:06PM
Saturday, November 6, 2021

Five Post-COVID Arts Observations: #3. The Future is Hybrid? (or Not) by Douglas McLennan

There are plenty of strategic reasons to use hybrid content to further artistic goals that don't have to be around making money. But ultimately the model, whatever it is, has to make sense. …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:03PM
Monday, October 25, 2021

#2. Five Observations about COVID and the Arts: The Great Resignation and Beyond by Douglas McLennan

The arts workforce, and those being recruited into it, is changing. "We’ve never had as many openings at one time. And we recognize that in hiring so many positions at once, we have a huge…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:12AM
Friday, October 22, 2021

Five Observations on the Arts 18 Months into COVID: Finances by Douglas McLennan

Many arts organizations are coming out of the COVID shutdown in better financial shape than they were going in. [More]

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:03AM
Tuesday, September 14, 2021

ArtsJournal Turned 22 Today: A Chronicle of a Remarkable Cultural Era by Douglas McLennan

Over the past year, while compiling 150,000 stories in the AJ archives, I realized that this is a unique record of an extraordinary period in our cultural history. Sorry – that sounds gran…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:54AM
Saturday, August 28, 2021

Make Google Pay for Linking to Content? Hmnnn. by Douglas McLennan

You might think this is just a journalism issue, but one can draw parallels of paying to read stories to paying for music streaming, which has not proven to "pay off" for the vast majority o…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:54PM
Wednesday, June 9, 2021

How Has Technology Changed Orchestras? — My Talk for the League of American Orchestras Conference by Douglas McLennan

I was asked to deliver a "provocation" for this week's League of American Orchestras annual conference with the prompt "How has Technology Changed Orchestras Forever?" Here's a video of the…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:18PM
Friday, March 19, 2021

The Royal Shakespeare Company At 60 by Artsjournal1

“In 1960 Peter Hall created a theatrical revolution. He turned a summer Shakespeare festival in Stratford-on-Avon into a year-round enterprise based on a permanent ensemble, a second home …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:01PM
Thursday, March 18, 2021

Has COVID Changed Standup Comedy For Good? by Artsjournal1

If so, it’s got nothing to do with illness or quarantine as subject matter; it’s that the lockdown pushed everyone — audiences, colleagues, and (crucially) gatekeepers such as casting …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:03PM
Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Yet Another Director Forced To Resign From Berlin’s Volksbühne by Artsjournal1

Three years after Chris Dercon ended his brief, dissension-plagued tenure at the theatre, his successor as artistic director, Klaus Dörr, quit after it became public that 10 women at the Vo…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:35AM
Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Theatre Leaders In Five Countries Talk About How Their Companies Have Coped With The Pandemic by Artsjournal1

Ivo van Hove at the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Stéphane Braunschweig at the Odéon in Paris, Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne in Berlin, Kajsa Giertz at the Helsingborg (Sweden) …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:28PM

Study: One Quarter Of UK Theatre Freelancers Have Quit by Artsjournal

Theatres have collectively reported losses of nearly £200 million following a year of closure, according to a survey which also reveals that a quarter of freelancers have gone out of busine…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:28PM

‘Little Did I Know’: A Theater Critic Considers The Anniversary Of The COVID Shutdown by Artsjournal1

Helen Shaw: “The pandemic has been a period of getting a lot of ‘little did I know’ stuff out into the open, including (but hardly limited to) the troubling ethics of the industry and …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:03PM
Sunday, March 14, 2021

We’re Longing For The Communion That Only Theatre Can Provide by Artsjournal2

We mourn together for our lost months and years. “Every day the theatre is dark, an opportunity for transformation is lost—yes, for the performers, remaking themselves so completely that…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:30PM

A Broadway Pop-Up Concert Slash Rally Briefly Invigorates New York by Artsjournal2

With Chita Rivera, André De Shields, and an array of singers and dancers, the pop-up on the anniversary of Broadway’s shutdown gave paying work to performers who haven’t seen much of it…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:00PM

Live Theatre Finally Gets Its Own Guidelines In Los Angeles by Artsjournal2

The guidelines are stringent – each county must cycle completely out of “colors” of COVID-19 infections before indoor theatre can open, and they have to cycle way lower rates before ou…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:00PM
Friday, March 12, 2021

Theatre In America After A Year Of The Pandemic by Artsjournal1

Rob Weinert-Kendt: “So what happened — what changed — in this past 12 months, and how will this lost, frantic year be remembered? I asked dozens of theatre workers from all over the U.…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:34AM
Thursday, March 11, 2021

UK Theatre’s Darkest Year by Artsjournal

Ridiculous as it might seem now, eight to 10 weeks was initially discussed as a likely closure period. The more pessimistic were talking about the summer of 2020. – The Stage

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:31PM

Hindu Supremacists Force Shutdown Of Indian Theatre Festival by Artsjournal1

“The annual theatre festival organised by the Indian People’s Theatre Association in the small town of Chhatarpur became the object of abuse and violent threats by Bajrang Dal, a hardlin…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:01PM

Touring Broadway Shows Are Gearing Up To Restart In The Fall by Artsjournal1

“Subscription packages for some of Broadway’s biggest hits are being sold at a handful of the nation’s performing arts centers, while a host of others have booked dates and plan to [st…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:32AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards