Crikey’s tipster who last week expressed dismay at the lack of women programmed in Sydney’s Company B theatre season for 2010 was certainly not alone.
Life / Culture / Stage
Talk of the foyer: snubbed playwright invited in from cold
It’s the worst-kept secret of the 2010 theatre season: Joanna Murray-Smith will finally get a show on at the Sydney Theatre Company after years in the wilderness.
Guilty feet got no rhythm: VCA demolishes tap-dancing studio
The Victorian College of the Arts is battling another public relations disaster after a much-loved tap-dancing studio was demolished because it was “ugly”.
Tennis: like ballet but with balls
I suspect that most dance-lovers (and, I have a feeling, most particularly ballet-lovers) adore tennis, writes New York Times dance critic Roslyn Sulcas. Both require athleticism, power and fancy footwork.
Guy Rundle: The play’s the thing missing from the PEN anthology
The great, the good and my good friend Peter Craven have already weighed in on the issue of “progressive inclusion” of indigenous writing in the new Macquarie Australian lit anthology. But the omission of drama is the real scandal.
Dramatic turn: the art of the last minute replacement
What happens when the opera stars you book get sick, twist ankles or fall off cliffs? It’s a nightmare — as Placido Domingo’s LA Opera company is finding out — that can also sometimes turn into an opera-worthy miracle.
Snuggies hit the runway at NY Fashion Week 
The president walks into a bar… comedy in the Obama Age
For comedians, where Dubbya was an endless source of comedy gold, Obama jokes just don’t pull the laffs.
The show must go on: Opera Australia’s last minute saviour
It’s a dramatic story, fit for the stage. On closing night of Opera Australia’s Fidelio, the lead is ill and the understudy interstate. Luckily, an opera diva steps in, saving the performance and possibly the boss’s job.
Miss Universe’s celebration of Camp transcends irony
Somehow, the Miss Universe pageant has survived an ironic age. And a post-ironic one, too.
The grand illusion of David Copperfield’s appeal
Erdem Koc watched $300 magically disappear when he went to see the world’s most famous magician, David Copperfield, perform live in Melbourne, and found the illusionist has nothing of interest up his sleeve.
Vale Merce Cunningham
American avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham has died, age 90. The NYT looks back on an extraordinary career.
Video of the Day: Web Site Story — I’m on Twitter, I’m on Twitter!
Bernstein and Sondheim’s classic revisited for the 21st Century. You’ll click your mouse along from start to finish.
Insider tells: Jackson was trying to sabotage concerts
“Like a child who doesn’t want to go to school, Michael thought he could get away from his obligations if he had a ‘note from the doctor.’” A close “confidante” to Jackson speaks with The Daily Beast.
Video of the Day: Moonwalked — a YouTube tribute
Ever since he first walked on the moon in 1983, Michael Jackson’s signature dance move has been imitated but never beaten. Here, Slate V compiles a very YouTube tribute.
Jackson’s legendary lean: it’s patented
How Michael Jackson defied gravity on a 45 degree lean — with a little help from engineering.
MP expenses the Musical!
The Queen’s composer, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, is writing a comic opera about the MPs’ expenses scandal that “outraged”him. And yes, it may feature duck houses and moats.
Leading ladies kept out of limelight
A conference at UK’s National Theatre has heard that women are being continually sidelined on and off the stage.
Postmodern spruiking overload at The Age
Cabaret singer Melissa Madder Gray’s conducted a master class on self-promotion in last week’s Sunday Age.
Is the Broadway musical in trouble?
The creators of musicals used to embrace life as a series of nutty, uncontrollable happenstance. What happened? asks Stefany Anne Golberg
VIDEO: Geoffrey Rush on Exit the King
Geoffrey Rush chats about the art of “top to toe” acting and the play that earned him a Tony.
Danny La Rue: a life in sequins
The Guardian celebrates the life and work of recently deceased “comic in a frock” Danny La Rue with a lifetime of images.
The new culture wars: Melbourne vs Brisbane, pincers Sydney
Battle lines are drawn in the fight for domestic cultural tourism with Melbourne and Brisbane going mano a mano to attract visitors, writes Ned Keene.
A “radiation” like Callas: Cecilia Bartoli wins Danish music prize
The prize committee of Denmark’s lucrative Sonning Music Prize praised the 42-year-old singer, saying “her sound is unique, her technique unsurpassed … and her radiation [sic] like that of Callas.”
VCA cuts an act of barbarism
The loss of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts will be a disaster for arts professions, says Barista.
