While women are still poorly represented as playwrights or composers on Broadway (they fare slightly better Off and Off Off), it doesn’t mean they aren’t actively involved. It’s just that as is so often the case, they’re busting a gut behind the scenes, ensuring that the show looks as nice as possible as it goes on. In the exhibit “Curtain Call,” the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (which has to be one of the coolest places in the city, hands down) pays tribute to women who have created costumes, sets or lighting for the stage.
Of course there have been influential female designers in couture, from Coco Chanel to Rei Kawakubo and Ann Demeulemeester, but they are the trees hiding the forest because fashion is rather male-dominated, just like the world of high-end chefs. (I guess that some domestic tasks suddenly get a lot more interesting when they’re done outside the house.) Costume design, on the other hand, seems to have been somewhat friendlier to women. read more
Last week, the Metropolitan Opera announced that it was facing a budget crunch. Wow, like, that’s a surprise? Some staff members have already taken pay cuts, salaries will be discussed with unions. And of course the crisis will impact programming: Costly revivals of Ghosts of Versailles, Benvenuto Cellini, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and Die Frau Ohne Schatten have been scrapped; some won’t be replaced, others will be switched for less pricey productions. But the Met is not really representative because there’s no such thing as a really cheap show there: Your choices are expensive and very expensive. What I fear is that we’re really going to start missing out on very large, very outlandish, very ambitious productions all over town, not just at the Met. read more
subscribe to RSS feed
find SundayArts on Facebook
