PLEDGE TO NPR?

posted by James Reel

Just as our week-long membership drive gets underway at KUAT-FM, we get news that we may have future fundraising competition from NPR:

Times have gotten so tough that National Public Radio is considering something it hasn't done for a generation: a pledge drive. With NPR facing a projected $8 million budget deficit and looming cutbacks, some of its most prominent program hosts are urging management to consider a direct, on-air appeal to NPR's listeners—something that's prohibited by the organization's bylaws.

You can find the full Washington Post article here. I doubt that NPR will get very far with this idea, because local stations are sure to howl that they can’t afford to have precious income from their local listeners possibly diverted to the network, especially in this economy.

PHOENIX SYMPHONY DISCONTENT

posted by James Reel

There’s big trouble brewing in an orchestra to our north:

The Phoenix Symphony is facing serious legal challenges arising from its alleged mistreatment of many of its most talented musicians. These legal challenges involve lawsuits, complaints to federal agencies, charges of wrongful termination, allegations of retaliation, and the charge that the symphony's top, veteran players are being forced to take demotions or leave the symphony so they can be replaced with younger, more compliant players.

You’ll learn more from Phoenix’s New Times here.

IMMORTAL LONGINGS

posted by James Reel

Here’s a review of a play in which I get to bring in a reference to music and dancing, too:

Last year, choreographer Mark Morris revived the 1935 original version of the Soviet ballet treatment of _Romeo and Juliet_ by composer Sergei Prokofiev and dramatist Sergei Radlov. Not Shakespeare's original version, but Prokofiev's original version: Juliet recovers from her drug-induced coma just in time to keep the despairing Romeo from killing himself, and the young lovers conclude their story with a dance of joy. Prokofiev and his colleagues decided to junk the happy ending before the ballet's premiere in the 1930s. But they seem not to have consulted Juliet. Would the 14-year-old heroine really prefer to end up dead in a cold tomb? Absolutely not, as she makes clear at the beginning of the Rogue Theatre's _Immortal Longings_, a new play written and directed by Joseph McGrath with substantial help from William Shakespeare. Ten of the bard's best-known female characters, from tragedies, comedies and histories alike, assemble to argue the merits of Juliet's plea for a happy ending. They illustrate their discussion with key scenes from their own plays. Portia, from _The Merchant of Venice_, being the one woman here with any courtroom experience, will decide Juliet's fate. This is a fine game that McGrath is playing with Shakespeare's characters, but it's also much more than that: It's a study of character motivation and the demands of tragedy, engaging and entertaining from beginning to end.

You’ll find my full review of the play in the Tucson Weekly right here.

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS

posted by James Reel

The Washington Post reports good news about National Public Radio’s growing audience, but bad news about its dwindling budget:

The audience for NPR's daily news programs, including "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," reached a record last year, driven by widespread interest in the presidential election, and the general decline of radio news elsewhere. Washington-based NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year. The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR—including talk shows and music—also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each week, an 8.7 percent increase over 2007. … More than half of NPR's daily audience comes from its two "core" news shows, "Morning Edition" and the evening "All Things Considered." "Morning Edition's" average daily audience, 7.6 million, is now about 60 percent larger than the audience for "Good Morning America" on ABC and about one-third larger than the audience for the "Today" show on NBC. The favorable audience data, however, hasn't spared NPR from the budget woes that are affecting almost every news organization in the nation.

You’ll find the full article here

THE BOO BOX

posted by James Reel

In the Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout offers this proposal for audiences wishing to express themselves more assertively in this era of obligatory standing ovations:

I came up with a substitute that I call "The Silent Boo." Since many theater companies now encourage playgoers to recycle their programs, why not place two transparent recycling containers in the lobby after the show, one marked CHEERS and the other JEERS? That strikes me as a neat and practical method of reaping the benefits of booing while simultaneously minimizing its incivility. Wouldn't your emotional investment in a performance be heightened if you could "vote" on its merits in a simple and convenient manner that was easily visible both to the performers and to your fellow audience members?

A think a better start, though, would be banning standing ovations for all but the most orgasmic performances. Audience response should be allowed more nuance than this mindless and insincere enthusiasm allows.

TICKETMASTER: SORDID DETAILS

posted by James Reel

Douglas McLennan has looked into the gaping maw of Ticketmaster and its proposed merger with another company, and reports what he has found here. This is what interests me the most:

TM's fees are exorbitantly high not because it costs so much to process ticket orders, but because the company kicks back money to venues in return for exclusive deals to sell tickets. These payments can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the company recoups them by charging the consumer higher fees on ticket transactions, claiming the kickbacks as a cost of doing business. The practice effectively cuts out competitors from selling at these venues. The company defends the practice saying it provides added revenue to concert facilities. The practice has ensured that TM maintains its hold on the ticket sale business.