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A Night at the Jazz SpeakeasySinna NasseriđReporting from Midtown ManhattanLast Friday, I received a coveted invitation to the Daddy Rabbit, a clandestine pop-up jazz speakeasy that hops around locations in Manhattan.I watched as a handful of musicians gathered to play in a dark, unmarked room. Hereâs what I saw, and heard â More
The actor plays a burnout musician in this drama from Rachel Winter.Fans of âFrasierâ may have found the singing voice of its star, Kelsey Grammer â who crooned a paean to âtossed salads and scrambled eggsâ over the sitcomâs end titles â a balm, a comfort and a further source of humor. One is curious as to how theyâll take âThe Space Between,â a comedy/drama in which Grammer plays a burnout â70s rocker and sings nearly an LPâs worth of tunes written by Weezerâs Rivers Cuomo.No, I am not making this up. The movie, directed by Rachel Winter from a script by Will Aldis, is set in 1996 and narrated by a glib wannabe, Charlie (Jackson White), who works in the mailroom of a record company and haunts L.A.âs Viper Room, lying to bands about his ability to sign them. Aldisâs script nearly knocks itself unconscious trying to establish period bona fides; the names Spacehog, Hole, Guns ânâ Roses and River Phoenix are dropped rapid-fire.Back in the mailroom, Charlie overhears the company head, Donny (William Fichtner) complain about Micky Adams, a Dylanesque (but werenât they all?) singer-songwriter from decades past, still living off the label. Charlie volunteers to hurry to Montecito and persuade Adams to sever his contract.Hence, Grammer, with frightful hair and attitude, is soon dosing Charlie with psychedelics and dispensing teachable moments as his disapproving daughter Julie pops in and out of the picture.This is one of those movies that never quite sinks to the risible depths you kind of wish it would. Grammarâs singing, stentorian in a Harry Chapin mode, is unusual, for sure. But once past the awkwardness Grammar shows some sharp instincts in his characterization. And Paris Jackson, as a would-be protĂ©gĂ© of Charlieâs who gets a brushoff, gives a knowing and authentic period-L.A.-rocker turn, especially impressive given she was born well after the movie takes place.The Space BetweenRated R for language, nudity, themes, â90s L.A. rock scene material. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Rent or buy on FandangoNow, Amazon, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More
The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examined 4,060 executives at six types of companies, and found 19.8 percent were from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.A year ago, as protests spread across the country following the murder of George Floyd, the music industry promised to change.Major record labels, streaming platforms and broadcasters pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable donations. The diversity of the music industry itself â a business that relies heavily on the creative labor of Black artists â came under scrutiny, with calls to hire more people of color and to elevate women and minorities into management and decision-making positions.But how diverse is the music business? The answer, according to a new study: not very.A report by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California, released Tuesday, examined the makeup of 4,060 executives, at the vice president level and above, at 119 companies of six types: corporate music groups, record labels, music publishers, radio broadcasters, streaming services and live music companies.Among those executives, 19.8 percent were from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, including 7.5 percent who were Black. Women made up 35.3 percent of the total.Delving deeper into the numbers, the authors of the 25-page report, led by Stacy L. Smith and Carmen Lee, found that the representation of women and minorities seemed to shrink as they looked higher up music companiesâ organization charts.After filtering out subsidiaries, the researchers looked at the uppermost leadership positions â chief executives, chairmen and presidents â in a subset of 70 major and independent companies, and found that 86.1 percent of those people were both white and male. The 10 people of color who held those positions were all at independents, and just two were women: Desiree Perez, a longtime associate of Jay-Z who leads his company Roc Nation, and Golnar Khosrowshahi, the founder of Reservoir, which owns music rights.The report includes some stark findings. For example, among the 4,060 people in the studyâs sample, the researchers found 17.7 white male executives for every Black female one.âUnderrepresented and Black artists are dominating the charts, but the C-suite is a âdiversity desert,ââ Dr. Smith said in a statement. âThe profile of top artists may give some in the industry the illusion that music is an inclusive business, but the numbers at the top tell a different story.âEach year since 2018, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has tracked the artists, songwriters and producers behind the biggest hits. Again and again, it has found that women are far outnumbered by men, yet revealed some encouraging numbers for underrepresented groups: People of color have made up about 47 percent of the credited artists behind 900 top pop songs since 2012.Yet the groupâs new report, called âInclusion in the Music Business: Gender & Race/Ethnicity Across Executives, Artists & Talent Teams,â and sponsored by Universal Music Group, shows that women and people of color are poorly represented in the power structure of the industry itself.The variation across different job levels and industry sectors is notable. Black executives fared best within record labels, making up 14.4 percent of all positions, and 21.2 percent of artist-and-repertoire, or A&R, roles, which tend to work most closely with artists. Black people hold just 4 percent of executive jobs in radio, and 3.3 percent in live music.According to U.S. census data, 13.4 percent of Americans identify as Black.Women posted their highest executive numbers in the live music business, holding 39.1 percent of positions. But drilling down, the study found, most of those women were white. Even at record labels, where Black executives were best represented, Black women held only 5.3 percent of executive jobs.The U.S.C. report is one of a number of efforts underway to examine the music industry and evaluate its progress in reaching stated goals of diversity and inclusion. This week, the Black Music Action Coalition, a group of artist managers, lawyers and other insiders, is expected to release a âreport cardâ on how well the industry has met its own commitments to change.Much of the data used in the U.S.C. report, the researchers said, came from publicly available sources, like company websites. The report suggests that a lack of participation in the study by music companies was a reason.âCompanies were given the opportunity to participate and confirm information, especially of senior management teams,â the report says. âRoughly a dozen companies did so. The vast majority did not.âThe authors of the report, who also include Marc Choueiti, Katherine Pieper, Zoe Moore, Dana Dinh and Artur Tofan, said they want to spur the industry toward change. The report recommends a number of steps that companies can take to make their executive ranks more diverse, including making career pathways more flexible and âfast trackingâ leaders with support and mentoring.âOur hope,â Dr. Lee said, âis that the industry will come together to tackle this problem in a way that creates meaningful progress.â More
At 70, the influential English songwriter is still writing and recording solo, remaining as private as she can and âtrying to get really good.âThe pandemic arrived while Joan Armatrading was making her new album, âConsequences.â Yet unlike countless musicians whose work was completely upended by quarantines and separations, Armatrading barely had to adjust. Since 2003, she has been recording her albums on her own: writing, arranging, playing and engineering entire songs by herself.âI actually donât physically need one other person in the room with me,â she said via video interview from her home in London, sitting in front of a blank white wall. âI just did what I do.âWhat Armatrading has been doing, beginning with her 1972 debut album, âWhateverâs for Us,â has been writing and singing, with insight and empathy, about a broad panorama of human relationships. She sings about romance, friendship, family and community; she sings about longing, infatuation, discord, heartache and healing. The songs on âConsequencesâ celebrate love at first sight (âAlready Thereâ) and delirious obsession (âGlorious Madnessâ); they also recognize romantic turmoil (âConsequencesâ) and aching loneliness (âTo Anyone Who Will Listenâ).Through decades of performing, Armatrading has determinedly kept the focus on her songs rather than herself. âIâm really introverted. I donât need people to know about me,â she said. âBut Iâm desperate for people to know about my songs. And Iâm an extrovert about my songs. Iâm actually quite bigheaded about my songs.âArmatrading, 70, was born in St. Kitts, and settled in England with her family when she was 7 years old. She liked writing jokes and limericks; then, when she was 14, her mother bought a piano âas a piece of furniture,â Armatrading recalled.âLiterally, as soon as it arrived, I started writing songs,â she said. âI think I was born to do what Iâm doing. I always say I canât take credit for it because I did nothing for it. All I did was be born, then was given this gift.âArmatrading in 1977. âPeople have said to me, I couldnât find the words to express what I was thinking or feeling at that moment to this person. And your song has helped me to do that.âLynn Goldsmith/Corbis and VCG, via Getty ImagesShe began her recording career in an era of singer-songwriters alongside Joni Mitchell, Elton John and Carole King, three musicians she was compared to early on. But Armatrading quickly forged her own style, juxtaposing layers of crisp riffs and rhythms while wielding a voice that can dive into a hearty contralto or leap upward to radiate fragility and tenderness.Armatrading is insistently modest about her singing. âI donât know that Iâve got a voice. I sing because I write songs,â she said. âI know that some people love my voice, but thatâs the last thing Iâm thinking of. Iâm just thinking about the structure of it, the arrangement of it. Does it sound good? Is it working? Is the emotional part of it working?âOn her first albums, Armatrading worked with leading producers: Gus Dudgeon (Elton John), Glyn Johns (the Rolling Stones, the Who), Steve Lillywhite (XTC, U2), Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, the Go-Goâs). But by the mid-1980s, she was ready to produce herself. And in the 21st century, she dispensed with studio musicians; she now plays all the keyboards, electronics and guitars, and she programs the drumming.Even as a teenager, Armatrading said, she heard her songs as full-blown arrangements. âIâve always gone in with a complete song,â she said. âIâm the writer, so I need to know how every aspect of the song goes. I can hear the bass and the drums and the keyboards. Thatâs how I go into the studio. It has a verse, a chorus, a middle eight, a solo, an end. If itâs going to fade, if itâs going to end, whatever â I need to know exactly what that is.âArmatrading had American and British hits in the 1970s and â80s and a trove of FM radio staples, including âLove and Affectionâ and âDrop the Pilot,â and she has never stopped making albums and performing. She has earned loyal, long-haul fans, and is still being discovered by younger generations of songwriters, among them the widely acclaimed Laura Mvula â whose mother, like Armatrading, came from St. Kitts.âI remember being transfixed,â Mvula said in an interview. âIt was similar to the first time I heard Nina Simone and really listened.â She recalled watching a performance on YouTube: âI do remember being like, âThis is a Black woman from St. Kitts. Sheâs wearing no makeup. That seems to be her thing. She is as she appears.â And thatâs how the music is. It speaks very deeply to who I am. And it fills me with this unknowable pride that without even being able to give myself props, this is my heritage.âFor decades, Armatradingâs songs have moved listeners. âPeople have said to me, I couldnât find the words to express what I was thinking or feeling at that moment to this person. And your song has helped me to do that,â said Armatrading. âAnd these three-minute songs that weâre doing, because itâs in this really short, squashed-in, compressed form, have to be quite precise. It has to be succinct. Itâs got to say exactly what youâre trying to say. And thatâs whatâs helpful to people.âArmatrading in Regents Park, London, this month. âIâm trying to write the song where I say, thatâs it. Iâve done it. I found the secret of life and thatâs it.âAdama Jalloh for The New York TimesFor all the seeming intimacy of her lyrics, Armatrading has steadfastly insisted that the vast majority of her songs are not confessional. âIf you hear a song like âBlessed,â or âIâm Lucky,â or anything thatâs got this feeling of, âIâm so thankful for where I am,â thatâs me,â she said. âBut in general Iâm just working from observation. If youâre going to write all those songs and all of those songs are going to be about you, thatâs not healthy. I try and be as private as I can and as quiet as I can.âBut she has offered a few glimpses of autobiography. âMama and Papa,â from her 2007 album âInto the Blues,â offers memories of her childhood after moving to Birmingham, England, mixing fondness and struggle: âSeven people in one room/No heat, one wage and bills to pay.â Back in 1979, Armatrading released an angular new wave song, âHow Cruel,â which noted, âI had somebody say once I was way too Black/And someone answers sheâs not Black enough for me.âArmatrading says now that she didnât intend âHow Cruelâ as a broad indictment. âIt was just thinking about some of the things that people say,â she said. âI absolutely have not been plagued with racism at all, and I feel quite lucky in that respect. Itâs not that I donât know that Iâm Black. Of course I do. But I didnât grow up with a lot of that, and I think it was probably because I was a songwriter and people are interested in the songs.âArmatradingâs recent albums have started with concepts and strategies. She made a trilogy concentrating on genre: blues (âInto the Blues,â 2007), guitar-driven rock (âThis Charming Life,â 2010) and jazz (âStarlight,â 2012). For âNot Far Away,â she decided to write all the lyrics first, then add music, a method she repeated on âConsequences.â That choice apparently encouraged Armatrading to make her music splash and change around the words.âConsequencesâ itself, a loversâ quarrel, begins with burbling, aquatic synthesizers, introduces a funky beat and bass line, tosses in jazzy piano clusters and, at one point, deploys Queen-like multitracked guitar. Meanwhile, Armatrading layers on vocals that wrangle and interweave with warnings, accusations, apologies and overtures: âLetâs try hard to work things out.âPandemic isolation didnât curtail Armatradingâs songwriting by observation. âWe have television,â she said. âAnd when I watch films, I watch very closely. I like looking to see what the extras are doing. Iâm concentrating on the film, but Iâm looking to see whatâs different back there, what Iâm not supposed to see.âThe album ends with âTo Anyone Who Will Listen,â a plea for sympathetic attention. It could be a songwriterâs cri de coeur, but it was one of Armatradingâs observations; she read about a man in deep depression who was desperate for someone to talk to. âHe wasnât asking them to cure him or make his life necessarily better. He just wanted them to let him tell what he had to say,â she said. âI donât know him. He was just a person in an article. But I really felt for what he was saying.âWhile âConsequencesâ is Armatradingâs 20th studio album, she insists sheâs in no danger of running out of ideas. âIâve never suffered with writerâs block. I can always write a song,â she said. âIâm just trying to get really good at what I do. Iâm trying to write the song where I say, thatâs it. Iâve done it. I found the secret of life, and thatâs it. I want to get to where that song is.âIâm doing this till I die,â she added, smiling, âMy last act will be writing a song.â More
With David Geffen Hall under construction, the orchestra will spend most of 2021-22 at two other Lincoln Center venues.For any major music ensemble, planning a season of concerts as a pandemic stretches on is daunting. For the New York Philharmonic, there is an added challenge: The orchestraâs home, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, is in the midst of a $550 million renovation.That will leave the orchestra roving for the next year as it tries to recover from the pandemic, which resulted in the cancellation of its 2020-21 season and the loss of more than $21 million in ticket revenue, forcing painful budget cuts.But the Philharmonic wonât travel too far. On Tuesday, it announced its 2021-22 season: a slate of about 80 concerts, compared to 120 in a normal year, spent mostly at two other Lincoln Center venues, Alice Tully Hall and the Rose Theater, with four forays to Carnegie Hall and a holiday run of âMessiahâ at Riverside Church.âPeople are starved for live entertainment,â Deborah Borda, the Philharmonicâs president and chief executive, said in an interview. âThere may be some slight hesitancy at the beginning, but I think people are going to come flocking back.âThe season opens Sept. 17 with the pianist Daniil Trifonov playing Beethovenâs Piano Concerto No. 4 at Tully. Other prominent artists on the schedule include the pianists Yuja Wang and Leif Ove Andsnes; the violinists Hilary Hahn and Joshua Bell; the saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who will play a concerto by John Adams; and the conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who will lead Schumannâs four symphonies and two world premieres over two weeks in March. The Philharmonicâs principal clarinetist, Anthony McGill, will be featured in Anthony Davisâs âYou Have the Right to Remain Silent.âSoloists appearing for the first time with the orchestra include the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who will play Dvorakâs concerto and also participate in a Young Peopleâs Concert; the soprano Golda Schultz; the pianist Beatrice Rana; and the conductors Jeannette Sorrell and Dalia Stasevska.In its fourth year with the conductor Jaap van Zweden as its music director, the Philharmonic will also premiere a variety of works, including by the American composers Joan Tower and Sarah Kirkland Snider. Those two premieres are part of Project 19, a multiyear initiative to commission works from 19 female composers to honor the centenary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which barred the states from denying women the right to vote.A few of the concerts will be at an unusual time: The orchestra will present three Sunday matinees, the first time it has done that since the 1960s, in an effort to broaden its audience.The Philharmonic has been at the center of the recent revival of the arts in New York. The orchestra appeared at the Shed in April, its first indoor concert in 13 months. And it performed at Bryant Park last week, the first time its musicians had played together without masks since the start of the pandemic.The orchestra is taking precautions in its planning to ease fears about the virus. There will be no intermissions at least through December, to prevent crowds from gathering. Borda said the orchestra would follow guidance from the state and federal authorities in deciding other public health measures, like requiring masks or proof of vaccination.âWhat it will be like in September is anybodyâs guess,â Borda said. âWe have to remain flexible.âThe Philharmonic had to make a series of painful cuts as more than 100 of its concerts were canceled. The orchestra reduced its administrative staff by about 40 percent, largely through layoffs. In December, its musicians agreed to a four-year contract that included a 25 percent cut to the playersâ base pay through August 2023, with compensation gradually increasing after that, though remaining below prepandemic levels.There were some bright spots amid the turmoil. Donations increased 11 percent last year, totaling $31.5 million. The orchestra also worked to deepen its connections with city residents through two series of Bandwagon concerts, bringing first a pickup truck and then a 20-foot shipping container with a foldout stage to neighborhoods across the city, and giving local artists an opportunity to perform.Several of the organizations that took part in Bandwagon concerts, including National Black Theater, a nonprofit arts group in Harlem, and El Puente, a social justice organization in Brooklyn, will be featured in the 2021-22 season. Those collaborations will be organized by Anthony Roth Costanzo, a countertenor who produced the Bandwagon series and is also the orchestraâs artist-in-residence next season; he has also helped prepare a two-week festival focusing on identity, âAuthentic Selves: The Beauty Within.âThe coming season will be the first time in recent decades that the orchestra has not had access to its own hall. Its administration and Lincoln Center decided to use the shutdown to accelerate the renovation of Geffen Hall, which is set to reopen in the fall of 2022, a year and a half earlier than planned. The hall will feature state-of-the-art acoustics and a more intimate feel, with seats that wrap around the stage.Borda said much of the coming season would be devoted to preparing for the orchestraâs return to Geffen.âThis hall provides an opportunity to transform ourselves,â she said, âbut also to paint on an even larger palette.â More
The singer-songwriter details her cultural must-haves as she prepares to release âHome Video,â an album that looks back at her past.Lucy Dacus said she became âa more reminiscent personâ five years ago when she began touring regularly. âI feel better when Iâm thinking about the past,â the singer-songwriter said. âThe past is stable. The future doesnât exist.âThe songs on her third album, âHome Videoâ (due June 25), draw on her adolescent experiences growing up Baptist (now lapsed) in Richmond, Va. Her lyrics ache with the specificity of a longtime diarist: an exâs awful poetry, a bad manâs alcoholic beverage of choice.âIâve tried to talk about heavy stuff with a general core of warmth so that Iâm not alienating anybody,â Dacus, 26, said from her house in Philadelphia, where she lives with six roommates. She was speaking on the eve of the release of âBrando,â a single based on a pretentious high school friend. âIâm really nervous about that person reaching out to me,â she added.In 2018, Dacus teamed up with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, like-minded songwriters to whom she was often compared, and released a critically lauded EP as boygenius. âThat was healthy and meaningful,â she said. âSometimes I tell myself, âYour job is selfish, because itâs all about you.â Joining forces reminded me that weâre participating in the act of musicmaking, not self-aggrandizement.â Baker and Bridgers reconvened to offer backing vocals on several songs on the new album. âHaving their support, even sonically, felt like being held.âFrom her office, decorated with photos of Patti Smith and prints by the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint, Dacus sifted through a long list of her cultural essentials. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. âThe Fox and the HoundâThis is maybe the first movie that ever made me cry as a child. I remember so distinctly watching over and over again the final scene where theyâre not allowed to be friends anymore and crying âNo!â I wanted them to be friends forever. But maybe itâs a good lesson for kids. There are circumstances that make people come into and out of your life, and even if itâs sad, you have to get used to it.2. âTuck EverlastingâI used to read this book by Natalie Babbitt every year between ages 8 and 12. A couple falls in love and one of them [the boy] is immortal and wants the girl to become immortal, too. But she makes the decision not to, and in the final scene the boy goes and visits her grave. How hard-core is that? I liked the idea that even if you had the chance to live forever, you wouldnât take it. Life is so precious, and the things that would change fundamentally if you were immortal would make it less brilliant.3. Beret Girl From âAn Extremely Goofy MovieâGoofy loses his job in a scary scene at the beginning of the movie, which was an entry into understanding workersâ rights, but I bring this up because of the poet dog, Beret Girl. My dad covered my eyes when she came onscreen. I was like, âWhy?â Later, I figured out he had a habit of covering my eyes whenever any sexy person was on the screen. Sheâs wearing a turtleneck and a beret and sheâs reading poetry, but even though she was clearly a fully clothed animated dog, I was like, wow, she must be really sexy. That always stuck with me. That type of human woman is very appealing to me.4. âGilmore GirlsâEvery third line of that show is a pop culture reference, and I used to write them down and go to Wikipedia after every episode. It gave me a road map. I watched âCasablancaâ for the first time because of âGilmore Girls.â Thereâs an episode where Sonic Youth stars and Yo La Tengo play live. Now Iâm a huge Yo La Tengo fan and Iâm on [the record label] Matador because of them.And I think it helped my mom and I be friends. I was rewatching some of it recently and I was like, âWow, they really didnât have boundaries, and Lorelei puts a lot of emotional processing on Rory.â Theyâre not perfect, but they wanted to spend time together, and it gave us an example of that relationship.5. Brittany HowardThe first time I heard Alabama Shakes, I was like, âThis is for me. This is what I love.â It was the summer of 2012 in Richmond. At the time, I wanted music that felt southern without being pop country. I associate their first record [âBoys & Girls] with heat and fireworks and eating outside with my friends. My first record was inspired by it, in terms of being roots-y but with a lot of rock elements. Everything Brittany makes is raising the bar for everybody else.6. âYou! Me! Dancing!â by Los Campesinos!It became an anthem with my group of friends who did theater in high school. I could take or leave the plays, but the cast parties were the social event of the season. People would be completely unhinged. Somebody with a giant house would let everybody sleep over and, for some reason, parents let this happen. I would have the aux cable and I would D.J., and there was always the point of the night where we would play âYou! Me! Dancing!â as a signal that the dance party had begun. I remember literally throwing my body against the walls.7. Alexander McQueenI was interested in fashion when I was really young. My dad really liked to shop and we used to go to Kohlâs and buy a bunch of clothes and do a fashion show and then return all of them. And then in 8th grade, I got into my monk-era of Christianity. Like, having no connection to material possessions is key to a divine faith. If anything new came into my life, it had be a gift.But when the Alexander McQueen exhibit went up at the Met in 2011 I went twice and cried both times. My brain was like, âI could have never thought of this and Iâm so glad that somebody had this mind.â I still have this weird, useless guilt around shopping, but it helped me get over the ascetic period of my life and realize thereâs room everywhere for beauty. It doesnât have to be rooted in capitalism or consumerism. It can be rooted in creativity.8. A Bushel of CrabsI really like foods that play hard to get. Growing up in Virginia, I learned at a really young age how to properly get meat out of a crab. It takes a lot of work to get a very little amount, but it makes me feel like I earned it, and itâs fun to teach people. For my last few birthdays, weâve gotten a bushel of crabs and Iâve invited many people over and weâve devoured the entire bushel together at a really long table covered in newspaper. Itâs a nice tradition.9. Miranda JulySheâs one of the first people whose entire body of work I became familiar with. She has something essential at her core fueling everything that she makes, and itâs a message that I agree with: telling people that they belong and freaks donât have to be lonely. I love that she wrote âIt Chooses Youâ while she was procrastinating making her movie âThe Future,â and even in her avoidance she made something really good. And now that Iâm a fan of AgnĂšs Varda, I can see how AgnĂšs inspired Miranda, so itâs fun to go back another layer.10. âVenenoâI think it might be the best TV show Iâve ever seen. I watched it with my housemates and I was covered in tears after every single episode. Itâs about La Veneno, the first very famous transgender woman in Spain. There are cast members who were her actual friends in real life. Iâm so sad itâs over. The really nuanced depictions and all the trans joy was extremely moving. I followed a bunch of the actors on social media. I would simply bow to them if I saw them. More
LONDON â Andrew Lloyd Webber last week promised to open his musical âCinderellaâ in Londonâs West End on June 25 â even if it were illegal to do so.âWe are going to open come hell or high water,â he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. If Britainâs government tried to stop him because of rising coronavirus cases, he had one response, he added: âWe will say: Come to the theater and arrest us.âNow, Mr. Lloyd Webber, 73, has his chance to go to prison â although he doesnât appear to want to take it.On Monday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said that social distancing would continue in England until July 19, at least â almost a month later than originally planned.The decision, announced at a televised news conference, was made because of a rise in coronavirus cases linked to the Delta variant. An average of 7,278 cases per day were reported in United Kingdom in the last week, an increase of 127 percent from the average two weeks ago. Deaths are rising but still very low, with an average of nine a day over two weeks.Scientists remain at odds over exactly how serious a threat it poses in Britain, however, with some arguing that the most dire predictions about rising hospitalizations underestimate the effect even the current level of vaccinations have on breaking the link between the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.United Kingdom Coronavirus Map and Case CountSee the latest charts and maps of coronavirus cases, deaths, hospitalizations and vaccinations in United Kingdom.âI think itâs sensible to wait just a little bit longer,â Mr. Johnson said, adding that the delay would allow more people to be fully vaccinated.The delay was a gut punch to the British cultural world, which has been desperately seeking an end to social distancing.The delay leaves âthousands of jobs hanging in the balance,â Julian Bird, chief executive of UK Theater, a trade body, said in a statement. A quarter of nighttime businesses cannot survive longer than a month without new government support, the Night Times Industries Association, which represents clubs and pubs, said in a news release.The biggest blow may be to Englandâs nightclubs, which were told for the fourth time that they could not reopen at all, even with distancing. Nightclubs in Britain have been closed since March 2020, and over 150 events were planned in London alone for the weekend of June 25, including a sold-out 42-hour-long party at Fabric, a famed club that can hold 1,500 people.Those were all immediately canceled.âItâs really, really frustrating,â Cameron Leslie, one of Fabricâs founders, said in a telephone interview. He had hired over 100 staff over the past month, expecting to reopen, and now was not able to furlough them. âYou can only be pushed and tested so far before our entire sector canât respond anymore,â Leslie added.Stuart Glen, the founder of The Cause, another London club, said in a telephone interview that the delay would cost him âhundred of thousandsâ of pounds and force him to rearrange 40 events. Heâd had enough, he said. âI think everyone should riot if July doesnât happen,â he said. âThey canât control people like this,â he added.âItâs so devastating for so many people,â said Yousef Zahar, a D.J. and co-owner of Circus, a nightclub based in Liverpool, that in May held two pilot events featuring 6,000 maskless dancers.Theaters, museums and music venues were allowed to reopen with distancing last month, but larger venues and all nightclubs have remained firmly shut. Mr. Lloyd Webber has repeatedly said that glitzy productions like âCinderellaâ â which has a 34-strong cast and is already weeks into rehearsals â are financially unviable in half-full theaters.For those hoping to attend the opening ofâCinderella,â it was still unclear if the show would go on.âWeâre working hard behind the scenes to make sure everyone gets to the ball,â the showâs producers said in a statement posted on Twitter. More
Her Olivier Award was for her signature role as Queenie in âShow Boat,â a part that once earned a Tony nomination. She later lost her voice in surgery and fought to regain it.Karla Burns, a singer and actor who in 1991 won a Laurence Olivier Award, Britainâs highest stage honor, for her role as the riverboat cook Queenie in a production of âShow Boat,â and who later fought to regain her soulful voice after losing it in an operation to remove a growth in her throat, died on June 4 in Wichita, Kan. She was 66.Her sister, Donna Burns-Revels, said the death, in a hospital, was caused by a series of strokes.A spokeswoman for the Olivier Awardsâ sponsoring organization, the Society of London Theater, said itâs believed that Ms. Burns was the first Black performer to win that honor.Her Olivier, Britainâs equivalent of a Tony, for best supporting performance in a musical, came in 1991 in recognition of her work in a revival of âShow Boat,â co-produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the West End. Almost a decade earlier she had earned a Tony nomination for playing Queenie on Broadway.Ms. Burnsâs musical journey began when she was a girl growing up in Wichita in the 1960s. Her father was a blues and gospel pianist, and every Saturday night she danced beside his piano while he played. On bus rides to school she broke out in song. One day a choir teacher told her, âKiddo, you can really sing.âAfter studying music and theater at Wichita State University, Ms. Burns auditioned for the role of Queenie in a regional production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein IIâs 1927 musical âShow Boat,â about the lives of the performers and crew aboard a floating theater called the Cotton Blossom that travels along the Mississippi River in the segregated South.Ms. Burns landed the role and was soon taking the stage at the Lyric Theater in Oklahoma City. Then she performed as Queenie in an Ohio dinner theater production, belting out âCanât Help Lovinâ Dat Manâ nightly. In the early 1980s, she headed to New York to audition for the part for a national tour of âShow Boatâ presented by the Houston Grand Opera. She competed for the role against hundreds of other women.âI had no agent and I walked in,â Ms. Burns said in an interview on the âThe Merv Griffin Showâ in 1982. âSome of them, I knew their faces, I knew they were famous women, and I said, âWell, Iâm here, and Iâm from Kansas, and Iâm going to go out there and do my best.ââShe was asked to sing 16 bars of one song, and then the audition ended. After weeks of silence, someone called to apologize for losing her phone number. The part was hers, she was told.The musical, which starred Donald OâConnor and Lonette McKee, toured the country for months and arrived on Broadway in 1983.âThere is standout work by Karla Burns,â Frank Rich wrote in his review in The New York Times. âMiss Burns has been handed a sizzling, rarely heard song, âHey, Feller,â thatâs been restored to âShow Boatâ for this production.âShe was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance and won a Drama Desk Award. She later sang on a âShow Boatâ studio album, released in 1988.Ms. Burns with Bruce Hubbard in the Broadway revival of âShow Boatâ in 1983. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as a riverboat cook.Martha Swope/Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public LibraryâKarla was proud to play Queenie,â said Rick Bumgardner, a close friend of hers who directed her in productions of âThe Wizâ and âSteel Magnolias.â âWhen she got the opportunity to put a rag on her head, she didnât feel she was putting people down. She felt she was portraying strong women and reminding our nation of its past.âIn the 1990s, Ms. Burns appeared in âHi-Hat Hattie,â a touring one-woman musical based on the life of Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American actor to win an Oscar, for her role as Mammy in âGone With the Windâ (1939). Ms. McDaniel was also a Wichita native and had played Queenie in the 1936 movie version of âShow Boat,â and Ms. Burns had long considered her a kindred spirit. More
