All stories by Douglas McLennan on BroadwayStars

Monday, August 29, 2016

In The Church Of Big Data, Artistic Judgment Is Just A Data Point by Douglas McLennan

A piece by Yuval Noah Harari in the Financial Times this weekend delves into our fascination with Big Data. The tech industry has made so many billions of dollars being able to track, quanti…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:56PM

What Happens When Critical Opinion Separates From The Audience? by Douglas McLennan

Three stories this week get to the heart of the question. First, the BBC polled critics worldwide and asked them what were the best 100 movies made so far in the 21st Century. Look at the li…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:44AM
Sunday, August 28, 2016

This Week’s AJ Highlights: That Time Ballet Superstars Nureyev And Fonteyn Got Arrested In A “Hippie Raid” by Douglas McLennan

This Week: Earthquake Devastates Historic Italian Towns… Has the audience deserted blockbuster movies?… The best new beautiful library of 2016… Is it a good idea to pay you…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:38PM
Thursday, August 25, 2016

Is Naked Trump Bad Satire? (And Do We Care?) by Douglas McLennan

In this week’s AJ highlights I included some of the stories we found about the naked Donald Trump statues that appeared in five American cities last week. One reader was unhappy: Vile …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:50AM
Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Why Aren’t We Driving Self-Driving Cars Yet? It’s All About The Culture by Douglas McLennan

Driverless cars are here and they work and by all accounts they make driving safer than when humans are piloting. So why aren’t they already in showrooms? Not so fast. It’s not j…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:27PM

How Dance Will Help Teach Us About The Next Transformative Technology by Douglas McLennan

Dance is the most physical art. Bodies moving, yes, but physical also because of how bodies relate to the spaces they’re in. Much of the energy in tech innovation right now is explori…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:26AM
Monday, August 22, 2016

Who’s Telling Your Story? (Storytellers Are Leaders) by Douglas McLennan

Last week the Brooklyn artist space National Sawdust announced it had hired away Steve Smith from the Boston Globe to start an ambitious new culture journal. Smith is a former NYTimeser, a …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:57AM
Sunday, August 21, 2016

This Week In Culture – Some ArtsJournal Highlights by Douglas McLennan

This Week: An artist collective skewers Trump… How Florence’s Uffizi is dramatically addressing its problems… Our fetishizing of “authenticity” doesn’t ri…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:53PM
Monday, August 15, 2016

When All The Culture Around Us Starts To Look The Same by Douglas McLennan

One of the biggest comforts of fast food is its familiarity. Generic from location to location, you know not only what the food will be and how it will taste, but that the ritual of the expe…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:09PM
Sunday, August 14, 2016

Culture Trends: Five Stories From The Week’s ArtsJournal That You Shouldn’t Miss by Douglas McLennan

This Week: Is the music industry’s piracy war really about higher royalty payments?… There are signs the Golden Age of TV might be ending… Theatre’s emotional toll o…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:57PM
Friday, August 12, 2016

How Do You Test For The Arts? by Douglas McLennan

It’s a more difficult question than you might think. There’s a maxim in the education world that only subjects that are tested are funded. Thus the imperative for arts education …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:03AM
Sunday, August 7, 2016

Five Essential Stories From Last Week’s ArtsJournal Haul, Context Edition by Douglas McLennan

This Week: The ways in which we experience art are about to change in big ways… Auction houses are becoming shadow banks for the super-wealthy with money to stash… The Met Museum…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:39PM
Friday, August 5, 2016

When We Allow Technology To Police Our Culture… by Douglas McLennan

Last year I was producing the live streaming of the Ojai Music Festival and we decided to use YouTube to carry the streams. In a small outdoor venue, the number of seats is limited to a few …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:54PM
Thursday, August 4, 2016

Trump, The Tenor, And Fascism by Douglas McLennan

Over on Slate this week Brian Wise posted a piece about Donald Trump and his playing of Puccini’s Nussun Dorma at campaign events. Trump had been using a recording of Pavarotti singing…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:25AM
Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Are We Building Artistic Leadership? by Douglas McLennan

Are the arts about selling tickets to shows or about art? Of course performances and exhibitions don’t happen if they don’t have money to be produced, but – as evidenced at…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:22PM
Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Is Opera The Real 21st Century Art Form? by Douglas McLennan

A 2015 survey by blogger Mae Mai reported that 260 new opera companies started since 2000 in the United States. There are 80 opera companies now working in New York alone. Over the past co…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:46PM
Monday, August 1, 2016

Attention Deficit Disorder: Our Walled-Garden Problem by Douglas McLennan

As the digital world pummels us with more information and choice, many of us react by walling off the things we simply won’t pay attention to. It’s a survival strategy. We increa…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:31PM
Sunday, July 31, 2016

Editor’s Picks: Five Highlights From Last Week’s AJ – How To Define Art Edition by Douglas McLennan

This Week: In an age of artists what is the definition of being an artist?… Canadian study says arts workers are most at risk… What is R&D in the arts?… Edinburgh Festi…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:09PM
Sunday, July 24, 2016

Editor’s Picks: Five Stories You Shouldn’t Miss, Factually Challenged Edition by Douglas McLennan

This week: How did our culture get to the point we don’t trust facts?… Are artists actually detrimental to neighborhoods?… Our notions of “greatness” need an ov…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:09PM
Sunday, July 17, 2016

Our Don’t-Miss Stories From Last Week’s ArtsJournal: Musical Prime Minister Edition by Douglas McLennan

This week: A penetrating portrait of artist Chuck Close, a reality check on meritocracy as a concept, a look at anger and our access to visceral emotion in a media-saturated world, the endur…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:57PM
Monday, July 11, 2016

Do Artists Have A Vision For The Future? by Douglas McLennan

Around the beginning of the 20th Century, several French artists were asked to design a series of cards that would imagine what life would be like 100 years in the future in the year 2000. T…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:30AM
Sunday, July 10, 2016

Five Highlights From Last Week’s AJ: Ethics, Success, And Documentation Edition by Douglas McLennan

This week: What ethical responsibilities do funders and funded have to one another?… The gatekeeper problem is still a thing in the internet age… What should the measure of succ…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:25PM
Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Five Highlights From Last Week’s AJ You Shouldn’t Miss by Douglas McLennan

This week: Alas, hard work probably doesn’t trump innate ability… It’s tempting to believe extravagant claims for technology, but there are limits… Yes, by all means …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:55AM
Sunday, June 26, 2016

Last Week’s Don’t Miss Arts Stories: Brexit Edition by Douglas McLennan

Clearly Brexit is a cultural decision, and it will have a big impact… A new jazz scene emerges and re-energizes the art form… There’s a practical reason there are so few wo…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:25PM
Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Five Stories From Last Week’s AJ You Shouldn’t Miss (Meaning Of Art Edition) by Douglas McLennan

Can computers help us better understand art? What the world thinks is creative. Why is it still okay to discriminate against stupid people? How gaming is taking over. And the “Rotten T…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:59AM
Sunday, June 12, 2016

This Week’s Top AJ Stories, When Blockbusters Fail Edition by Douglas McLennan

Maybe our biggest problem with teaching music in schools is the way we teach it. Hollywood thought making blockbusters would save it. Surprise! How charity auctions take advantage of artists…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:36PM
Monday, June 6, 2016

Sorry – A (Respectful) Dissent On A Well-Meaning Statement On Arts Equity by Douglas McLennan

I would say based on the thousands of stories we sift through every day at ArtsJournal, diversity and cultural equity (along with funding) are right now probably the biggest issues being tal…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:48PM
Sunday, June 5, 2016

Five Highlights From This Week’s ArtsJournal, College Crisis Edition by Douglas McLennan

A new music director for the Met Opera, and what it means. A looming college crisis and what it means. How art is changing politics. Is art driving ISIS? And flooding threatened the Louvre, …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:30PM
Sunday, May 29, 2016

Five Highlights From Last Week’s AJ, Endless Arts Planning Edition by Douglas McLennan

When arts planning becomes the point rather than the process. Why your creativity may be dependent on being bored. Are MFA degrees a waste of time if you want to be an artist? Broadway break…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:18PM
Sunday, May 22, 2016

Five Stories From Last Week’s AJ: Likes And Dislikes Edition by Douglas McLennan

Why aren’t the arts something we can all get behind? Maybe it’s somewhere in the psychology of how we like what we like? Revealed: nobody reads arts reviews anymore (says an edit…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:15PM
Sunday, May 15, 2016

Doug’s List: Last Week’s Eye-Catching AJ Stories, Playing God Edition by Douglas McLennan

Disrupting the orchestra model, doing away with artistic directors, a cure for what ails the Met Opera, how our ideas about knowledge are changing, and recreating Leonardo (no kidding!) What…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:14PM

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