The Week in Review

R.I.P. Imero Fiorentino: The industry lost a giant last week with the passing of Imero Fiorentino, one of the small band of designers who more or less created the art of television lighting. He worked on such programs of television's first golden age as Omnibus and Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, not to mention such historic events as the Nixon-Kennedy debates and the Cassius Clay (later Muhammed Ali)-Sonny Liston fight. His firm, Imero Fiorentino Associates, worked on countless television productions and live events and mentored several generations of lighting professionals. He also worked on nearly every Presidential convention for several decades. In person, he was a frank and often riotously funny raconteur. The lighting industry will be a duller place without him. For more, go to: http://plasa.me/x5wmr.

R.I.P. New York City Opera: It's official; New York City Opera is no more. A revealing New York Times story looks at the company's long history of insolvency and the last-ditch efforts to save it. Among the many ironies: George Steel, the company's artistic director, approached David Koch for a last-minute cash infusion. Koch is the oil billionaire who has funded the renovation of the New York State Theatre, an effort that cost NYCO an entire season's worth of revenue and which arguably sent it spinning into disaster. The New York State Theatre is now named after Koch. To make his pitch, Steel brought Koch to the company's latest production. Key quote:

"But there was a hitch. The opera they saw, Mark-Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole, tells the more-or-less true life story of Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy model who married an octogenarian oil tycoon, J. Howard Marshall II, and who waged a fierce battle with his heirs over his estate after he died. Mr. Marshall, it turned out, had owned 16 percent of the Koch family's business, Koch Industries. When Mr. Steel asked Mr. Koch if he could make further gifts to save the company, Mr. Koch demurred, telling Mr. Steel that the Marshall family might be less than pleased, according to a person familiar with their conversation."

This is a devastating loss to New York City. For the full story, go to http://plasa.me/pi27l.

Minnesota Orchestra Loses Director Over Labor Troubles: The nonstop labor problems at the Minnesota Orchestra -- the musicians have been locked out and labor negotiations drag on and on -- have led to the resignation of Osmo Vänskä, who left in frustration over lack of progress. Adding fuel to the fire, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis resigned after 15 years as director of the orchestra's Composer Institute, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. At the moment, there is no end in sight to the dispute, despite the fact the city's Orchestra Hall's renovation is complete and ready for a season that, sadly, may not happen. For more: http://plasa.me/aymmn. In other, happier labor news, the San Francisco Ballet has resolved its dispute with its dancers: http://plasa.me/ofxqz.

Production of Inherit the Wind Halted by Creationists: In this week's top censorship story, a production of Inherit the Wind, to be staged by the New Ulm Actors Community Theatre in Minnesota, was halted by the objections of creationists, reports The New Ulm Journal. The director, Zach Stowe, is a former student at Martin Luther College, the college of ministry for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod; he quit the production, citing "a flood of e-mails and letters objecting to his association with the play from MLC professors and local WELS members for his decision. He was also concerned that MLC administration would maybe take their concerns further if the outcry kept growing, so he decided to focus on the more important issue of his schooling." Several cast members followed. The theatre company has often used the college for auditions, rehearsals, and performers. According to Jeffrey Schone, the school's vice-president for student life, "We felt it was not compatible with what [the school] teaches the Bible says about the universe and the world. This is a ministerial school. People employing our students need confidence about their views." Inherit the Wind, of course, is Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's 1955 drama, a fictionalized drama based on the famous Scopes Monkey Trial, in which a Tennessee schoolteacher lost his job for teaching evolution. Apparently, the more things change, the more they stay the same. For the full story, go to http://plasa.me/pa12a.

Ford's Theatre a Victim of Shutdown: This is hardly the most serious loss incurred by the current government shutdown, but still it hurts to hear that Ford's Theatre, one of the theatre's most historic playhouses, is a victim of the Republican Party's elaborate game of chicken. The theatre was showing The Laramie Project, the drama about the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. For more, go to http://plasa.me/sn0bc.

The Legacy of Florence Vandamm: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is offering a rare treat in its new exhibition "Pioneering Poet of Light: Photographer Florence Vandamm & the Vandamm Studio." Like Martha Swope after her and Joan Marcus and Carol Rosegg today, Vandamm was the top theatrical photographer of her time, first in London (1908 - 1923) and then in New York (1924 - 63). This exhibit of her work offers a stunning glimpse into a lost theatrical world, offering portraits of stars, production shots (many of which, even though they are in black and white, give a sense of the lighting techniques of the day), and gorgeous theatre interior images. This is one is a must for fans of theatre history. The exhibit runs through February 28. For more information, go to: http://plasa.me/u7mwh.

Here and There: Good news for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, which has recouped its investment in 30 weeks, a relatively short time for a big musical. The show continues to do blockbuster business at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, where it should continue to print money for a good long time ... These are less happy days at the Foxwoods Theatre, where Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has begun to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. Michael Riedel, the New York Post's theatre columnist, reports that the producers are talking to early-'70s rocker Alice Cooper to play the show's villain, the Green Goblin. Whether this will prove to be a box office cure-all remains to be seen ...