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Wednesday Morning Roundup


by Stephen Becker 7 Apr 2010 5:56 AM

‘XANADU’ IS A DO: If you questioned whether or not Xanadu could transfer from so-bad-it’s-good movie to actually good musical, you were right to be skeptical. I mean, there were the Tony nominations a few years ago. But … there was also that movie. The Dallas Summer Musicals touring version opened Tuesday night at the […]

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‘XANADU’ IS A DO: If you questioned whether or not Xanadu could transfer from so-bad-it’s-good movie to actually good musical, you were right to be skeptical. I mean, there were the Tony nominations a few years ago. But … there was also that movie. The Dallas Summer Musicals touring version opened Tuesday night at the Music Hall at Fair Park, and Lawson Taitte happily puts your fears to rest. “Xanadu might just be the best time you have at a musical this season,” he writes in his dallasnews.com review. (How long will it take for DSM to work that into its ads?) If that’s got you revved up to go see the show, be sure to check out this Theater Jones interview with Max von Essen, the lead actor.

MORE BUCKS AT BASS: If you’re planning on visiting Bass Hall next season, be prepared to pay a little more than you did this season. The venue is upping the fees that it charges its resident companies to perform there. And those companies still need to make the same level of profit that they make now. So you can guess who will be making up the difference. “I do see that we will have to increase single ticket prices … to make up for the anticipated loss we expect from the new fees,” Alann Sampson of the Cliburn Foundation tells dfw.com. Fort Worth Opera General Director Darren K. Woods voices similar concerns in the story.

HUMMING ALONG: Anyone who’s played a stringed instrument will tell you that it takes a while for them to break in and really sound their best. That’s part of the reason some musicians in the DSO and FWSO play instruments that are hundreds of years old in some cases. But now, an inventor has come up with a device that attaches to a new instrument and emits a noise that you can’t hear but that mimics the physics of playing the instrument. “You can’t take a cheap plywood guitar and turn it into a vintage Martin,” Ryan Frankel, chief executive of ToneRite, tells The New York Times. “But the fullness and the warmth of a good instrument will really come alive.”

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