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Monday Morning Roundup


by Stephen Becker 9 Aug 2010 8:07 AM

Today in the roundup: Philip Johnson’s Dallas sketches, mocking Broadway and counting all the books in the world.

CTA TBD

ON THE DRAWING BOARD: A collection of more than 25,000 sketches and photos made by architect Philip Johnson is about to hit the auction block. How much it will fetch is anyone’s best guess – the haul has been appraised, but its owners are mum on the valuation. So why should you care? Well, for starters, among the drawings are sketches of Momentum Place in Dallas, now known as the Comerica Bank Tower. The New York Times has more about the man who’s held onto the collection all these years.

LAUGHING AT YOURSELF: The laughs in Gerard Alessandrini’s Forbidden Broadway‘s Greatest Hits come because he cares. The show, which Uptown Players opened over the weekend, pokes fun at some of Broadway’s sacred cows. And according to the reviews, the more you know about the theater, the funnier the show is. “Even if he makes pitiless fun of your favorite show – ­ and he will! – ­ you’ll realize he has a point even before you stop laughing,” Lawson Taitte writes on dallasnews.com. Having a cast that’s as talented as it is funny is a big bonus. “It helps that Uptown’s production, directed and choreographed by B.J. Cleveland, features performers who are not only skilled comedians who have studied their subjects and parody and mimic them with élan, they’re also in on the joke,” Mark Lowry writes on theaterjones.com. “To boot, they can vocally fit in with the best musical theater companies around.”

PICK A NUMBER: How many  books are there in the world? If you guessed 129,864,880, you’re correct!

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