February 4, 2005

Arts, Briefly

ob Dylan Books a Tour

Not even a major book award nomination can keep Bob Dylan, right, from the road. Next month he will lead "The Bob Dylan Show," a four-week, six-city tour with Merle Haggard and the new soul-folk singer Amos Lee down the West Coast and to Las Vegas and Chicago, playing more than one night in most theaters. The tour is to begin on March 7 in Seattle and end on April 6 in Chicago, the singer's Web site announced. Two weeks ago Mr. Dylan was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award for his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One" (Simon & Schuster), and Billboard reported that he would not be able to attend the ceremony in New York on March 18, because of his touring schedule. But a look at the tour itinerary shows a gap from March 16 to 19, giving literary paparazzi hope of catching him with Philip Roth, Edwidge Danticat and Stephen Greenblatt. BEN SISARIO

A Box-Office Smash

"Thom Pain (based on nothing)," the creepily tender monologue by the Brooklyn playwright Will Eno, sold a whopping $152,000 in tickets on Wednesday, the day it received near-unanimous raves from critics. The sales are even more impressive considering that the play, which features the actor James Urbaniak as a heartbroken existentialist, is playing the 99-seat DR2 Theater on Union Square. "Thom Pain" is currently booked through April 3, though producers are mulling an extension and possible transfer to a larger theater. Another Off Broadway production blessed with good reviews, the New Group's starry revival of David Rabe's "Hurlyburly," is also said to be considering a transfer, perhaps even to Broadway. The production, which opened on Jan. 27 with a cast that includes Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton, has sold out its entire run, through March 19, at the 199-seat Acorn Theater. JESSE MCKINLEY

A Book From Musharraf

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, below, is writing a political memoir, focusing on the war on terrorism and his relationship with the Bush administration as a key ally. The memoir is to be published by Simon & Schuster and will probably appear in bookstores next fall, the publishers said. Bruce Nichols, vice president and senior editor at Simon & Schuster's Free Press imprint, said yesterday that although Mr. Musharraf would receive help with the manuscript from a longtime journalist and confidant, it would not amount to co-authorship. FELICIA R. LEE

The Un-Disinvited

The "Buster" saga continues.

The federal Department of Education has rescinded - and then reinstated - an invitation to Carol Greenwald, an executive producer of children's show "Postcards From Buster," to speak at a children's television conference the department is sponsoring with PBS through Saturday. The initial about-face came the same week that Education Secretary Margaret Spellings complained to PBS about an episode that featured a lesbian couple. PBS decided not to distribute the episode to member stations, though officials said they made that decision before receiving Ms. Spelling's criticisms, which included a threat to stop financial support for the program. Now Ms. Greenwald is back on the panel. "Carol was originally invited by the Department of Education to be on a panel Friday morning on the topic of children and media," said a spokeswoman for WGBH-TV, producer of the "Buster" series. "Last week she received a phone call that she would no longer be a panelist. This morning, when she arrived at the conference, the Department of Education said there was a misunderstanding and she would be on the panel." JULIE SALAMON

The BBC's Baton

The Czech conductor Jiri Belohlavek, below, has been appointed chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and is to take up the position officially in July 2006. Until then, he will be chief conductor designate. The post was held from 2000 until September by Leonard Slatkin. In addition to maintaining a longstanding relationship with the BBC Symphony, Mr. Belohlavek appears regularly with the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, in Germany, the Vienna Symphony, and orchestras in North America. MARION UNDERHILL

TV: Idol vs. President

Wednesday's "American Idol" was the last episode of the show's open auditions, meaning that the comedy portion of the program has ended. As the show shifts its focus to the good singers who have made it through the first round, there will be no more delusional contestants to laugh at. Wednesday's show, however, featured plenty of crazies, whose antics drew 25 million viewers. That dominance was enough to tip the scales in Fox's favor in the Nielsen ratings on the night when the big four networks broadcast the State of the Union address beginning at 9 p.m. Because the speech was broadcast live coast to coast, its ratings were approximate, but the initial numbers showed ABC in first place, Fox in second, NBC in third and CBS in fourth. It was a bad night for CBS News in every hour: "60 Minutes" yielded its lowest ratings of the season at 8 p.m., and the network's broadcast of the Democrats' response and its analysis of the speech at 10 p.m. ranked last, behind NBC's and ABC's. KATE AURTHUR

Pop Performers' Problems

The dancehall reggae star Sizzla, below, whose British tour was canceled last fall after complaints of lyrics derogatory to gays, has been jailed in his native Jamaica for swearing on stage, the BBC reported yesterday. Charged under a law that bans indecent dress or expression, Sizzla, whose real name is Miguel Collins, must serve 15 days in prison. He was accused of continuing to use expletives despite warnings from the police during a concert on the island.... The rhythm and blues singer Houston gouged out one of his eyes after first attempting to jump from a London hotel window last week during an overseas tour, Reuters reported. After the suicide attempt was thwarted by members of the hotel's security staff, he was locked in his room, where the incident took place, the report said. His hit 2004 single, "I Like That," was featured in a McDonald's commercial.

At Providence Athenaeum

The Providence Athenaeum will have a new executive director, Alison Davis Maxell, right, as of March 1. The 252-year-old Athenaeum, in Rhode Island, is one of the nation's oldest private lending libraries, established before public libraries were the norm. In 2002, financial pressures and sagging beams led its board to authorize a sale of the library's large-size copy of John James Audubon's "Birds of America." Dozens of library users sued, and the infighting was one factor in last year's resignation of the previous executive director, Jonathan Bengtson. Richard A. Olsen, a retired head librarian, filled the vacancy on an interim basis. Ms. Maxell, who has master's degrees in library science and business administration, has run the Consortium of Rhode Island Academic and Research Libraries and the Richards Memorial Library in North Attleboro, Mass. One of her lingering challenges will be the contretemps over the birds. Art experts say a sale could raise more than $5 million. In August, the Rhode Island Superior Court ruled that the board acted in good faith and declined to block the sale, but the decision has been appealed. ALISON LEIGH COWAN