Arts & Culture

ABU DHABI — Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will open on December 11, according to Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism and the Guggenheim Foundation. Frank Gehry designed it, and the project has run nearly two decades since it was announced in 2006. The museum has 11,600 square metres of interior space in 28 galleries, plus 23,000 square metres of outdoor exhibition areas on Saadiyat Island. Artforum, citing the New York Times, put its cost at more than $1 billion. Its collection, assembled since 2009, covers art from the 1960s onward and is organized by theme rather than chronology. An opening exhibition on Gehry will show original sketches, hand-built early models and archival material. Gehry died late last year. The museum will be the fourth major institution to open on Saadiyat in about 18 months, after the Natural History Museum and Zayed National Museum.

NEW YORK — The new musical Wanted opens at the James Earl Jones Theatre on Sunday, November 8. Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich's Pulitzer finalist Here There Are Blueberries begins Broadway previews Monday. It opens November 9 for a limited run through January 10, 2027. Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell are in previews of Jamie Lloyd's Much Ado About Nothing at the Winter Garden. Previews began October 31, and the show opens November 19. Downstate (November 15) and a revival of The Fantasticks (November 16) are also in previews. Off-Broadway, the Lortel's thriller 2:22 – A Ghost Story and Manhattan Theatre Club's The Unbelievers both open Thursday. Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men opened October 29 at Lincoln Center to mixed reviews, with the New York Stage Review awarding three of five stars.

LONDON — Bloomsbury reported first-half revenue of £151.6 million for the six months to 31 August, down from £159.5 million a year earlier. Adjusted profit fell to £16.8 million from £24.0 million, about 30%. Consumer revenue dropped to £102.8 million. Academic and professional revenue rose 5.9% to £48.8 million, but that division's profit fell sharply, partly because income from its non-exclusive AI licensing deal shrank. The board still expects record full-year results. Its bet rests on Sarah J. Maas: 'A Court of Splintered Harmony' came out on October 27, and 'A Court of Forgotten Melody' is due January 12, 2027. Bloomsbury has described pre-orders as exceptional. It raised its interim dividend 5% to 4.28p per share and reported net cash of £22.8 million.

NEW YORK — Four new books took the top position on Publishers Weekly's weekly bestseller lists. Jeff Kinney's 'Fight or Flight', the latest Wimpy Kid installment, is the biggest book in the country this week. Louise Penny's Armand Gamache novel 'Mrs. Wolcott's Ghost' leads hardcover fiction. PW's starred review praised its combination of tight plotting and psychological depth. Penny again chose not to tour the U.S. for the release, as she did with 'The Black Wolf' in 2025. Ina Garten's 'Simply Ina', her first cookbook in four years, tops hardcover nonfiction. Meghan Quinn's 'Christmas Staycation' leads trade paperback. Abby Jimenez's 'A Married Little Christmas' debuts at No. 4 in hardcover fiction. Kinney's previous Wimpy Kid book, 'Partypooper', has sold 1.1 million print copies in a year.

PROVO, Utah — Angel Studios, the Utah company behind 'Sound of Freedom' and 'The King of Kings', announced a permanent set of content standards it calls the Angel Promise. Its originals will carry no nudity or sex acts, no F-word and no irreverent use of God's name. Titles for children 12 and under will have no profanity at all. The company says its Guild of about 3 million paying members votes on every project, and a film or series must score at least 70 out of 100 to qualify. The studio also plans member-set age ratings, plain-language story notes and new parental controls in its app. Co-founder Jeff Harmon presented the rules in an interview with Fox News Digital. Commentators noted that the pledge does not mention violence. It is not yet clear whether the rules reach licensed films Angel distributes but did not make.

LOS ANGELES — Reese Witherspoon's production company Hello Sunshine laid off roughly half its staff on Friday, about 30 people. The cuts came less than three weeks after she and French group Mediawan bought it back from Blackstone-backed Candle Media. The company is refocusing on film and television and on Reese's Book Club. Its direct-to-consumer operation has reportedly been eliminated. The buyback was announced October 13. The price was not disclosed. A person familiar with the terms told TheWrap it was in the low to mid eight figures, against the $900 million valuation Candle Media placed on the company in 2021. The layoff and price figures come from industry sources. Hello Sunshine, Mediawan and Candle Media have not confirmed them, and Hello Sunshine declined to comment. Under Candle, the company had at least four earlier rounds of cuts.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Philharmonic gave the world premiere of Samuel Adams' Violin Concerto No. 2, titled 'The Wheel', on Oct. 25 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Violinist Karen Gomyo was the soloist and Elim Chan conducted, in her second week of concerts with the orchestra. The program placed the new work between Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and the 1947 version of Stravinsky's Petrushka. Reviewing for Bachtrack, Laurence Vittes called the concerto undeniably theatrical and described the performance as 'a jolt of electric energy'. The review treats Gomyo's playing as the main reason the piece landed. Further performances and any recording plans were not stated in the review.

LONDON — Gramophone's 2026 Piano Award went to Leif Ove Andsnes and Bertrand Chamayou for an Erato disc of Schubert's four-hand music. It contains the Allegro in A minor ('Lebensstürme'), the F minor Fantasie, the E minor Fugue and the A major Rondo, all from the composer's last year. The magazine's reviewer, Jed Distler, acknowledged strong rivals, including Radu Lupu with Murray Perahia and Paul Lewis with Steven Osborne. He praised the execution and insight of this pair, though he allowed that some listeners might want a more objective Fugue. Gramophone's November issue, now out, has Martin Helmchen discussing his recording of Schubert's G major Piano Sonata, D894, and puts conductor Rafael Payare on the cover.

LUCERNE — The Lucerne Symphony Orchestra has announced the Thomas and Doris Ammann Prize for Young Conductors. The first edition will run in Lucerne from June 24 to 27, 2027. A screening jury will choose a maximum of 14 conductors in advance, and they will compete with the orchestra before an international jury. Fabio Luisi will chair that jury. Three prizes share a total of CHF 90,000. The final will be the closing concert at the KKL Luzern on June 27 at 11:00. The orchestra describes the prize as an expansion of its work with young conducting talent from around the world. Slippedisc, which carried the announcement, noted wryly that the field of conducting contests is already crowded.