The Week in Review

Theme Park Rebound?: The world's economy may be dreadful but money is being spent, big time, in the theme park sector. Variety reports that Disney is dropping as much as $500 million on a set of attractions related to the hit film Avatar, scheduled to open at Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2014-15. It's an unusual arrangement, as Avatar was released by 20th-Century Fox, not Disney, but the article draws an analogy to the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando. The Harry Potter films were released by Warner Bros., but, says Variety, since opening a year ago, the Potter park has broken attendance and ancillary-sales records for Universal, with ticket sales up 52% and food and merchandise sales up 90% at its Orlando parks during the first half of 2011 alone." The park is also building a roller coaster themed to Transformers, which was released by Paramount.

The Disney project is only one of several pricey theme park plans in the works. The company is also spending $1 billion to expand California Adventure, adding a Cars Land to the mix. Expansions of Fantasyland at both the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland are also in the works. Disneyland Paris recently opened a Toy Story themed area, which cost $100 million. Looking to Asia, there's a $500 million upgrade to Hong Kong Disneyland and the company's latest park, Shanghai Disney, which has a budget of $4 billion. For more, go to URL listed below.

More on Theme Parks: In addition, Gary Goddard Entertainment Design recently announced a number of projects, including Magic World Russia, a 600-acre park covering multiple themes and feature hotels, retail, dining, and entertainment. It is being designed to attract 10-12 million visitors a year. Another Goddard project is Victory Park, Armenia, a do-over of a run-down Soviet era park; and, in China, Qingdao Theme Park and Resort, an oceanfront attraction; Fushun Dream World Theme Park, Hotel, and Resort; and Shenfu New Town.

Silent Disco?: That's correct. It's a new phenomenon, MSNBC reports, which uses wireless headphones, rather than elaborate loudspeaker rigs, to deliver music to the customers. Interestingly, it is seen by one advocate as a kind of aid to socialization:

"People would think its anti-social, but it ends up being the exact opposite," says Ryan Dowd, owner of Silent Events, Inc., who caters Silent Disco events around the country. "If you meet someone or give them the eye on the dance floor, there's no way to talk in a loud, crowded club without going outside, but this way you can literally take off the headphones in the center of the dance floor and talk in an inside voice steps from the DJ."

Read more at http://gourl.gr/lhj.

Best Plays Announced: Congratulations to the authors of this year's Best Plays, as named by the committee behind the famous New York theatre yearbook. The 2010-2011 winners, to be featured in the forth coming volume, are After the Revolution, by Amy Herzog; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, by Rajiv Joseph; The Book of Mormon, by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, by Lynn Nottage; Good People, by David Lindsay-Abaire; In the Wake, by Lisa Kron; The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, by Tony Kushner; Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth; The Motherf---er with the Hat, by Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Other Desert Cities, by Jon Robin Baitz.

LEDs Go High Fashion: Just when you thought there were no more uses for those light-emitting diodes, here come Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz, a pair of dress designers who have created the Galaxy Dress, which contains, 24,000 LEDs. No word on whether or not the dress has a 100,000 hour life, but to get a look and read more, go to http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/led-dress/