The Week in Review

Troels Volver, R.I.P.: The lighting industry was shocked to hear of the death of Troels Volver. His tenure as the head of Martin Professional's US office coincided with an enormous period of growth at that company, when the MAC 2000 and its progeny dominated the concert touring market, among other sectors. Volver was famed for his unfiltered pronouncements and frequent use of profanity, which were somehow generally offset by his sunny personality, and he built a formidable sales team at Martin US. He left Martin following changes at the top of the company, accompanied by a new business plan, and, for a time, it appeared that he had left the industry forever. However, when Peter Johansen, his old boss at Martin, took over the Italian lighting manufacturer SGM, Volver came back. His death came at the cruelly young age of 58; the details have yet to be revealed, but we hope to have more information later this week. http://plasa.me/ai4rf

New Hires at Harman: Harman Professional sure is a busy place these days. Right before Christmas, the audio corporation, with many top brands under its umbrella (JBL, Crown, AGK, et. al.) surprised everyone by agreeing to purchase Martin Professional. (Many thought that Osram was the most likely buyer for Martin.) Immediately after that, Harman announced a number of major personnel changes. First, the company announced a new business strategy to better serve customers in the transportation, themed entertainment, education, and hospitality project market, appointing Van Williamson, business development manager, to lead the program. Other changes followed: Anton Pukshansky was named to the position of territory sales manager for Southern California and Southern Nevada. Jim Ure was named to the position of business development manager, installed sound. Marc Lee Shannon has been named senior manager, business development for its US regional sales office (RSO), focusing primarily on sales efforts for AKG professional audio products and brand promotions for other Harman Professional companies. Rex Reed has been promoted to Director of Engineering. In his new role, Reed will oversee engineering for the BSS Audio, dbx, Lexicon, and DigiTech brands. We're not sure what it all means, except to note Harman is definitely a company to keep up on in 2013.

Broadway Shuffle: The big theatre news today is that Diner, a new musical based on the Barry Levinson film, with a score by Sheryl Crow, was originally scheduled to open this spring and has been put off until the fall. This isn't particularly surprising, as the musical, which had an opening date of April 10, had been awfully quiet lately. However, as today's New York Times, notes, a surprisingly large number of shows are delayed or looking unlikely. Flashdance is still raising money. (A national tour, separate from the Broadway version, is now on the road.) Big Fish is having a Chicago tryout this spring. Prince of Broadway has been delayed until next year. Other shows in various states of uncertainty include a revival of The Miss Firecracker Contest, The Velocity of Autumn, the West End revival of The Sunshine Boys, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Honeymoon in Vegas, and The Bridges of Madison County. Definitely not happening are the Nathan Lane-starring revival of The Iceman Cometh and Sweet Bird of Youth, both produced at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and the Public Theater revival of Into the Woods, which was sunk by bad reviews. (People are still talking about Amy Adams' awful wig.) http://plasa.me/fft3k

Broadway's Tough Winter: It's going to be tumbleweed time on Broadway for a couple of months. On Sunday, the annual January bloodbath began, as shows closed either due to limited runs, lack of interest, or an unwillingness to face the traditional January-February slowdown. The closers were Chaplin, Dead Accounts, Elf, Grace, and War Horse. January 20 sees the closings of Glengarry Glen Ross, Golden Boy, and Peter and the Starcatcher. (The latter has announced it will transfer Off Broadway sometime in the near future.) This means plenty of empty theatres; look for more new productions for the spring to be announced soon; in the meantime, theatre attendeess will be faced with a dramatically reduced list of choices.