Arts and Culture

Blair Curses, Brown Rages in Damning Downing Street Portrait: Book Review As a U.K. general election nears, London newspapers are serving up juicy morsels from a scabrous new book on politics. The extracts, from Andrew Rawnsley’s “The End of the Party,” brim with men behaving badly behind the walls of the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street.

$2.7 Billion Dutch Fair Lures Art Collectors as Records Boost Confidence A record 263 dealers will offer paintings and other works worth $2.7 billion at the world’s largest art and antiques fair, anticipating the return of the billionaire big-spenders.

Phantom of the Opera Spooks Coney Island in Fun $9 Million Sequel: Review The Phantom of the Opera, last seen fleeing from the bowels of the Paris opera, has resurfaced as an impresario in Coney Island.

Sewage Workers, Red Flags Kick Off New `Ring' in Paris: Jorg von Uthmann A revolution-tinged “Das Rheingold” opened the first complete cycle of Wagner’s “Ring” to be staged at the Paris Opera since 1955.

`Scottsboro' Turns Nightmare Into `Chicago' Style Musical: Jeremy Gerard On the stage of New York’s Vineyard Theatre, John Cullum swoons, lost in reverie. Behind the white actor, nine worn black men sing “Southern Days,” a ghostly ode to Dixie as sweet-sounding as “My Old Kentucky Home.”

Colony to Take Over Leibovitz Debt, Help Market Photographs Under Accord Colony Capital LLC agreed to take over the debt of Annie Leibovitz after the celebrity photographer bought back control of her works and real estate from Art Capital Group.

Slurping Fish Soup, Shaking Umbrellas Make `Rain' Soggy Slog: John Simon The program for “When the Rain Stops Falling” at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater, supplies a complicated family tree for the Law and York families, whose history the play follows back and forth in time between 1959 and 2039. It takes place in London and Australian settings so varied that we often can’t be certain where and when we are, whom exactly we are dealing with, and, above all, what it’s all for.

Sex Slaves, Political Scandals Drive Fairstein's 'Hell Gate': Interview When the rusty Ukrainian freighter ran aground on a sandbar near New York City’s Rockaway Beach, the bodies started washing ashore. The boat was crammed with human cargo, poor men and women desperate for a new life, exploited by traffickers known as “snakeheads.”

Paulson Plays Chicken, Quants Hasten Meltdown in Five Top Business Books Given the glut of business books, we’re often asked for recommendations. Here are five of our favorites so far this year, arranged by the authors’ surnames.