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.

Per Se, Ramsay Alums Bring Heat, Sodium Blitzkrieg to Recette: Ryan Sutton Recette serves supermodel-friendly small plates and rewards the fashionably layered.

`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.”

Spector Seeks $7 Million to Modernize `Raunchy' Public Theater Building Wearing a white hardhat, former Bear Stearns Cos. Co-President Warren Spector chipped plaster with a gold-plated wood mallet yesterday in the lobby of New York’s Public Theater, signifying the latest change at what was once the grand Astor Library.

Pink Floyd, Queen May Ditch EMI as Guy Hands's Buyout Mission `Implodes' Pink Floyd and Queen, bands that have been with EMI Music for about four decades, may head for the door, according to two people familiar with their talks, as concern mounts about the U.K. record label’s finances.

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.

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.