The Arts

Jersey City Upfront reports: Spanish artist Jaume Plensa just unveiled his latest public work of art. Lefrak and Simon commissioned Plensa to create “Water’s Soul” — an 80-foot tall sculpture sitting on the edge of the newly constructed Newport Pier. The Newport sculpture is Plensa’s second major, permanent installation in the New York area. Another of his works — “Voices” …

The New York Times reports: Chuck Close, who rose to prominence in the 1970s and ’80s with colossal Photorealist portraits of himself, family members and fellow artists, but who late in his career faced accusations of sexual harassment, died on Thursday in a hospital in Oceanside, N.Y. He was 81. At the end of the 1960s, a period when formalist …

Opera News reports: The Metropolitan Opera announced today that it has canceled the first few months of its 2020-season, and will now open its doors next season with a special gala performance on December 31st. The company’s performances will then continue through through June 5, 2021. “Given the enormous organizational complexity of the Met’s schedule, we have no choice but …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: Meryl Streep, Audra McDonald and Christine Baranski donned bathrobes and guzzled drinks for their performance of “The Ladies Who Lunch” during a special tribute to Stephen Sondheim that aired online Sunday night. The trio also were seen imbibing on wine and other libations during their performance of the song from Sondeim’s Company. Streep even mixed her …

The New York Post reports: Actress Faye Dunaway relentlessly berated her gay personal assistant on play “Tea at Five,” calling him “a little homosexual boy” before he was fired for complaining, a new lawsuit alleges. Michael Rocha says in his Manhattan Supreme Court suit that he began working for the Broadway-bound production — from which Dunaway was eventually fired — …

Vulture reports: The celebrated novelist Toni Morrison died Monday night, according to a source at her publisher, Knopf. She was 88 years old. The cause of death is not yet known. Born Chloe Ardella Wofford, Morrison was best known for her critically acclaimed and best-selling novel Beloved, which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among her other memorable and …