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Monster Mash: Americans gave $12.3 billion to the arts in ‘09; Ricky Martin set for Broadway’s ‘Evita’

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Recession results: Americans donated $12.3 billion to the arts in 2009, a new report says. The total is down 2.4% from the previous year, but the drop is less severe than the 6.4% decline in 2008. (Bloomberg)

Buenos Aires on Broadway: Pop singer Ricky Martin will star as Che in a planned 2012 Broadway revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Evita.” Argentine actress Elena Roger will play the title role, reprising a performance that won her acclaim in London in 2006. (Los Angeles Times)

Dance on display: A re-creation of Margot Fonteyn’s dressing room, historic costumes and set designs by Picasso will be featured in an exhibition at The Lowry arts center near Manchester, England, that will tell the story of the Royal Ballet from the 1920s to the present. (BBC News)

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Free love: The Tony-winning revival of “Hair” will end its Broadway run on June 27 after 519 performances. On Friday, 500 tickets will be given away for that night’s show. (Los Angeles Times)

Ownership dispute: Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) says Inca artifacts removed from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago and held by Yale University belong to the people of Peru and that he plans to work with both sides on a resolution that would “return the artifacts to their rightful owners.” (Associated Press)

Bolshoi legend: Marina Semyonova, one of the first great Soviet prima ballerinas, a star of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet for more than two decades and a noted teacher and coach, has died at 102. (Agence France-Presse)

Composer and teacher: Jack Beeson, best known for his opera “Lizzie Borden” and a longtime professor of music at Columbia University, has died at 88 in Manhattan. (New York Times)

Lasting legacy: South African opera tenor Siphiwo Ntshebe, who had been selected to appear at Friday’s World Cup opening by Nelson Mandela, died of meningitis last month, but his music will still be included in the ceremony in what organizers call “a tribute both to his music and memory and to the indomitable spirit of South Africa.” (BBC News)Grand designs: Peter J. Hall, who created costumes for many of the world’s great opera companies and who dressed stars such as Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa, Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo, has died at 84 in Dallas. (New York Times)

Also in the Los Angeles Times: Pop music critic Ann Powers takes on the “Ring,” beginning with “Das Rheingold;” Sean Hayes talks about hosting Sunday’s Tony Awards ceremony and starring in Broadway’s “Promises, Promises” with Kristin Chenoweth -- but stays mum about the Newsweek controversy.

--Karen Wada

Photos, from top: Ricky Martin. Credit: Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images; Marina Semyonova with ballet star and former student Nikolay Tsiskaridze in Moscow in 2003. Credit: Mikhail Logvinov / EPA

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