ARTS IN BRIEF

whose introspective songs won him Broadway singer Brightman critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomina- tion, has apparently committed suicide, his publi- set to play Center in January cist and coroner’s officials said yesterday. He was 34. Sarah Brightman will make a return trip to the Smith’s body found by his live-in girlfriend stage of the Bryce Jordan Center at 8 p.m. Mon- was Tuesday, Los Angeles County Coroner Records day Jan. 26. Her Jordan Center appearance first Supervisor Marsha Grigsby told AP Radio. was in 1999. Tickets for theworld-renowned vocal- He sustained a single to the chest will go on Saturday at 10 at Jordan stab wound ist sale a.m. the that appearedto be she said. Center, Eisenhower Auditorium, Penn State self-inflicted, His New York-based publicist, spoke on Downtown select who Theatre, Uni-Marts, the Altoona ofanonymity, afro his death. Campus ticket charge by phone at 865-5555 condition confirmed £ outlet, Smith released five solo albums that received 3 or 800-863-3336 online at www.bjc.psu.edu. Tick- or widespread and gar- ets for the show are $49.50 and for acclaim from rock critics * $39.50, $59.50 nered modestcommercial success. “Miss Misery,” reserved seating with Gold Circle seating also recorded for Gus Van Sant’s , available. was nominated for an Oscar in 1998. Brightman is touring to support May’s Harem, Smith’s songs often were compared with those her 12th studio album. She made her theatrical of Alex the his at age 14 went on to a member Chilton, Nick Drake and Beatles, debut and become favorite band. Lyrically, they addressed dark sub- of the original cast of Cats at the New London jectmatter such as drug troubled rela- Theatre. In 1985 she was Grammy addiction, nominated for a and loneliness though Smith tried Best New Classical Artist for her performance tionships to for distance himself from the label of confessional of Andrew Lloyd Webber’sRequiem. She also was songwriter. for a Drama Desk Award in when nominated 1988, “I don’tfeel like my songs are particularly frag- she originated the role of Christine in Webber’s ile or revealing,” he said in a in the The Phantom the Opera. 1998 interview of Los Angeles Times. “It’s not like a diary, and they’re not intended to be any sort of superinti- mate confessional singer-songwriterish thing.” Singer-songwriter Elliot Smith However, Smith had recently spoken in inter- views about his struggles with alcoholism. “When found dead at the age of 34 I lived in New York I was really a bad alcoholic for

LOS ANGELES CAP)— , a singer- a fewyears,” he told Under the Radar magazine in an interview published in June 2003.

IS) eO W

■ Gift Certificates always | 1 AVAILABLE. * Get | Classes form monthly I a Grip!

(on the Daily Collegian) 113 HcMer Stmt 237-5710