Talk:Fermat's Last Tango

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Desertarun (talk) 08:07, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

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• ... that Fermat's Last Tango is a musical containing sophisticated mathematical content? Source: "Indeed, the play's mathematical vocabulary is surprisingly sophisticated. Imagine a song in which the phrase "Taniyama-Shimura conjecture" is heard not just once but several times. " [1]
  • ALT1:... that Fermat's Last Tango is a musical about the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem? Source: almost any of the sources in the article...

• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Ludwig Wüllner
• Comment: There are some claims that this was the first mathematical musical, but I have doubts about that and certainly can't verify it. Always happy about hookier hooks.

Moved to mainspace by Kusma (talk). Self-nominated at 23:34, 3 June 2021 (UTC).

Interesting musical, on good sources, no copyvio obvious. I think a link from musical (in hook and article) would help, - in German, Musical is clear, but in English it can have too many meanings. I suggest to add "Off-Broadway". I am not sure how many readers will known the Theorem by name, therefore am reluctant about ALT1. I only know it because there was an infobox discussion ;) - How about a hook that the musical was shown at math conferences? ... husband and wife writing about a math widow? - afraid that sohisticated math will rather drive readers away ;) - In the article, I suggest you link the famous mathematicians when mentioned first, not in the Roles section, and link the voice types. See (almost) any opera article for the standard formatting of a Roles section, which I believe would work here as well. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:37, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

Moved the links and added the voice types (don't quite see the point of formatting as a table). I'm not sure that "off-Broadway" really makes it more surprising. I'm a mathematician, so I'm the wrong person to ask about what mathematics is generally known, but among people in maths and sciences, FLT is certainly widely known (popularised by Douglas Hofstadter in Gödel, Escher, Bach before the proof and widely noticed in popular culture and through Simon Singh's books). I don't like the "math widow" stereotype very much, and I do find it more surprising that a math musical exists than that it was shown at math conferences. (Lots of mathematicians are very musical people). By far, my favourite song from this musical is "Your proof contains a big fat hole", which I think of every time I find a hole in one of my proofs. Anyway, here's another factoid:

• ALT2: ... that in the musical Fermat's Last Tango, mathematicians Euclid and Newton are played by women?

Let me know what you think. —Kusma (talk) 21:54, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

I love it, - preferred! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:25, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

More sources?

• [2] - Osserman
• [3] Liner notes
• [4] "Best plays of 2000-01"
• [5] Simon Singh

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Fermat's Last Tango/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Mike Christie (talk · contribs) 11:06, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

I'll review this. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:06, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

• The FUR for the CD cover has a couple of entries not filled in.

  Added.

• What makes curtainup.com a reliable source?

  Difficult to argue by Wikipedia's rules that it is. It seems to have been a notable review website in the late 1990s/early 2000s (and the many uses both at Wikipedia and in Gbooks hits seem to confirm this) but I have dropped it as a reference for facts. It is now only used as a source for its review, and I think this is defensible.

• 'criticised that Daniel Keane does not "become a real character"': "criticized" requires a direct object.

  Rewritten.

• 'audiences of screenings of the film version reacting "mildly amused to enthusiastic."' Needs rewriting; "reacting" can't take a direct object like this.

  Rewritten.

-- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:52, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for reviewing! I will get to this soon. —Kusma (talk) 23:19, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

@Mike Christie, would you like to take another look? —Kusma (talk) 15:42, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

Pass. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 22:13, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

Spotchecks

Kusma, I realized after I completed the GA review that I should have done some spotchecks against the sources. I just did a couple of checks; the only issue I found was:

• FN 14 cites "The musical was translated into Portuguese by César Viana as O Último Tango de Fermat and was played in Portuguese university towns in 2003 and at the Teatro da Trindade in 2004." As far as I can see the source only gives this as a planned schedule; I think the article should reflect that.

-- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 13:09, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

@Mike Christie, thank you for being vigilant! Back when I did my research, I convinced myself that this did indeed happen, and I have added a few sources (including in Portuguese) that confirm it. Unfortunately I haven't found an actual review of the Lisbon performance (and some of the Portuguese sources have invented an Emmy for the musical that I chose to omit, as it is verifiable but wrong). Happy to reformulate if you think more changes are needed. —Kusma (talk) 16:40, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

No, that looks fine the way you have it. Thanks! Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 18:17, 19 September 2022 (UTC)