January 14, 1999

Interview with architect/designer Michael Graves, who is producing new line of housewares for Target discount chain; photos (M)

Bebe Neuwirth will return to her Tony Award-winning role as Velma Kelly in musical Chicago on January 14; will replace ailing Ute Lemper until January 26; Japan Society will present three of Japan's most distinguished actors--Nakamura Shijaku, Nakamura Kannojo and Nakamura Kyozo--in program of Kabuki dance on February 12 and 13; blues singers B B King and Bobby Bland will perform together at New Jersey Performing Arts Center on January 16; King photo; Tony Award-winning musical On the 20th Century will begin 1999 season at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn, on April 9; Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg will return to City Center for two-week engagement, through January 31; photo (M)

Brazil's legislature is balking at many of toughest changes demanded by International Monetary Fund and United States as condition of loans and aid; Pres Clinton, Treasury Sec Robert E Rubin and IMF must decide whether to continue pumping aid into country that seems reluctant to change, or whether to stand back, even if that means risking reignition of economic turmoil that followed Russia's economic crisis last summer; Clinton and Rubin call on Brazil to carry forward implementation of strong, credible economic program; neither promise much more help; in private, Clinton Administration officials predict that Brazil's problems will not trigger another selloff around world; say world economy is less brittle now, and investors are better prepared and more savvy than they were five months ago (M)

New study finds that for women with high risk of breast cancer, removing both breasts while they are still healthy reduces risk of getting breast cancer by 90 percent; findings are widely regarded as most reliable information to date on long-term effectiveness of the operation, called bilateral prophylactic mastectomy; surgeons have been performing procedure since 1960's, without knowing how effective it was; drug tamoxifen, which has been shown to reduce risk of disease by 45 percent, cannot be taken for more than five years, and may cause blood clots or uterine cancer in some women; new study, by researchers at Mayo Clinic, will be published in New England Journal of Medicine; it reported on 639 women who had their healthy breasts removed from 1960 to 1993; chart (M)

Neil Strauss's Pop Life column assessing performance of pop music industry in 1998; year's favorite albums of pop and jazz critics of New York Times listed; photos (M)