Quick Takes: Kronos Quartet, Patti Smith awarded

The San Francisco-based string foursome Kronos Quartet and rocker Patti Smith have won the 2011 Polar Music Prize, the prize committee announced Tuesday.

The musicians will be invited to Stockholm this year to accept the prize of $166,000.

The Polar Music Prize is Sweden’s most prestigious music award and is typically shared by a pop artist and a classical musician.

—Associated Press

Old Globe gets ‘Scottsboro’

“The Scottsboro Boys” was Tuesday’s Tony Awards surprise, receiving 12 nominations, including musical, despite having been a box-office flop. Although New Yorkers have missed their chance to experience the John Kander-Fred Ebb production, Southern Californians will be able to see it next year when it plays at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.

Producer Barry Weissler and director-choreographer Susan Stroman confirmed that “Scottsboro” will open at the Old Globe in April, and that the production will also travel to the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Other cities are planned but not confirmed.

—David Ng

‘Housewives’ suit to go to trial

A jury should decide whether Nicollette Sheridan’s character was unfairly written out of the hit show “Desperate Housewives,” a judge ruled Tuesday.

With the actress looking on, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White tossed out a couple of Sheridan’s claims but said there was enough of a dispute about what led to her ouster for the case to go to trial next month.

Sheridan sued ABC and “Housewives” creator and executive producer Marc Cherry in April 2010, claiming he struck her during a fight in September 2008 and subjected her to sexual and other harassment. Her character, Edie Britt, was killed off that season.

An attorney for the network and Cherry said the decision to drop Sheridan had been made in secret months before their argument.

White threw out sexual harassment and assault claims, but Sheridan’s attorneys will be able to seek damages on wrongful termination, battery and unlawful retaliation claims and can seek punitive damages.

—Associated Press

Ballet dancers OK contract

Dancers at the New York City Ballet, who had been working without a contract since August, agreed to a two-year pact Tuesday.

The deal represents a victory for the company on one salary matter: no pay increases for the current year. But for the year beginning in August, the dancers will receive a 2.5% increase. They had requested a 3% raise for each year.

The ballet company is facing a $6-million deficit on its $62-million operating budget.

—Susan Reiter

Finally

Renewals: Fox has renewed “Bones” for a seventh season while Lifetime has picked up “Army Wives” for a sixth season and “Drop Dead Diva” for a third.