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Cost of capital

In economics and accounting, the cost of capital is the cost of a company's funds (both debt and equity), or from an investor's point of view is "the required rate of return on a portfolio company's existing securities". It is used to evaluate new projects of a company. It is the minimum return that investors expect for providing capital to the company, thus setting a benchmark that a new project has to meet.

Basic concept
For an investment to be worthwhile, the expected return on capital has to be higher than the cost of capital. Given a number of competing investment opportunities, investors are expected to put their capital to work in order to maximize the return. In other words, the cost of capital is the rate of return that capital could be expected to earn in the best alternative investment of equivalent risk; this is the opportunity cost of capital. If a project is of similar risk to a company's average business activities it is reasonable to use the company's average cost of capital as a basis for the evaluation or cost of capital is a firm's cost of raising funds. However, for projects outside the core business of the company, the current cost of capital may not be the appropriate yardstick to use, as the risks of the businesses are not the same.

A company's securities typically include both debt and equity; one must therefore calculate both the cost of debt and the cost of equity to determine a company's cost of capital. Importantly, both cost of debt and equity must be forward looking, and reflect the expectations of risk and return in the future. This means, for instance, that the past cost of debt is not a good indicator of the actual forward looking cost of debt.

Once cost of debt and cost of equity have been determined, their blend, the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), can be calculated. This WACC can then be used as a discount rate for a project's projected free cash flows to the firm.

Example
Suppose a company considers taking on a project or investment of some kind, for example installing a new piece of machinery in one of their factories. Installing this new machinery will cost money; paying the technicians to install the machinery, transporting the machinery, buying the parts and so on. This new machinery is also expected to generate new profit (otherwise, assuming the company is interested in profit, the company would not consider the project in the first place). So the company will finance the project with two broad categories of finance: issuing debt, by taking out a loan or other debt instrument such as a bond; and issuing equity, usually by issuing new shares.

The new debt-holders and shareholders who have decided to invest in the company to fund this new machinery will expect a return on their investment: debt-holders require interest payments and shareholders require dividends (or capital gain from selling the shares after their value increases). The idea is that some of the profit generated by this new project will be used to repay the debt and satisfy the new shareholders.

Suppose that one of the sources of finance for this new project was a bond (issued at par value) of US$200000 with an interest rate of 5%. This means that the company would issue the bond to some willing investor, who would give the US$200000 to the company which it could then use, for a specified period of time (the term of the bond) to finance its project. The company would also make regular payments to the investor of 5% of the original amount they invested ($10,000), at a yearly or monthly rate depending on the specifics of the bond (these are called coupon payments). At the end of the lifetime of the bond (when the bond matures), the company would return the US$200000 they borrowed.

Suppose the bond had a lifetime of ten years and coupon payments were made yearly. This means that the investor would receive US$10000 every year for ten years, and then finally their US$200000 back at the end of the ten years. From the investor's point of view, their investment of US$200000 would be regained at the end of the ten years (entailing zero gain or loss), but they would have also gained from the coupon payments; the US$10000 per year for ten years would amount to a net gain of US$100000 to the investor. This is the amount that compensates the investor for taking the risk of investing in the company (since, if it happens that the project fails completely and the company goes bankrupt, there is a chance that the investor does not get their money back).

This net gain of US$100000 was paid by the company to the investor as a reward for investing their money in the company. In essence, this is how much the company paid to borrow US$200000. It was the cost of raising US$200000 of new capital. So to raise US$200000 the company had to pay US$100000 out of their profits; thus we say that the cost of debt in this case was 50%.

Theoretically, if the company were to raise further capital by issuing more of the same bonds, the new investors would also expect a 50% return on their investment (although in practice the required return varies depending on the size of the investment, the lifetime of the loan, the risk of the project and so on).

The cost of equity follows the same principle: the investors expect a certain return from their investment, and the company must pay this amount in order for the investors to be willing to invest in the company. (Although the cost of equity is calculated differently since dividends, unlike interest payments, are not necessarily a fixed payment or a legal requirement.)

Cost of debt
When companies borrow funds from outside lenders, the interest paid on these funds is called the cost of debt. The cost of debt is computed by taking the rate on a risk-free bond whose duration matches the term structure of the corporate debt, then adding a default premium. This default premium will rise as the amount of debt increases (since, all other things being equal, the risk rises as the cost of debt rises). Since in most cases debt expense is a deductible expense, the cost of debt is computed on an after-tax basis to make it comparable with the cost of equity (earnings are taxed as well). Thus, for profitable firms, debt is discounted by the tax rate. The formula can be written as
 * $$K_D = (R_f + \text{credit risk rate})(1-T)$$,

where $$T$$ is the corporate tax rate and $$R_f$$ is the risk free rate.

Cost of equity
The cost of equity is inferred by comparing the investment to other investments (comparable) with similar risk profiles. It is commonly computed using the capital asset pricing model formula:

 * Cost of equity = Risk free rate of return + Premium expected for risk
 * Cost of equity = Risk free rate of return + Beta × (market rate of return – risk free rate of return)

where Beta = sensitivity to movements in the relevant market. Thus in symbols we have
 * $$E_s = R_f + \beta_s(R_m - R_f)$$

where:

 * Es is the expected return for a security;
 * Rf is the expected risk-free return in that market (government bond yield);
 * βs is the sensitivity to market risk for the security;
 * Rm is the historical return of the stock market; and
 * (Rm – Rf) is the risk premium of market assets over risk free assets.

The risk free rate is the yield on long term bonds in the particular market, such as government bonds.

An alternative to the estimation of the required return by the capital asset pricing model as above, is the use of the Fama–French three-factor model.

Expected return
The expected return (or required rate of return for investors) can be calculated with the "dividend capitalization model", which is
 * $$K_{cs} = \frac{\text{Dividend}_{\text{Payment/Share}}(1+\text{Growth})} {\text{Price}_\text{Market}} + \text{Growth}_\text{rate}$$.

Comments
The models state that investors will expect a return that is the risk-free return plus the security's sensitivity to market risk (β) times the market risk premium.

The risk premium varies over time and place, but in some developed countries during the twentieth century it has averaged around 5% whereas in the emerging markets, it can be as high as 7%. The equity market real capital gain return has been about the same as annual real GDP growth. The capital gains on the Dow Jones Industrial Average have been 1.6% per year over the period 1910–2005. The dividends have increased the total "real" return on average equity to the double, about 3.2%.

The sensitivity to market risk (β) is unique for each firm and depends on everything from management to its business and capital structure. This value cannot be known "ex ante" (beforehand), but can be estimated from ex post (past) returns and past experience with similar firms.

Cost of retained earnings/cost of internal equity
Note that retained earnings are a component of equity, and, therefore, the cost of retained earnings (internal equity) is equal to the cost of equity as explained above. Dividends (earnings that are paid to investors and not retained) are a component of the return on capital to equity holders, and influence the cost of capital through that mechanism.

 * Cost of internal equity = [(next year's dividend per share/(current market price per share - flotation costs)] + growth rate of dividends)]

Weighted average cost of capital
The weighted cost of capital (WACC) is used in finance to measure a firm's cost of capital. WACC is not dictated by management. Rather, it represents the minimum return that a company must earn on an existing asset base to satisfy its creditors, owners, and other providers of capital, or they will invest elsewhere.

The total capital for a firm is the value of its equity (for a firm without outstanding warrants and options, this is the same as the company's market capitalization) plus the cost of its debt (the cost of debt should be continually updated as the cost of debt changes as a result of interest rate changes). Notice that the "equity" in the debt to equity ratio is the market value of all equity, not the shareholders' equity on the balance sheet. To calculate the firm's weighted cost of capital, we must first calculate the costs of the individual financing sources: Cost of Debt, Cost of Preference Capital, and Cost of Equity Cap.

Calculation of WACC is an iterative procedure which requires estimation of the fair market value of equity capital if the company is not listed. The Adjusted Present Value method (APV) is much easier to use in this case as it separates the value of the project from the value of its financing program.

Factors that can affect cost of capital
Below are a list of factors that might affect the cost of capital.

Capital structure
Because of tax advantages on debt issuance, it will be cheaper to issue debt rather than new equity (this is only true for profitable firms, tax breaks are available only to profitable firms). At some point, however, the cost of issuing new debt will be greater than the cost of issuing new equity. This is because adding debt increases the default risk – and thus the interest rate that the company must pay in order to borrow money. By utilizing too much debt in its capital structure, this increased default risk can also drive up the costs for other sources (such as retained earnings and preferred stock) as well. Management must identify the "optimal mix" of financing – the capital structure where the cost of capital is minimized so that the firm's value can be maximized.

The Thomson Financial league tables show that global debt issuance exceeds equity issuance with a 90 to 10 margin.

The structure of capital should be determined considering the weighted average cost of capital.

Accounting information
Lambert, Leuz and Verrecchia (2007) have found that the quality of accounting information can affect a firm's cost of capital, both directly and indirectly.

Modigliani–Miller theorem
If there were no tax advantages for issuing debt, and equity could be freely issued, Miller and Modigliani showed that, under certain assumptions (no tax, no possibility of bankruptcy), the value of a levered firm and the value of an unlevered firm should be the same.

title: Cost of capital


text: Category:Vegetarianism

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Category:Vegetarianism


text:
User:GlenDavis

I have lots of interests, but my expertise lies in Pentecostalism, the Assemblies of God, and university Christian ministries such as Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and Campus Crusade for Christ.

Internal Link
My Wikipedia Contributions

External Link
Glen's Website

Glen Davis 17:33, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

title: User:GlenDavis


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Kadhimiya

Kadhimiya (ٱلْكَاظِمِيَّة, ) or Kadhimayn (ٱلْكَاظِمَيْن, el-Kâzımeyn) is a northern neighbourhood of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It is about 5 km from the city's center, on the west bank of the Tigris. 'Kadhimiya' is also the name of one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. As the place of al-Kadhimiya Mosque, even before its inception into the urban area of Baghdad, it is regarded as a holy city by Twelver Shia muslims.

Religious significance and history

 * The Kāẓimayn ("Two who swallow their anger"), from whom the Mosque and area of Kadhimiyyah are named, are the Twelver Shia Imams Musa al-Kadhim and his grandson, Muhammad al-Jawad ibn Ali al-Ridha. The qubur (قُبُوْر, graves) of the Kāẓimayn, and the scholars Mufid and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, are within the premises of the Mosque. The area that now constitutes Al-Kāẓimiyyah was originally the location of a graveyard reserved for members of the Quraysh. This land was set aside for this purpose by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. In its early history, the town was an important center of Shia learning, perhaps the main center, but over time the town declined, and other cities rose to prominence.
 * The location of the city has lent it to numerous plunders, that have resulted in damage to its shrines at different times in history. Among the most damage ever experienced by the town was after the Mongol Siege of Baghdad (1258) where the shrine of the Shia Imams was burnt down.
 * During the Government of Midhat Pasha in the Ottoman Empire, a tramway was built between Baghdad and Kadhiyma in order to transport the pilgrims who traveled to the Shia shrines. The tramway was in service until 1938 when bus services began to be established.
 * The area was also an important center of Iraqi revolt against the British after World War I.
 * Baha'u'llah lived in this section of Baghdad during His exile from Iran, famously dictating the Hidden Words on the banks of the Tigris river
 * In 2005, a stampede occurred on Al-Aimmah Bridge over the Tigris River. About 1000 people were killed.
 * Iraqi officials executed Saddam Hussein at an American operated facility in al-Kāẓimiyyah known as "Camp Justice".
 * Baghdad Security Plan: During Operation Imposing Law in 2007, there were rumours that United States' forces built walls around Al-Kadhimiyya Mosque. According to Iraqslogger.com, the protests that resulted were due to an agreement between Iraqi security officials and the Mahdi Army (now called the Peace Companies) that US forces would not come within 1000 m of the shrine.
 * Pilgrims to the shrine were attacked on 30 April 2016, leading to wider protests.

Government and infrastructure
Kadhimiyya Women's Prison is in the area. Women on Iraq's death row are held at the Shaaba Khamsa death row facility at Camp Justice. As of 2014 the adult women's death row had 36 women as well as children even though the facility was only intended to hold 25 women.

Education
Amil High School for Girls is in this neighborhood.

title: Kadhimiya


text: User talk:67.51.174.84

title: User talk:67.51.174.84


text: User talk:68.160.154.85

title: User talk:68.160.154.85


text:
User:Tom-/monobook.js

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title: User:Tom-/monobook.js


text: Category:Comic books

title: Category:Comic books


text:
Eden Roc

Eden Roc may refer to:
 * Hôtel du Cap-Eden Roc at Antibes on the French Riviera
 * Eden Roc, Hawaii
 * Eden Roc (album), a 1999 music album by the Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi
 * Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel, Florida

title: Eden Roc


text:
Roger Taylor (tennis)

Roger Taylor MBE (born 14 October 1941) is a British former tennis player. Born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire. He achieved success at several Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open in 1973, the semi-finals of Wimbledon during the same year and winning back to back US Open men's doubles titles in 1971 and 1972. He also enjoyed particular success in 1970, again reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon, where he achieved a big upset win over defending champion Rod Laver en route, and the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Taylor also reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 1967. His career-high ranking was world No. 7 in 1967, though Taylor was also ranked world No. 8 in 1970 before the ATP rankings began.

He was active from 1958 to 1982 and won 31 career singles titles, of those toward the end of his career included 6 Grand Prix tour singles titles and 10 doubles titles.

He was also ranked British No 1 1973 and 1974. Additionally, Taylor scored 29 wins and 11 losses at the Great Britain Davis Cup team. He is a member of the AELTC.

Tennis career
He played his first singles tournament at the South of France Championships in 1958. He won his first singles title in 1959 at the Lee-on-Solent Open. Taylor was the sole British member of the so-called Handsome Eight signed by Lamar Hunt to compete in his newly created World Championship Tennis tour in 1968. He was shown how to play tennis by his mother, Lilian, and he used to play in the various parks across Sheffield, such as Weston Park. He often practised by hitting a tennis ball against a wall.

Taylor endeared himself to millions of viewers during his 1973 Wimbledon quarterfinal match against the 17-year-old Wimbledon debutant Björn Borg. Having already been declared the match winner by the umpire following his match-point serve which was disputed by Borg, Taylor voluntarily offered to replay the point. The linesman then questioned by the umpire as to whether he wished to reconsider his decision, changed his "in" call to "out" and the umpire requested that the point be replayed as a "let". Taylor subsequently went on to win the match, but lost to eventual champion Jan Kodeš in the semifinals. He won his final singles title at the Fairfield Open Indoors in March 1975.

He played his final singles tournament at the Caribbean Championships in 1982. He retired from professional tennis in 1983 and following his retirement he operated tennis holidays. He was Great Britain's Davis Cup captain from February 2000 until January 2004. Taylor also captained the British ladies Wightman Cup team; steering them to their last victory in the competition in 1978. He was awarded an MBE in the 1977 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours.

He is currently active on the ITF Seniors Tour and has a singles ranking of 54 as at 2020 in the over 75's category. He won the 70+ title at Woking's Veterans Open Tournament in 2012. In 2019, he teamed up with Australia's Gordon Waygood to win the Men's 75 Doubles title at the British Open Seniors Clay Court Championships.

Singles (6)
(incomplete roll)

title: Roger Taylor (tennis)


text:
Category:Altaic languages

As a proposed language family, this category represents theoretical language groupings.

title: Category:Altaic languages


text: Category:Turkic languages

title: Category:Turkic languages


text:
Category:Sports cars

This category is for individual models of Sports Car. For Sports Car makers see Category:Sports car manufacturers.

title: Category:Sports cars


text:
User:Sdalu

You can find more information about me at http://www.sdalu.com/ or about my projects:
 * System administration using FreeBSD
 * Alux Studio photography
 * The Earth is round, Travel log

If you are interested by using some of my pictures please give me credit by linking to: http://www.alux-studio.com/sdalu/

You can look at the pictures that I uploaded on wikipedia or if you are interested by other pictures I made but not available here, just ask me.

title: User:Sdalu


text:
Hawi

Hawi may refer to:

 * Al-Hawi, Hadhramaut, a village in eastern Yemen
 * Hawi, Hawaii
 * Hawi (film), a 2010 film

People with the surname

 * George Hawi, Lebanese politician
 * Khalil Hawi, Lebanese poet
 * William Hawi, Lebanese politician

title: Hawi


text:
User:Aharon

This account is pending a merge with an account I created years ago to work on the Wikimedia Commons, a process that should be completed, I'm told, just as soon as the Global User Merge tool is ready.

I have sentimental feelings for this deleted article: [LOLrus]

title: User:Aharon


text: User talk:68.60.244.39

title: User talk:68.60.244.39


text:
Horizon problem

The horizon problem (also known as the homogeneity problem) is a cosmological fine-tuning problem within the Big Bang model of the universe. It arises due to the difficulty in explaining the observed homogeneity of causally disconnected regions of space in the absence of a mechanism that sets the same initial conditions everywhere. It was first pointed out by Wolfgang Rindler in 1956.

The most commonly accepted solution is cosmic inflation. Different solutions propose a cyclic universe or a variable speed of light.

Astronomical distances and particle horizons
The distances of observable objects in the night sky correspond to times in the past. We use the light-year (the distance light can travel in the time of one Earth year) to describe these cosmological distances. A galaxy measured at ten billion light-years appears to us as it was ten billion years ago, because the light has taken that long to travel to the observer. If one were to look at a galaxy ten billion light-years away in one direction and another in the opposite direction, the total distance between them is twenty billion light-years. This means that the light from the first has not yet reached the second because the universe is only about 13.8 billion years old. In a more general sense, there are portions of the universe that are visible to us, but invisible to each other, outside each other's respective particle horizons.

Causal information propagation
In accepted relativistic physical theories, no information can travel faster than the speed of light. In this context, "information" means "any sort of physical interaction". For instance, heat will naturally flow from a hotter area to a cooler one, and in physics terms, this is one example of information exchange. Given the example above, the two galaxies in question cannot have shared any sort of information; they are not in causal contact. In the absence of common initial conditions, one would expect, then, that their physical properties would be different, and more generally, that the universe as a whole would have varying properties in causally disconnected regions.

Horizon problem
Contrary to this expectation, the observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and galaxy surveys show that the observable universe is nearly isotropic, which, through the Copernican principle, also implies homogeneity. CMB sky surveys show that the temperatures of the CMB are coordinated to a level of $$\Delta T/T \approx 10^{-5},$$ where $$\Delta T$$ is the difference between the observed temperature in a region of the sky and the average temperature of the sky $$T$$. This coordination implies that the entire sky, and thus the entire observable universe, must have been causally connected long enough for the universe to come into thermal equilibrium.

According to the Big Bang model, as the density of the expanding universe dropped, it eventually reached a temperature where photons fell out of thermal equilibrium with matter; they decoupled from the electron-proton plasma and began free-streaming across the universe. This moment in time is referred to as the epoch of Recombination, when electrons and protons became bound to form electrically neutral hydrogen; without free electrons to scatter the photons, the photons began free-streaming. This epoch is observed through the CMB. Since we observe the CMB as a background to objects at a smaller redshift, we describe this epoch as the transition of the universe from opaque to transparent. The CMB physically describes the ‘surface of last scattering’ as it appears to us as a surface, or a background, as shown in the figure below.

Note we use conformal time in the following diagrams. Conformal time describes the amount of time it would take a photon to travel from the location of the observer to the farthest observable distance (if the universe stopped expanding right now). The decoupling, or the last scattering, is thought to have occurred about 300,000 years after the Big Bang, or at a redshift of about $$z_{rec} \approx 1100$$. We can determine both the approximate angular diameter of the universe and the physical size of the particle horizon that had existed at this time.

The angular diameter distance, in terms of redshift $$z$$, is described by $$d_{A}(z)=r(z) / (1+z)$$. If we assume a flat cosmology then,
 * $$r(z) = \int_{t_{em}}^{t_0} \frac{dt}{a(t)}

= \int_{a_{em}}^{1} \frac{da}{a^2 H(a)} = \int_{0}^{z} \frac{dz}{H(z)}.$$

The epoch of recombination occurred during a matter dominated era of the universe, so we can approximate $$H(z)$$ as $$H^2(z) \approx \Omega_m H_0^2 (1+z)^3$$. Putting these together, we see that the angular diameter distance, or the size of the observable universe for a redshift $$z_{rec} \approx 1100$$ is

 * $$r(z)=\int_{0}^{z} \frac{dz}{H(z)} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{\Omega_m} H_0}

\int_{0}^{z} \frac{dz}{(1+z)^{3/2}} = \frac{2}{\sqrt{\Omega_m} H_0}\left(1-\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+z}}\right).$$

Since $$z \gg 1$$, we can approximate the above equation as

 * $$r(z) \approx \frac{2}{\sqrt{\Omega_m}H_0}.$$

Substituting this into our definition of angular diameter distance, we obtain

 * $$d_A(z) \approx \frac{2}{\sqrt{\Omega_m}H_0}\frac{1}{1+z}.$$

From this formula, we obtain the angular diameter distance of the cosmic microwave background as $$d_A(1100) \approx 14\ \mathrm{Mpc}$$.

The particle horizon describes the maximum distance light particles could have traveled to the observer given the age of the universe. We can determine the comoving distance for the age of the universe at the time of recombination using $$r(z)$$ from earlier,

 * $$d_\text{hor,rec}(z)=\int_{0}^{t(z)} \frac{dt}{a(t)}= \int_{z}^{\infin} \frac{dz}{H(z)}

\approx \frac{2}{\sqrt{\Omega_m}H_0}\left [ \frac{1}{\sqrt{1+z}} \right ]_z^\infin \approx \frac{2}{\sqrt{\Omega_m}H_0}\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+z}} $$ To get the physical size of the particle horizon $$D$$,
 * $$D(z)=a(z)d_\text{hor,rec}= \frac{d_\text{hor,rec}(z)}{1+z}

$$
 * $$D(1100) \approx 0.03~\text{radians} \approx 2^\circ

$$

We would expect any region of the CMB within 2 degrees of angular separation to have been in causal contact, but at any scale larger than 2° there should have been no exchange of information.

CMB regions that are separated by more than 2° lie outside one another's particle horizons and are causally disconnected. The horizon problem describes the fact that we see isotropy in the CMB temperature across the entire sky, despite the entire sky not being in causal contact to establish thermal equilibrium. Refer to the timespace diagram to the right for a visualization of this problem.

If the universe started with even slightly different temperatures in different places, the CMB should not be isotropic unless there is a mechanism that evens out the temperature by the time of decoupling. In reality, the CMB has the same temperature in the entire sky, 2.726 ± 0.001 K.

Inflationary model
The theory of cosmic inflation has attempted to address the problem by positing a 10$−32$-second period of exponential expansion in the first second of the history of the universe due to a scalar field interaction. According to the inflationary model, the universe increased in size by a factor of more than 10$22$, from a small and causally connected region in near equilibrium. Inflation then expanded the universe rapidly, isolating nearby regions of spacetime by growing them beyond the limits of causal contact, effectively "locking in" the uniformity at large distances. Essentially, the inflationary model suggests that the universe was entirely in causal contact in the very early universe. Inflation then expands this universe by approximately 60 e-foldings (the scale factor increases by factor $$e^{60}$$). We observe the CMB after inflation has occurred at a very large scale. It maintained thermal equilibrium to this large size because of the rapid expansion from inflation.

One consequence of cosmic inflation is that the anisotropies in the Big Bang due to quantum fluctuations are reduced but not eliminated. Differences in the temperature of the cosmic background are smoothed by cosmic inflation, but they still exist. The theory predicts a spectrum for the anisotropies in the microwave background which is mostly consistent with observations from WMAP and COBE.

However, gravity alone may be sufficient to explain this homogeneity.

Variable-speed-of-light theories
Cosmological models employing a variable speed of light have been proposed to resolve the horizon problem of and provide an alternative to cosmic inflation. In the VSL models, the fundamental constant c, denoting the speed of light in vacuum, is greater in the early universe than its present value, effectively increasing the particle horizon at the time of decoupling sufficiently to account for the observed isotropy of the CMB.

title: Horizon problem


text:
Victoria Newman

Victoria Newman is a fictional character from The Young and the Restless, an American soap opera on the CBS network. Created by William J. Bell, she is currently portrayed by Amelia Heinle. Victoria was born onscreen in 1982 and was portrayed by child actress Ashley Nicole Millan for her first eight years. Having been rapidly aged to a teenager, Victoria returned to the soap opera and was portrayed by Heather Tom. Tom portrayed the character into her early adult years and remained in the role for thirteen years. Due to creative differences, Tom left the soap opera in 2003 and Heinle, who debuted as Victoria on March 21, 2005, was cast in the role.

The daughter of businessman Victor Newman (Eric Braeden), Victoria was described as "the teenager from hell" during her early years, and as an adult she was written as a ruthless character. Her storylines have involved romances with older men, family conflicts, and difficult pregnancies. Victoria is the third member of the Newman family to appear in the program and was joined later by her younger siblings. Her early romances included long-standing relationships with Ryan McNeil (Scott Reeves) and Cole Howard (J. Eddie Peck). Upon her second return to the show she had relationships with J.T. Hellstrom (Thad Luckinbill) and Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson). Victoria has four children: Claire Grace (Hayley Erin) by Cole, Reed Hellstrom (Tristan Lake Leabu) by J.T., Johnny Abbott, Billy's son whom she adopted as her own, and Katie Abbott.

Tom won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series twice for her portrayal of Victoria, and received nominations for eight other Emmy awards. Critics praised Tom's portrayal of the character, though her marriages at an early age were criticized. Heinle's portrayal later won her the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014 and 2015.

Casting
Between 1982 and 1990, Victoria was portrayed by child actress Ashley Nicole Millan. After Millan left the series, Victoria was rapidly aged to become a teenager, and Heather Tom assumed the role on December 12, 1990. In 1997, Tom took a nearly eight-month leave of absence from the role, departing on February 21 and returning on October 2. During Tom's absence, Sarah Aldrich was cast as her temporary replacement, appearing from April 2 to July 17, 1997.

In 1999, Carrie Genzel was in talks to replace Tom, who was experiencing "touch-and-go" contract negotiations. However, Tom signed another three-year deal with the soap opera and said she was "very excited" about her continuation. In September 2003, Tom's spokesman announced that she would leave the show because of "creative differences" with executive producer David Shaughnessy. Speaking of her departure, Shaughnessy said that it was "tough" to see her go and that "they would miss her tremendously". Tom made her final appearance as Victoria on December 17, 2003, and she later said that she left the role because "things weren't going in her best interests".

The soap opera's producers intended Victoria to return in January 2004 but auditions failed to find a suitable replacement for Tom. Amelia Heinle was later cast in the role and made her first appearance on March 21, 2005. Rachel Kimsey also auditioned for the role and Heinle had auditioned for Mackenzie Browning; Kimsey was given Mackenzie and Heinle was given Victoria. Heinle has stated on many occasions that she had "serious doubts" about taking over Tom's role. In 2013, she recalled on what intimidated her about Tom, saying: "Heather is pure backbone, and that's probably what intimidated me about following in her footsteps because that's not me naturally." In 2008, she took maternity leave and was off-screen for weeks. In March 2011, Heinle announced that she had signed a new contract which would secure her in the role for an unspecified period. In November 2013, it was announced that Heinle had signed another contract to continue her portrayal of Victoria for an additional two years.

Characterization and portrayal

According to SoapNet, Victoria is "ruthless in the board room" and "nobody's damsel in distress". The soap opera's official website describes the character as having "displayed both her father's headstrong qualities and her mother's tendency to be impulsive". While the character was a teenager, Kelly O'Sullivan of the New York Daily News called her "the teen from hell". Heather Tom said that Victoria had Victor's strength and the manipulative skills of her former-alcoholic mother Nikki. Of the character's determination, Tom said that "Victoria knows disappointment, yet she gets her way most of the time" and "she goes after what she wants, and wins". During Victoria's divorce from Cole Howard (J. Eddie Peck), The Orlando Sentinel said that Victoria's behavior was "pig-faced".

Relationships
Victoria has her first romance with Ryan McNeil, which ends when he leaves her for Nina Webster (Tricia Cast). The series' creator William J. Bell said that Victoria knew Nina still loved Ryan and suspected that the marriage would not last, and that "in Victoria's mind, the threat is still there". She is then married to Cole Howard for four years but they begin to have marital problems after Cole's affair with Ashley Abbott (Shari Shattuck). Tom said that being married on a soap opera is "short lived" and that she knew Cole and Victoria would eventually face difficulties, which she found challenging to act. While pregnant with Cole's child, Victoria has a relationship with Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John) and plans to raise the child with him, but her daughter Eve Howard dies shortly after birth and she and Neil separate. After being raped by an insane man, Victoria reunites with Ryan and they plan to marry before he is shot dead by his ex-wife, Tricia Dennison (Sabryn Genet). Victoria also has brief relationships with Diego Guittierez (Greg Vaughan) and Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc).

A decade after her marriage to Cole, Victoria marries Brad Carlton (Don Diamont); their marriage ends after Brad has an affair. She then becomes pregnant with J.T. Hellstrom's (Thad Luckinbill) child and during her pregnancy becomes comatose. Heinle believed Victoria and J.T. would "stay together for a while before they wreck it". After it was announced that Luckinbill was leaving the soap opera, Victoria and J.T. drift apart and eventually divorce. Victoria next begins a relationship with Billy Abbott that their feuding families are against; Heinle described Billy as "the forbidden fruit" and compared their romance to Romeo and Juliet. They later marry in a 1950s-styled screen wedding; her wedding dress was inspired by a gown worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film Funny Face. Actress Elinor Donahue was cast to portray the judge that officiates their wedding, as former co-head writer Scott Hamner felt that Donahue could help them achieve the sense of a "retro-fantasy of better, simpler times". After their wedding, Billy illegally purchases a baby girl for Victoria. Heinle felt this plot was a good way to add conflict drama to the soap opera. The couple lose custody of the child, Billy leaves Genoa City and Victoria divorces him, but her father hides Billy from his family. The pair are later reunited in a New York airport bar. Hamner noted that Victoria would be "absolutely furious" at her father for what he had done: "[There is a] potential for a huge rift between father and daughter, and there will be some consequences for Victor with his relationship with Victoria in light of all that he's done to keep her apart from the man she loves." He also stated that the "impact of those secrets coming to light was going to be very serious in Billy and Victoria's ability to move forward together".

Storylines
In 1990, eight-year-old Victoria becomes upset that her mother Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) has married Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman), even after he saves her from drowning in a swimming pool. When she continues to misbehave, her parents send her to boarding school in Switzerland. Later that year, Victoria returns as a moody teenager who is working in the mailroom at her father's company, Newman Enterprises, and becoming smitten with Ryan McNeil (Scott Reeves), who is older than her. Victor offers Ryan money to leave town but he and Victoria elope. Their marriage ends when Ryan leaves her for Nina Webster (Tricia Cast) in 1993. Victoria then falls in love with Cole Howard (J. Eddie Peck) and they marry the following year, but their marriage is quickly annulled when it is believed by their parents that they are half-siblings, as Victor is believed to be Cole's father. When this is proved untrue they wed again; this marriage breaks down four years later when in 1998 Cole has sex with Ashley Abbott (Shari Shattuck/Eileen Davidson), her former stepmother. Victoria becomes pregnant with Cole's child and chooses to raise it with Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John). Her baby girl, Eve Howard, was believed to have died a few days after birth and Victoria ends her union with Neil. Victoria briefly tries and fails to win Cole back from Ashley. In 1999, Victoria meets Gary Dawson (Ricky Paull Goldin) and they begin dating, though she soon discovers that he is stalking her and ends the relationship. Enraged, Gary kidnaps Victoria in a tree house and she is raped. She takes months to recover. She and Ryan then reunite and plan to remarry, but on their wedding day in November 2001 Ryan's ex-wife Tricia Dennison shoots and kills him, leaving Victoria devastated. She then has a brief relationship with Diego Guittierez (Diego Serrano/Greg Vaughan) in 2002, and afterward dates Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc). The following year, some of Victor's crimes come to light and Victoria leaves town when these and other family problems overwhelm her. She moves to Florence, Italy, where she studies Art History.

In 2005, Victoria returns to Genoa City after Jack makes her a job offer to run Jabot. She tries to resume her relationship with Michael, only to discover he has married Lauren Fenmore (Tracey E. Bregman). She then begins dating her father's business rival Brad Carlton (Don Diamont) and in 2006 they marry, much to Victor's disapproval. Victoria becomes pregnant with Brad's child but miscarries. Their marriage ends in 2007 when Victoria discovers that Brad had an affair with Sharon Newman (Sharon Case), her former sister in law, before their wedding. During her marriage she forms a friendship with J. T. Hellstrom (Thad Luckinbill) and they have sex twice, resulting in a pregnancy of unknown paternity. J.T. is revealed as the father, and during her pregnancy Victoria is hit by falling rocks—caused by an explosion—which leaves her comatose. She recovers and gives birth to a son, Reed Hellstrom (Max Page), and she marries J. T. in February 2008. After J. T. kisses his ex-girlfriend Colleen the following year, Victoria has an affair with Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan), complicating their marriage, which ends in 2010 after J. T. becomes intimate with Mackenzie Browning (Clementine Ford).

Victoria then begins a secret romance with Billy Abbott. She and Billy marry while intoxicated in Jamaica, but the marriage is declared invalid and they remarry. During the ceremony, Victor has Victoria arrested in an attempt to stop the wedding. J.T. gains full custody of Reed and moves to Washington, DC with his new wife Mackenzie for her job. Victoria and her siblings pursue a lawsuit against Victor to gain control of a cosmetics line. After Victoria miscarries a child with Billy, he illegally pays $2,000,000 for a child, whom they name Lucy in January 2011. Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) gains custody of Lucy and Billy leaves town without disclosing his whereabouts to his wife. Victoria later pursues divorce proceedings in Billy's long absence. After their divorce, Victoria and Billy's mother, Jill Fenmore, try unsuccessfully to locate Billy whose daughter, Delia Abbott has Leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. The pair find each other in a New York airport bar, reunite, and remarry in December 2011. As they return home from their honeymoon, Chelsea Lawson (Melissa Claire Egan) arrives, announcing she is pregnant with Billy's child. Chelsea barters with Billy demanding 3 million dollars. She later gives birth to a boy, Johnny, but gives Billy full custody of their son. Victoria decides to stay in her marriage to Billy and help him raise the child. Later, Victoria returns to Newman Enterprises to try and save it from Sharon's destruction. While on business in Miami in November 2012, she is kidnapped by Eddie G. (Blake Gibbons), who demands that Billy repay a gambling debt as a ransom. Eddie is shot and killed in front of her, and she is finally rescued by her brother Nick, and recovers. Billy later relapses in his gambling addiction, and the couple briefly separate. However, Victoria again decides to reconcile with Billy and continue their marriage. In October 2013, Billy's daughter Delia is struck and killed by Adam in a hit and run accident. Billy embarks on an affair with a woman in his grief support group, Kelly Andrews (Cynthia Watros). Meanwhile, Victoria grows close with Stitch Rayburn (Sean Carrigan). Victoria files for legal separation after Billy's affair is exposed, and she ends up sleeping with Stitch. Victoria then finds out she is pregnant but is unsure of the child's paternity. The child, named Katherine Rose after Victoria's late godmother Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper), later turned out to be Billy's, but Victoria decides to continue her relationship with Stitch regardless. However, Victoria and Stitch's relationship comes to an end soon thereafter when Stitch develops feelings for Victoria's half-sister, Abby (Melissa Ordway). Victoria and Billy end up reuniting again, much to Victor's chagrin. The reunion with Billy doesn't last long and she later begins a brief relationship with Travis Crawford.

In 2017, J. T. returns to Genoa City to investigate Victor's personal bank accounts, following some "sizable" transfers to off-shore accounts. He finds out that Nikki was stealing money from Victor but does not turn her in. J. T. tells her that his marriage to Mackenzie is over, and they get back together. She hires him as head of security at Newman while he is secretly working as a spy for Paul Williams (Doug Davidson) and Christine Blair (Lauralee Bell) to dig up information on Victor and Newman Enterprises. J. T. becomes abusive towards Victoria, and they end up having a horrible fight where Victoria was able to escape through the bathroom. It turns out Victor had been spying on them, and he sees what J. T. did to Victoria and finds out J. T. is spying on him. A fight ensues, causing J. T. to push Victor down the stairs, leaving him unconscious. J. T. leaves, and Victor's condition is blamed on Jack. While he is in the hospital. J. T. tried to kill Victor by turning off his ventilator, but the problem was resolved by the staff. J.T. apologizes to Victoria and proposes to her. While they are on vacation in Hawaii with the kids, Victoria finds his phone and finds out that Paul and Christine hired him to investigate Victor. She confronts him, and he tells her he did it in exchange for the fact she and Nikki wouldn't go to jail. She breaks up with him. During a girl's night with her mother, Sharon, Mariah (Camryn Grimes), and Phyllis (Gina Tognoni), Victoria tells them everything about her relationship with J. T. Later that night, J. T. sneaks into her bedroom in an attempt to win her back. She tells him no and finds out that he was the one who put Victor in the hospital and tired to kill him while he was there. As she tries to call the police, he slaps her. Hearing what's going on, Sharon, Nikki, and Phyllis rush upstairs to see J. T. assaulting her. Nikki grabs a fire poker and hits him on the head. When they feel no pulse, assuming he is dead, they bury him. In March 2019, J. T. is revealed to be alive and watching the Newman women at the Abbott cabin.

In 2021, Victoria meets with Ashland Locke (Richard Burgi) in an attempt to buy his company, Cyaxares. He ends up selling it to her father and Adam (Mark Grossman). When Ashland has to go to New York to finalize his divorce from his wife, Tara (Elizabeth Leiner), he invites Victoria to tag along. She turns him down initially but changes her mind. He tells her that he has been diagnosed with Stage six Small-cell carcinoma, and the two get closer. When Ashland goes public with his diagnosis, Victoria suggests merging Locke Communications Group with Newman Enterprises. Victoria and Ashland get engaged and marry in Tuscany. Ashland tells Victoria his backstory and that his real name is Robert DeFranco, and it is later revealed Ashland lied about his cancer diagnosis, and Victoria realizes he was playing her. Victoria pretends to still be in love with him while the Newman's plots revenge against him. Adam offers Ashland five million dollars to leave town. He initially refuses, but Victoria convinces him to take it, saying they can leave town and start over. He takes the money, Victoria reveals she was playing him, and Ashland admits he truly loves her. Following a car accident that resulted in Ashland saving Victoria's life and the death of Sharon's husband, Rey Rosales (Jordi Vilasuso), Victoria gets back together with Ashland. She turns her back on her family and resigns as co-CEO of the company. The two try to start a new company but struggle to fund it, and Victoria convinces him to put the $5 million in their joint account. Victoria transfers the funds and books a flight back home. She tells Ashland that she was manipulating him all along and that she was saying goodbye. Ashland also returns to Genoa City and is arrested when he violates his restraining order against his son Harrison, who is actually Kyle Abbott's (Michael Mealor) biological son. He gets out on bail and follows Victoria home. There, he tells her that she is no better than him; she laughs at him, provoking him to hurt her. As she defends herself, Nick arrives. She tells Nick what just happened, so Nick punches Ashland, causing him to hit his head on the hearth. They try to save him, but they feel no pulse. They walk outside, but when they return, Ashland is not there. Michael tells Victor that Ashland's body was found dead in a car after crashing into a ravine. It turns out Victor's security team went inside, took the body, put it in a rental car, and staged the accident. Victor tells Victoria and Nick that Ashland died the moment he was punched.

Victoria later begins an affair with Nate Hastings, (Sean Dominic) who was in a relationship with Elena Dawson (Brytni Sarpy). A suspicious Elena travels to Los Angeles, where Nate is on a business trip, and catches him having dinner with Victoria. He confesses sleeping with Victoria, and she breaks up with him. Victoria and Nate briefly become a couple afterwards. During a hostage situation in Oregon between Victoria, her parents, Nick, and Cole Howard, Nikki's assistant, Claire Grace (Hayley Erin), claims to be Victoria and Cole's daughter Eve, who supposedly died after childbirth. Claire's aunt Jordan (Colleen Zenk) told her she was their child and brainwashed her into thinking Victoria and Cole abandoned her. They don't believe that Claire is their daughter. They tell her Jordan is lying; they didn't abandon their baby; she died after birth, and they loved her. Jordan is Cole's aunt, who had an estranged relationship with her sister, Eve. Jordan, who was a nurse at Memorial stole baby Eve and switched her with a dead baby. She did this in revenge for how the Newman's treated Eve and not having the chance to make up with her before she died. Hearing this revelation, Claire turns her back on her aunt and tries to process everything. A DNA test confirms that Claire is in fact baby Eve. Later, Victoria and Cole decide to try to get to know their newfound daughter, while Claire was sent to the psych ward at Genoa Memorial. Claire, at first decides to push them away out of guilt, but slowly starts to develop a bond with both of them. Claire later asked them, if she could visit Jordan in Prison in order to get closure. They agreed, with Claire taking Victoria and Cole with them. After, her confrontation with Jordan, Claire cuts ties with her and later follows her parents out of prison. After Jordan escapes prison after setting the place on fire, Cole and Victoria visit Claire in hospital to inform her of her aunt's escape from Prison. Victor had ordered Michael to release Claire out to the hospital and into the custody of her parents, in order to plan a trip for Jordan, who began a revenge plot against the family. After Jordan kills Nikki's friend and her AA sponsor, Seth Morgan (Brian Gaskill) by pushing him into an upcoming speeding car, Jordan calls Claire, who informs her that she is staying with her mother, unaware that Victoria and Claire are staying at the Newman Ranch. Later, Victoria receives a phone call from authorities to inform her that Jordan set her house is on fire. When Victoria and Victor arrive at her house, the entire house is permanently damaged. As a result, Victoria moves into the tack house at the ranch with Claire and Victoria and Cole start bonding about their past together at the same very house. Soon after Cole kisses Victoria.

Reception
Connie Passalacqua of the Herald Journal compared Victoria's scheme to reunite her parents in 1991 to the plot of the 1961 film The Parent Trap. She wrote, "[w]hat makes Victoria a true terror teen? We venture that it may be the supernatural soap aging by which she aged from 5 to 15 last fall." Fort Worth Star-Telegram criticized Victoria's early romances, saying: "[s]he's divorced, rich and hates sex. And now she wants her husband back. As soap operas go, Victoria Newman's plight ... is standard daytime fare. But Victoria has one characteristic that many of her counterparts don't—she is only 17." A syndicated article that appeared in The Fort Oglethorpe Press described Ryan McNeil's attempts to seduce Victoria as "a path that's fraught with peril and which forces the good-natured actor to search hard for inspiration". SoapNet said it was "no surprise" Victoria has a history of "messy relationships" given her parents' history. Lilana Novakovich of the Toronto Star said that Heather Tom made Victoria become "one of her favorite characters" on the soap upon her debut in 1991. The Austin American-Statesman said that Tom was "always a pleasure to watch".

Dan J. Kroll of the website SoapCentral wrote that the process to find a replacement for Tom was an "exhaustive search". Amelia Heinle, who critics praised for her portrayal of Victoria, has been listed on the "Top 5 Actresses" poll of CBS Soaps in Depth for over eight consecutive weeks. Her relationship with Billy has garnered a significant fan following, allowing them to lead CBS Soaps in Depth's "Top 10 Couples" poll for over six consecutive weeks. Elinor Donahue, who portrayed the judge that marries Victoria and Billy, said she thought their "retro wedding" was "adorable" and "extremely well written and not overdone". Zap2it placed Victoria and Billy at number four of their "10 Best Soap Couples of 2011". Jamey Giddens of Zap2it said Victoria and Billy are "so scrumptious together", and that "it's so nice to have some reason to say something kind about The Young and the Restless for a change". Giddens also said that he "adores this pairing that he was so prepared to hate". Sara Bibel of Xfinity wrote of their relationship: "Billy (Billy Miller) and Victoria (Amelia Heinle), who have already had three weddings in the year and a half that they have been together, actually seem rational. They should change the wedding vows in the G.C. from "until death to us part," to "until one of us changes our mind." However, Bibel was later unfavorable of the couple attempting to have a child less than six months after marrying.

In 2011, during a storyline that saw Victoria and her siblings sue their father for control of a cosmetics line, Bibel wrote: "Victoria, whose true motivation was to get her hands on Beauty of Nature so she could become its CEO, got a rude awakening when Nick told her in no uncertain terms that he had no interest in trading the settlement money for the company. I think the second stage of the battle will be the Newman siblings squabbling over the money a la King Lear, assuming the show actually allows Victor to lose for more than a few episodes." Soon after, Bibel said that Victoria had been "whiny" and found the character's mother Nikki's storyline "far more interesting". That same year, Giddens wrote that a blogger from The Washington Post compared Victoria to Rupert Murdoch, saying: "[a] partial nod must go to the soap opera The Young and the Restless, whose character Victoria Newman was arrested on her wedding day for allegedly bribing a foreign dignitary. Television and Murdoch and ’round-the-clock FCPA conjecture—it's a welcome publicity storm for the FCPA bar."

In 2013, Bibel criticized the soap opera when Victoria "decided to give up a corporate career to become a children’s book author", writing: "From the time she was SORASED into a teen, Victoria’s ambition was to run Newman Enterprises. She was the child who inherited Victor’s (Eric Braeden) business acumen. He, being a male chauvinist, always viewed the more family oriented Nick as his heir apparent. Her struggle to get her father’s recognition is what fueled her." She also stated that while watching the series, there was "the sense that women could, if that was what interested them, be power players". Of Victoria's choice to leave Newman Enterprises, Bibel wrote: "For Victoria, it came across as giving up Peggy Olsen’s life for Betty Draper’s. I was also peeved by her telling her mother that she didn't have the first idea of how to become an author. She ran a major cosmetics company. She should have a hundred contacts in publishing, and the confidence and skills to figure out what she doesn't know. I got to thinking about all of the ways that, over the past few months, the women of Genoa City have been, to use the lingo of Leaning In, the most popular non-fiction book in the country right now, leaning out." Tommy Garrett of Highlight Hollywood blamed head writer Josh Griffith for turning the character into a "hard-nosed unforgiving socialite".

Heather Tom won two Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Victoria in 1993 and 1999, and received eight other nominations for the same award. She also won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Leading Younger Actress in 1997, and was nominated for two other awards.

In 2022, Charlie Mason from Soaps She Knows placed Victoria 23rd on his list of the best 25 characters from The Young and the Restless, saying "Passion's plaything. Daddy's girl. Boss lady. Whatever you choose to call Victoria, from Heather Tom to Amelia Heinle, she’s always been front and center, a lightning rod for electric storylines."

title: Victoria Newman


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Postmodern dance

Postmodern dance is a 20th century concert dance form that came into popularity in the early 1960s. While the term "postmodern" took on a different meaning when used to describe dance, the dance form did take inspiration from the ideologies of the wider postmodern movement, which "sought to deflate what it saw as overly pretentious and ultimately self-serving modernist views of art and the artist" and was, more generally, a departure from modernist ideals. Lacking stylistic homogeny, Postmodern dance was discerned mainly by its anti-modern dance sentiments rather than by its dance style. The dance form was a reaction to the compositional and presentational constraints of the preceding generation of modern dance, hailing the use of everyday movement as valid performance art and advocating for unconventional methods of dance composition.

Postmodern dance made the claim that all movement was dance expression and any person was a dancer regardless of training. In this, early postmodern dance was more closely aligned with the ideologies of modernism rather than the architectural, literary and design movements of postmodernism. However, the postmodern dance movement rapidly developed to embrace the ideas of postmodernism, which rely on chance, self-referentiality, irony, and fragmentation. Judson Dance Theater, the postmodernist collective active in New York in the 1960s, is credited as a pioneer of postmodern dance and its ideas.

The peak popularity of Postmodern dance as a performance art was relatively short, lasting from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s, but due to the changing definitions of postmodernism, it technically reaches the mid 1990s and beyond. The form's influence can be seen in various other dance forms, especially contemporary dance, and in postmodern choreographic processes that are utilized by choreographers in a wide range of dance works.

Influences on Postmodern Dance
Postmodern dance can be understood as a continuation in dance history: stemming from early modernist choreographers like Isadora Duncan, who rejected the rigidity of an academic approach to movement, and modernists like Martha Graham, whose emotion-filled choreography sought to exploit gravity, unlike the illusionistic floating of ballet.

Merce Cunningham, who studied under Graham, was one of the first choreographers to take major departures from the then-formalized modern dance in the 1950s. Among his innovations was the severance of the connection between music and dance, leaving the two to operate by their own logic. He also removed dance performance from the proscenium stage. To Cunningham, dance could be anything, but its foundation was in the human body— specifically beginning with walking. He also incorporated chance into his work, using methods like tossing dice or coins at random to determine movements in a phrase. These innovations would become essential to the ideas in postmodern dance, however, Cunningham’s work remained grounded in the tradition of dance technique, which would later be eschewed by the postmodernist.

Other avant-garde artists who influenced the postmodernists include John Cage, Anna Halprin, Simone Forti, and other choreographers of the 1950s, as well as non-dance artistic movements such as Fluxus (a neo-dada group), Happenings, and Events.

Characteristics of Postmodern Dance
Major characteristics of postmodern dance of the 1960s and 1970s can be attributed to its goals of questioning the process behind and reasons for dance-making while simultaneously challenging the expectations of the audience. Many dancemakers employed improvisation, spontaneous determination, and chance to create their works, instead of rigid choreography. In order to demystify and draw attention away from technique-driven dance, pedestrian movement was also employed to include everyday and casual postures. In some cases, choreographers cast non-trained dancers. Furthermore, movement was no longer bound to the tempo created by accompanying music, but to actual time. One dance artist, Yvonne Rainer, did not inflect her phrasing, which had the effect of flattening the amount of time passing as dynamics no longer had a role to play between time and dance.

Early postmodern dance
The earliest usage of the term "postmodern" in dance was in the early 1960s. During the formative years of the performance art, the only defining characteristic was the participants' rejection of its predecessor, modern dance. The pioneer choreographers utilized unconventional methods, such as chance procedures and improvisation. Chance procedure, also known as dance by chance, is a method of choreography "based on the idea that there are no prescribed movement materials or orders for a series of actions." This means that the chance methods, which could be the toss of a coin, determine the movements rather than the choreographer. Dance by chance was not a distinctly postmodern method – it was first used by modern dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. Thus, despite their adamant rejection of their predecessors, many early postmodern choreographers embraced the techniques of modern and classical ballet.

Analytical postmodern dance
As postmodern dance progressed into the 1970s, a more identifiable, postmodern style emerged. Sally Banes uses the term "analytical postmodern" to describe the form during the 70s. It was more conceptual, abstract, and distanced itself from expressive elements such as music, lighting, costumes, and props. In this way, analytical postmodern dance aligned more with modernist criteria as defined by art critic Clement Greenberg. Analytical postmodern "became objective as it was distanced from personal expression through the use of scores, bodily attitudes that suggested work and other ordinary movements, verbal commentaries, and tasks." Modernist influence can also be seen in the analytical postmodern choreographers' use of minimalism, a method used in art that relies on "excessive simplicity and objective approach."

Analytical postmodern dance was also heavily influenced by the political activism taking place in the U.S. during the late 60s and early 70s. The Black Power movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, the second-wave feminist movement, and the LGBTQ movement all became more explicitly explored in analytical postmodern dance. Many postmodern dancers during this time, despite their Euro-American backgrounds, were heavily influenced by African-American and Asian forms of dance, music and martial arts.

Postmodern dance 1980 and beyond
The 1980s saw a distancing from the analytical postmodern dance of the previous decade, and a return to expression in meaning, which was rejected by the postmodern dance of the '60s and '70s. Though stylistically, postmodern dance of the '80s and beyond lacked a unifying style, specific aspects could be seen throughout the work of various choreographers. The form took on an "alliance with the avant/pop music world" and saw increased distribution on international main stages, with performances in venues such as City Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, both in New York City. There was also an increased interesting in preserving dance on film, in repertory, etc., which contrasts the improvisational attitudes of early postmodern dance choreographers.

Another aspect that unifies the postmodern dance of 1980 forward is the interest in "narrative content and the traditions of dance history." The more recent forms of postmodern dance have distanced themselves from the formalism of the '70s and began a greater exploration into "meaning of all kinds, from virtuosic skill to language and gesture systems to narrative, autobiography, character, and political manifestos."

Postmodern Choreographic Process
Postmodern dance utilized many unconventional methods during the choreographic process. One of the main methods used was chance, which is a technique pioneered in dance by Merce Cunningham that relied on the idea that there were "no prescribed movement materials or orders for a series of action." Choreographers would use random numbers and equations or even roll dice to determine "how to sequence choreographic phrases, how many dancers would perform at any given point, where they would stand on stage, and where they would enter and exit.” In using the chance technique, it was not uncommon for dancers in a postmodern piece to hear the music they were dancing to for the first time during the premiere performance.

Postmodern choreographers also often utilized an objectivism similar to literary theorist Roland Barthes' idea of "death of the author." Narratives were rarely conveyed in postmodern dance, with the choreographer more focused on "creating an objective presence." Performances were stripped down – dancers wore simple costumes, the music was minimalist or, in some cases, nonexistent, and performances often "[unfolded] in objective or clock-time rather than a theatrically-condensed or musically-abstract time." In this, postmodern choreography reflects the objective present, rather than the thoughts and ideas of the choreographer.

Although postmodern choreography may have seldom conveyed conventional narrative, postmodern artists of the 1960s and 1970s have also been known to make dances with implicit or explicit political themes. Yvonne Rainer has a history of politically conscious and active dance-making. For example, while still recovering from a major abdominal surgery, she performed her work Trio A and called it Convalescent Dance as part of a program of anti-Vietnam War works during Angry Arts Week in 1967. The works Steve Paxton created in the 1960s also were politically sensitive, exploring issues of censorship, war, and political corruption.

title: Postmodern dance


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User talk:Ramenkage

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title: User talk:Ramenkage


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Soul Crew

The Cardiff City Soul Crew (Criw Enaid Dinas Caerdydd; commonly known as the Soul Crew) football hooligan firm, associated with the Welsh football club Cardiff City. From its formation in 1983 onwards, the Soul Crew would become the smallest firm in the United Kingdom.

Background
The Soul Crew name was adopted by hooligan followers of Cardiff City in the 1982/83 season, and comes from the small number of aspirant hooligans that had an enthusiasm for soul music. It was alleged that Don Cornelius, former host of the TV show Soul Train gave his blessings for the group to be known as The Soul Crew. They were featured in the 2002 documentary series, Hooligans on BBC.

Eleven suspected members of the Soul Crew were detained before the start of an FA Cup replay against Reading at Ninian Park in February 1998. Riot police were drafted in at the end of the game to prevent further outbreaks of violence between the Soul Crew and Reading's Berkshire Boot Boys.

title: Soul Crew


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Austria national football team

The Austria national football team (Österreichische Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Austria in men's international football competitions, and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association.

The Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) was founded on 18 March 1904, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the 1930s, under coach Hugo Meisl, Austria's national team, known as the "Wunderteam," became a dominant force in European football. Notable achievements included a fourth-place finish in the 1934 FIFA World Cup and runners-up at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The Anschluss in 1938, which annexed Austria into Nazi Germany, led to the dissolution of the ÖFB and the forced integration of Austrian players into the German national team for the 1938 World Cup.

After World War II, Austria reestablished its national team and achieved significant success in the 1954 World Cup, finishing third. The team continued to be competitive throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including a notable victory over England at Wembley Stadium in 1965. However, the following decades saw fluctuating fortunes, with the team failing to qualify for FIFA World Cups in the 1960s and narrowly missing out on the 1974 World Cup in a playoff against Sweden. The 1970s and 1980s marked a revival, with Austria reaching the second round in the 1978 and 1982 World Cups, highlighted by a famous victory over West Germany in 1978.

The 1990s and 2000s brought challenges and disappointments, such as a shocking defeat to the Faroe Islands in UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying, and a group-stage exit in the 1998 World Cup, their seventh and to date, last World Cup appearance. Austria automatically qualified for UEFA Euro 2008 as co-hosts with Switzerland, the first time they played in the UEFA European Championship though they were eliminated in the group stage. The country entered a resurgence in 2016, beginning with a successful qualification campaign for the Euros that year. Austria has experienced a revival in form, successfully qualifying for Euro 2020 and 2024, the latter with current head coach Ralf Rangnick.

Pre-World War II
The Austrian Football Association ("ÖFB") was founded on 18 March 1904 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Max Scheuer, a Jewish defender who played for the Austria national football team in 1923, was subsequently killed during the Holocaust in Auschwitz concentration camp. The team enjoyed success in the 1930s under coach Hugo Meisl, becoming a dominant side in Europe and earning the nickname "Wunderteam". The team's star was Matthias Sindelar. On 16 May 1931, they were the first continental European side to defeat Scotland. In the 1934 FIFA World Cup, Austria finished fourth after losing 0–1 to Italy in the semi-finals and 2–3 to Germany in the third place play-off.

They were runners-up in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, again losing to Italy 1–2, despite having been beaten in the quarter-finals by Peru, following the Peruvians' withdrawal. However, according to an investigation, the surprise victory by Peru was deliberately annulled by Adolf Hitler to favour the Austrians.

The team then qualified for the 1938 World Cup finals, but Austria was annexed to Germany in the Anschluss on 12 March of that year. On 28 March, FIFA was notified that the ÖFB had been abolished, resulting in the nation's withdrawal from the World Cup. Instead, the German team would represent the former Austrian territory. Theoretically, a united team could have been an even stronger force than each of the separate ones, but German coach Sepp Herberger had little time and very few matches to prepare and merge the very different styles of play and attitude. The former Austrian professionals outplayed the rather athletic yet amateur players of the "Old Empire" in a "reunification" derby that was supposed to finish as a draw, yet in the waning minutes, the Austrians scored twice, with Matthias Sindelar also demonstratively missing the German goal, and subsequently declining to be capped for Germany.

In a later rematch, the Germans took revenge, winning 9–1. In early April, Herberger inquired whether two separate teams could enter anyway, but "Reichssportführer" Hans von Tschammer und Osten made clear that he expected to see a 5:6 or 6:5 ratio of players from the two hitherto teams. As a result, five players from Austria Wien, Rapid Wien and Vienna Wien were part of the team that only managed a 1–1 draw in Round 1 against Switzerland, which required a rematch. With Rapid Wien's forward Hans Pesser having been sent off, and not satisfied with two others, Herberger had to alter the line-up on six positions to fulfill the 6:5 quota again. The all-German team led the Swiss 2–0 after 15 minutes, but eventually lost 2–4 in Paris in front of a rather anti-German French and Swiss crowd, as few German supporters were able to travel to France due to German restrictions on foreign currency exchange.

After World War II
After World War II, Austria was again separated from Germany. Austria's best result came in 1954 with a team starring midfielder Ernst Ocwirk. They lost in the semi-finals 1–6 to eventual champions Germany, but finished third after beating defending champions Uruguay 3–1. Over the years, a strong yet mainly lopsided rivalry with Germany developed.

At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, the Austrian suffered defeats to eventual champions Brazil, the emerging Soviet Union and a draw against England (who were rebuilding after the loss of several of their key players due to the Munich air disaster), preventing the team from reaching the next round.

Due to lack of money, Austria decided not to participate at the 1962 World Cup in Chile.

On 20 October 1965, Austria became the third European team to defeat England at home. Two goals in a 3–2 victory were scored by Toni Fritsch, who was then nicknamed "Wembley Toni". However, in the same year, Austria failed to qualify for the World Cup for the 1966 edition, ending third against Hungary and East Germany; they only earned a draw. In the summer of 1968, Leopold Šťastný, the Slovak coach of Wacker Innsbruck, took over the national team. Despite failing to qualify for the 1970 World Cup, the new coach emphasized developing new players rather than relying on the old guard. Austria came very close to qualifying for the 1974 World Cup in Germany. The qualifying round was tied for first place between Austria and Sweden, despite tiebreakers based on points and goal difference, therefore a playoff was needed for qualifying, held in Gelsenkirchen. In order to have enough time to prepare, the championship round was suspended and the stadium in Gelsenkirchen was prepared five days before the playoff. On snow-covered ground, Austria lost 1–2.

1970s and 1980s
Anchored by Herbert Prohaska and striker Hans Krankl, and backed up by Bruno Pezzey, Austria reached the World Cup in 1978 and 1982 and both times reached the second round, held in team group matches that replaced the knockout quarter-finals. This Austria team, coached by Helmut Senekowitsch, is widely regarded as the best post-World War II Austrian football team of all-time.

In the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, the Austrians lost their first two matches but defeated defending champions West Germany 3–2 with goals from Hans Krankl, and an own goal. The celebrating report of the radio commentator Edi Finger ("I werd narrisch!") became famous in Austria, where it is considered the "Miracle of Cordoba", while the West Germans regard the game and the Austrian behaviour as a disgrace.

During the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Austria and West Germany met again, in the last match of the group stage. Because the other two teams in the group had played their last match the previous day, both teams knew that a West German win by one goal would see both through, while all other results would eliminate one team or the other. After ten minutes of furious attack, Horst Hrubesch scored for West Germany and the two teams mainly kicked the ball around for 80 minutes with few attempts to attack. The match became known as the "non-aggression pact of Gijón". Algeria had also won two matches, including a shocking surprise over West Germany in the opener, but among the three teams that had won two matches, was eliminated based on goal difference, having conceded two late goals in their 3–2 win over Chile. This match caused outrage between supporters of multiple national teams; as a result, all future tournaments would see the last group matches played simultaneously. Austria and Northern Ireland were eliminated by losing to France in the second round group stage of three teams.

1990s
Led by striker Toni Polster, Austria qualified for the 1990 World Cup but were eliminated in the first round, despite defeating the United States 2–1. Much worse was the stunning 1–0 loss against the Faroe Islands, a team made of amateurs, in the qualifying campaign for the 1992 European Championship, considered the worst embarrassment in any Austrian team sport ever, and one of the biggest upsets in footballing history. The game was played in Landskrona, Sweden, as there were no grass fields on the Faroe Islands. It was a sign for things to come, as Austria suffered another couple of years of botched qualifying campaigns, despite playing some entertaining football in the closing stages of UEFA Euro 1996 qualification.

In the 1998 World Cup, Austria were drawn in Group B alongside Italy, Cameroon and Chile. Their appearance was brief, and they achieved the feat of only scoring in stoppage time in each of their matches. Against Cameroon, Pierre Njanka's goal was cancelled out by Toni Polster's late strike. In their second match, it was Ivica Vastić who curled a last minute equalizer, cancelling out Marcelo Salas' disputed opener. In their last match, Italy scored twice after half-time: a header from Christian Vieri and a tap-in from Roberto Baggio. Despite Andi Herzog's stoppage time penalty, Austria finished third in the group, behind the Italians and Chileans.

2000: Decline
After 1998, Austria began to decline. They failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2000, and suffered embarrassment (similar to the Faroe Islands loss) when they lost 9–0 to Spain and 5–0 to Israel in 1999. In 2006, Josef Hickersberger became coach of the Austria national team, which included some respectable results such as a 1–0 victory against Switzerland in 2006.

Austria qualified automatically for Euro 2008 as co-hosts. Their first major tournament in a decade, most commentators regarded them as outsiders for Germany, Croatia and Poland in the group stage. Many of their home supporters were in agreement and 10,000 Austrians signed a petition demanding Austria withdraw from the tournament to spare the nation's embarrassment. However, Austria managed a 1–1 draw with Poland and lost 1–0 to both Croatia and Germany.

Shortly after Austria's first-round exit from the tournaments, Hickersberger resigned as the national team coach. Karel Brückner, who had resigned as head coach of the Czech Republic after that country's first round exit from Euro 2008, was soon named as his replacement. After only eight months, Brückner was released in March 2009 and the position was subsequently taken by Didi Constantini.

2010s: Revival and decline
In the qualifying campaign for Euro 2012, the Austrians played against Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Turkey and Germany.

A number of players from the 2007 U-20 team that finished fourth in the World Cup that year ended up developing and becoming full starters for the senior squad, including Sebastian Prödl, Markus Suttner, Martin Harnik, Veli Kavlak, Erwin Hoffer, Zlatko Junuzović and Rubin Okotie.

The team failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but finished third with a 5–2–3 record with 17 points and a +10 goal difference in their qualifying group. Notable results include home victories over the Republic of Ireland and Sweden, as well as a narrow home defeat to Germany and a 2–2 draw in Ireland away.

The Euro 2016 qualifying campaign was a success; Austria drew with the Swedes 1–1, before beating them 4–1 in Sweden. Austria also beat Russia twice both home and away, 1–0. Austria also recorded a pair of victories over Moldova (2–1 in Chișinău) and Montenegro (1–0 in Vienna). Rubin Okotie scored the deciding goal in the closing 20 minutes of the match after a previous Austrian goal a minute before was controversially disallowed. A week later, the team played a friendly away game against Brazil, losing 2–1. Austria finished its Euro 2016 qualifying campaign by topping the group undefeated.

Despite this successful performance in qualification, the tournament itself turned out to be a nightmare for the Austrians. Placed in group F with Hungary, Portugal and Iceland, Austria opened their campaign with a 0–2 loss to neighbour Hungary, in which defender Aleksandar Dragović was sent off. This was followed up by an 0–0 draw to Portugal, in which Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty. Nonetheless, Austria ended up losing 1–2 to debutant Iceland and were eliminated with just a point.

Austria would later participate in Group D of 2018 World Cup qualification along with Wales, Serbia, Ireland, Georgia and Moldova, ending up fourth, thus failing to qualify for the World Cup.

2020s: European Championship knockout stages
Austria was drawn into UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying Group G alongside Poland, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Israel, and Latvia. Austria struggled in the first few games after a loss to Poland at home, a loss to Israel, and another to Latvia. Austria then won six of the last nine game matches and finished second in the group with 19 points. Marko Arnautović led the team in most goals and tied Poland's Robert Lewandowski with nine goals. Austria qualified for their third European Championship finals, the second time Austria qualified for a major tournament consecutively since the 1954 and 1958 World Cups.

Austria was drawn into UEFA Euro 2020 Group C alongside the Netherlands, Ukraine, and debutants North Macedonia. Austria kicked off the opener with a 3–1 victory against North Macedonia, their first win at a European Championship and the first time scoring more than one goal in a group stage game. In the final group stage match, Austria only needed a draw against Ukraine to advance as one of the best third-place teams while a win guaranteed second place. They beat Ukraine 1–0 to secure their first knockout stages at the European Championship in second place in Group C, in addition to it being their first time advancing past the first round of a tournament since the 1982 World Cup. They faced Italy in the round of 16 at Wembley Stadium and lost 2–1 after extra time with Saša Kalajdžić scoring their only goal of the game in the 114th minute.

Rivalry
The match-up between Austria and Hungary is the second most-played international match in football; only Argentina and Uruguay, another two neighboring countries, have met each other in more matches. It is also notable in which both countries are the first European, non-British countries to play international matches, three full decades after the first ever international football match.

Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

Coaching staff

 * As of April 2024.

Manager history
, after the match against 🇹🇷 turkey.

Current squad

 * The following 26 players were called up to the final squad for the UEFA Euro 2024.
 * Caps and goals as of 2 July 2024, after the match against 🇹🇷 turkey.

Recent call-ups
The following players have also been called up to the Austria squad in the last twelve months and are still eligible for selection.

INJ

PRE Player was named to the preliminary squad / standby COV Player withdrew from the squad due to COVID-19

INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury

WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue

RET Retired from international football

SUS Suspended in official matches

Player statistics
after the match against 🇹🇷 turkey.
 * Players in bold are still active in the national team.

All-time head-to-head record
Source:

, after the match against.

Honours

 * FIFA World Cup
 * Third place (1): 1954
 * Fourth place (1): 1934
 * Olympic Games
 * Silver medal (1): 1936

title: Austria national football team


text:
Lethal Weapon 2

Lethal Weapon 2 is a 1989 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Richard Donner, and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Joss Ackland, Derrick O'Connor and Patsy Kensit. It is a sequel to the 1987 film Lethal Weapon and the second installment in the Lethal Weapon film series.

Gibson and Glover respectively reprise their roles as LAPD officers Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, who protect an irritating federal witness (Pesci), while taking on a gang of South African drug dealers hiding behind diplomatic immunity. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing (for Robert G. Henderson). The film received mostly positive reviews and earned more than $227 million worldwide.

Plot
Two years after the events of the first film, LAPD sergeants Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh are pursuing unidentified suspects suspected of drug trafficking, only to find they have been transporting an illegal shipment of gold in the form of Krugerrand coins from the Afrikaner apartheid government of South Africa. Later, consul-general Arjen Rudd and security agent Pieter Vorstedt kill Hans, their man who lost the shipment of Krugerrands, and debate how to stir the police away from their activities. Pieter suggests warning Murtaugh off the investigation and commits a home invasion on his residence, causing Captain Murphy to reassign Riggs and Murtaugh to protecting an obnoxious federal witness, Leo Getz.

It soon becomes clear that both cases are related; after an attempt on Leo's life, Riggs and Murtaugh learn of the former's murky past laundering funds for vengeful drug smugglers. Leo provides them with information about how the laundering works and leads them to the gang, but upon dispatching his would-be assassin and returning with backup they are confronted by Rudd, who invokes diplomatic immunity on behalf of his "associates", leaving the LAPD powerless to take action against them.

Though instructed to leave the case alone, Riggs begins openly harassing Rudd and romances his secretary, Rika van den Haas, a liberal-minded Afrikaner who despises her boss and his racial philosophy. Murtaugh enlists Leo's help in creating a scene at the consulate that wins the support of anti-apartheid protesters outside. Vorstedt is dispatched to murder all of the officers investigating them while Murtaugh deduces that Rudd is attempting to ship funds from his smuggling ring in the United States to Cape Town via Los Angeles Harbor. Two assassins attack Murtaugh at his home, but he kills them both with his contractor's nail gun, though Leo is abducted in the process.

Meanwhile, Vorstedt seizes Riggs at van den Haas' apartment and discloses that he was responsible for the death of Riggs's wife years earlier during a botched assassination attempt on him. He has his men kill Rika by drowning her and orders them to do the same to Riggs, who escapes and brutally kills both men. He phones Murtaugh, declaring an intention to pursue Rudd and avenge his wife, Rika, and their fallen friends; Murtaugh willingly forsakes his badge to aid his partner. After rescuing Leo and destroying Rudd's house, they head for the Alba Varden, Rudd's freighter docked in the Port of Los Angeles, as the South Africans prepare their getaway with hundreds of millions in drug money.

While investigating a guarded cargo container at the docks, Riggs and Murtaugh discover Rudd's laundered drug money, but are locked inside by Rudd's men. They break out, scattering two pallets of the money into the harbor in the process. Riggs and Murtaugh engage in a firefight with Rudd's men aboard the Alba Varden before separating to hunt down Rudd. Riggs confronts and fights Vorstedt hand-to-hand, stabs the latter with his own knife and drops a container on him. Rudd retaliates by shooting Riggs in the back multiple times and again invokes diplomatic immunity when Murtaugh aims his gun at him. Murtaugh fatally shoots him and declares that his immunity has "just been revoked". Murtaugh then tends to Riggs, and they share a laugh as more LAPD personnel respond to the scene.

Cast
In addition, series regulars – who appear in minor roles in all four films of the franchise – include: Damon Hines and Ebonie Smith as Murtaugh children Nick and Carrie, respectively; and Mary Ellen Trainor as psychologist Stephanie Woods.

Shane Black and Warren Murphy's original Play Dirty script
Following the success of the first film, Warner Bros. and producers decided to make the sequel. Producer Joel Silver asked writer of the first film Shane Black to write the script for the sequel in the spring of 1987 and Black agreed. Although he was struggling with personal issues, Black still managed to write the first draft along with his friend, novelist Warren Murphy, co-creator of Remo Williams (the lead character of The Destroyer novels). Their original title for the script was Play Dirty. Although many people thought that their script was brilliant, it was rejected by Silver, studio and director Richard Donner for being too dark and bloody, and because in the ending of the script Riggs dies, while they wanted to keep him alive in case of further sequels. They also wanted the second film to focus more on comedy, while Black's draft focused more on courage and heroics, like Riggs willing to die to protect Murtaugh and his family, due to his love for them.

When his script was rejected, Black felt that he had failed the producers. He initially offered to give his payment back, but his agent talked him out of it. Black also refused to re-write the script and quit from the project after working for six months on it. Black later said how the problem with the second film was that they did too much comedy, and how he dislikes the third and fourth films because of the way Riggs's character was changed.

The final version of the script written by Jeffrey Boam that was used for filming was completely different from Black's draft, other than the scene where the stilt house is destroyed. The character of Leo Getz was originally a minor character in Black's draft with only one scene and few lines of dialogue. Some of the other differences include more graphic violence throughout the script, which included the South Africans being even more vicious than in the final film; at one point Shapiro, the female police officer working with Riggs and Murtaugh, is tortured to death by them. There was also a scene where Riggs gets tortured by them in a similar way to how he was in first film, but much worse. There was also an action scene in the script where a plane full of cocaine gets destroyed and cocaine falls over Los Angeles "like snow". In Black's script the final battle took place on hills covered with a big brush fire, and after destruction of the stilt house Riggs chases the main villain Benedict (Pieter Vorstedt in the film), a much different and more dangerous character in original script and Riggs's "arch-nemesis and worst nightmare" according to Black, into the heart of the fire, after which Riggs gets stabbed and dies slowly from his wounds. The last scene in the script was Murtaugh watching the video tape that Riggs made before the final battle since he knew that he was going to die, and on which he says goodbye to Murtaugh. Black's reason for killing Riggs in his draft of the script, as he said in an interview, was that in first film Riggs was a "suicidal mess" who did not care about living or dying but his friendship with Murtaugh and his family was what helped him, and him sacrificing himself to save them would be the last thing he would have to do to be fully at peace. Black also said how the death scene he wrote for Riggs was "beautiful" and would make the audience cry. Black later labeled his rejected Play Dirty script "the best thing I ever wrote" and said he learned to trust his instincts after this experience. Black's script was never released, despite failed attempts by fans to find a copy of it.

Director Richard Donner said in the film's Blu-ray commentary that the film was shot in such a way that it could be edited with two different endings, one in which Riggs dies and one in which he lives. Audiences in test screenings responded well to Riggs's survival, and this was kept, though the last shot in the film with the camera moving away from Murtaugh holding Riggs was shot for the ending in which he dies.

Jeffrey Boam's final script
When the original Shane Black screenplay was changed, he left the series. The rewrites that resulted in the final film are by Jeffrey Boam (screenwriter for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Lost Boys). Boam also did some uncredited re-writing of the script for the first film when Donner thought that some parts of it were too dark and violent. Boam initially wrote two different drafts for his re-write of  Lethal Weapon 2; one which was hard-boiled action script and one which had more comedy. He was told to mix the two drafts together and make a new one that was going to be used for filming. However, not only did Boam end up having to re-write the script many times even before filming started, but he also had to keep re-writing it during production since Donner would always want to improvise something new in a scene or demanded changes to be made on the script in the middle of filming. Boam also wrote the script for Lethal Weapon 3 and he once again had to re-write his script many times before and during filming of that sequel for same reasons. He also wrote an unused draft for the fourth film around January 1995 which had Riggs and Murtaugh fighting against a neo-Nazi survivalist militia group that was committing a terrorist attack in L.A.

Screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen said in October 2012 interview for craveonline that during the time when he was working as screenwriter for Warner Bros. and would often do lot of uncredited work on their films, he also worked on Lethal Weapon 2 and 3. He said how amongst large chunks of the stuff he added in Lethal Weapon 2 script during re-writes were all the parts with South African villains. Although he was uncredited for his work on this film, he did get a credit for his work on Lethal Weapon 3 because he did a lot more work on that sequel.

Originally, the character of Rika was intended to survive, with the last scene in the film being Riggs and Rika eating Thanksgiving dinner with the Murtaughs, but the director decided to kill the character to increase Riggs' motivation to destroy the South African drug smugglers. The film was the debut of Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), a crooked but whistle-blowing CPA who is placed in protective custody by Riggs and Murtaugh, and makes the detectives' more difficult due to his neurotic behavior. The Getz character remained a regular throughout the remainder of the film series.

Filming
The scene where Riggs is on the road outside Arjen's stilt house and grabs onto the front of the truck (the same scene with the surfboard killing a driver) was filmed on March 21, 1989. The opening chase sequence was filmed on November 28, 1988. The scenes where Riggs and Rika are ambushed by helicopters at night on the beach were filmed at Marineland of the Pacific in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on "Cobble Beach". Other portions of the film were shot in Palm Springs, California.

The Star Wars series and Ghostbusters notwithstanding (which were released some years before), the film was among the first of the summer blockbusters to feature the 'title only' style of opening that would become an established feature of 'event' films from that point on.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on Warner Bros. Records August 8, 1989, and was written and performed by Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton, and David Sanborn.

The track list released commercially is as follows:
 * 1) "Cheer Down" by George Harrison
 * 2) "Still Cruisin' (After All These Years)" by The Beach Boys
 * 3) "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan) by Randy Crawford, Eric Clapton and David Sanborn
 * 4) "Riggs"
 * 5) "The Embassy"
 * 6) "Riggs and Roger"
 * 7) "Leo"
 * 8) "Goodnight Rika"
 * 9) "The Stilt House"
 * 10) "The Shipyard/Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

The soundtrack also includes "I'm Not Scared" performed by Eighth Wonder, which features co-star Patsy Kensit on vocals, and The Skyliners performed "Since I Don't Have You", "This I Swear", "Lonely Way", "How Much", and "Believe Me"; however, none of these are included on the soundtrack album.

In 2013 La-La Land Records issued the complete score (plus the original soundtrack album) as Discs 3 and 4 of its Lethal Weapon Soundtrack Collection eight-disc set.

Box office performance
Lethal Weapon 2 was the third most successful film of 1989 in North America (after Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), earning nearly $150 million in the US and $80.6 million overseas.

Critical reception
The New York Times stated, "Though it includes a smashed car full of Krugerrands, a hillside house blown off its stilts and a bomb set under a toilet, the point of Lethal Weapon 2 is that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover get to race around in all that chaos, acting crazy. Before it skids out of control in the final sequence, the film is so careful to preserve its successful comic-action formula that it follows the most basic law of sequels. If you liked Lethal Weapon, you'll like Lethal Weapon 2; it's almost as simple as that." Los Angeles Times reviewer Michael Wilmington stated that "though it's nice to have a big-audience action movie attacking apartheid and the slaughter of sea mammals, instead of acting as an enlistment poster for the Army Air Corps, local vigilante groups or the reopening of the Vietnam War, the sentiments don't really transcend the car crashes."

Home media
Lethal Weapon 2 has been released on VHS and DVD numerous times, along with singular LaserDisc and Blu-ray Disc releases. The first DVD was released in 1997 and featured the film's theatrical version. The Director's Cut was released in 2000. Since then, numerous sets have been released that contain all four films in the series (featuring the same DVDs). The theatrical version was also released on Blu-ray in 2006.

title: Lethal Weapon 2