Category: theatre

The 90-Minute Star Wars

George Lucas has given the Reduced Shakespeare Company permission to do a condensed version of the Star Wars movies. “The films total more than 13 hours but this should not pose a problem for the company that did the Complete Works of Shakespeare in 97 minutes. ‘In the space of 20 minutes I’m going to be Jabba the Hutt, Jar Jar Binks, Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker’.”

Gimme That Old Time Fringe

We think of fringe theatre as being a young person’s pursuit. This year’s Edinburgh Fringe has attracted many older performers. “But why? Most acts will tell you that the Fringe is an outrageously difficult place to make a profit. So are these performers trying to revive flagging careers with shows that, profitable or not, will give them a higher profile than a sold-out seaside show in the West Country? Or should we be less cynical and accept that the anything-goes spirit of the Fringe is just as appealing to the winner of Opportunity Knocks 1975 as it is to young stand-ups playing their first solo shows?”

The Actors? We Got ‘Em On TV

Producers of a new production of “Grease” on Broadway will cast leads through a TV reality show. “NBC said on Tuesday it will broadcast a talent show titled ‘You’re the One That We Want’ — a play on a hit song from the show — in which viewers can vote for singers to play the roles of the naive new girl in town, Sandy Dumbrowski, and Danny”

Air-Rights Money To Benefit NYC Theatre Community? Maybe Not.

Two Manhattan theatres are finally taking advantage of a previously unused 1998 air-rights transfer law intended to benefit the theatre community through a surcharge added to the price of the development rights. “But there’s a snag. Though two developers — who are buying the air rights for more than $20 million — are ready to hand over the special payments, the city government is not prepared to accept them. It never created the fund to hold the money or the council that is supposed to oversee it. As a result, it is not clear if the theater community will ever directly benefit from the windfall.”

For Midtown Revival, “Fantasticks” Clones Its Village Space

“Fans of ‘The Fantasticks’ entering New York’s new Snapple Theater Center to see the Off-Broadway revival of history’s longest-running musical will notice that some things look very familiar. The show’s new home at Broadway and 50th Street has been configured to reproduce the seat arrangement and some of the ambience of The Sullivan Street Playhouse, the gemlike Greenwich Village theatre where the cast sang ‘Try To Remember’ for nearly 42 years, from 1960 to 2002.”

American Girl Actors Back On The Job

“Actors working in musical shows at the American Girl Place theatre in midtown Manhattan returned to work on Saturday after walking out for two days late last week, an Equity official said Monday. Though the two sides have not resolved the central issue — whether management would recognize the actors’ attempts to join Actors’ Equity Association and thereby receive the benefits a union contract would provide — officials at American Girl welcomed the actors back and said they would be paid for the time they missed, according to Maria Somma, a spokesperson for Equity.”

Actors Protest Scottish Smoking Ban

” ‘The smoking legislation aims to protect the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke,’ runs its official line. ‘This applies equally to actors, performers and theatrical audiences as it does to other workers and members of the public.’ In a country where 13,000 people die every year from smoking-related illnesses, this might seem sensible. And local support for the ban has risen from 56% to 78% since the Smoking, Health and Social Care Act came into force in March. But Scotland had reckoned without the Edinburgh festival, where the appetite for controversy is insatiable, and where artistic freedom is as sacred as the right to a pint at 5am.”