Category: theatre

In a small town in Maine, the Wounded Warriors Writers’ Program has set out to teach disabled veterans how to tell their stories in the theatre. “The dozen men and women, age 20 to 48, served in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. From around the country they have gathered for 10 days in this coastal town to translate their life experiences into scenes and monologues for the stage.”

Since the 2004 death of lyricist Fred Ebb, composer John Kander has kept working on a musical the duo had been writing. It’s due to open Aug. 9 in Los Angeles. “A backstage musical and murder mystery combined, ‘Curtains’ is a whodunit in more than one sense of the word. It may also be the last new work to be produced on this scale from Kander and Ebb, one of Broadway’s best composer-lyricist teams. And while that fact alone won’t likely spell curtains for the American musical, it’s certainly a sign that generational change is waiting in the wings.”

Everyone remotely connected to the theatre world has heard of Actors’ Equity, the major union for theatrical performers. But unlike many other industries, theatres generally have a choice regarding how many union actors they hire, and whether they want to have the union in house at all. Furthermore, actors have to think long and hard about whether it’s even worth it for them to join Equity: the cost is prohibitive, and if they live in a town without many Equity houses, they’re unlikely to benefit much from membership.

The Bloomington-based Illinois Shakespeare Festival has some serious challenges to face, not the least of which is this summer’s volatile weather, which has left several of the outdoor fest’s productions all wet. “The initial promise of this space as a festival environment — offering the chance to see several shows in a weekend, filling the gardens with picnickers and attracting audiences from Chicago — has yet to be fulfilled. In a town with few bucolic attractions, this theater seems underused.”

London’s West End is awash in musicals both old and new this season, and a survey of UK ticket buyers suggests that they couldn’t be happier. “There were some concerns that musicals were squeezing out ‘straight plays’,” but some observers have pointed out that full houses for musicals are clearly far preferable to the darkened houses the West End has frequently sported over the last several seasons.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is allowing the audience of a UK reality TV show to choose the leading lady for his new revival of The Sound of Music, causing many in the theatre industry to throw up their hands in exasperation. But Lloyd Webber says he has good reason to trust the people over the experts, “[delivering] a withering assessment of stage schools, which he says are churning out performers of such uniformity that he can almost tell which school they come from.”

Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is teaming up with the New York-based Shubert Organization in a new venture to bring touring Broadway shows to two venerable Philly venues. “Presentations would take place at the Academy of Music or the Forrest Theatre, allowing both organizations ‘the chance to perpetuate and enhance the presentation of legitimate theatrical attractions in Philadelphia.'”

“It’s a curious fact that very few writers have ever been able to write both good novels and good plays. Almost invariably, even the most acclaimed and technically skilled novelist turns into a rank amateur when writing for the theatre.”

One of West End London’s few fringe theatres is being evicted to make room for a casino. “During its brief tenure, Sound has acquired a reputation as the capital’s only theatre dedicated to gay-themed work, despite having no formal artistic direction. It was launched in June 2005.”

“It’s a joke among theater critics that readers ticked at a review often begin an acerbic e-mail with a variation of: ‘I was at the theater, and you couldn’t have seen the same show I did.’ Well, I’ve got news for you. I was at the theater, and you can’t see the same show I did. Because when you go, a storm will not be knocking out all the electricity 25 minutes before the last scene.”