Category: theatre

For a decade now, Rent has been a Broadway producer’s dream – a cult hit beloved by critics that outgrows its initial status to become a bona fide phenomenon, with a movie adaptation and everything. (Plenty of people despise the show, too, and as anyone in PR will tell you, that kind of animosity only makes your fan base more devoted.) Now, the original cast has reassembled for a semistaged tenth anniversary performance that raised $2 million for AIDS care and New York theatre groups, and while all the hoopla may have been more than creator Jonathan Larson could have imagined (he died shortly before the show opened,) it seems a fitting tribute to one of Broadway’s truly original thinkers.

“The script of My Name is Rachel Corrie, a controversial play about the 23-year-old American activist who died in Gaza during a political demonstration in 2003, received a private reading without incident at Hart House on the University of Toronto campus Sunday night… While the play ran successfully in London for many months, a proposed production at the New York Theatre Workshop was cancelled shortly before its opening, because of fears that it would exacerbate ‘an edgy situation’ within the Jewish community. This cancellation sparked a worldwide controversy, with heated voices being raised on both sides. In light of that reaction, the Toronto organizers decided to make Sunday night’s reading by invitation only.”

A hundred years ago, British playwright Harley Granville Barker revolutionized the stage with his embrace of the political and his embrace of realism. In recent years, London theaters have been leading a revival of Barker’s plays. But are the revivals missing a crucial point? “Today, Granville Barker’s ideas have been assimilated into the mainstream – and now we must go beyond him in our new work. The kind of theatre he advocated – essentially the tentative beginnings of social realism – has been embraced for over 40 years. We need to move on again, and realise that if theatre is evolving beyond this, it is for a very good reason.”

“English dramatist Howard Brenton has written more than 40 plays, long and short. In Britain he is grouped with such contemporaries as Caryl Churchill, Edward Bond and David Hare. Yet, unlike them, Mr. Brenton is hardly known in the United States.”

“To sponsor an award, to authorize jurors to search out the best and then to announce that none of their recommendations measure up to some hypothetical benchmark, is a slap in the face not only to their work but to the art they represent.”

The theatre world is buzzing angrily about the Pulitzer board’s decision not to hand out a drama award this year. “But does it matter to Joe or Jane theatergoer? Though the Pulitzer carries a cash prize and a snoot-full of prestige, it’s hardly a guarantee that your play is suddenly and immediately going to be staged across the country… In journalism, a Pulitzer Prize is a gold-plated invitation to write your own ticket… In theater, the small-but-tasteful crystal trophy that comes with the Pulitzer Prize makes for a great tchotchke to mark a thrilling moment. But a career maker? Not so much.”

Broadway stages continue to be cluttered with Hollywood stars. But are such crossovers really worth it for anyone involved? ” For a variety of reasons — challenge, prestige, New York media exposure, time on their hands, a desire to really act, for once — these stars can be persuaded to work for not much money at all… But there are serious risks for all concerned. Celebrities may or may not be any good. They’re under enhanced scrutiny. And if they embarrass themselves, a lot of people lose in a lot of different ways. And there’s no big payday to wipe away the pain.”

In many cities, the concept of children’s theatre is a relatively new one. But in Toronto, where the Young People’s Theatre has been going strong for 40 years. “Today, it is Toronto’s oldest non-profit professional theatre and the largest in Canada dedicated to programming for young audiences, reaching about 80,000 young people annually… The alumni who’ve graced its stage are a veritable Who’s Who of Canadian talent,” and while the theatre had a rough time in its first few years, it is now one of Canada’s enduring cultural institutions.

“Three years ago the Royal Shakespeare Company was in trouble. For all the aura surrounding its name, the company was in debt, its plan to replace its 1930’s theater faced stiff opposition, it was without a London home, and its shows were often unexciting. Further, its long-time artistic director, Adrian Noble, stepped down amid a storm of criticism. It was hardly an auspicious moment for Michael Boyd to take over. Yet, in a surprisingly short time, Mr. Boyd has turned things around. And as a measure of the company’s revived self-confidence, it is preparing to start its biggest project ever: a yearlong festival of Shakespeare’s complete works, staged by its own directors and actors as well as by guest troupes from as far afield as India and Brazil.”

Plans for a performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar” at a former Nazi death camp have been cancelled. “It was not a good idea. It did not take into consideration the relations between Christianity and Judaism. I decided that there will be no performance because we must stick to the message of the museum, which is truth, memory, reconciliation.”