Category: theatre

A group called Males au Natural said it planned to strip naked in the audience during a New York play’s graphic rape scene, “supposedly to show solidarity with the underdressed actors.” But the actors union Equity says it won’t require actors to perform if they do.

Reviews for Julia Roberts’ Broadway debut weren’t kind. So will she withdraw? Well, it depends on the Tonys. “There are two schools of thought, and where theater people fall depends on whether they think she’s got a shot at a Tony Award nomination – which, if she were to get one, would be the raw steak she can slap on her black eye.”

Why did the Pulitzer board decline to name a winner for drama this year? More than a few playwrights feel snubbed. Adam Rapp, who was among the three finalists for his play “Red Light in Winter,” said Tuesday that the lack of a drama award was like “a year without a Santa Claus” for playwrights.

“The omission of a drama award, for the 15th time since the inception of the prizes in 1917, denies prestige, $10,000 and a key marketing tool to an American playwright. It also sends an implicit message that 2005 was an off year for new U.S. plays.”

Julia Roberts’ Broadway debut Wednesday night was a big event. “Hundreds packed the narrow city block outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on 45th Street in Manhattan. Even parking-lot attendants across the street sat three stories up hoping to catch a glimpse of the Hollywood royalty on hand to support one of their biggest stars.”

“Though Ms. Roberts gives a genuinely humble performance, there is no way that this show is not going to be all about Julia. Ms. Roberts is the sole reason this limited-run revival, which ends on June 18, has become the most coveted ticket in town. Mr. Greenberg’s slender, elegant play from 1997 about familial disconnectedness and the loneliness of intimacy has certainly never known — and probably will never know again — such fame and fortune. On the other hand, it’s almost impossible to discern its artistic virtues from this wooden and splintered interpretation.”

“Mama Mia,” the ABBA jukebox musical is going to be made into a movie. The musical has been produced live worldwide and made more than $1.6 billion US. “Producers of the film project, including the musical’s producer Judy Craymer and ABBA members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, are hoping to release the film in 2007.”

The funding, which came from the Department of Education, was canceled in late 2004 when an earmark for cultural experiences for the deaf was struck during the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities in Education Act. The money itself stopped coming to deaf theater groups last year. “We don’t know exactly why it was removed,” a department spokesman, Jim Bradshaw, said Tuesday by e-mail. “An explanation does not appear in the legislation’s report language. About all we can tell you is that since it was an earmark outside of the department, we defer to Congress’ judgment on this.”

Julia Roberts’ appearance on Broadway has caused anightly scrum of fans outside the theatre. “Each night, as the performance ends, fans gather behind barriers and across 45th Street from the Jacobs to catch a glimpse and get playbills autographed. The theatre’s security team has set up an exclusive pen for ticket-holders, who can line up on one side of the stage door.”

Ontario’s Stratford Festival is expected to name Antoni Cimolino as its new director. “Over the past two years, the search committee has interviewed important figures from English-language theatre around the world, but in the end the board has apparently decided to go with an individual who has literally grown up with the festival since joining it as an actor 18 years ago.”