Category: theatre

Broadway’s most valuable leading man, Hugh Jackman, must feel pretty popular these days. Not only does he have multiple offers on the table, but some of New York’s most powerful theatre companies are openly fighting over his services.

Make no mistake, Toronto has a lot riding on its expensive embrace of the theatrical version of Lord of the Rings, and the show’s success or failure will create ripple effects that reach far outside the city’s theatre district. “In recent years, Toronto has suffered the multiple blows of a post-9/11 tourism slump, SARS and the meteoric rise of both the Canadian dollar and the price of gas. These factors have helped cut the number of United States visitors from 3.2 million in 2000 to 2.7 million last year. And so Toronto’s tourism officials, along with everyone from parking lot owners to hoteliers, are optimistically counting on The Lord of the Rings to bring in the fans.”

“Broadway’s new Sweeney Todd has recouped its initial $3.5 million investment in 19 weeks (as of the week ending March 12). It is rare for a Sondheim show to recoup its investment on Broadway. Among his few financially successful outings is the original mounting of A Little Night Music.”

“Director-choreographer Twyla Tharp’s surreal spectacle set to Bob Dylan songs is now somewhere between Draft 2 and the final Draft 3 that will open on Broadway this fall. Those terms come from Tharp herself, who calls a private workshop performance of the fledgling show last year in New York “Draft 1” and the Globe show of two months ago “Draft 2.” In residence here since early December, the workaholic Tharp has attended most of the 65 performances since previews began.”

She “says in the lawsuit that she was repeatedly humiliated and intimidated in front of other cast members by the show’s stage manager about an increase in the size of her breasts, which necessitated alterations to her costumes.”

The Latino Theatre Company has been granted money to manage the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downton LA. “The awarding of the management agreement brings to a close a drawn-out — and often contentious — battle over who should run the historic venue, which served as a home to the Latino Theater, Will & Company, Moving Arts and Playwrights’ Arena theater companies.”

Kevin Spacey is dealing with another play at the Old Vic getting a critical drubbing. Spacey’s trying to make the theatre work. But it’s an uphill battle…

Lord of the Rings, the musical, is long. Very long. “As the March 23 opening night bears down on the cast and crew of the most expensive theatrical show of all time, several issues still need attention. Some scenes and characters don’t work quite right. The music must be tweaked. Actors are still working on their characters. And the show’s producers must fix these things while making it all go faster — far faster than the nearly five hours the show ran at its first night of previews Feb. 4.”

The new Lord of the Rings musical costs $23 million. “This is one of the most expensive theatrical productions ever, and it comes on the heels of an Oscar-winning film trilogy of the Tolkien classics, of which more than 100 million books have been sold worldwide. On top of paring 1,200 pages to 3 1/2 hours of text and music to tell the by now familiar tale of hobbits, elves and humans pitted against evil wizards and their henchmen, the creators faced the challenge of assembling a team of 75 technicians from around the world, a cast of 55 — classical actors, singers, dancers and acrobats — and a 25-piece orchestra.”