Category: theatre

Broadway went on despite New York’s transit strike. In fact, there were more tickets available than usual for those who could make it to the theatre district…

“The news from New Orleans is that, yes — the annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival will take place, as scheduled, from March 30 to April 2 in its usual French Quarter haunts. The four-day fete, in its 20th year, celebrates the life and legacy of the playwright who called the Big Easy his ‘spiritual home’ with panel discussions, celebrity events, theater and musical performances, French Quarter walking tours, food and wine tastings and — what would a Williams celebration be without it? — a Stanley and Stella Shouting Contest.”

Ireland’s beleagured Abbey Theatre is to receive a €4 million ($4.77 million) aid package from the federal government which will wipe out its €3.4 million debt and allow it to begin to dig out from several years of “catastrophic box office returns.”

Directors are notorious control freaks, and many are known to be workaholics as well. But such descriptors don’t begin to cover the lives of New York’s top theatre directors, who frequently juggle four or more productions at once. They say they wouldn’t have it any other way, but “there is a question as to whether directors may also be stretched thin. [Critics have] complained about the ‘homogeneity’ at three of the city’s top nonprofit theatrical organizations who ‘tend to hire from the same shallow pool of established directors’.”

The revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd currently playing on Broadway is making headlines for its embrace of what could be called the ultimate in multitasking. Where most shows employ actors who traverse the stage and musicians who stay hidden in the pit, this Sweeney Todd asks everyone onstage to play their parts (and sing their songs) while simultaneously playing important instrumental parts along with the main orchestra.

After finding it difficult to raise money, Goodspeed Musicals’ plan to build a new theatre complex in East Haddam, Connecticut, to complement its work at the historic Goodspeed Opera House, is on the back burner.

The John Denver jukebox show “Rocky Mountain High” is closing. “The musical entertainment using the songs of the late blond-mopped, boyish singer-songwriter is adapted from the John Denver autobiography ‘Take Me Home.’ It opened Nov. 9. By close, it will have played 12 previews and 61 regular performances.

“Actors can be so charming, such fun. Yet, if you allow yourself to be even temporarily seduced (an essential part of the craft of performance, after all), there comes a point at which, in the cold light of morning, fingers poised above the keys, you can no longer trust your objectivity. There is no unity of opinion as to precisely where the line should be drawn.”

“Ageism is an enormous problem for dramatic writers in Britain today – in theatre, television and film. While many career writers continue to receive fulfilling assignments throughout their working lives, many others find themselves left at the wayside, not because they have nothing new to contribute, but merely because they are seen by commissioners as being a bit shop-worn. And for someone who only finds his or her voice in maturity, the outlook is barren indeed.”

“The winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, Harold Pinter, as a playwright, a screenwriter, a director, and a mentor, has had an enormous influence on the theatrical landscape of his time. He began his career as an actor, and, even at the outset, with comparatively crude command, he turned his actor’s understanding of subtext into a metaphysic.”