Category: theatre

“Three years can be a long time in the life of a Broadway musical. Dialogue that once sparkled dims with routine. Performances grow soggy. Cast changes alter the chemistry that once made a show more than the sum of its parts. Even musicals forced into retirement well before a third anniversary can look prematurely aged by the time the last curtain falls. But as it approaches the end of its run on Dec. 11, after more than three years on Broadway, the Twyla Tharp-Billy Joel musical Movin’ Out is an improved model of the sleek, speeding convertible that vroomed onto the stage of the Richard Rodgers Theater in the fall of 2002, to become the most accomplished and most rewarding of the back-catalog musicals that have been washing up on New York stages like so much gaudy flotsam since the Abba gold mine Mamma Mia!“

“The overarching challenge facing New York City’s not-for-profit theatres is the fact that available funding from government and institutional sectors has failed to keep pace with the incredible explosion of not-for-profit companies,” Louloudes stated. “This is a national problem, and the reasons behind it are far more complex than can be presented in a three-minute testimony.”

Radio City Music Hall has reached a deal with musicians for the Rockettes Christmas Show. “The parties had been working with a mediator to try to resolve the conflict, which came to a head Nov. 2 when the musicians went on strike and two preseason shows were canceled. Since then, the show has gone on with recorded music.”

An effort to build a permanent home in New York City for the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil has stalled after opponents objected to the location and questioned whether the project was an appropriate use for civic money designed to prop up struggling local companies. One state assemblyman went so far as to declare that Cirque, which puts on shows around the world, is not ‘legitimate’ theatre. Organizers “originally planned to [build] a classical music center that would have been overseen by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. But the developer instead decided to create space for House of Blues, a large nightclub and music hall. When that proposal ran into opposition at the City Planning Department and Community Board 4, [planners] turned to the idea of Cirque.”

The Ovation Awards honor Southern California theatre, and this year’s honors were bestowed Monday. With 24 nominations, Center Theatre Group, encompassing the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre, led the pack when the nominees were announced in September. In the end, CTG took only five awards, including best world premiere play for Jon Robin Baitz’s “The Paris Letter” and best play in a larger theater for Edward Albee’s “The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?”

“The updating of the classic play, which saw Macbeth become a top chef, was seen by 3.4m viewers, down 1.2m on the previous week’s Much Ado about Nothing. Coronation Street and drama Walk Away and I Stumble, which were shown on ITV1 against the drama, got 11.4m and 7.9m viewers respectively. The BBC has made four dramas for the series celebrating Shakespeare’s life.”

“The show, which will continue its record-breaking run at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End, is based on the PL Travers series of books, and the 1964 film. In London, it was recently nominated for three Evening Standard Awards, for best musical, best director and best design. The musical will begin performances at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre on October 14, 2006, with an opening date of November 16.”

Three small Washington DC theatres are making names for themselves. “What distinguishes Catalyst, Rorschach and Theater Alliance from the dozens of other upstart troupes is not only a certain consistency but also the sense that these three companies have broken through. In the choice of projects — whether an experimental twist on a classic, a resurrection of an obscure, centuries-old play or the first American presentation of a modern work by a foreign writer — there’s a level of daring in their offerings. The nerviness of some selections reflects an effort to challenge as well as to entertain.”

“The Woman in White” is the first Broadway show in which “computer-animated images completely dominate the stage. Projections appear on six, 16½-foot-tall curved gray screens that move around the edge of the stage in a circle. Think of the computer animation in a Pixar movie like “Toy Story,” with a more realistic, less cartoonish look. The setting can change instantly: as two characters tour an estate, the actors stay put as the background dissolves from one room to another. Or, the animation can take the audience through a three-dimensional environment, over fields, houses, churches and graveyards.”

The ABBA compilation musical “Mamma Mia” has become a global phenomenon. There are now “11 productions in six languages around the world. The show has grossed more than $1.4 billion since it opened in London in April, 1999, and some 24 million people have seen it.”