Category: theatre

“Wicked” is in Chicago for an extended stay. It’s earning more than $1.1 million a week at the box office. “Ponder for a moment the astonishing appeal of “Wicked.” Many people think “The Producers” was a hit. Yet its tours have dribbled into decline. Overly dependent on its original stars and with a limited urban audience, “The Producers” was a solid performer, for sure, but its New York staying power actually is turning out to be nowhere near what many people predicted. “Wicked,” which got lousy reviews compared to “The Producers,” is a genuine popular hit. And those come around about as often as a tornado hits Oz.”

A random audit of a small theatre in Seattle earlier this year led the State to rule that actors should be paid as employees rather than contractors. That means theatres have to make deductions and pay new taxes… and where does that come from? Actors’ pay. “I don’t think there’s any producer in town who wants to screw [over] actors—it’s just a matter of what you can afford to do. It sounds weird to [debate whether] actors should get minimum wage. Well, they should—but they weren’t getting anything before, so the theaters that are actually trying to pay something are being told, ‘Unless you can pay them the whole amount, don’t pay ’em.’ That’s pretty much what’s being said.”

Britain was to have its first black theatre, due to open in 2007. But plans for the theatre have collapsed as the Arts Council pulled the plug on the proposed resident company, Talawa. “The council has lost faith in the company, after bitter internal disputes and a string of resignations, and in the business plans for the new theatre.”

The Minneapolis-based Playwrights’ Center has a unique mission – distributing seed money and creative support to local dramatists – and it has long been a welcome part of the Twin Cities’ theatre community. But a new artistic director has begun to take the center in new directions, some of which have ruffled some powerful feathers. Now, the controversy over the center’s direction has burst into the open with the wide distribution of a scathing e-mail written by a local playwright and former theatre critic. The e-mail may even have caused the center to lose $25,000 in funding from a local foundation.

“Why Shakespeare now more than ever? There’s no end of blah-blah about eternal values, which remains as eternally true as it is eternally dull. There is also the less-banged-on-about simple pleasure of watching his plays. If we are on an island we would prefer to be deserted with the complete Beethoven than the collected John Barry. This is yet more dramatically the case with Shakespeare, who is not just head and shoulders above the playwriting competition, he’s floating around in a hot air balloon waving benignly at everyone from Aeschylus to Caryl Churchill. But beyond the eternal blah-blahs and the sheer devilry of it, there is a sense now that Shakespeare is moving into his moment.”

This past season was a terrific one for Philadelphia theatre, with artistic success and strong box office. “Great,” “phenomenal,” “pretty fabulous” were among the adjectives employed by management of the Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Walnut Street Theatre and Arden Theatre Company respectively, the organizations that are finishing the season with grand slams.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has sold four of his West End theatres. “
Lord Lloyd-Webber said the £10m proceeds would be put towards the refurbishment over the next five years of his eight remaining music houses, including the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. ‘These wonderful, treasured buildings have always been my first love and I am so pleased that we can ensure that they will be preserved and modernised,’ he said.”

The Royal Shakespeare Company reveals details of its ambitious plans to produce the entire stage works of Shakeseare in a single season. “The year-long festival will see every word ever written by the playwright performed in Stratford-upon-Avon from April 2006. The Complete Works will embrace film, new writing and contemporary music as well as a comprehensive survey of theatre artists currently interpreting Shakespeare worldwide. It will be the first time all 37 plays, sonnets and long poems have been presented at the same event.”

“For the first time since the Blitz during the Second World War, every West End theatre cancelled its performances that day. Several shows that were due to perform matinee performances cancelled those first; then, as the police urged everyone to stay away from central London, evening performances were cancelled, too. All public subway and bus transport in central London was suspended in the immediate wake of the attacks, making it impossible for performers or audiences alike to get to the theatres in any case. Some theatres, like the Royal Court, automatically refunded all patrons who had booked. Others are seeking to exchange tickets for future performances.”

“The language they use to show their smarts and their cool is the language that all of Mamet’s men use: R-rated and graphic. They rattle off four-letter words the way a jazz pianist does blue notes — to spice up a performance that might otherwise be too bland. The problem is that Mamet’s followers in all the narrative arts have made that language mainstream. As a result, the first-act tableaux in a Chinese restaurant, spiels in which three of the salesmen jockey for power, have lost their outrageousness and now seem more like sendups of Mamet.”