Category: theatre

Quebec playwright Wajdi Mouawad has turned down the prestigious Molière theatre prize to honour the greatest living francophone writer. “He declined the award, given for his play Littoral, saying the gesture was a protest against the indifference theatre directors have displayed toward his work.”

“Monty Python’s Spamalot” leads this year’s Tony nominations with 14. “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “The Light in The Piazza” got 11 each. The Pulitzer Prize-winning “Doubt,” John Patrick Shanley’s drama of uncertainty set against the backdrop of a Catholic school in the Bronx, received eight nominations.

The Sydney Theatre Company posts a small surplus. But it’s not enough says the company’s director. “When you make a profit of $12,000 on a turnover of $22 million, you are landing a jumbo jet not so much on a tennis court but a card table. The fine line between survival and the awful alternatives is becoming finer, and to be only able to do that when we have, in fact, played through our highest ever box office and raised our largest ever amount from private support is a worrying trend.”

The Shuberts rename two of its Broadway theatres for two longtime lawyers for the company. “In an industry in which having one’s name placed on a marquee is considered the highest of honors – usually reserved for playwrights, impresarios, owners and composers – the decision to rename the theaters was met with skepticism from the Broadway community, a tough crowd if ever there was one.”

A new British TV reality series aims to find a young playwright and get his or her work in the West End. “The programme, called The Play’s The Thing, will be in the spirit of Operatunity and Musicality, previous reality arts shows from Channel 4. Novice playwrights are invited to submit scripts, which will be whittled down by Sonia Friedman, an agent and a director. The series will follow the winning writer as he or she develops the play, and go behind the scenes as the production is prepared from raising the investment to opening night.”

“Monty Python’s Spamalot,” based on the cheeky British troupe’s film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” won four Outer Critics Circle Awards on Sunday, including the prize for best Broadway musical.

“Broadway musicals have long proved they can tell important stories without losing entertainment value. But as that idea has evolved, theatrically credible plot lines don’t accommodate the kind of consolidation of music, character and star presence that is the showstopper. Modern, linear storytelling instead dictates that resources be spread around the show’s landscape of personalities.”

High school musicals have become big business, with schools buying advanced stage equiment and spending tens- and even hundreds- of thousands of dollars on their productions. “Because they are pouring more into their musicals – and thus having to sell more tickets, at higher prices – schools are becoming big business for licensing companies like Music Theater International and R&H Theatricals, which in the past made nearly all of their money from professional productions. Freddie Gershon, chairman of M.T.I., estimates that licensing for the school market is now a $75 million to $100 million annual business.”

“With 39 productions, this has been a bustling Broadway season, one of the busiest in more than a decade. So the joy of those anointed could be tempered by a nagging question: Who will be left out when the 2005 Tony Awards nominations are announced May 10? There may be a few surprises.”

“Chicago has always been a city with an exceptionally vibrant theater scene – arguably as exciting, if not as commercially successful, as New York’s. Malkovich’s return is a reminder of the many talented actors and writers – Gary Sinise, David Mamet, John C. Reilly – who got their start here. But it’s also been a city of ensembles, rather than stars – a town known for collaboration, rather than cutthroat competition (among theater companies, at least). And its audiences are still unusually quick to embrace edgy, untested fare.”