Category: theatre

For the first several months of the dispute, Blue Man Group’s founders were determined to take the high road, sure that they could satisfy Toronto’s unions without actually becoming a union production. But with opening night approaching, the organizers’ anger is mounting over what they see as a ridiculous double standard (they compare their organization to the Canadian troupe Cirque du Soleil, which has never mounted a union show,) and over accusations that they are somehow “unprofessional.”

England is a country awash in culture, with a particularly rich theatre history. Given that fact, you would think it would be difficult to single out one play that best defines the experience of being English throughout history. Not so, says Michael Billington: the two plays that make up William Shakespeare’s epic Henry IV contain everything you will ever need to know about being English.

Children’s theatre is booming in the UK. But all is not sweetness and light, as the new crop of plays and musicals has traded traditional treacle for an increasingly dark and foreboding view of the world, along with “a suspicion of all those who wield power, which for children of course means grown-ups.” The kids are, of course, eating it up, but their grown-up chaperones may find more disturbing subtext than they are ready to handle.

Going out to the theatre is a pain in the neck. Not the plays, mind you. But the experience. “The most recent Global Home Entertainment Survey finds that increasing numbers of people are turning their backs on going out for entertainment. Depending on the country, anything from 68% to 90% of respondents prefer to watch a DVD at home. The main reasons cited in favour of living room entertainment are eminently reasonable. It’s more comfortable, less expensive, you can fast-forward and wind back. And if there is an idiot sitting next to you it’s likely you’ll know them well enough to be able to tell them to shut up.”

Thousands of fans lined up outside the Broadway home of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” to get free copies of the cast recording. “Fans appeared at the Imperial Theatre as early as 6 AM to be assured of a free album. The discs were distributed 11:30 AM-1 PM. The show’s cast, including stars John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, Sherie Rene Scott and Joanna Gleason, and composer David Yazbek, were on hand to sign discs before their Wednesday matinee performance. By noon, the line was blocks-long, stretching across the theatre district.”

Washington, D.C. is getting a fringe festival, and about time, too. “Capital Fringe will be concentrated downtown along the Seventh Street corridor, offering multiple events in 20 venues, ranging from traditional theaters to alternative spaces such as galleries, lobbies, vacant storefronts and outdoor areas.” The ten-day festival will launch in summer 2006.

Playwright David Eldridge attacks critic Michael Billington’s complaint that contemporary plays are lacking in imagination and too tied to a 90-minute formula. “For the most part Billington’s thesis is shot through with an ignorance of the modern playwriting culture that is breathtaking for someone who goes to the theatre as much as he does, and belies a backward-looking agenda that bears as little relevance to a 21st-century theatre as John Major’s whimsical fantasy of re-creating the 1950s with warm beer and cricket on the village green.”

“Reeling from box-office losses, a downturn in theater attendance across the country, and unprecedented competition from Clear Channel Entertainment, [Boston’s] Wang Center for the Performing Arts will revamp its mission and programs next season… Instead of relying on touring Broadway musicals to anchor its season, the nonprofit Wang will produce or coproduce its own shows, with an emphasis on ‘event musicals’ and family entertainment.”

Twenty years in the writing, playwright August Wilson’s 10-play tour through 100 years of American history gets its capstone this week with a production of “Radio Golf” at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

“Since the beginning of this year, four of Hollywood’s best and most established small-theaters companies — Open Fist, the Actors’ Gang, West Coast Ensemble and Theatre/Theater — have either been evicted or are considering leaving the Hollywood area due to redevelopment and rising property values. All have resided in Hollywood for years, establishing themselves in marginal neighborhoods. ‘Lip service is paid to the importance of theater and the theater community and yet there’s so little public support and certainly no public assistance’.”