Category: theatre

Miami’s Coconut Grove Theatre hosted the first American production of Waiting for Godot. Now it looks like some major changes may come to the historic building. “In recent years, the operative plan was to renovate the existing building and add a third theater and a parking garage. Then came a newer scheme suggested tearing down all but the façade and building anew. Now there are other options that have enormous implications for history and preservation and the community at large.”

The O’Neill Theatre Center has had a tumultuous year. “This summer’s off-stage labor is as riveting as what was happening in the center’s amphitheater. And last year’s backstage drama was also quite a show.”

The director of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival blasts the Scottish Arts Council for not supporting the Fringe. “There are practical ways things that can be done. We have performers from all over the world here and the SAC should be getting them to Dundee and Aberdeen. Equally, they should be encouraging Scottish audiences to the Fringe from a slightly wider area.”

“Thoughtful social comedies and gentle farces are being upstaged by a blast of radical writing. Not since the socialist agit-prop shows staged in Russia early last century, or the satirical cabaret in Berlin during the Thirties, have audiences been challenged by so many overtly ideological plays. The renewed demand is all the more remarkable since at least six West End plays with more conventional appeal have closed this summer.”

The 27-year-old Massachusetts theatre Shakespeare & Company is trying to regroup. “In the wake of the shake-up, the company is undergoing major changes. The budget was reduced from $4.5 million to $4 million, the season shortened, and the staff trimmed. Shakespeare & Company is selling off a chunk of the 63-acre property, purchased just four years ago, that has largely caused the financial troubles.”

The critics are scathing, and Frank Wildhorn’s musicals have failed to turn a profit on Broadway. (Newsday’s Linda Winer says that Wildhorn writes “dunderheaded musicals for people who find Andrew Lloyd Webber too difficult.”) But “even without making a profit on Broadway, and without critical approbation — but on the strength of his devoted fans — these shows can still earn money in international, regional, stock and amateur productions, as well as through recordings.” So Wildhorn keeps cranking them out.

“Seattle is often ranked in the top 10 U.S. cities for quality live theater, offering up everything from Shakespeare dramas to mega-musicals like “Hairspray” for the area’s thousands of theater-savvy patrons. And local actors, agents, arts educators and theater directors often say Seattle is a mecca for budding performers looking to hone their craft. But can they make a living? That’s a challenge few can meet.”

Theatre critic Richard Ouzounian wonders why, when “all of our playhouses — in Toronto, Stratford and Niagara — have lots of empty seats, waiting to be filled” that tapings for Canadian Idol pack a theatre every Wednesday and Thursday night. The answers are instructive…

Following Avenue Q’s booking in Vegas, a number of other Broadway shows are eying the gambling Mecca as a potential market. “It makes perfect sense that the hotels in Las Vegas, which need to differentiate themselves on a basis other than gambling, should turn to the biggest live entertainment pastime there is [behind] Major League Baseball. The more exposure Broadway shows get, the better it is for the industry as a whole.”

Are the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) talking merger again? Last year a proposal to merge the two actors unions failed in a vote. “Some 75% of AFTRA members voted for the AIMA proposal. But SAG needed a supermajority — 60% of voting guild members — to approve the merger, and received only 58%.”