Category: theatre

It might be hard to remember these days, but not so very long ago, the city of Chicago was a study in urban blight, rampant crime, and classic big-city stagnation. So what changed in the Second City between the bad old days of the 1980s and today, when Chicago is held up as a shining example of the Great American Metropolis? Much of the city’s turnaround can be traced to the arrival in office of a mayor who was determined to rebuild the city as a cultural destination, and more specifically, as the theater capital of America.

More than a decade after they first surfaced to critical shudders and head-scratching, the unhappy have-nots of “Assassins” — the glitteringly dark musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman about Americans who dream of killing their country’s presidents — have finally made it to Broadway…The frightening title characters of “Assassins” are restating their demand to be noticed in the Roundabout Theater Company production, which opened last night at Studio 54. And under Joe Mantello’s direction, they are doing so with an eloquence and an intensity that makes a compelling case for a misunderstood show.”

Clive Barnes appreciates Assassins is Sondheim. But Assassins isn’t necessarily good Sondheim: “There’s more ironic style here than theatrical substance, and the total effect is like a master marksman shooting blanks.”

Does Assassins belong with other Sondheim classics? Peter Marks says yes: “Joe Mantello’s spectacular production for the Roundabout Theatre Company reveals it at long last to be one of Stephen Sondheim’s most original, disturbing and exquisitely scored shows.”

They’re already talking about “Assassins for a Tony. But will it be in the new musical category or revival? “If “Assassins” is ruled a revival, it is almost certain to snatch the award from “Wonderful Town,” which is limping at the box office and will be sunk if it doesn’t win. But if “Assassins” is deemed a new musical, it will elbow “Bombay Dreams” and “The Boy From Oz” out of the field of nominees – which, in addition to “Assassins,” will surely be made up of “Wicked,” “Caroline, or Change” and “Avenue Q.” Sondheim will be eligible for his score, and will probably win.”

What happens to the young acting students schools turn out each year? “It is an oft-quoted cliche that acting boasts a permanent 90% unemployment rate. And while David Cox, drama administrator at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is at pains to insist that ‘90% of our students work professionally within 12 months of graduation’, he does admit: It is very rare that they’ll be able to make a living during the first year or two.”

Producers of Broadway’s “Gypsy” have decided to close the show. “Starring Bernadette Peters as the hard-driving stage mother Momma Rose, “Gypsy” posted a closing notice in early February, only to extend its run after sales improved. Part of that improvement might have been linked to warmer weather and heightened tourism, but cast members had also taken an active role in promoting the show with daily personal appearances outside TKTS, the half-price ticket booth, in Duffy Square.”

Los Angeles is a hive of “almost 100 self-sustaining, not-for-profit, professional theater ensembles.” It’s a theatre community quite unlike that anywhere else, a decidedly un-New York. “These largely volunteer (often dues-based) organizations are quasi families — which are sometimes authoritarian, sometimes collaborative, sometimes bickering, often leaving, just as often returning — homes to thousands of actors lured by and often working in Hollywood while sustaining a legit-stage subculture.”

The Royal Shakespeare Festival is producing a festival of new works, its first serious new work at Stratford since 2001. “The recommitment to new writing signals a return to the RSC’s traditional values, widely seen as having been dismantled by Boyd’s predecessor, Adrian Noble, who moved the company out of its London base at the Barbican, and threatened to bulldoze the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) in Stratford.”

“To many, the West End feels like the airline industry in the days before Easyjet and Ryanair arrived: prices always rise faster than inflation, but the product never really improves. Sure, some of the stuff on stage is superb, but the customer service is terrible. The seats are generally cramped, the toilets are tiny and the bars are usually worse.”