Category: theatre

The Actors Equity union is launching a campaign to fight non-union Boradway roadshows. “We’ve reached a crisis stage. According to our latest statistics, 40% of all road tours are non-Equity. Producers are using new strategies to avoid or circumvent our contracts, thus robbing us of workweeks and desperately needed health contributions.”

The Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater is seriously strapped for cash, and the situation is so dire that the company will be asking its audience to help out at this week’s performances. The company has a $60,000 deficit, which is roughly the same amount that the city of Pittsburgh used to give the group in goods and services each year. That donation was scrapped this year, leaving PICT scrambling for alternatives.

In what is being described as one of the most disastrous flops in a dismal Broadway season, actress Ellen Burstyn’s new one-woman show, The Oldest Living Confederate Widow, has closed after only one official performance. The production cost $1.2 million to mount, but Monday’s opening night box office take was only $2000.

“The producers of Bounce, Stephen Sondheim’s first new musical in nine years, confirmed yesterday what many Sondheim fans had already suspected: the show, which received lukewarm reviews in two tryout runs, is not coming to Broadway anytime soon.”

Film has more and more of an impact on theatre. “But film is not just part of the visual texture of theatre. It has also had a huge influence on the structure of modern drama. Brecht, in defining epic theatre, uses the cinematic term ‘montage.’ And modern writers are far more likely to be influenced by the filmic juxtaposition of images and ideas than the old Aristotelian principles of unity.”

London’s Young Vic is “one of the London luvvie world’s shaggiest buildings,” a space beloved as “one of the most intimate and successful theatre spaces in the country.” Now, after 33 years, it’s time for a refurbishment. But how to do it without spoiling the feel of the place?

Did Shakespeare write his own plays? A group of scientists is using computer analysis to find out. The method depend on comparing patterns of at least 30 common words. “You otherwise hardly notice such words but with a computer you can detect patterns of usage and they become important. You find that individuals have their own kind of profile.”

Michael Bush has resigned as artistic director of Charlotte Repertory Theatre. “The artistic quality of Michael’s product has been nothing short of superb. Unfortunately, during these challenging economic times, we failed to attract a sufficient audience to support the increased costs.”

Just last week stories were being written about The Producers losing steam at the Broadway box office. Then Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick agreed to return to the roles they originated. Presto – a box office record. “The show sold some 6,000 tickets in less than 90 minutes, both in person and through Telecharge, after the box office opened at noon. By 10 p.m., when the St. James’s box office closed, more than 39,000 tickets had been sold, the producers said, and the day’s take stood at nearly $3.5 million. Orders were still being taken through Telecharge. The previous record for one-day sales was also held by “The Producers,” which sold $3.3 million in tickets on the day after the show’s opening in April 2001.”

The Royal Shakespeare Company has had some rocky years recently. But the larger measure of the company’s dire situation is beginning to dawn. “There are fears it might be too late to save a company riddled with debt, lacking a London base, rumoured to be cutting costs on productions, stunned by the resignation of its chairman, ‘on trial’ for its public funding and trailing in the wake of the powerhouse National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe. Some observers have already begun to think the unthinkable: that the Arts Council might axe its £13.3 million grant to the RSC. There is even speculation in theatre circles that the RSC’s right to use the term ‘Royal’ could be in jeopardy.”