Category: theatre

There’s not much suspense about this Sunday’s Tony Awards. “Think ‘Hairspray,’ ‘Take Me Out’ and ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night,’ and you could be more than halfway there. Still, hopes are high for the entertainment portion of the telecast, particularly with Hugh Jackman as host and the decision by CBS to devote three hours of network time to the show, after several years of letting PBS broadcast the first hour. The Tonys may be perennially low-rated but the ceremony attracts those upper-income viewers certain advertisers love.”

“After a season battered by more than its fair share of bad shakes – four orange terror alerts, an Iraqi war, a brutal winter, an ongoing sluggishness in tourism, and a bitterly divisive musicians strike – the League of American Theatres and Producers reported total season grosses up 12%, to a new high of $720.9 million. Attendance was up to 11.4 million, a half-million-ticket rise over last season, and playing weeks, an indicator many consider key to assessing Broadway’s health, also rose — to 1,544 weeks, up 7.7% over last season. But do these seemingly sunny statistics entirely reflect Broadway’s well-being?”

A production of Shakespeare’s King Lear produced by Canada’s acclaimed Stratford Festival, has been picked up by New York’s Lincoln Center, and will start playing to Broadway audiences in early 2004. The production stars Christopher Plummer in the title role, with acclaimed British director Jonathan Miller at the helm.

Toronto’s SARS scare has claimed another victim – the Lion King. The show has seen ticket sales plummet after tourists began staying away from the city over concerns about SARS. “The show’s closure will bring to an end the a run of 1,300 performances since March 2000.”

A Miami-based revival of Little Shop of Horrors that had been expected to leap to Broadway this summer has instead been stopped cold by its producers, who say that the production simply isn’t ready for the big-time just yet. The show originated as a surprise off-Broadway hit in the 1980s, and has never run on Broadway. The cancellation marks the second time in as many years that a much-anticipated South Florida-based production has sputtered on its way to Broadway success: last year’s Urban Cowboy made it to New York, but closed almost immediately in the face of withering reviews and public disinterest.

Time’s list of best regional theatre prompts Frank Rizzo to wonder what makes a great theatre. “To me, a great theater engages an audience in a way that lingers well past the time theatergoers make it to the parking lot after a show. A great theater does the classics, but it also understands it is not a museum and must present them in a way that is vital, elegant or challenging. A great theater presents works of new voices, not just in a marginal way. A great theater knows how to attract a great audience, one that will stick by it as it attempts the extraordinary. A great theater is as hungry for the new, young audience member as it is interested in retaining loyal supporters. A great theater reflects the world around it, and that begins with its community. A great theater also knows the difference between art and pretension, knows that you don’t have to pander to be accessible, and knows the distinction between a small show and a cheap one.”

Cirque du Soleil is moving beyond family entertainment, producing a new erotic show for Las Vegas. “The R-rated ‘Zumanity’ is being billed as ‘a provocative exhibition of human sensuality, arousal and eroticism.’ In addition to traditional theatre seats and bar stools, couples will be able to purchase tickets for two-person love seats and sofas to enjoy the show more intimately. Fifty dancers, acrobats, clowns and musicians are rehearsing in secret at the Cirque du Soleil’s Montreal headquarters in preparation for the Aug. 14 premiere.”

“Increasingly, nonprofit presenting organizations… are joining forces with for-profit entertainment companies to invest in Broadway shows and their subsequent tours. In some cases presenters put money into new tours of shows that closed on Broadway long ago. By so doing presenters are guaranteed that there will, in fact, be shows to present. And the producers of Broadway shows are guaranteed a major chunk of their budget.”

“You can’t libel a dead man – or so the phrase goes. And it’s one that’s given comfort to scores of biographers through the years. On the other hand, it doesn’t stop heirs and estates from trying to preserve the reputations of their dearly departed, suing or threatening to sue at any perceived slight. Toronto playwright Jason Sherman learned that firsthand recently when the estate of Marshall McLuhan blew up a sandstorm that, temporarily at least, has stalled plans to mount his play about the late media guru at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre.”