Category: theatre

Hairspray was the big winner Sunday in New York, picking up the most Drama Desk awards. “Hairspray” took 10 awards, distantly followed by “La Boheme,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “Nine” with three apiece.

“Chicago has nearly 200 theater companies, and for at least the last decade it has been the only city in the United States, and one of the few in the world, with a theatrical scene as vibrant as New York’s. This season more than a dozen of these companies are presenting works by new playwrights as well as veterans like August Wilson and Stephen Sondheim. The appearance of so many world premieres within the space of a couple of months reflects the deep pool of Chicago-based dramatic talent and the city’s growing appeal to playwrights and producers from other parts of the country.”

Les Miserables has closed. The Cameron Mackintosh show about the lives and loves of peasants in the time of the French revolution ran on Broadway for 6,680 performances over 16 years. It spawned countless national and international tours, and remains one of the most popular musicals of all time. But post-9/11 fallout and the general misfortunes of Broadway in recession combined to compel the producers to put an end to the adventures of Jean Valjean, Inspector Javert, and the orphan Gavroche. Still, Mackintosh says he has no regrets.

When the Royal Shakespeare Company severed its ties with London’s Barbican Arts Centre last year, both sides insisted that the split was for the best. The RSC would be able to focus more intently on its core mission without having to work around the Barbican’s schedule, and the Barbican would be free to become a center for international touring theatre. But a year later, neither of the divorcees appears to be doing all that well, and speculation has begun about the potential for an eventual reconciliation.

Politically charged plots and subversive undercurrents are par for the course in much of the modern theatre world. But isn’t there a distinct lack of authenticity to a bunch of actors putting on a play about suffering that they themselves have never known? For that matter, where do playwrights reared in the comfortable classes get off writing from the perspective of those who have never known comfort? “There is something improper about the well-heeled seeking to represent the disadvantaged; it is an unacceptable invasion of territory.”

The Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis recently won a Tony award for regional theatre companies, the first time that a company focusing on kids had won such an award. The CTC is obviously a deeply imbedded part of the Twin Cities’ theatrical community, and it can legitimately lay claim to conditioning thousands of young minds to enjoy serious theatre, an accomplishment which benefits every other company in the region. So why don’t more cities have such a company? Cities like, say, Chicago? The simple answer may be that no one’s ever really tried to start one.

Canada’s Shaw and Stratford Festivals, both based in Southern Ontario, have been hit hard by the SARS outbreak in the province. Ticket sales have plummeted, thanks in large part to the festivals’ American regulars who have been staying away for fear of exposure to the virus. But both the Shaw and the Stratford insist that sales are returning to normal, and neither anticipates much long-term harm to their bottom lines.

“Richard Monette made Canadian theatre history yesterday as he became the longest-serving artistic director in the 51-year history of the Stratford Festival. Monette, who has been at the helm for the past 10 seasons, will keep his post until 2007.”

Minneapolis/St. Paul’s Children’s Theatre Company has won this year’s regional Tony Award. “Children’s Theatre Company has always had a very good reputation. But I think there’s an evolution in children’s theater that more of us are being considered as regional theaters, and CTC clearly has that designation.”

You would expect a small Boston theatre that presents edgy works to be struggling as funding goes down. But the enterprising SpeakEasy Stage Company found itself unexpectedly blessed when “an improbable musical comedy about a charismatic but bloodthirsty freak of nature who longs to be a normal boy” sold so well earlier this season that the company brought it back for a second run. Its success at the box office has put the company in the black.