Dramaturg Trevor Boffone takes an in-depth look at La Ruta, a new play about the epidemic of violence against the women of the Mexican border city, written by Isaac Gómez and recently premiered in Chicago by Steppenwolf. — HowlRound
Category: theatre
A Virtual-Reality ‘Hamlet’
The metro Boston-based Commonwealth Shakespeare Company has partnered with Google’s AR/VR Lens project to create Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit, in which the viewer watches the action from the notional point of view of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. — American Theatre
Hemingway Hoped ‘The Old Man And The Sea’ Could Be Made Into A Play. Now, At Last, It Has
The novel was adapted for film three times, but none were considered successes. (Hemingway hated the first one, saying that Spencer Tracy looked more like Gertrude Stein than a Cuban fisherman.) A.E. Hotchner, who was both Papa H’s longtime friend and his biographer (and is now 101), has partnered with his son to make the novel’s first stage version, which opens in Pittsburgh on Feb. 1. — The Observer (UK)
#Rentkindalive – When A Live TV Event Isn’t (Mostly) Live At All
“It feels a bit weird to critique what was almost entirely a recorded dress rehearsal. How do you measure three hours of chaotic visuals and middling audio most of us were never meant to see and hear? Mostly in disappointment, I guess, though this is what Fox gave us.” – The New York Times
Was ‘Rent’ The Last Broadway Musical To Go Live On TV?
Even before star Brennin Hunt broke his ankle 10 minutes before the end of dress rehearsal, Fox was rethinking its live Broadway musical plans. Why? Money, of course: “The television network might make its own jukebox musical based on the songs of a popular artist for its next live musical telecast. Developing a show from scratch, as opposed to mounting a Broadway show like Grease or Rent, allows Fox to ‘create our own IP and have some ownership,'” said the Fox Entertainment president. – Forbes
There’s Considerable Evidence That Theatre Can Make An Impact In American Justice. Here’s How
“Given that 85 percent of U.S. counties are home to some number of incarcerated individuals, it’s likely that most of our nation’s theatres are close to at least one correctional facility. In those facilities about two thirds of the incarcerated are people of color. As theatres work to diversify their audiences along lines of income and ethnicity, a growing percentage of those attendees will have a personal connection to mass incarceration, opening up new opportunities for relevance to communities. In short there seems to be great room and reason to expand this field of work.” – American Theatre
Director Michael Greif Reimagines ‘Rent’ For Live TV
Greif staged both the original off-and-then-on-Broadway production (1996-2008) and a 2011-12 Off-Broadway revival, and he’s now directing Rent: Live, airing this Sunday on Fox. Diep Tran talks to director and cast about how they’re reconfiguring the show for a live audience of 1,500 plus a TV audience they hope will be in the millions. — American Theatre
London’s West End Sees Record Attendance, Revenue In 2018 (Thank ‘Hamilton’)
“West End theatres enjoyed record box office takings of £766 million in 2018, up 8.6% compared with the previous year. … West End theatres also had record audience attendances of 15.5 million, up 3%. However, while audiences for musicals were up, attendance for West End plays dropped by 6.5%.” — The Stage
Producers Try Out French-Language Mega-Musical In West End, Using With Opera-Style Surtitles
“The musical Notre Dame de Paris” — aka “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” — has been a hit around the world since it opened in France in 1998. But, in London two years later, the critics savaged the English-language version. Now, a producer is taking the bold step of bringing it back to London — but in the original French. The secret, he says, is in the surtitles.” — BBC
Community Youth Theater Ordered To Pay $450K For Copyright Infringement
A U.S. federal court in Virginia ordered Theaterpalooza Community Theater Productions, Inc. to pay damages and and attorney fees to Music Theatre International, the major licensor for musicals, after Theaterpalooza staged at least 16 musicals (including Matilda, Seussical, and Little Shop of Horrors) without licensing and the company’s owner ignored repeated cease-and-desist letters. — Playbill