Category: theatre

So Broadway has reopened after the musicians strike and business is back to normal. Or is it? “In the end, the combatants in the great Broadway music strike of ’03 settled their fight in a fashion that leaves unanswered crucial artistic and economic questions. Craftsmen everywhere have ceded their skills to robots. Why wouldn’t this happen on Broadway? Here’s why it shouldn’t: People don’t come to Broadway to see efficiency. Broadway shows are already an economic anachronism. People are willing to pay big bucks to witness the magic of creation. If Broadway’s producers forget that, they will wreck an important local industry.”

A Boston philanthropist has agreed to purchase the dilapidated, city-owned Modern Theatre and renovate it for use as a theatre and and commercial space. The former movie house has become so run-down in recent years that the city had to shut down a portion of the street it sits on and reinforce the structure to prevent cave-ins during winter snowfalls. The rebirth of the Modern is the latest in a series of initiatives designed to revive Boston’s theatre district, and provide a wider range of performance space for local groups.

The Broadway musicians strike ended quickly after an all-night negotiating session. “When the negotiators emerged, bleary-eyed, from the talks, neither side claimed victory, and both called the deal a difficult compromise. The main conflict had been over the minimum number of musicians required — currently 24 to 26 — in the orchestra pits of Broadway’s 13 largest theaters. Under the new contract, those minimums were lowered for the next decade to 18 or 19, depending on the theater.”

Translators serve as an essential link between playwright and audiences who speak a different language. Yet their value is often overlooked. “The best translators. remain as invisible as possible. And yet it is a practice that has an indelible effect on how we perceive the best in what world theatre has to offer.”

How did Seattle’s ACT Theatre go from a $5 million annual budget and 60+ employees to a $1.7 million deficit and laying off most of its staff? Misha Berson writes that “a confluence of difficult circumstances and dubious internal decisions, including ACT’s 1996 move to a new facility, swelling artistic ambitions, shifts of leadership, overdependence on credit and the post-9/11 recession” conspired to sink the theatre’s fortunes.

Sources say a settlement has been made in the Broadway musicians strike. Producers and musicians bargained for nearly 12 hours through the night at Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mansion. “The settlement, the terms of which were not immediately announced, will presumably allow most Broadway musicals that have been closed since Friday night to reopen tonight.”

Maybe the Broadway musicians strike is about live music, but “the truth is, orchestras on Broadway have been becoming virtualized for years. Electronic enhancement is used to juice up the sound of the string section and boost the punch of the brass. Missing instruments — extra woodwinds, a couple of harps, exotic percussion — are rendered through digital keyboards. The chorus onstage is often fortified by taped voices that are blasted through the sound system. But it would be great to see this tired assumption challenged. How often have Broadway audiences been given a chance to experience the truly natural sound of unamplified voices and orchestras? Broadway theaters were once much quieter places.”

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has entered the Broadway musicians strike dispute. He’s invited producers and the musicians union to negotiate at the mayor’s residence. “I am encouraged that theater owners, producers and the musicians’ union have taken the city up on its offer, and I am determined that they reach an agreement so Broadway can come back to life.”

So the Broadway strike is about live music, right? But for a long time now you really couldn’t trust your ears in the theatre. “Many Broadway musical moments remain mostly live and somewhat pure, the creation of soaring talents onstage and sawing string players and the like offstage. But more and more, the sound of music on Broadway is being artificially enhanced, with volumes amplified and instruments synthesized as if the theater district were one big recording studio.”

Broadway producers say they want to keep live music alive in theatres, but that creative staff should be determining how many musicians should be hired, not unions. “Still, almost every major composer, orchestrator and musical director on Broadway has signed a petition to keep the minimums. So it appears that a good percentage of the creative staff has already spoken.” And so far, the strike has cost New York $7 million.