Category: theatre

“For the second year in a row, musicals are creating a big buzz in Hollywood. Last year, it was Baz Luhrmann teaching audiences a whole new way to envision musicals with ‘Moulin Rouge!’ This year ‘Chicago’ heads into the Academy Awards as the front-runner for Best Picture, and it’s up for a dozen other awards. In the theater world, the hope is that this high-profile attention will spike interest in seeing musicals on stage – and that it will help nurture a new generation of theater-goers.”

Broadway producers and musicians are said to be close to an agreement on a new contract, with the contentious issue of ‘minimums’ more or less left to be battled out at every individual production site. “The minimum number of musicians required in the larger theaters… will be reduced from 26 to 18, and more flexibility will be built into the so-called ‘special situations’ clause, which allows producers to petition the union for fewer musicians on a show-by-show basis. Minimums will be preserved, but in theory only; for all practical purposes, every show will negotiate its own minimum.”

Following up on its critically received Sondheim retrospective last summer, The Kennedy Center plans to present a 10-week celebration of the plays of Tennessee Williams this summer. Included will be new productions of his major plays including “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “The Glass Menagerie.” Last summer’s Sondheim fest drew audiences from around the US.

The town of Stratford needs to clean itself up, pull itself together, and start acting like the major attraction it is. The Royal Shakespeare will announce a new plan for its theatre in the town – one can only hope for the best – but the whole operation needs a thorough refurbishment if it’s going to survive. Otherwise…

On Monday, peace activists read Aristophanes anti-war play “Lysistrata” at locations all over the world. In Los Angeles “about 250 people gathered at L.A. Filmmakers Co-Op to watch AlfreWoodard play the title role, supported by Julie Christie, Christine Lahti, Mary McDonnnell, Eric Stoltz, Roscoe Lee Browne and other celebrities. The scene was reminiscent of a movie opening or an exclusive club. Only about 100 could cram into the small brick building, while the rest of the crowd watched a televised simulcast on the adjacent patio.”

Organizers report they had about 10,000 e-mail messages from people wanting to take part in readings around the world. In New York City alone, there were 60 performances planned.”

The readings took place all over the world. “The latest count was heading beyond 919 readings in 56 countries, including Venezuela, China, India and Honduras.”

Several theatres in London’s West End have banded together to start a program to promote diversity in theatre management. “There is a general feeling that theatres have got to sharpen up their act. They’ve got to diversify, they’ve got to refresh themselves. There was a danger of theatres being elitist, being out of touch and failing to reflect multicultural society. There’s quite a recruitment crisis and this is a real opportunity to recruit high quality people.”

The consequences of a musicians strike on Broadway could be big. “There are about 325 musicans working in the 19 musicals running on Broadway, but overall the shows are responsible for most of the 6,000 people employed by the industry each season. The theatre scene is responsible for $4.4 billion (US) pouring into N.Y.’s economy.” So the shows are practicing using canned music in case musicians walk later this week. Reports are that “aasts of shows such as ‘Chicago’ and ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ had no trouble in performing to the canned music. Over at ‘La Boheme’, however, it was a different story, with the rehearsal coming to a disastrous halt. Whereas it’s one thing to perform a tap routine to pre-recorded sound, singing Puccini is obviously another matter.”