Category: theatre

Thursday October 31

MOSCOW PRODUCER TO REMOUNT SHOW HELD HOSTAGE: The producer of the show held hostage by Chechen rebels last week in Moscow says he’ll remount the production. Somewhere. “Eighteen members of the show’s cast and crew died in the seige, including two girls aged 13 and 14, and many are still in hospital. He hoped the show, regarded as Russia’s first musical, would eventually be performed again, but never in the same theatre. ‘Even if Moscow authorities rebuild it, this place will remain cursed anyway’.” BBC 10/30/02

MERGER TROUBLES IN CLEVELAND: “The top players in the merger negotiations between Cleveland’s two financially struggling major professional theaters say it’s all about creating a new and exciting company that could make Cleveland one of the best theater towns in the country. But talk to some rank-and-file board members and staffers at the theaters, and the picture that emerges is one in which the Cleveland Play House wants to come out on top, and Great Lakes Theater Festival is struggling to maintain a semblance of an identity.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/31/02

Wednesday October 30

BOMB THREAT CANCELS MOSCOW PRODUCTION OF 42ND STREET: A bomb threat at the Moscow theatre where a traveling production of 42nd Street is playing forced cancellation of the show. The threat was enough for several cast members, who decided to quit the show and leave Russia. “Everyone is trying to find out tonight whether this bomb scare was al-Qaeda or Chechnyan or some random prankster, but the Russian government is not telling us anything, just like they are not telling doctors the gas that they used.” Denver Post 10/30/02

Tuesday October 29

HARLEM FALLING: Harlem Song, currently playing at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre had a lot riding on it. The show chronicles Harlem’s history, and was intended to be a “cornerstone” of the area’s renaissance. It got great reviews, “but the $4 million production has been running at a loss since it opened — most recently about $30,000 a week short of the $200,000 it needs to break even — and the producers said they could not afford to continue.” So produces say it will close if $300,000 can’t be raised by the end of the week. The New York Times 10/29/02

LOOKING GOOD: It’s shaping up as an unusually good year on Broadway. Ticket sales are surging, already there have been two blockbuster hits, a couple more solid contenders, and December (usually a down month) has a calendar stuffed with openings. Dallas Morning News 10/29/02

AYCKBOURN PROTEST STAR TURNS: Prolific playwright Alan Ayckbourn is threatening to quit London’s West End theatre scene. “The dramatist is ‘furious’ that producers in search of new audiences are hiring cinema, pop and television stars at the expense of accomplished stage actors. Sir Alan criticised Madonna’s ‘inaudible’ starring role in David Williamson’s Up for Grabs, which he said was so bad she should have been regarded as a silent exhibit rather than an actor.” The Independent (UK) 10/25/02

JOHN LAHR REMEMBERS ADOPH GREEN: “He could sing a symphony—or, literally, throw himself into song. Head bobbing, voice croaking, arms pinwheeling, Green whipped himself up until he attained full dervishosity. A sort of prodigy of playfulness, he was unabashed by silliness and quite capable of pursuing frivolity to zany heights. In his version of Flight of the Bumble Bee, for instance, he would start as if he were playing the violin, only to end up flitting and buzzing like the bee.” The New Yorker 10/28/02

FRECHETTE WINS CANADA’S RICHEST THEATRE PRIZE: Montreal playwright Carole Fréchette has won the the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s richest theatre prize. Fréchette is the author of eight plays, including the 1995 Governor-General’s Award winning Les Quartres Morts de Marie. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/29/02

Monday October 28

LOOKING TO REGAIN AN EMPIRE: Cameron Mackintosh is one of the biggest producers of Broadway hits ever. But currently he’s only got one show running on the Great White Way. “Mackintosh says Broadway is going through a ‘retro’ wave of upbeat shows centered on familiar material, ‘often rather brilliantly repackaged’.” But things change, he says. And he’s negotiating on his next project. Hartford Courant 10/27/02

DEBBIE DOES BROADWAY: Broadway gets its inspiration from wherever it comes. The latest is from the 70s porn film Debbie Does Dallas. The show was a hit at the recent NY Fringe Festival. “But Debbie, which opens tomorrow night at the Jane Street Theater, is not a salacious spectacle replete with whips and waterbeds. Rather, it’s a cheery sendup of the American Dream, in which innocents awaken to discover the true meaning of supply and demand.” New York Daily News 10/28/02

Sunday October 27

HOW ABOUT TEAMSTERS AS TICKET-TAKERS? “Some London theaters are increasing security in reaction to the siege of a Moscow theater by Chechen rebels, while on Broadway additional measures also have been taken to ensure safety. But most European theater operators said Friday they were satisfied with precautions already in place.” Los Angeles Times (AP) 10/26/02

Friday October 25

ADOLPH GREEN, 87: Adolph Green, half of a songwriting team with Betty Comden, has died. “The best Comden and Green lyrics were brash and buoyant, full of quick wit, best exemplified by New York, New York, an exuberant and forthright hymn to their favorite city. Yet even the songwriters’ biggest pop hits – The Party’s Over, Just in Time and Make Someone Happy – were simple, direct and heartfelt.” Nando Times (AP) 10/24/02

Thursday October 24

BEING TWYLA THARP: Critics have not been kind to the new Twyla Tharp-Billy Joel collaboration slated to hit Broadway this week. Some writers, in fact, savaged the production from top to bottom, and singled out Tharp as an artist who should have known better than to get involved in such a collection of pop dreck. But Tharp, one of the most respected choreographers of her generation, is determined to make the show work, and seems fairly sure that the critics will come around. New York Post 10/24/02

Wednesday October 23

KID APPEAL: How to get kids interested in theatre? “It’s clear that theatre isn’t as irrelevant to young people as we are often told. They’re not alienated by the actual art-form so much as the structures and habits they see imposed on it by the adult world. Think high ticket prices, and hushed, hallowed atmospheres. Think lack of novelty or urgency.” The Guardian (UK) 10/23/02

DRABINSKY CHARGED: Theatre producers Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb have been charged with 19 counts of fraud in Toronto arising from the loss of half a billion dollars to his investors. “One thing even his most unforgiving foes would have to admit is that unlike, say, the disgraced executives in the Enron scandal, Drabinsky was never primarily motivated by an appetite for personal wealth. Throughout his spectacular rise and fall at Cineplex Odeon in the 1980s as well as his tragic second act at Livent in the 1990s, it was always clear Drabinsky was chasing a much bigger dream than money.” Toronto Star 10/23/02

Tuesday October 22

RSC TO ADAPT RUSHDIE: The Royal Shakespeare Company has taken on adapting Salman Rushdie’s book Midnight’s Children for the stage. Up til now the book has been a jinx for anyone trying to adapt it. “The last attempt to transfer the book from the page collapsed twice after first the Indian government, and then the Sri Lankan authorities, caved in to Muslim fundamentalists and refused the BBC permission to film there.” The Guardian (UK) 10/22/02

Sunday October 20

COST OF THE NEW: “Apparently, Canadian theatres love new play development. In the last decade, a veritable industry of script editing (or dramaturgy, as it’s known in the trade) and workshopping has grown up on the national theatre scene, where increasingly the public is invited to watch development work.” But is all the effort and expense worth it? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/19/02

Friday October 18

FROM STAGE TO SCREEN: More and more stage directors are being recruited to direct movies. “Stage directors, like their film-school-bred counterparts, are storytellers who have to use visual and technical skill to advance a narrative. Hire a theater guy, and quite often you’ll get somebody who is hungry for a challenge, willing to think in innovative ways – and who will know how to talk to actors.” The Star-Tribune (LADN) 10/18/02

Thursday October 17

DIGITAL THEATRE: Think of theatre as an analog experience in a digital era dominated by video? Wrong – today’s theatre productions can employ an astonishing array of high-tech tools to create their magic. “Little more than a decade after a helicopter first landed onstage in the musical Miss Saigon, theatrical designers are stretching the boundaries of what is possible with a variety of new digital tools that allow them to coordinate and control dozens of independent elements – lights, sound, sets and special effects – from a keyboard.” The New York Times 10/17/02

Wednesday October 16

HITTING STRIDE: Margo Lion is a rare breed – an independent Broadway producer among the corporate entities that dominate modern Broadway. But it’s not easy. She has “plugged away for 25 years, struggling to raise money for her projects, putting up her West Side apartment and one piece of good sculpture as collateral; generating theater that was creatively satisfying but rarely commercially successful.” And then came Hairspray… The New York Times 10/16/02

CHANGE ARTISTS: In the past year there has been a big turnover in the top jobs at London’s subsidized theatres. Change of leadership is always disrupting, but each of the theatres (and the new people running them) has their own solutions for how to move on after a departure. The Times (UK) 10/16/02

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT: “The rumored takeover of [San Francisco’s] Theatre on the Square by Broadway and touring producer Scott E. Nederlander has become fact. The 738-seat house near Union Square will change hands [later this fall]… The deal marks the end of independent producer Jonathan Reinis’ 20-year run at Theatre on the Square. Reinis owns the theater’s name and may retain it for other projects, including a proposed performing arts center at the UC Theatre in downtown Berkeley.” San Francisco Chronicle 10/16/02

LOOK FOR THAT UNION LABEL: In Denver, where the Civic Theatre has been rocked by debt in recent years, a new New York-based producer has been brought in to turn things around, and it didn’t take Mitchell Maxwell long to start making changes. Maxwell has announced that the Civic, previously a non-union theatre, will now work with Actors Equity and pay full union scale to its performers. Maxwell also intends to sell naming rights not only to the theatre itself, but to individual elements such as the stage, the auditorium, and the attached art gallery. Denver Post 10/16/02

Tuesday October 15

READING THE REGIONALS: Britain’s Barclays Theatre Awards point up the insecurity of the country’s regional theatres. The theatres feel they need to hire stars, “because even well established theatre companies alone would not be enough to attract audiences.” But help may be at hand. The government has promised financial help next year and already there are “signs of theatres mounting more ambitious pieces, and getting together to co-produce expensive touring shows.” The Guardian (UK) 10/15/02

KING OF THE MUSICAL: Producer Cameron Mackintosh “likes being number one. In terms of musicals, he has been there for nigh on 20 years, colonising foreign cities with his chorus lines. For Miss Saigon alone, the figures it trails in its shadow are staggering. Performed in 15 countries and 79 cities. Translated into eight languages and winner of 29 major theatre awards. Played to 29 million – million! – people at more than 18,000 performances.” The Scotsman 10/14/02

THE MUPPETS GO TO KABUL: After Afghan kids fall in love with a Muppet, creators of the puppets make new Afghan muppets and take them in a show to the war-torn country. BBC 10/15/02

Monday October 14

VANYA (AND MIKHAIL AND SERGEI) ON 42ND STREET: It was supposed to be a historic moment in post-Soviet cultural development in Russia – the first big-time Broadway musical to make it’s way to Russia, complete with all the bells and whistles of a touring show in the States. It turned into a nightmare, with the American director lamenting the unwillingness of the Russian production team to take direction, with a last-minute Russian translation broadcast over headphones being the final straw.. “A character called ‘Anytime Annie’ in the English version had become ‘Annie Spread Your Legs.’ References to hookers and Viagra were littered throughout the script… One line, someone saying to a chorus girl: ‘Hey Ethel — must have been hard on your mother not having any children’, was changed to: ‘Hey, Ethel, too bad your mother didn’t get an abortion.'” Washington Post 10/14/02

Sunday October 13

IS BROADWAY BAD FOR THEATRE? For decades, the progression of a given play or musical from one of America’s regional theatre centers to the bright lights of Broadway has been largely unchanged. New productions are shuffled off to a regional the way newly drafted baseball players are sent to the minors for seasoning, and brought up to the big time when they are deemed to have worked out all the kinks. But in the last few years, regional theatre has begun to rethink its role in the process, and some have begun to question whether the Broadway Way is really the right way? “Some critics such as Robert Brustein, retired founding artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre, have argued repeatedly and vehemently that producing shows that are bound for Broadway inevitably compromises the artistic integrity of regional theaters – that it undermines the ‘mission’ of nonprofit theater, which is to create and nurture artistry and new work.” Boston Globe 10/13/02

THEY’RE SO CUTE AT THIS AGE: In the age of star-driven theatre productions, who to give first billing is usually not an issue. But what do you do when Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judi Dench are both starring in your play? And once you’ve figured out the billing order, who gets the prime dressing room? These things may seem minor to the public, but actors have walked out of productions over their placement on promotional material, and such ‘exposure issues’ are considered a very big deal in the theatrical community. The Observer (UK) 10/13/02

DENVER CIVIC TO GET A DOSE OF NEW YORK: “Control of the debt-ridden Denver Civic Theater is expected to be transferred Oct. 21 to prolific and at times controversial New York producer Mitchell Maxwell, The Denver Post has learned. Maxwell said he plans to reopen the theater’s two performing spaces and art gallery May 1, along with an on-site, late-night cafe-restaurant… Maxwell may turn out to be the savior of the Civic, but he has detractors, most notably a New York Post columnist who dubbed him ‘Lord of the Flops’ after his Bells Are Ringing closed on Broadway in June 2001.” Denver Post 10/13/02

Friday October 11

THREE SF THEATRES TO CLOSE: Three San Francisco theatre houses are shutting down because of a downturn in business. The 240-seat Mason Street Theatre and adjacent 80-seat Union Square announced their closings this week, following news that the 738-seat Theatre on the Square would close at the end of the year. “The phones used to ring two to three times a week with producers in search of a theater. That just died.” San Francisco Chronicle 10/11/02

LONDON CALLING: Why are American movie stars so anxious to perform on London stages? Maybe it’s because they feel that “Americans tend to fare better treading the boards here than they do in their own country. The perception among many American stars is that the critical piranhas lie mercilessly in wait on Broadway, where seeing a film star on stage isn’t such a novelty.” The Times 10/11/02

RERUN: Broadway is full of revivals this season. “The rationale among the high-minded is that producers serve as enlightened curators, like those in art museums, preserving and reinterpreting classics for new audiences and that plays can only benefit from a revival. The less stated fact is that producers minimize financial risk by relying on a familiar formula. But are current shows worth an audience paying new money for an old formula?” Christian Science Monitor 10/11/02

Thursday October 10

PROOF’S LONG RUN: Successful musicals run for years and years on Broadway. Plays, on the other hand, are more ephemeral. A very successful play will last a year. When Proof closes in January it will be the longest-running play in the past 20 years after playing 918 performances and 16 previews. (there’s a list of longest-running Broadway plays of all time at the end of this article). Playbill 10/09/02

Wednesday October 9

CUTTING OFF A CRITIC: Toronto’s Canadian Stage has refused to issue anymore review tickets to CBC critic Lynn Slotkin, calling her reviews “consistently mean-spirited, negative and personal.” It’s not about bad reviews, the theatre says – rather it’s her tone that annoys them… National Post 10/09/02

Monday October 7

OH MY MIMI: Director Baz Luhrmann loves to reinvent. His new take on La Bohème is “about to land slap-bang in the middle of Broadway, with all the attendant razzmatazz. And it’s not cut, translated or otherwise jazzed-up or dumbed-down either: every note of the score will be sung and played by trained singers and a full orchestra.This crazy and wonderful project has a long history.” The Telegraph (UK) 10/07/02

THE POOR OLD RSC: The Royal Shakespeare Company is a shambles. Abandoning the Barbican, hiring celebrities, a Bard theme park, talk of knocking down its Stratford home, turnover at the top… The company has so many problems it’s difficult to know where to start in fixing them. How did a venerable company get into so much trouble? The Guardian (UK) 10/07/02

Sunday October 6

NEW THEATRES FOR NEW REALITIES: The South Coast Repertory Theatre in Southern California is one of America’s more robust regional theatres. This weekend the SCR unveiled its reconfingured home – a “three-venue, 78,000-square- foot complex that rivals the finest in the country.” Its transformation reflects the changes that regional non-profit theatre has undergone in the past decade. Orange County Register 10/06/02

TROUBLE ON BROADWAY? Sure Hairspray‘s a big hit on Broadway this season. But beyond that, “a number of long-running productions – the foundation of Broadway’s cumulative box-office tally – are showing significant slippage.” Les Miz is closing after 16 years, and several other old-timers are reporting greatly reduced business. And “there are no sure things among the new contenders – and there’s already a whiff of trouble among a few of them.” Hartford Courant 10/06/02

MUSICAL MAKEOVER: There was a time that movie musicals were very popular. Those days are long gone now. So some reinvention is in order. “In the last three years, the salvage operation has become an international project, with directors as dissimilar as Lars von Trier (Danish), Baz Luhrmann (Australian) and most recently François Ozon (French) trotting out ambitious idiosyncratic test models of a new and improved 21st-century movie musical.” The New York Times 10/06/02

DO THEY WANT WHAT WE’RE OFFERING? It’s so easy to blame a downturn in ticket sales to 9/11 and an economic downturn. These are certainly the excuses du jour. But a couple of Denver theatres wonder if their decline in business has something more to do with the kind of product they’re offering. Denver Post 10/06/02

Friday October 4

FOGGY BOTTOM: The American Guild of Musical Artists has laid out new rules for the use of fog onstage. The new rules come after a battle with San Francisco Opera where onstage performers complained stage fog was making them ill. “People have been getting sick; been hospitalized; some have been directly incapacitated by smoke and fog; others have been incapacitated later and believe that smoke and fog is the cause of their problems.” Backstage 10/03/02

WHY ACTING SUCKS: “There isn’t anything the matter with drama schools. But there’s everything imaginable the matter with what happens to the young actor when he or she leaves drama school. That first year out of work is complete hell. A lot of the good work that happened in those three years can get thrown out of the window. If you spend years studying and then all you have is two days on The Bill, you become cynical, unless you have the spiritual resources of the Dalai Lama. The whole pick-up-and-drop theatre system all over the west, where we don’t have permanent ensembles, is terrible for self-esteem.” Financial Times 10/04/02

ONLY IN NEW YORK: In most cities, patrons arriving at a theater and being asked to shell out $115 for a single ticket to a play would hoot with laughter, and then go see a movie. In New York, such unconscionable gouging apparently just makes the lines longer. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when the play in question, (which has now set the record for highest ever off-Broadway ticket price) stars Al Pacino, Billy Crudup, John Goodman, and Steve Buscemi, most of whom, let’s face it, don’t show up in those other cities a whole lot anyway. The New York Times 10/04/02

Thursday October 3

BARBICAN TO COMPETE WITH SHAKESPEARE: The Barbican says it will start producing Shakespeare – without the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Barbican had been the RSC’s longtime home until leaving in March for the West End. The new competition is chilling news. In the last year the RSC has “lost an artistic director, audiences, and, some say, its way. Now it will have to contend with new competition. The Guardian (UK) 10/03/02

NOT SUCH A MISERABLE RUN: Les Miserables is closing on Broadway after 15 years. It opened March 12, 1987 and has been seen by some 9 million people on Broadway as well as millions more at road productions. The show won 8 Tonys, including Best Musical and the Broadway production has grossed $390 million so far. Still, the show has been selling less than half its seats, and with a large cast, it has substantial weekly running costs. Playbill 10/02/02

DELUSIONS OF POWER: New Republic theatre critic Robert Brustein speaks in Australia about arts criticism. Deploring ‘Himalaya criticism’- brief, opinionated, polarised, either total approval or scathing, destructive and reputation-destroying denunciation – he pointed to the appalling power of The New York Times’ drama critic to close shows.” The Age (Melbourne) 10/03/02

Wednesday October 2

THE SUGAR MAN: French Canadian songwriter Luc Plamondon is the Andrew Lloyd Webber of French musical theatre. His Starmania, which “opened in Paris 23 years ago, is the most successful French-language musical ever (as of today, more than three million people have seen it on stage and five million albums have been sold) and 1998’s Notre Dame de Paris was another smashing success. A favourite songwriter of Celine Dion, Plamondon is not embarrassed by sentiment. It’s safe to say his songs make Elton John look like an ironist.” Now he’s got a new show – a remake of Cinderella... The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/02/02

Monday September 30

ACTORS TO ABANDON SCOTLAND? While England has pledged another £25 million for theatre next year, Scotland is freezing its expenditures on theatre. Critics claim theatre talent will drift south. “Actors have suffered very low wages, but any rise will significantly add to costs. This could only mean a reduction in the amount of work produced. The other option is that Scotland does not implement the wage rise, in which case there could be a drift south.” The Scotsman 09/29/02

Sunday September 29

NY/LONDON – A MATTER OF RISK: The biggest difference between New York and Lon’s theatre scenes is the way non-profit theatre behaves, writes Clive Barnes. “Here, the subsidized state theaters play it safe. Since they heavily depend on subscription audiences, they proceed with great caution in whatever they do. In contrast, the London non-profit arena, free from the need to accommodate (some might say pander) to well-heeled and conservative audiences, provides a more edgy, risk-taking menu.” New York Post 09/29/02

BOSTON’S BIG NEW PLAYER: Word that Boston’s Opera House will be renovated and used primarily as a home for big touring Broadway shows has big implications for other Boston performing arts venues. Although the contract allows Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston to use the theatre for dates over the next 20 years, Caldwell is unlikely to make it happen, and the opera company’s lease will be null. Meanwhile, the Wang Center, the city’s other touring house, has got to be nervously looking over its shoulder, writes Terry Byrne. Boston Herald 09/27/02

LAST MINUTE SUBSTITUTION: It’s a director’s worst nightmare – just days before the show is to go on, your star has a heart attack. It happened earlier this month at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. And such a catastrophe triggers a whole series of decisions that have to be made – none of them pleasant. How to find someone to step in at the last minute? “It’s hard to explain the chemistry of what’s appropriate for a particular role in a particular production. It’s like having a musical score and choosing a flute, sax or clarinet for a solo.” Chicago Tribune 09/29/02

WHERE’S LA’S LATINO THEATRE? Los Angeles’ huge theatre community produces more than 1000 productions a year. But despite the region’s large Latino population, there is relatively little Latino theatre being produced. There’s a shortage of Latino theatres and the area’s mainstage theatres have a sporadic record of producing Latino-oriented productions. Los Angeles Times 09/29/02

THEATRE MAGS – ONE NEW, ONE ON THE WAY OUT: “In the world of theater periodicals, the life expectancy is sadly short. Theater history is littered with the bodies of publishers of failed magazines that had a theater or theater-friendly bent: In Theater, Show, After Dark, Plays and Players, Theater Week. The list goes on.” So another such publication looks ready to go out of business – the tiny Show Music, the musical theater magazine, began 20 years ago. But on the good news side, “there’s a new magazine out this week called Show People, about the theater world, that tries to be more mainstream than previous periodicals.” Hartford Courant 09/29/02

Friday September 27

WEST END FIRE: A big fire in London’s West End threatened to spread to the 200-year-old Theatre Royal, where actresses Maggie Smith and Judi Dench were rehearsing for a new show on Thursday. BBC 09/26/02

ON THE FRINGE: Melbourne’s fringe festival turns 20. “Every spring our independent arts community explodes with an avant-garde celebration of creativity and freakishness, nudity and performance art, excess and outrage, risk and diversity. It throws up events and images that challenge the way you see the world, shows that are luminous with brilliance, and productions so lame that if they were a horse, you’d have them shot. That’s the beauty of Fringe.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/27/02

CLEAR CHANNEL’S NEW CLOUT IN BOSTON: Mega-entertainment company Clear Channel is planning to do a $30 million renovation of the 2,500-seat Opera House in Boston, and use it for big touring Broadway shows. “But the increased muscle of the for-profit Clear Channel – the largest producer, presenter, and promoter of live entertainment on the planet – leaves some Boston producers and promoters wary.” Boston Globe 09/27/02

Thursday September 26

THEATRE REVOLUTIONARY: Joan Littlefield, who died last week, was one of the most important people in English theatre since World War II. “Her achievements have resonated throughout British theatre: she broke up the fabric, revolutionised the way that plays were presented, the way that they were written, and the way directors and actors and writers collaborated. Her revolution, and her propagation of the notion of ‘popular’ theatre has been as enduring as the Royal Court ‘revolution’ of 1956.” The Guardian (UK) 09/25/02

THE AL HISCHFELD THEATRE: Artist Al Hischfeld, 99, is having a theatre renamed after him on Broadway. In a career spanning 76 years (so far) Hischfeld has drawn caricatures of Broadway figures. “Mr. Hirschfeld will become the first artist to have a theater named after him and one of the few people not directly involved in acting or producing ever so honored.” The New York Times 09/26/02

Monday September 23

THEATRE RETREAT: The leaders of Atlanta theatre companies rarely see one another as they go about their jobs. So a forward-thinking foundation decided to get directors of five of the city’s theatres out of town to spend some time with one another. Over a few days in New York, they talked about their common challenges and about how they might work together… Atlanta Journal-Constitution 09/22/02

GARBO MUSICAL BOMBS: A new musical based on the life of Greta Garbo opened this week in Sweden, and its creators hope to later take it to London and New York. But not with the kind of reviews the show was greeted with. Calling it sterile and predictable, no one’s predicting a long life: “I would be surprised if it goes on for a long time even here. But that might happen if the interest in Garbo is bigger than the demand for good musicals.” BBC 09/22/02

Sunday September 22

AS LONG AS EVERYONE’S LOSING MONEY ANYWAY… Not that the theater-going public cares, but Broadway is undergoing a sea change in the philosophy of the behind-the-scenes money men who bankroll the shows on the Great White Way. “Right now we seem to be in the end game of a decades-long shift in how Broadway shows are produced. Nonprofit theater companies are making their presence felt ever more strongly on Broadway. People have been worrying about this for decades… [but] what’s new is the actual physical presence of the nonprofits in Broadway theaters, through long-term leases or outright ownership.” The New York Times 09/22/02

JOAN LITTLEWOOD, 87: “Acclaimed theatre director Joan Littlewood, who broke new ground in stage acting, has died at the age of 87. Born in 1914 Littlewood was one of the most controversial and influential theatre directors and drama teachers of the 20th Century… Radical and outspoken, she was said to have been feared by the authorities, and snubbed by the Arts Council. But for many Littlewood was a woman ahead of her time.” BBC 09/21/02

THE NEW SURREALISTS: “Surrealism is alive and well in Toronto, and not just in the disproportionate number of light-bulb jokes on the Internet. Instead, the wild art has been experiencing a renaissance with a group of artists under the banner of Recordism.” What-ism? Well, according to the web site of the International Bureau of Recordist Information, the movement is about non-standard expression, the blending of sound and art, and the artistic bliss of breaking free from typical constraints of what is pretty, normal, or expected. Sounds plenty surreal to us. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/21/02

Friday September 20

RUMOR CENTRAL: It’s autumn in New York, which can mean only one thing – time for all that Broadway gossip to really heat up. Among this season’s hot topics: 1) Is Take Me Out, Richard Greenberg’s play about a gay baseball player, really ready for the big time? 2) Does the Roundabout Theater Company plan to cancel all of its productions, or just the three it’s already scuttled? 3) Are the people in charge of Little Ham really choosing their curtain-raising times by consulting astrological charts, and why does no one think that’s odd? Ah, theater people. What would we do without them? The New York Times 09/20/02

Wednesday September 18

PLANS FOR A NATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN THEATRE: Kenny Leon, formerly director of the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta, the largest resident theater company in the Southeast, says he plans to establish a national African American theatre. “Leon said he would like to put on three productions in 2003 in Atlanta; two of them would come to Washington. Leon hopes he might also get a run in New York.” Washington Post 09/18/02

YOUTH APPEAL: This season London’s National Theatre made a major push to appeal to young people, reconfiguring its performing space and presenting 13 new plays. The numbers show some success: “Just over half the total audience has been under 35. It is striking that roughly a third of the audience has been in that most elusive of all age-groups, the 25 to 34-year-olds, usually reckoned to be tied down by children and mortgages.” But was the season an artistic success? There the record is a bit more murky… The Guardian (UK) 09/16/02

BROADWAY IN BRAZIL: Theatre in Sao Paulo has mostly been the province of TV and film stars taking a break from the screen. But Broadway musicals are catching on big in Sao Paulo, South America’s largest city, playing to packed houses and critical acclaim. “I don’t know about the other countries, but here in Brazil we could be seeing the birth of a new theatrical tradition, thanks to these musicals.” Yahoo! (AP) 09/17/02

Tuesday September 17

TUESDAYS AT SEVEN: A group of Broadway theatres is floating the idea of moving curtain time up by an hour on Tuesday nights – to 7 PM. “Called Tuesdays at Seven, the new curtain time – probably starting the second week in January – might give a box-office boost to the night most in need of it.” Nando Times (AP) 09/16/02

Thursday September 12

PROTEST POLITICS COME TO ZURICH: “In the Swiss version of democracy, almost every public issue is decided by referendum. Thus when Zurich’s voters approved an increased subsidy for the city’s main theater on June 2, its acclaimed artistic director, Christoph Marthaler, felt confident that he would weather a storm of criticism of his management. He certainly did not expect to read in a local newspaper just three months later that he had been fired by the theater’s board. What happened next, though, revealed a different facet of Swiss democracy. A protest movement was born, backed not only by leading theater directors throughout the German-speaking world, but also by local admirers of Mr. Marthaler’s distinct style of theater.” The New York Times 09/12/02

Wednesday September 11

THE ESSENTIAL LAWRENCE: DH Lawrence’s reputation hasn’t aged well. “Now Lawrence’s poetry is admired, his novels neglected, his paintings scorned, and his plays largely unperformed. What is more, he is reviled for his priapism, his fascism and his sexism. I can’t think of Lawrence as being bound by any -ism; I still think of him as a fine novelist, a brilliant poet, and one of the very best (and least celebrated) of 20th-century English playwrights.” The Guardian (UK) 09/11/02

LOST THEATRE COMES TO LIFE: Glasgow’s Panopticon was the UK’s oldest music hall when it closed in 1938. The likes of Stan Laurel and Carey Grant walked its stage. But the Panopticon has been abandoned as a theatre for 64 years, and now, even though “a shadow of its former self”, it is still “the most culturally and architecturally significant theatre in Britain.” Now the theatre is “on the threshold of a $4 million refurbishment plan to be carried out over five years.” The Scotsman 09/06/02

Tuesday September 10

MAYBE THERE’S MORE TO IT THAN GLITTER: “France’s educated elites have never disguised their disdain for much of what reaches French movie and television screens from the United States. Yet one American television show, Inside the Actors Studio, is quietly changing how some French view Hollywood by dwelling on the craft of acting rather than the glitter of stardom.” The show has become a hit since it started airing on French television. The New York Times 09/10/02

STAR SEARCH: Hundreds of hopefuls auditioned last weekend for a chance to appear onstage in a production in London’s West End. The show 125th Street recreates the amateur nights at New York’s Apollo Theater, and “for one week only, each lucky amateur will get to join the professional cast and take the talent spotlight.” Yahoo! (Reuters) 09/09/02

Monday September 9

GET ME REWRITE: Some artists, when they complete a work, set it in stone, never to be changed or revised. Then there’s Tony Kushner. He’s always “tinkering and tightening and tweaking and trying to get it right.” Homebody/Kabul is no different. “I really thought I would churn it out and it would be perfect. I always tell myself that with every play, and of course plays are never like that, or least mine aren’t. They tend to cling and cling and need more and more attention.” The New York Times 09/09/02

THE SHOW MUST GO ON? Deciding whether to perform on September 11 is not such an easy question. A serious play could leave you more depressed. Light, entertaining fare might seem trivial. On the other hand, a serious production might help put things in focus, while a comedy might be a welcome distraction. What to do? New York Daily News 09/08/02

QUALITY POVERTY: Last week the LA Times ran a warm and sympathetic story about director Jon Lawrence Rivera and his Playwrights Arena theatre, which produces new plays and which is struggling to stay alive. Playwright Steven Leigh Morris praises the Times for its piece on Rivera, but wonders why a story about something in a field that almost never makes money concentrated so much on the theatre’s financial fortunes. Is this an implication about quality? “How, then, do we measure accomplishment in a field that has never thrived without patronage or subsidy, or at a theater with no advertising budget?” Los Angeles Times 09/09/02

• Previously: THE SMALL-THEATRE STRUGGLE: Los Angeles is home to formidable dramatic talent in all forms. But the city’s playwrights generally have a hard time of it. One champion of the playwright is Jon Lawrence Rivera. “For a decade, Rivera’s Playwrights’ Arena has developed and produced nothing but new plays by Los Angeles County writers – 29 such shows by 17 writers or writing teams.” But the enterprise has always been a precarious enterprise, one that these days, looks close to failing… Los Angeles Times 09/03/02

Sunday September 8

CROSS-POND GROUCHINESS: London’s West End has been in a bit of a snit lately over the influx of big-name American actors showing up in leading roles. Clive Barnes doesn’t see what the big deal is: “Perhaps Britain has some lurking idea that its function is to play Greece to America’s Rome, and that a tacit superiority in the arts is part of history’s deal. Whatever the reason, such a fuss seems odd after years of New York applauding such British stars as Alan Bates, David Warner, Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan, Emma Fielding and Henry Goodman – just some of our visitors last season.” New York Post 09/08/02

STRETCHING THE FORM: “If there is anything new on the Broadway horizon this fall, it is the prospect of two artists from outside the theater, the choreographer Twyla Tharp and the filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, bringing their creative energy to the stage and expanding the definition of what constitutes a Broadway musical.” Only in New York could two such luminaries be considered outsiders, but in the traditionally closed circle of Broadway, they qualify as virtual gate-crashers, and many devotees of that increasingly antiquated art form, the Broadway musical, are holding out hope that Tharp and Luhrmann will live up to the hype, and reinvigorate an industry which has been living off its own past for the better part of a decade. The New York Times 09/08/02

Friday September 6

SUBJECTS FROM WHICH TO STAY AWAY: “Our playwrights, from time to time, may shock us, but where are the plays that will challenge us? When playwrights deal with serious themes, they do so in a manner that allows us to distance ourselves from the social evils they portray, committed by characters who are mentally ill or not our class, dear. When those who govern us make a rare appearance on stage, it is as implicitly harmless figures of fun. One would think, from British plays, that their authors read only those pages in the newspaper that cover celebrities and crime, and only as many books as would fit in a suitcase.” The Independent (UK) 09/05/02

Thursday September 5

WHEN BIG ISN’T NECESSARILY BETTER: Perhaps it’s inevitable – the Edinburgh Fringe has grown so big and become so successful, more rules and regimentation are required. Also more corporate sponsorships and higher ticket prices. But perhaps all this success kills off some of the celebrated Fringe spirit – the rough, spontaneous acts of performance which invigorate those who encounter it. The Scotsman 09/05/02

Wednesday September 4

THEATRE AS TONIC (OR PALLIATIVE): “The theater’s role as a social mirror in London can seem surreal to an American visitor, as daily headlines and onstage plot lines converge. At the moment the London theater, which has an intimate relationship with its public that New Yorkers haven’t known in years,” is providing a myriad of ways to deal with the stress of an uncertain world. The New York Times 09/04/02

ONLY IN A NON-PROFIT THEATRE: One of the hottest tickets at this year’s Melbourne Festival is an improbable production that is guaranteed to lose money, and offers beds for audience members to snooze in. It’s “14 hours from beginning to end, will cost audience members $150 each, and will include dinner, breakfast, a bus ride and a bed for the night. Even if each of the 10 shows plays to a full house, no more than 70 people will get to see the production live.” The Age (Melbourne) 09/02/02

THE SMALL-THEATRE STRUGGLE: Los Angeles is home to formidable dramatic talent in all forms. But the city’s playwrights generally have a hard time of it. One champion of the playwright is Jon Lawrence Rivera. “For a decade, Rivera’s Playwrights’ Arena has developed and produced nothing but new plays by Los Angeles County writers – 29 such shows by 17 writers or writing teams.” But the enterprise has always been a precarious enterprise, one that these days, looks close to failing… Los Angeles Times 09/03/02

BROADWAY’S FIRST $100 TICKET: The play, Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, stars Al Pacino and “will run for three weeks at a 750-seat Pace University theater downtown. It is being produced by the National Actors Theater, which is run by Tony Randall.” New York Daily News 09/04/02

Tuesday September 3

A CAREER WELL-LIVED: When Christopher Newton began as director of Ontario’s Shaw Festival 23 years ago he told an interviewer that Shaw wasn’t a good enough playwright to build a theatre around. But over two decades he built the festival into “one of the most respected repertory theatres in the English-speaking world.” His secret? For a festival with a $20 million budget that gets less than five percent of its income from governments, it must pull in the tourists. And it does, with “an admirable balance of art and commerce.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/03/02

Sunday September 1

STRATFORD STRUGGLES: Stratford’s 50th anniversary season may have been a public success, but one critic says it felt awfully derivative. “It’s sad to think that after 49 years, Stratford still has to look to Britain to see how it’s done. But if the company is going to rise out of the artistic mire, it needs to build ongoing relationships with such talents, just as Toronto’s Soulpepper troupe and the Shaw Festival regularly bring back European directors to challenge their actors. Trouble is, introducing guest artists into the Stratford machine is often difficult: The logistics of running a dozen large productions in repertory creates a tumbling schedule that can leave directors with insufficient or interrupted rehearsal time.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/31/02

Thursday August 29

MILLER TAKES ON THE CRITICS: Arthur Miller isn’t fazed by the bad reviews his angry new play Resurrection Blues has received. “Most of my plays have been rejected to start with. The Crucible was destroyed first time out. It was the same with All My Sons. Every other critic condemned it. Why? I rather imagine that it is because they are attuned to entertainment. That’s part of the culture we are dealing with: entertainment for profit. When society and its ills are brought onto the stage, they don’t know what to do about it. Until they see the aesthetic in the play, that it is not just a political tract, they are at a loss. And that takes time.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/29/02

Wednesday August 28

RAPPIN’ TO THE BARD: “Most people would run a mile from a production that, in the US, was billed as ‘an ‘ad-rap-tation’ of Willy Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors‘. In the wrong hands, an attempt to mould Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identities to the rhythms of hip-hop would be disastrous – as embarrassing as a teacher wearing a baseball cap backwards and bigging up Shake to the Speare.” Instead it ended up the hit of the just-concluded Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Guardian (UK) 08/28/02

A 2000-YEAR DEBUT: An ancient play by Euripides is finally getting its modern debut – some 2000 years after it was written. “This summer, spectators were finally be able to see a reconstruction of a play whose reputation filtered through the centuries. It has been showing in this ancient theatre, 175 km southwest of Athens, and in three other cities around Greece.” The Age (Melbourne) (AP) 08/27/02

Tuesday August 27

RECORD FRINGE: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival closed last night have sold a record 900,000 tickets. The Fringe took in more than £7 million, the most ever in its 56-year history. The Herald (Glasgow) 08/27/02.

• MORE OF EVERYTHING: “Even given the rise in the number of shows to 1,500 – in comedy, theatre, music and performance art – organisers are adamant the figures confirm the Fringe is attracting more and more visitors.” BBC 08/27/02

BACK AND NO LESS PASSIONATE: Playwright Harold Pinter is 71 and has just come through a fight with esophageal cancer. “I found myself in a very dark world which was impossible to interpret. I could not work it out. I was somewhere else, another place altogether, not very pleasant. It is like being plunged into an ocean in which you can’t swim. You have no idea how to get out of it. You simply float about, bob about, hit terrible waves. It is all very dark, really. The thing is: here I am.” The Guardian (UK) 08/26/02

Monday August 26

NOBODY’S GETTING RICH: There’s a lot of money swirling around the Edinburgh Festival. But no one seems to have any money or make any money. So where does it go? “It is clear that the army of theatrical agents, promoters and managers in Edinburgh tend, at least, to cover their own backs. But do they actually make money? The answer seems to be: a little.” The Guardian (UK) 08/26/02

IMPORTED ACTING: The British theatre union is protesting the number of American actors hired by London theatres. The protests may lead to debate about reciprocal agreements about US and UK theatres employing each other’s actors. “The answer is not to make it harder for foreign actors to work here, but to make it easier for British actors to work in America. The British theater community has been open to Americans. There’s been interchange between the two, but it’s a long way from being reciprocated abroad.” Los Angeles Times 08/26/02

• Previously: ENOUGH WITH THE AMERICANS ALREADY: Hollywood stars are hot in London’s West End. They draw big crowds to the theatre. But a British actors union is attacking London’s National Theatre for hiring too many Americans. “What brought this to a head is that we have production at the National where three of the four leads are foreign artists. It is a showcase for British talent and this is the straw that has broken the camel’s back.” BBC 08/23/02

Sunday August 25

ONE IS BETTER THAN TWO? Cleveland’s two major professional theatres are both in financial trouble. “With corporations leaving town, foundations losing money in the stock market and box-office receipts trending ever downward, prospects look bleak. With the encouragement of people and organizations who give money to the arts, the two nonprofit companies are talking about merging.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/25/02

FREE AT LAST: Jon Jory was one of the most influential figures in American theatre as head of the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and director of the Humana Festival of new plays. Two years after leaving Louisville, does he miss it? “I miss walking out onto an empty stage and thinking ‘I can do anything I want here’ — of course, you can’t, really, but you can at least walk into the theater and think that. But I don’t miss the raising of the money and the kind of insoluble problems of every artistic director’s day. And I don’t miss the inhuman aspects of bossing people around.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 08/23/02

• JANE DOE: Jane Martin has been one of the most talked-about contemporary American playwrites. But who is she? “Martin has been coyly identified only as a ‘Kentucky writer.’ She has never granted an interview or made a public appearance, never been photographed and has never disclosed any biographical information. Almost all of her works have premiered at the Louisville theater, and — like the Guthrie’s premiere of Good Boys — almost all of those productions have been directed by Jory.” St. Paul Pioneer-Press 08/23/02

BROADWAY’S BIG CHANGE: “It’s surreal to consider, but the inspirations for Broadway’s biggest current blockbusters are Disney, the Swedish pop group ABBA, Mel Brooks and now, most incongruous of all, John Waters. Imagine 10 years ago anyone suggesting that wacky foursome as saviors of the Broadway musical. But here’s what’s really wicked: As a pop-culture icon, Hairspray will surely outlast them all. Because long after its inevitable, multiyear Broadway run and national tour, this is the kind of feel-good show that actors will want to perform and audiences will clamor to see in their neighborhoods for decades to come.” Denver Post 08/25/02

NICE TO KNOW YA: Building a show based on something familiar – a book, a movie – is a long-established practice on Broadway. “If that’s a built-in audience of people familiar with the story, that may make it a little easier.” But it doesn’t always work. And with quirky hits like The Producers and Hairspary, who would have predicted this kind of familiar would succeed? Boston Herald 08/25/02

WHAT’S PLAYING: Publishing the theatre world’s most-widely-used program book is not such an easy matter. With daily, weekly and monthly publications, Playbill is a complicated business. The magazine’s circulation has increased some 350 percent, to 3.7 million copies a month, and the demise of Stagebill, its main competitor, means Playbill dominates its market like no other. The New York Times 08/25/02

Friday August 23

ENOUGH WITH THE AMERICANS ALREADY: Hollywood stars are hot in London’s West End. They draw big crowds to the theatre. But a British actors union is attacking London’s National Theatre for hiring too many Americans. “What brought this to a head is that we have production at the National where three of the four leads are foreign artists. It is a showcase for British talent and this is the straw that has broken the camel’s back.” BBC 08/23/02

Wednesday August 21

HIGH PRICE OF SAFETY: Ticket prices for the Edinburgh Fringe have gone up. David Stenhouse argues that higher rices inhibit risk-taking on the part of audiences. “In the economics of the fringe, most acts are penny shares. The majority are likely to fall without trace, but a few will turn out to be theatrical Microsofts. The current market favours the gilts and bond issues which have a steady return. It may be fiscally prudent, but it’s not what the fringe was set up to do, and in the next few years it will have to change.” The Times (UK) 08/21/02

Tuesday August 20

SO YOU WANT TO BE A STAR… Gyles Brandreth, now in his mid-50s, decided he wanted to star in a West End musical before he died. So he’s not an actor. Or even a man of the theatre. “I have found a producer, but if we are to reach the West End, we have first to test-run the show on tour and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. There is no money in it (it will certainly cost me) and I will be away from home for 10 weeks.” [Wife] Michele thinks I am being selfish and self-indulgent. She is right.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/20/02

RECORD FRINGE: Attendance at this year’s Minnesota 10-day Fringe Festival climbed to a record 32,000 and earned a surplus – enabling organizers to pay down their deficit. The Minnesota Fringe is the largest fringe festival in the US. The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 08/20/02

NY THEATRE BOOM: New York theatres have been preparing for the worst as the summer ends, tourists depart, and the anniversary of 9/11 approaches. But instead of a downturn, business in the last week has been booming, thanks to the blockbuster opening of Hairspray, a successful Fringe Festival, and continued legs of longrunning hits. The New York Times 08/20/02

Monday August 19

A PLACE OF HIS OWN: The Kennedy Center’s Stephen Sondheim festival renewed appreciation for this rich body of work. Sondheim insists that his shows are shows, but they’ve never sustained commercial Broadway runs. So they’ve been taken up “by regional theaters and schools, and by Europe, where the opera houses are small and the unlikelihood of competition from commercial productions encourages the American producers to relinquish the rights. Maybe what we and Mr. Sondheim need is a summer festival in a plausible theater devoted to the best in operas and musical theater, irrespective of genre. We need to hear the best in musical theater, old and new, no matter the derivation of the particular work or the amount of dialogue or the singing style.” The New York Times 08/18/02

WHERE THEATRE HAPPENS: “The most vivid emblem of Chicago these days is art. Most visibly, that means public art, whether cows or Picassos. Music rules, too, led by the great Chicago Symphony. But ranking very high in the new Chicago’s self-image is theater. Two of the leading professional companies have just built expensive new homes, although the greatest strength is in small companies and their constant regeneration – professional theaters of all sizes number nearly 200.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 08/18/02

OUT OF THE TRAILERS: The La Jolla Playhouse, one of America’s best regional theatres is getting “an $11.5-million, 45,000-square-foot addition that will provide the nonprofit regional company with its third stage, a black-box theater that can seat as many as 450 and be reconfigured for each production. Other amenities include rehearsal rooms, tech workshops, classrooms, a restaurant-cabaret, and for the first time, indoor offices. Since its opening in 1983, the playhouse staff has worked in trailers parked on the grounds. More than 40 people occupy four trailers.” Los Angeles Times 08/19/02

Sunday August 18

BOX OFFICE SMASH: Hairspray, which opened on Broadway Thursday night, is already a huge success at the box office. “The musical, based on John Waters’ 1988 cult movie, is blowing away the success of previous Broadway smashes by taking a whopping $15 million in advance ticket sales – more than the Mel Brooks smash The Producers. By 5 p.m. yesterday [Friday], the box office had sold $1.5 million worth of tickets for the show.” New York Post 08/17/02

WHAT DO THE CRITICS KNOW? The critics all loved the London revival of Kiss Me Kate. But the show is closing long before it earns back its investment. Yet Bollywood Dreams, which opened to mixed reviews (at best) prospers across the alley. What gives? The critics are confused: “If we all hate a show it usually doesn’t prosper. But it is slightly galling that here is a show which we all really loved, and that doesn’t seem to have helped at all. I can’t think of any way we could have done it better, so you have to ask: can a show like this make it any longer?” The Guardian (UK) 08/17/02

• DO CRITICS STILL MATTER? “The rise of celebrity culture in the West End has had a twofold effect: a serious play starring unfamiliar actors will be ignored, while a production starring Gwyneth Paltrow will sell out before previews start, regardless of the play. People now attend the theatre to see stars. They don’t seem to care, for instance, if Madonna’s performance in Up for Grabs is “wooden” or “mechanical” – to quote the critics.” The Guardian (UK) 08/17/02

BALANCING IDEAS: To write a good play you first need an idea, writes playwright Alan Ayckbourne, who’s written 64 of them. But too many ideas can spoil the script. The Telegraph (UK) 08/17/02

Friday August 16

MERCHANDISING THE RSC: The troubled Royal Shakespeare Company is looking for ways to leverage its name to generate income. The RSC, “which is £1.3 million in debt, may now endorse texts of Shakespeare classics for the first time. It may also back a range of school books, online materials and other merchandise. It could establish a presence in film, television, e-learning and publishing through this project.” BBC 08/15/02

BROADWAY’S NEXT PRODUCERS? “The buzz on Hairspray, which is centered on a television disc-jockey show in which white kids dance to black music, has been of the overblown variety that can wind up stinging its creators. It’s been touted, for example, as the next Producers, the multi-Tony-winning Mel Brooks musical. In truth, Hairspray doesn’t have the same breathtaking confidence in its powers of invention. There are moments (rare ones) when it seems to lose its comic moorings to drift into repetition, and it definitely overdoes the self-help-style anthems of uplift.” The New York Times 08/16/02

• DIVINE COMEDY: “From the moment an imperiously frumpy Harvey Fierstein appears, divine in the hausfrau role that was originally Divine’s, you can sit back comfortably, knowing that something bizarrely dazzling is about to unfold.” New York Post 08/16/02
• GOOD FUN: “A cheerful, good-natured cartoon with a first-rate cast and a big-budget 1962 tacky look. The show is not always as interesting or funny as it pretends. But it is a high-energy spoof within a spoof within a big-hearted message about the triumph of black people, fat people and, by extension, outsiders of all worthy persuasions. Any comparison to The Producers is wishful thinking.” Newsday 08/16/02
• RARE SHOW: “Hairspray, based on the 1988 John Waters movie of the same title, is something of a blessed event, the arrival of that rarest of Broadway babies, a thoroughly solid piece of musical theater.” Washington Post 08/16/02
• VISION OF BALTIMORE: “A knockout young cast, an exceptionally tuneful score, a set and costumes designed by two American masters. And of course, wigs.” Baltimore Sun 08/16/02
• ANNOYING ENTERTAINMENT: ”Hairspray,’ for all its cleverness, can be as annoying as it is entertaining, although that won’t stop it from becoming a huge success.” Boston Globe 08/16/02
• CAN’T STOP THIS BEAT: John Waters’ first family-friendly film, has gotten a glorious musical makeover with the help of a creative team so focused on the details that every moment of this musical snaps, crackles and pops.” Boston Herald 08/16/02
• ALL THIS AND HARVEY TOO: “Even if Hairspray weren’t much, it’d still be an occasion for [Harvey] Fierstein’s delightful yet shrewdly calibrated turn. He’s doing precisely the right amount of too much. The whole show is.” Chicago Tribune 08/16/02
• GOOD OLD-FASHIONED HEART: “In one important respect, Hairspray outshines The Producers. [Composer Marc] Shaiman has provided some of the most infectious melodies to grace an original Broadway show in years, taking his cues from the incisive craftsmanship that bridged musical comedy’s golden era and the age of hippie bombast.” USAToday 08/16/02
• GREAT RETRO: “A hoot – a hilarious and affectionate salute to those days when hair styles were high, skirts were tight and teens danced to a rhythm and blues sound that was beginning to shake up mainstream pop music.” Nando Times (AP) 08/16/02

Thursday August 15

CAMP BROADWAY: Wanna be a star? Wanna be on Broadway? If you’re a kid, there’s “Camp Broadway,” a summer camp on Broadaway that puts kids in a theatre for a week and tries to give you an idea of what it’s all about. “We’re not a camp that discovers talent. We’re not Star Search. We offer theatre-loving kids access to real Broadway theatre. Everybody is treated the same. We do five songs from each show. Everybody gets to be in at least two numbers. Everybody gets to sing at least two lines. Everybody is in the finale.” The New Yorker 08/12/02

Wednesday August 14

TRAPPED BY THE LONG RUN: You’d think any actor would be happy for the security of being locked into a longterm role. But it’s not for everyone. “I felt like I was locked up in prison. It was very trying to be at the whim of every audience. If the laughs were smaller at one performance than another, then I’d worry why they were smaller. I’d worry during the performance. I’d keep thinking, ‘I can’t seem to please these people enough.’ It was very, very exhausting.” Backstage 08/13/02

SETTING A STANDARD FOR SHAW: In 23 seasons Christopher Newton made Ontario’s Shaw Festival “one of the world’s great repertory theatres.” Now he’s retiring. Toronto Star 08/14/02

Tuesday August 13

SHAKESPEARE TOWN: Organizers of a proposed “Shakespeare’s World” theme park spent 13 years trying unsuccessfully to make the project happen in Stratford-upon Avon. So they took the £200 million project to the US. “The first ‘Shakespeare’s World’ will be housed inside a reconstruction of parts of Tudor Stratford-upon-Avon and London in the town of Midland, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will include Elizabethan fairs, jesters, acrobats, falconry and wrestling displays, banquets and mead-tasting events, as well as waxworks and costume exhibitions.” The Observer (UK) 08/11/02

UP YEAR FOR FRINGE FESTS: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is breaking attendance records. But so are other fringes – “this year’s New York International Fringe Festival has racked up more than $150,000 in advance sales – nearly five times more than last year.” New York Post 08/13/02

SPOILED BY ITS SUCCESS? The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has become so big some critics believe it has come to dominate the International Festival. Others believe that the Fringe’s success has made it too mainstream. Certainly the Fringe gets most of the attention these days. But the future of the two festivals lies in cooperation, says Fringe director Paul Gudgin. The Observer (UK) 08/11/02

Monday August 12

INTERNET TICKET SALES SELL OUT EDINBURGH: Sold-out signs are up all over this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “Ticket sales were up 23 per cent and five times more tickets were sold than for the same period in 2000.” Why the increase? “The pressure for seats can be put down to the increased use of the website. Festival director Paul Gudgin told The Stage, the theatre industry newspaper, that 30-40 per cent of bookings were now made this way.” The Observer (UK) 08/11/02

SOME NEW MUST-SEES? For several seasons the national touring theatre circuit has been in a slump. But things are looking up for the season about to open. “Not since the mid-’90s, when The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon hit the road, has a new season for theater nationwide looked so promising.” Hartford Courant 08/11/02

SONDHEIM SCORES: This summer’s Kennedy Center Sondheim celebration has been a big success. “If Sondheim had been getting his due all along, this opportunity wouldn’t have been available to the Kennedy Center. But it was, and one measure of its significance is that people have flocked here from every state in the Union – and from 28 countries – to take advantage of this rare chance.” Los Angleles Times 08/12/02

POLITICALLY SPEAKING: Political theatre has returned to the Edinburgh Fringe. “It may be the looming recession, it may be the threat of military conflict, but there are more political plays on here than at any time since the Falklands conflict or the miners’ strike.” The Times 08/12/02

AUDITIONS – SPELL IT S-T-R-E-S-S: “Auditioning for a show is the most uncivilized practice for humans since the barbarous exhibition of the Roman gladiators. A more sanguine view would be to think of it as training for the Last Judgment.” But everyone has their role to play in this exercise. Those sitting out in the theatre rendering judgment have their anxieties too. The New York Times 08/11/02

Sunday August 11

ART OR MONEY (CAN IT BE BOTH?): Playwrights have a pet saying that in theatre you can make a killing but you can’t make a living. When the gravy train is a-chuffing, incomes can be awesomely good. David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Alan Ayckbourn – they’re all loaded. But the reality for most writers is very different. Say you had two plays on in one year at two of the big subsidised theatres like the Royal Court and the Royal Exchange, you might get £20,000 in total. That’s hard enough to do in one year, let alone every year.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/10/02

IGNORING POST-SHAKESPEARE? Productions of Shakespeare are everywhere, and movies of the Bard’s plays abound. “So why then the modern cinema’s emphasis on Shakespeare, and its exclusion of the equally poetic, equally exciting, often more interesting Jacobean theatre that followed him? It’s not as if there is no audience for it. Revenger’s and other Jacobean tragedies are constantly on our exam syllabi, which means that there is a solid student audience for such films, both in the cinema and on VHS and DVD.” The Guardian (UK) 08/10/02

Friday August 9

BEHEADING THE CRITIC? St. Paul Pioneer-Press theatre critic Dominic Papatola, on reviewing a play called Bring Me the Head of Dominic Papatola at the Minnesota Fringe Festival: “Reviewing this show was an unusual experience for me, and having me review it was probably an unusual experience for those in the cast. I’m accustomed to sitting quietly in my aisle seat, spewing my poison in relative anonymity. They’re used to hurling invectives at critics in muttered, half-drunken tones in the corner booth at Leaning Tower of Pizza. While I guess I wouldn’t have expected the talkback to take the form of a play that advocates my grisly murder, the mere fact that theater people would even try to pull a stunt like this proves that either (a) they’re a lot braver than one would expect or that (b) I’ve somehow created the impression that I can take it as well as I can dish it out.” St. Paul Pioneer-Press 08/09/02

DEATH OF TRYOUTS: New York theatre producers have been fretting since local press broke an informal agreement not to publish reviews of Broadway-bound shows opening out of town. Out-of-town runs were meant as tryouts out of the media glare so they could be tinkered with before coming to the big time. Now the “agreement” has been broken, “no more will a show be able to work out its problems away from the scrutiny of the New York press. But press coverage isn’t really the problem. Tryouts don’t work anymore because the shows don’t really get fixed. They get edited, polished and streamlined – but not fixed.” New York Post 08/09/02

RENEWABLE FRANCHISE: Cirque de Soleil and the Blue Man Group are two successful franchises that have expanded over the past decade into big corporate operations with multiple shows and locations. “About 2,400 people work for Cirque du Soleil, and revenues are expected to reach a reported $325 million this year.” As for Blue Man, “what started with three men Off-Broadway has expanded into a 350-person organization, including 30 Blue Men and 50 musicians who rotate in the nightly shows in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Las Vegas.” Christian Science Monitor 08/09/02

Thursday August 8

GREAT SCOTT: Some of the best theatre writing coming out of the UK these days is from Scotland. “If Scottish playwrights working today are a particularly eclectic, elusive bunch, resistant to categorisation, can one talk about anything distinctly Scottish in their work that marks them out from their counterparts in England?” The Telegraph (UK) 08/07/02

COMING BACK: Harvey Fierstein’s career was launched with a bang back in 1982 when he won Tony awards for Best Play and Best Actor for Torch Song Trilogy. He points out that his career has chugged along just fine since. But it’s a sign of the buzz around Hairspray – in which he’s about to open on Broadway next week –  that some are calling the show his big comeback. New York Observer 08/06/02

DARK ON 9/11: More than a dozen Broadway shows, including The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Les Miserables, Cabaret and Mamma Mia! have decided not to perform on September 11 this year. “I don’t think we could face performing that day when you remember back to what occurred last year. It’s just too difficult and too emotional.” Nando Times (AP) 08/07/02

Wednesday August 7

GETTING IT WRONG ABOUT STOPPARD: “All dramatists get shunted into pigeonholes, and ever since his startling 1966 debut with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard has been branded a formidable brainbox with a capacity for jokes. Comparisons are frequently made to Shaw, another dramatist who supposedly elevated ideas above emotion and sugared argument with beguiling comedy. But just as we are hopelessly wrong about Shaw – one of the most impassioned dramatists of the 20th century – so we have for too long misunderstood the nature of Stoppard’s talent.” The Guardian (UK) 08/07/02

UNRATED AT YOUR OWN RISK: With some of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s shows deliberately setting out to embarrass, offend or gross out their audiences, there’s a renewed call for some sort of film-style ratings system. But organizers rule it out, saying that it would be “impossible for a group of censors to see every one of the 1,500 shows or provide a consistent film-style classification.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/07/02

CHICAGO TO BROADWAY – CRY US A RIVER: The uproar over New York critics’ decision to report on the bad reviews being garnered in Chicago by a Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp collaboration destined for Broadway is just so much pompous bluster, says the Chicago Tribune. “This Broadway petulance is offensive to theatergoers everywhere. Plays are launched here not because of the kindness of producers but because–in the opinion of no less an authority than The New York Times–Chicago is by far the best theater venue outside of Broadway.” Chicago Tribune 08/06/02

Tuesday August 6

THEATRE CREEDE: In 1967 a bunch of college students from the University of Kansas were lured to the small Colorado town of Creede (pop. 600) to start a theatre company in an old movie theatre. “What happened the next 37 years is a story sociologists and economists could study for years: How a ragtag group of young artists came into a harsh, dying town and not only found a way to mesh with its isolated community but has been twice credited – by some only begrudgingly – with saving it.” Denver Post 08/06/02

Monday Auguat 5

DEVINING DIVADOM: Who is today’s Great Diva of the theatre? Clive Barnes is ready to make a nomination. “I’m thinking of the sort of woman Ethel Barrymore was, someone to follow in the footsteps of the wooden-legged Sarah Bernhardt, Dame Edith Evans and the shocking Tallulah Bankhead (who, apparently, like Ethel’s brother, John, used to drink out of a wooden leg).” New York Post 08/04/02

GOING FOR GROSSOUT: It’s pretty much a rite of passage – the Edinburgh Fringe doesn’t really get underway until people start walking out of some particularly rank and offensive production. And only a day into this year’s edition, we’ve got plenty to choose from. We don’t want to gross you out here descriptions found in this Guardian report, but “despite accusations that the unregulated Edinburgh Fringe features unprecedented levels of obscenity this year, ticket sales reached record levels over the weekend. One show, Sexual Fetishes with Fish, will ask the audience to pass round a condom filled with frozen human excrement and then lick one another’s armpits.” The Guardian (UK) 08/05/02

FAMILY AFFAIR: Sutton and Hunter Foster are the biggest family story on Broadway since the Lupones. “She’s the Tony Award-winning singer-actor-dancer who’s gone from virtually unknown Millie to Thoroughly Modern Millie. He’s the naive but stouthearted hero Bobby Strong in Urinetown: The Musical.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 08/04/02

Sunday August 4

MORE TICKET WOES TO COME: “According to new statistics from the League of American Theaters and Producers, Broadway’s main trade group, only about one in three theatergoers is buying tickets more than four weeks in advance. That figure is a sharp departure from the typical 50 percent that producers had grown to expect over the last decade, a period of remarkable prosperity for Broadway as a whole… Factor in a weak economy and weak advance sales, and some Broadway insiders say they expect producers may just close long-running shows rather than risk a series of weekly losses.” The New York Times 08/04/02

FRINGE BENEFITS: The largest Fringe Festival in the world opens this weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the largest in America opens in Minneapolis. Fringe festivals have become increasingly popular in the last decade, with the main attraction being the chance for the public to get a look at the type of non-mainstream artists whose work often goes unnoticed, underfunded, and unreported on. In fact, some longtime fringe fans have expressed concerns that the whole idea has become too big and popular, and fear that fringe festivals may soon go the way of independent film festivals, which are often accused of having been coopted by the ‘establishment’ they are supposedly disdaining. BBC 08/04/02 & Saint Paul Pioneer Press 08/02/02

• TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? The Edinburgh Festival may have started its life as an attempt to reunite post-war Europe, but it has become the ultimate marketing tool for performers hoping to garner some attention in an increasingly homogenous world of entertainment. But has Edinburgh’s expansion over the decades cost it some credibility? “While a growing number of less-established companies financially cripple themselves in the quest to be talent-spotted by more than 500 scouts and 2,000 journalists, critics have suggested that the event, comprising international, fringe, books and film festivals, has become ‘too bloated, unwieldy and long’.” The Guardian (UK) 08/03/02

MILLER THE IRONIC: One doesn’t tend to think of Arthur Miller as an author of hilarious satire. Miller is generally perceived as being darker than a festival of film noir drenched in motor oil. So its no great surprise that he would choose a relatively remote location to try his hand at comedy. Miller’s latest play combines crucifixion and commercialism in what Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater hopes will be an attention-getting progression in the career of America’s arguably most famous playwright. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 08/04/02

Friday August 2

EASY AUDIENCE: “It may be more difficult to please the critics – but to make the Los Angeles theater crowd happy, it seems that all you have to do is finish the show. Can’t act, can’t sing, can’t dance – but, hey, nobody’s perfect. Posing the question ‘Are there too many standing ovations in Los Angeles?’ touches a nerve with some members of the local theater community, who insist this is a misconception fueled by jaded journalists who attend way too many opening nights, where the house is papered with friends, agents, celebrities and the performers’ moms and dads.” Los Angeles Times 08/02/02

IF ONLY THERE WASN’T THAT DAMN AUDIENCE: “Theatre-going, unlike the solitary darkness of movie-watching, is undeniably a communal experience. We’re all in it together, and when theatre becomes magical, it is because we react together, because our emotions surge collectively. The only problem is all those other people – whether it’s the one person sitting next to you (for whose enjoyment you feel illogically responsible) or everyone else in the theatre, who all seem to be misunderstanding the entire performance. Whatever and whomever, your response to a play is dangerously vulnerable to the behaviour of others.” The Independent (UK) 07/31/02

FUN & RESPONSIBILITY: Producers of children’s theatre have a choice to make. “In a time when public school arts instruction has been diminished, should such producers be picking up the pedagogical slack for kids who want to become theatre artists? Should they aim to train a new generation to be loyal and avid theatregoers? Or should they just concern themselves with creating good, serious fun?” Backstage 08/02/02

Thursday August 1

NOT SO OUT-OF-TOWN ANYMORE: The tradition of out-of-town tryouts for shows heading to Broadway was established so shows could work out their kinks before coming under the glare of New York media. But the internet has changed that. And last week New York papers ran reviews of the new Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp musical now playing an out-of-town run in Chicago. “Since that broke the standard practice of New York-area papers not reviewing out-of-town tryouts, there have been howls of protest from New York producers.” Chicago Tribune 07/31/02

EMBATTLED DRAMA: Israel’s Jewish-Arab theatre companies are having a difficult time during the current conflict. “Founded in less volatile times as living examples of how a Jewish majority and Arab minority could coexist in Israel, they now operate in a climate of fear, hatred, suspicion and terrorism. The intifada, much more than its predecessor in the late 1980’s, has traumatized Arab-Jewish relations not just across the border separating sovereign Israel from the occupied territories but also within Israel itself. To the theaters’ participants, this makes their work all the more imperative.” The New York Times 08/01/02

ACTING OUT IN ARGENTINA: The arts may be generally on the skids in Argentina, where the economy has collapsed. The theatre, however, is reportedly thriving. “But the focus is not on productions in traditional theatres. Instead, it is happening wherever cheap spaces can be found – disused warehouses, schools and homes.” The Age (Melbourne) 08/01/02

IMAGINE THE CHOREOGRAPHY: When Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura decided not to seek reelection this summer, the promise of a Broadway musical based on his life as a pro wrestler, Navy SEAL, and politician died a quick death. But two years of work had already gone into the project, and at least one of the collaborators doesn’t want all the effort to have been for nothing. And besides, a musical with songs like “I Don’t Know the Meaning of Can’t,” “Football Practice (Drop and Gimme Twenty),” and “Retaliate in ’98” just cries out to be heard, doesn’t it? City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 07/31/02

Wednesday July 31

NEW DAY, NEW PLAY? London’s Globe Theatre is a recreation of a 400-year-old theatre from Shakespeare’s time. But the theatre is now producing new plays, shocking some critics. “The question remains open as to whether new plays – or even, one day, plays with contemporary settings – will be accepted, by audiences or critics, as integral to the Globe’s activities. ‘We can’t win in one sense. Some people will always criticise it for being a heritage theatre, and others – sometimes the same people – will say, ‘What are they doing staging new plays’?” The Guardian (UK) 07/31/02

Tuesday July 30

CREEPY, YES, BUT FLATTERING: Every year, playwrights send out dozens of scripts, tapes, and video recordings of their work to theatre companies around the world which are considering what works to place on their upcoming seasons. But one Canadian author recently became suspicious of one particular request for samples of his work, and a quick investigation revealed that the individual behind the request was not a producer at all, but a more-than-slightly unbalanced theatre buff living on the Virginia-Tennessee state line with a massive collection of ill-gotten theatrical gains. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/30/02

Monday July 29

CALLING 911: September 11 is all over the program of this year’s Edinburgh Festival. “At least seven events listed in the fringe programme express some kind of post-terror reaction; through dance, words, mime and, inevitably, through jokes.” The Observer (UK) 07/28/02

THE GRAFT IS ALWAYS GREENER IN EDINBURGH: “During the month of July arts journalists get used to receiving strange missives in the mail. Halfway between a bribe and a tease, the idea is that, presented with the appropriate gift, we’ll abandon our sternly held critical reserve and fly into a giddy fit of excitement about a show we’d never normally touch. Does it work? What do you think, feminist Brecht collective from Bolton? At least the letters are better than the calls. The only reason I haven’t phoned the police is because the Edinburgh Festival is about to start.” The Times (UK) 07/29/02

Sunday July 28

GOING TO THE ANGELS: The Eureka Theatre is almost dead. In the 80s, the theatre was one of the most exciting regional theatres in America. “A core group of exciting young directors – Richard E.T. White, Tony Taccone, Richard Seyd, Oskar Eustis – made the Eureka one of the most influential midsize companies on the West Coast in the ’80s, helping to introduce writers like Dario Fo and Caryl Churchill to the region. Eustis and Taccone’s discovery of Tony Kushner, and commissioning of Angels in America, alone counts as a milestone in American theater.” San Francisco Chronicle 07/28/02

TO THE RESCUE: Is Michael Boyd the one to lead the Royal Shakespeare Company out of its troubles? “It’s better to have a tested theatrical practitioner in command than a clever arts bureaucrat or some dark horse from the regions. Besides, Boyd, a 47-year-old Belfast-born boy, who has been an associate director at the RSC for six years, is a questing, radical theatrical visionary, though some people insist on writing him off as a safe pair of hands. He’s fired up by great international European directors and is one of the best of his generation.” London Evening Standard 07/26/02

NOT LAUGHING IN LONDON: “Long regarded as the laughter capital of the world, London suddenly appears to be in the grip of a recession for the first time since the alternative comedy boom took off at the beginning of the 1980s. The evidence is mainly anecdotal, but a pattern has emerged: audience numbers are dropping, gigs are being cancelled, convulsions of panic rather than mirth are shaking the promoters.” The Telegraph (UK) 07/28/02

AMERICA’S LARGEST FRINGE ON THE EDGE: The Minnesota Fringe Festival is successful. So successful, in fact, it almost went out business this year. The event has grown by 400 percent in the past three years, and has become the biggest fringe festival in America. But a $40,000 deficit nearly forced the fringe out of the margin. St. Paul Pioneer-Press 07/28/02

Friday July 26

COME BACK NOW, Y’HEAR: Reviews for the Chicago tryout of the new Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp musical Movin’ Out have been mixed at best. No matter. Tharp says she intends to radically rework the show and wants to invite the critics back at the end of August before the show leaves Chicago for Broadway. Playbill 07/25/02

A NEW DAY AT THE O’NEILL: Musicians learn their craft at conservatories, actors have their pick of theater schools, and painters go to art school. But for budding playwrights, the opportunities for professional instruction are few and far between, and most writers have to learn the ropes by trial and error. For a half-century, the O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticuit has aimed to provide playwrights of all levels with a chance for some serious study of the craft, away from the bright light of public and critical scrutiny. Now, with the center’s founders retired, a new management team is tasked with advancing the center’s mission in an era when theater in general has been suffering. Los Angeles Times 07/26/02

FINAL CURTAIN FALLS EARLY IN NASHUA: The American Stage Festival, a summer theater tradition in New Hampshire, has announced that it will cut short its season this weekend in Nashua, largely because of slumping ticket sales and a lack of corporate sponsors. The ASF had moved its base of operations from rural Milford to semi-urban Nashua recently for financial reasons, but the move may also have contributed to the early shutdown. There is no word on the long-term future of the festival. Boston Globe 07/26/02

Thursday July 25

BOYD GETS SHAKESPEARE COMPANY: Michael Boyd has been chosen as the new director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. “Boyd, an associate director of the RSC since 1996, won an Olivier Award for his production of Henry VI and has most recently been directing at London’s Roundhouse Theatre.” BBC 07/25/02

CENTER OF THE FRINGE: The Edinburgh Festival is about to begin, one of the largest arts gatherings in the world. And this year’s event looks likely to break last year’s record ticket sales. Advance box-office takings have already passed the £500,000 mark. The Scotsman 07/23/02

• EDINBURGH – HOME OF THE BIG BREAK: I still believe the Edinburgh Fringe is special; the only place in Britain where you can put on a show on a shoestring and make it. It is this belief that keeps the Fringe going and most of the 619 companies performing there this year would subscribe to it. But a surprising number of people, including many in the London press, think that it is fantasy. They argue that an obsession with getting discovered has turned the once-carnivalesque Fringe into a grabby, grubby place, PR-driven and producer-led. They say it’s unwieldy, overblown and no fun anymore.” The Scotsman 07/25/02
• WAGGING THE DOG: Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival has grown so big it has overtaken the International Festival, “and the fringe has turned from a seductive alternative into a cultural behemoth. For many (the broadcast media especially), the very words ‘Edinburgh festival’are now synonymous with the fringe, to which the international festival is an easily ignorable addendum. Is this simply a fact of life and a reflection of the populist culture in which we live? In fact, it seems to me the result of several brutal commercial choices.” The Guardian (UK) 07/25/02
  
• EDINBURGH THE GREAT: “For the artist and the critic, Edinburgh isn’t just about the performances; it is about the opportunity to talk and exchange views away from the hothouse of London theatre.” The Guardian (UK) 07/25/02

Wednesday July 24

WANTED – MIRACLE WORKER: The Royal Shakespeare Company has dug itself a deep hole. The company is said to be on the verge of naming a successor to Adrian Noble to run the theatre. But really – is there someone out there who is capable of fixing things? The Times (UK) 07/24/02

Tuesday July 23

BREAKING THE STRIKERS: The Screen Actors Guild is punishing actors who worked on productions during last year’s strike by denying SAG memberships. “Of the 281 applicants reviewed, 94 were granted SAG membership, 133 applicants were deemed ineligible for membership for periods ranging from six months to four years and 54 applicants received five-year bans from acceptance to the guild.” Backstage 07/22/02

Friday July 19

SHAKESPEARE AMONG THE STRIP MALLS: Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice is almost never performed anymore, not because it lacks the Bard’s high standards of prose, but because it is so viciously, unapologetically anti-Semitic as to make modern audiences squirm in their seats from beginning to end. But the increasingly prestigious Illinois Shakespeare Festival is having a go at it, bringing in a prominent Israeli director to bring out all the ugliness for what it is, but also to provide some perspective on Shakespeare’s prejudices. It’s daring innovations like this that have Midwesterners flocking to the small, strip-mall-intensive town of Bloomington, to experience one of North America’s most unlikely Shakespeare success stories. Chicago Tribune 07/19/02

HIP-HOP GOES LEGIT, YO, WITH PLENTY OF CRED: Traditionalists may not like it, but the hip-hop movement has officially invaded nearly every aspect of American culture. From its humble beginnings as a two-turntables-and-a-microphone experiment to today’s multi-billion-grossing empire of superstars, hip-hop is influencing music, art, poetry, and theatre just as rock did back in the Beatles’ heyday. The latest infiltration is on the so-called “legitimate” stage, where DJ’s are replacing orchestras and the theatrical nature of rap performances is being incorporated into the relatively tame world of drama. The hope is that such crossovers will help to stem the tide of gray among theatre audiences. Washington Post 07/19/02

Thursday July 18

BRITISH THEATRE DISCRIMINATION: A new survey reports that British theatre institutions discriminate against Asian and black administrators. “Carried out in 2000 and 2001, the survey of more than 75 arts organizations and 65 black and Asian performing arts administrators and managers found that 86 percent of those questioned had personally experienced racism in their careers and within arts organizations.” Yahoo! 07/17/02

SEE WHAT THEY SAY: “The relationship of deaf people to the arts is attracting growing interest.” A number of performances on Broadway are equiped with “open-captioning.” so the hearing-impaired can see what’s being said. “With open-captioning, the majority of people with hearing loss can attend the theater. It’s been encouraging to get letters from people who now are able to come to open-captioned performances who say they hadn’t been to the theater in 20 years because they just couldn’t hear well enough.” The New York Times 07/18/02

Wednesday July 17

DREAM A HIT: The reviews may have been mixed. But while other long-running musicals in London have been posting closing notices, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Bollywood Dreams has scored a success. Ticket demand has been so strong the show’s been extended. “We were nervous about how the show would be received because we knew we had something very different. But it seems to have absolutely captured the imaginations of people who don’t normally go to musicals. The audience is different from any I have seen for a long time.” BBC 07/17/02

Tuesday July 16

THE MAKING OF A HIT? Is Hairspray the next The Producers? Some are beginning to think so. The Seattle tryout earned rave reviews. “By the end of the Seattle run, the tickets are sold out in town; the audiences keep getting better-and-better-dressed as it becomes more of an event. On the strength of the reviews, the New York advance sales numbers are creeping up to $5 million – not the $14 million advance of The Producers, but a strong showing nonetheless.” The show opens on Broadway this week. New York Magazine 07/15/02

NOT PRODUCING: Henry Goodman was the victim of one of the most public firings in Broadway history when he was removed as Nathan Lane’s replacement in The Producers last spring. So what happened? “Personally, I think they blew it. Of course they’d say, ‘No, no Henry, you blew it’. I just wanted the freedom to deepen my character, make him darker, more like Zero Mostel (who played the part in the original 1968 film). Just look at these letters” — he chucks down a sheaf of fan mail — “the bookings were fine. The fact is, 60,000 people saw me and no one asked for their money back. But they wanted a clone of Nathan and I wasn’t prepared to give them that.” The Times (UK) 07/16/02

Monday July 15

BLOCKING THE YOUNG VIC: London’s Young Vic Theatre is a beloved institution, albeit a ramshackle one. The theatre is falling apart and it takes £80,000 a year in repairs just to keep it open. The theatre is trying to raise money for a £6 million renovation, but a building presevation society is trying to block the project. The Guardian (UK) 07/15/02

HAVING IT ALL: Is there a difference between musical theatre and opera? If so, where’s the line? “To explore that point, the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York presented a rather daring experiment earlier this year: the first act of an opera performed twice — by a musical theater cast before the intermission, and then by an opera cast. If lobby chat and questionnaires filled out by the audience reveal anything, most people preferred the beauty of the opera-trained voices and the passion and movement of the theater cast. They wanted it all, and why not?” The New York Times 07/14/02

Sunday July 14

THEATRE AT A CROSSROADS: With the announcement that Gordon Jacobson will be stepping down at L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum, America’s regional theatres, once a grand experiment designed to prove that serious theatre could thrive away from the bright lights of Broadway, have been forced to begin reassessing their place in the nation’s theatrical consciousness. “Now the regional theater is a bit of a victim of its own success. We’ve built huge institutions — stabilization for these companies always was the goal — and consequently a lot of these theaters have big buildings and big overhead, which changes the stakes.” Chicago Tribune 07/14/02

Thursday July 11

BROADWAY BOOM: How much does Broadway contribute to New York’s economy? A study of the 2000-01 season, “indicates that Broadway contributed some $4.42 billion to the city’s fiscal well-being during that time, a figure which equates to at least 40,000 jobs, both in the industry directly and through the commerce that the industry generates.” Backstage 07/10/02

WRONG MAN FOR THE JOB: Norman Lebrecht has had a look at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s shortlist of candidates to head the company. He isn’t impressed. “What the RSC needed was a strong personality to rethink its aims, restore morale and drop a curtain on all the turbulence. But the chances of revival have been virtually ruled out by the narrowness of the search.” London Evening Standard 07/11/02

Wednesday July 10

WHO’S WHO IN LONDON THEATRE: Can’t tell the players without a program. Here’s the Guardian’s roadmap to the new generation of London theatre denizens taking theatre forward. The Guardian (UK) 07/06/02

CRITICAL DIALOGUE: David Williamson is Australia’s most successful playwright. “During his long time as the country’s most successful playwright, Williamson has developed a singular relationship with the country’s critics. Unlike other writers, he regularly engages them in dialogue about their opinions of his work.” Do they respond? The Age (Melbourne) 07/10/02

Tuesday July 9

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE SWEEPSTAKES: Being named head of the Royal Shakespeare Company is considered by many to be the most prestigious theatrical appointment in Britain. With a shortlist being drawn up, who’s in the running? “The favourite to replace Adrian Noble, who resigned unexpectedly in April after sustained attacks on his plans for the company, is an internal candidate. With three weeks to go, the director Michael Boyd, acclaimed for his productions of Henry VI, parts I, II and III , and widely respected inside the RSC, has emerged as the frontrunner.” The Guardian (UK) 07/08/02

• RSC IN DISARRAY: The Royal Shakespeare Company, “which only recently was riding a wave of acclaim with its cycle of Shakespeare history plays, now appears in disarray. Adrian Noble, its artistic director, embarked on an ambitious plan to quit the Barbican for the flexibility – and uncertainty – of offering plays in whatever venues they might best fit. He added, for good measure, that he would also demolish its riverside theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. But when the criticisms began, he announced that he would resign. And with a decision on his successor not expected for another month, everything is on hold.” The Independent (UK) 07/06/02
  

TRYING TO BUILD ENGLAND’S FIRST BLACK THEATRE: “Recent figures showed 96% of English theatre staff and managers were white, while black and Asian workers were denied training and encouraged to work in kitchens.” Now there’s a plan to “raise £1.8m to demolish London’s Westminster theatre and rebuild it as the first permanent black theatre in the UK.” The Guardian (UK) 07/06/02

Monday July 8

WHY CANCEL PARKS? The Atlanta theatre Jomandi canceled a play by Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks for the National Black Arts Festival because a board member read the play and decided it would be difficult finding funding support for it. “Given that Parks’ work has received relatively little attention in Atlanta, and that the NBAF was champing at the bit to remount In the Blood, the decision was an embarrassment to Jomandi and a puzzlement to the city’s theater community. How did this happen?” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 07/07/02

LIFE BEYOND ALMEIDA: Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid are leaving the leadership of London’s Almeida Theatre after 12 years. They’ve built the theatre into one of the country’s most admired companies. “Its Islington headquarters have become a magnet for every kind of theatregoer, from the earnest to the chic. If you found V.S. Naipaul and Madonna watching Al Pacino and Fiona Shaw in Taming of the Shrew, you wouldn’t be surprised.” What’s next? There are rumors the pair might head over to the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Times (UK) 07/08/02

RENTING THE FUTURE: The Denver Civic Theatre has longstanding money problems. Now the theatre believes it has found a way out. It proposes to mount a permanent production of Rent, which it can do if it comes up with a $600,000 investment. It would be the city’s only production with an open-ended run. The company believes Rent would be the cash cow to solve all its financial woes. Denver Post 07/07/02

Sunday July 7

THE FUTURE OF BRITISH THEATRE: British theatre has been widely perceived to be looking into the abyss recently. The West End has struggled to maintain its position as one of the world’s two most important theatre districts, the scene has been invaded by Hollywood types of dubious stage acting ability, and the Royal Shakespeare Company appears to be running around like a headless chicken. But things are not as bad as they seem, and in fact, UK theatre may be on the verge of a rennaissance. A look back at the last century of UK drama, both on and off stage, offers a view of what is to come. The Guardian (UK) 07/06/02

• ALL THIS, AND MADONNA, TOO: “At the start of the 21st century, British theatre has never had quite so much variety and multiformity. The old divisions between West End and fringe, regional and metropolitan, text-based and visual or physical theatre, new writing houses and other theatres, indoor and outdoor, are thankfully crumbling away.” The Guardian (UK) 07/06/02

Friday July 5

THEATRE FOR ALL: Europe’s first “fully inclusive” theatre company utilizes actors of whatever background and whatever physical handicap. “Most of the barriers as to what society thinks a disabled person is aren’t physical. Theatre carries with it certain metaphors that relate to exclusion to underline a character, like Richard III being a hunchback the dogs bark at. That’s historical, but I want to get to the point where it’s unremarkable to see a disabled person on stage, and if he’s a crap actor, then it’s because he’s a crap actor and not being judged because he’s impaired in some way.” Glasgow Herald 07/05/02

Wednesday July 3

ACTING JOBS DECREASED IN 2001: The number of movie and television roles for Screen Actors Guild members dropped 9.3 percent last year, with supporting actors among the hardest hit. There were 48,000 roles cast last year compared to 53,000 in 2000. Nando Times (AP) 07/02/02

REINVENTING THEATRE IN BOSTON: “It was one not-so-small step for Boston and a giant stride for local theater companies yesterday, as officials broke ground in the South End for a project that will provide the city’s first new theater spaces in more than 70 years. The finished complex will include a 350-seat proscenium theater, a 200-seat black box theater and administrative support spaces for the performing arts, in addition to residential condominiums, retail and restaurant spaces.” Boston Herald 07/03/02

Tuesday July 2

MORE ABOUT THE MUSIC: Musical theatre in London and New York is changing. “But how? And why? Miss Saigon, Cats, Starlight Express – behemoths, fixtures in the West End since the 1980s – have gone. Mamma Mia, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, We Will Rock You, The Full Monty, and now Bombay Dreams have arrived. Can this new wave of musicals match or surpass the generation it replaces?” Financial Times 07/02/02

BOMBAY TO NEW YORK? It looks like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams might survive its mixed reviews in London and stay around for awhile. Producers are even talking about bringing it to New York. Would it succeed? Some are skeptical. The show may work in London where there’s an Indian population of about 2 million and where this summer Bollywood is being celebrated. But New York has neither to help boost ticket sales. New York Daily News 07/02/02

Monday July 1

TIME FOR THE NEW GENERATION: Superstar producer Cameron Mackintosh is in China, opening his latest tour. Might he be getting ready to quit, given that most of his hit shows are finally winding down? “Right now we’re between generations. It’s happened before. Between Show Boat and Oklahoma, between Fiddler and Cats, there have been gaps. Oh sure, there were hit shows, but there wasn’t a whole body of writers. And that’s what we need now. It’s time for the next generation to invent what the next lot of theatre will be.” Toronto Star 07/01/02

Sunday June 30

REPLACING GORDON: With the news that Gordon Davidson, the dean of Los Angeles theatre, will be leaving his post at the Mark Taper Forum, the city’s theatrical community has been thrown into a bout of “institutional soul-searching.” It’s not that anyone thinks that L.A.theatre won’t go on without the influential Davidson – it’s just that no one seems to be sure what the future will look like, and whether they’ll like it when they get there. Los Angeles Times 06/29/02

Friday June 28

TAPER DIRECTOR LEAVING: Gordon Davidson is stepping down as artistic director of LA’s Mark Taper Forum. “Davidson has been the artistic director of the Taper for 35 years — and of its sister theater, the Ahmanson, for 13 years — longer than any other current artistic director of a major regional theater.” The New York Times 06/28/02

THE SONDHEIM CONNECTION: Washington’s Kennedy Center Sondheim Festival has been a big success, critically and at the box office. So will any of the productions transfer to Broadway? It’s unlikely, though several producers have taken the shuttle down to check out the shows. The New York Times 06/28/02

WHERE’S BILL MAHER WHEN YOU NEED HIM? What’s a theatre company to do when the title of a classic old production risks offending the sensibilities of a modern audience? Why, change it, of course, and tradition be damned. Accordingly, a regional company in the UK will shortly be presenting a lavish production of The Bellringer of Notre Dame so as not to offend theatre-goers with scoliosis. BBC 06/28/02

Thursday June 27

TALL ORDER: “In the latest attempt to establish effective two-pronged leadership at [New York’s] Joseph Papp Public Theater, the board has named Mara Manus executive director to share the helm with the producer, George C. Wolfe… Ms. Manus, who starts her new post in August, has her work cut out for her; the Public has spent the last year trying to get its house in order after two costly Broadway flops, projected budget deficits and the departure of two key donors from the board in protest over management. In addition, the theater has started a $50 million building-improvement plan, which may include the construction of a new 499-seat theater at its East Village home.” The New York Times 06/27/02

THE BILLION-DOLLAR CIRQUE: Cirque du Soleil generates about $325 million with its eight troupes. The company is on a big expansion track, growing at a rate of about 25 percent a year, “rapidly expanding its film, TV, and recording operations. It already has deals with a number of big partners, including the major Canadian TV networks, Bravo in the U.S., Fuji in Japan, and Televisa in Mexico.” By 2007 the company expects to top $1 billion in revenues. Businessweek 06/26/02

Tuesday June 25

DOES GOOD THEATRE TRAVEL? The Bonn Biennale of international theatre is a good idea in theory. But onme quickly understands that not all theatre travels well. “Theater is an art that is tied to locality, and the strength of those ties does not automatically correspond to aesthetic quality. A kind of dramatic theory of relativity has made itself felt in Bonn and has, broadly speaking, produced three categories of play: those that can be understood and conveyed without much trouble; those whose significance in their place of origin can at least be deduced; and those that fall flat and, torn from their originating context, come across as bizarre.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/25/02

HIP-HOP AND THE THEATRE: There are signs that hip-hop is becoming more mainstream. And, in the process, starting to have an influence on mainstream theatre. “The message is reasonable enough: that the contemporary theater has abdicated its role in addressing contemporary life, turning a blind eye to emerging generations of artists with new and different stories to tell and a new and different way of telling them.” The New York Times 06/25/02

SINKING LIKE A ROCK: It seems every old rock music act is being remade into musical theatre. Is this really a good idea? “Rock’n’roll may have done a great deal for us in terms of hair and trousers, but its adolescent insistence on cool over the musical’s reliance on joy has subsequently made us all too self-conscious to suddenly break into song.” The Times (UK) 06/25/02

Monday June 24

PUBLIC THEATRE CUTS BACK: New York’s Public Theatre had an artistically satisfying season. But the theatre’s carrying a big debt, it laid off staff in November, and is producing only one show in Central Park this year rather than two. “Like every other cultural institution in the city, we’re dealing with the realities. Instead of two shows it’s one show, but it can run longer and more people can see it.” The New York Times 06/24/02

THEATRE’S ANCIENT ROOTS: “In the millennium between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, hundreds of theaters sprang up throughout the Mediterranean region, as well as in the Greek and Roman colonies. The the audience recognized itself in the mirror offered by the events on the stage. Yet even when the theater began to sever its religious roots and dilute its political element, it remained true to is original, lofty determination to promote self-knowledge. In order to function, theater in fact requires only three elements: a script, actors and an audience. Endless variations of those elements were played out in ancient times.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/23/02

RICHARD RODGERS AT 100: “According to ASCAP, three hundred and seventy-six of Rodgers’s works are still in active circulation (the Beatles, by comparison, have a mere hundred and fifty-four). Thirty movies have been made from his scores, including “The Sound of Music” (1965), which is by every standard the most successful movie musical of all time, and, if you adjust for inflation, the third-largest-grossing film, after “Gone with the Wind” and “Star Wars.” Rodgers’s music has been heard in two hundred and eighty-five other feature films, and in more than twenty-seven hundred television shows. If you were to calculate the number of performances that Rodgers’s shows have had on Broadway, the total would be twenty thousand four hundred and fifty-seven, or, figuring eight a week, the equivalent of fifty years of a Broadway run.” The New Yorker 06/24/02

BACK IN PUBLIC: Playwright Tom Stoppard is back in public. He’s working at the National, and a rather thick new book about him has hit bookstores. “The fizzing cogency for which his plays are famed is hard won. He works long hours, shuns dinner parties because they conflict with his preferred working time, and has no concept of leisure, except that time devoted to his four sons (aged 27 to 36) and two grandchildren.” London Evening Standard 06/21/02

REMAKING A THEATRE INSTITUTION: The annual summer Charlottetown Festival in Prince Edward Island is a cash cow with the tourist appeal of its Anne of Green Gables franchise. But in recent years artistic standards have not been high. Now Duncan McIntosh, who previously ran Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre for five years is “the latest fair-haired boy to be parachuted in to save the Festival. This time, however, it may actually work.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/24/02

Sunday June 23

VALJEAN IN SHANGHAI: After several years of negotiations and logistical complexities, the world’s most populous nation will, for the first time, play host to one of the West’s most beloved musicals. Les Miserables, the Cameron Mackintosh production adapted from the Victor Hugo novel of French revolutionaries, will make its debut in Shanghai this weekend. The performance will be in the show’s original English, with Chinese supertitles projected over the stage. BBC 06/21/02

HE’S SEEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT ON BROADWAY: Brenda and Eddie may have had it already by the summer of ’75, and Anthony may have ditched his job at the grocery store to move out to the country, but the characters in those classic Billy Joel songs of yesteryear will be reunited this fall in an ambitious (and expensive) new Broadway show being put together by Joel and, of all people, choreographer Twyla Tharp. Naturally, the pressure on the creators to pull off a big shot blockbuster is quite high, and Joel is a bit nervous about his introduction to the theater crowd. No truth to the rumors of a preview run in Allentown, PA. Chicago Tribune 06/23/02

Friday June 21

BOLLYWOOD DREAMIN’: It’s the summer of Bollywood in London, and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bollywood Dreams has opened in the West End. Is it something new and different? “It’s a bold, inventive shot at something new that misses the target. Crucially the music by the famous Indian composer, AR Rahman, played by a tiny, 10-strong orchestra, falls blandly between two worlds. Far too often it sounds more western than Indian. The mix is dull.” London Evening Standard 06/21/02

• Previously: NOW FOR THE REVIEWS: Opening night audiences gave Andrew Lloyd Webber a standing ovation for his new show Bollywood Dreams. Now an anxious wait for the reviews; Lloyd Webber admits the advance ticket sale hasn’t been good, and reviews are likely to determine its fate. ALW needs a hit. His last couple projects haven’t fared well, and his long-running blockbusters have been closing in London and New York. BBC 06/20/02

THE GLOBE IN GERMANY: “Germany’s best-kept theatrical secret is a festival of Shakespeare with stagings in – I kid you not – a Globe theatre. Unlike the London space, there is no yard for groundlings and the theatre has a canvas roof. Made of wood and steel, and painted white, the structure stands, Tardis-like, a cylinder from another world – another country, indeed – next to a not particularly attractive car park usually reserved for punters visiting Neuss’s very ordinary race-course.” Financial Times 06/21/02

Thursday June 20

KING ON TOP: The National tour debut of The Lion King in Dallas has been a hit. In a ten-week run the show attracted 214,000 customers and sold $13 million in tickets. The city also figures the show generated $52 million for the Denver economy. Denver Post 06/20/02

NOW FOR THE REVIEWS: Opening night audiences gave Andrew Lloyd Webber a standing ovation for his new show Bollywood Dreams. Now an anxious wait for the reviews; Lloyd Webber admits the advance ticket sale hasn’t been good, and reviews are likely to determine its fate. ALW needs a hit. His last couple projects haven’t fared well, and his long-running blockbusters have been closing in London and New York. BBC 06/20/02

THAT WAS FAST: Now that Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura has decided not to run for reelection, “plans for The Body Ventura” – a musical that promised, among other things, a sung-through political debate and dancing Navy SEALs – have been scrapped.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 06/19/02

Tuesday June 18

WHAT EUROPEAN THEATRE LOOKS LIKE: “European theater packs itself in for a 10-day run in just one city. Bonn has become Babylon: From last Thursday until next Saturday, 27 works from 19 countries are being performed in 17 different languages.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/17/02

SHAKESPEARE – IN NEED OF AN UPDATE? Is Shakespeare’s language too archaic for the modern reader to understand? “Are non-English-speakers, as some Shakespeare scholars have suggested, more at home with their translated Shakespeare than English-speakers with their genuine article?” A new book suggests some updating and clarifications might be in order. The Economist 06/14/02

HE’S BACK… Garth Drabinsky, the Canadian theatre impressario whose empire came crashing down amid scandal a few seasons back, has won some of Toronto’s top drama awards for his comeback show this past season. “Four years ago, in an unceremonious way, I was stripped of every award I ever received in theatre,” he said after accepting the outstanding production award. Toronto Star 06/18/02

Monday June 17

PASSING ON PUPPETS: The Australian cities of Cairns and Bundaberg are banning performances of the show Puppetry of the Penis in their civic theatres. “The show features two men manipulating their penises and scrotum into shapes such as a hamburger, windsurfer and the Eiffel Tower. It has been seen by more than 420,000 people around the world and is now playing in New York, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/17/02

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS? So Broadway had its first down year in a while. “But when you consider the terrible trauma of September 11, which initially looked as if it was going to bring Broadway to its knees, the figures strike me as remarkably resilient. My hunch is that Broadway is actually faring better than the West End.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/17/02

Sunday June 16

THE CASE FOR A NATIONAL THEATRE: “If the American play is ever to survive on Broadway, something must replace the function of the independent producer. To flourish, plays must have sustenance, a place to grow and a means to do so. What better environment than a national theater, right in the middle of Broadway?” The New York Times 06/16/02

• SHOULDN’T IT BE MORE THAN BROADWAY? Lincoln Center Theater has failed its great original purpose, writes Clive Barnes. “Not from a financial point of view. In fact, I imagine the theater is nicely in the black. Money isn’t the point. But for all its box-office success, the Lincoln Center Theater is doing a remarkably unadventurous job.” New York Post 06/16/02

DENVER THEATRE UP: The Denver Center Theatre closed out its season with a 19 percent increase in attendance for the year. “Season-ticket sales took a beating because of the economic downturn followed by terrorism, but single-ticket sales more than made up for it.” Denver Post 06/16/02

Friday June 14

TONY BOUNCE: The Tony TV ratings might have been bad, but the awards provided their usual boost at the box office. Total revenue on Broadway was up $1 million from the week before. Backstage 06/13/02

THE LOCK ON PROGRAMS: What does Playbill’s purchase of Stagebill mean for theatre programs? “With Playbill the undisputed program provider of choice for Broadway and Off-Broadway, and with Stagebill similarly recognized for ballet, opera, and symphony orchestras, the combined entity will have a virtual monopoly when it comes to providing programs for New York’s major performing arts venues. Because Playbill and Stagebill are also major program providers for venues in Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities, their combined reach will be national and unparalleled in scope.” Backstage 06/13/02

LOOKING FOR SHAKESPEAREVILLE: A replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Odessa Texas isn’t exactly authentic (plush seats and a climate-controlled theatre with a roof are two of the improvements), but after falling into decline after its 1960s opening, the theatre is rebuilding its fortunes. It aims to be a Texasified Shakespeare village in the tradition of Ashland Oregon, America’s largest Shakespeare festival. The Independent (UK) 06/10/02

REVIEWING “DOWN THERE”: They may not be willing to print the show’s title in an ad, but the Birmingham News has reviewed The Vagina Monologues (where the title shows up in the lead). The BN critic even liked it – we think – calling it a “frank, funny, sometimes poignant production. Birmingham News 06/13/02

• Previously: BIRMINGHAM PRINTS AD: The Birmingham News ran an ad for a production of The Vagina Monologues Sunday “after haggling between the play’s staff and The News.” But the paper would not allow the name of the play to be used in the ad. “It was all in one font type, no headline, graphics or photographs, and it didn’t contain the title of the show. Instead, an asterisk directed interested folks to call a phone number for the name. ‘Our responsibility is to our readers, to be sure no one is offended’.” Tuscaloosa News 06/10/02

Thursday June 13

ANCIENT OUTDOOR THEATRE: London’s ancient amphitheatre is open again, after being buried for 1600 years. “Modern visitors will be able to follow the route taken for almost 300 years by excited Roman citizens, by gladiators who might survive to become wealthy sporting superstars, and by condemned criminals, who would certainly be torn apart by wild animals or weapons.” The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

SHAKESPEARE IN CHINA: The Royal Shakespeare Company travels to China, where the audiences are small (it’s far too expensive for ordinary Chinese) but enthusiastic. “Chinese drama is in a critical state. The audience for theatre is very small compared to film and television. But it has a few supporters, mainly among students and better-paid clerks, and it still attracts the leading thinkers and opinion formers. Very few foreign performances are seen in Beijing, so the visit of the Royal Shakespeare Company gives us a chance to communicate with different cultures and different thoughts.” The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

JUST ONE SCENE: “Cameo. In all the lexicography of actor-speak, no single word is used so often or possesses such nuance of meaning. If Jack Nicholson only had one scene in a movie, you can bet he’d grip the wrists of friends at dinner parties and whisper: ‘It’s a cameo.’ The word is a godsend. For those of you who’ve never asked an actor about the size of his part, cameo is a word that means small – but suggests big.” Just don’t underestimate how difficult they can be. The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

Tuesday June 11

DENVER KILLS NEW PLAY FEST: Since 1984-85, the Denver Center Theatre Company has staged the annual TheatreFest to showcase new plays and playwrights. In 18 years the festival considered 27,000 scripts and chose more than 200 for full or partial staged readings. “Of those, 45 eventually became fully produced, making up a large chunk of the 96 world premieres the DCTC has presented in the past 23 years. But the company’s budget, which comes from interest generated by Bonfils Foundation assets, was ordered cut after last year’s downward market turn.” So the company is suspending the $160,000 event. Denver Post 06/11/02

PROVING GROUNDS: Gone are the days when big expensive shows had their world premieres on Broadway. More often now, they debut in other cities before moving on. “Mounting a new musical in New York has become so expensive that producers are loath to take the risk of failure. They prefer to wait until shows are proven at places like Theater Under the Stars in Houston, which has just moved into a dazzling $100-million home designed especially to stage lavish musicals.” The New York Times 06/11/02

BOLLYWOOD SHOWS CANCELED: In London it’s the summer of Bollywood, with numerous big Indian productions setting up. But one of the biggest featuring a cast of 100, including “the best known actors and singers from Indian film” is being canceled. “The promoters of From India with Love said the shows could not be staged as the withdrawal of British embassy staff from India left them with no guarantee the cast could get visas in time.” BBC 06/11/02

BIRMINGHAM PRINTS AD: The Birmingham News ran an ad for a production of The Vagina Monologues Sunday “after haggling between the play’s staff and The News.” But the paper would not allow the name of the play to be used in the ad. “It was all in one font type, no headline, graphics or photographs, and it didn’t contain the title of the show. Instead, an asterisk directed interested folks to call a phone number for the name.” The paper says about the originally rejected ad: “There is the name itself, ‘Vagina Monologues.’ But that was not the real issue; it was the way the layout was done.’ The ad featured a microphone stand (The Vagina Monologues is performed with a bare stage, no props or sets), and double-entendre tag lines such as ‘spread the word.’ ‘We told them, “If you’ll calm this down, we’ll run it in a heartbeat. Our responsibility is to our readers, to be sure no one is offended.” Tuscaloosa News 06/10/02

YOUNG PEOPLE – SHAKESPEARE’S HIP: A new poll of young people in Britain reports that a third of young people say Shakespeare’s works are “relevant to their lives and have made an important contribution to the English language. Only 3 per cent of those polled said they would feel intimidated by going to see a Shakespeare production. The survey of 15 to 35-year-olds, conducted for the Royal Shakespeare Company, also found that more of them have visited a theatre in the past year than have been to a pop concert.” The Scotsman 06/11/02

Monday June 10

PLAYBILL BUYS STAGEBILL: Stagebill, one of America’s leading program publishers is being acquired by Playbill, its chief competitor. “New York-based Playbill confirmed it has acquired the rights to publish under the Stagebill name, effective Sept. 1, but offered no other details on the deal, in a prepared statement Friday.” Chicago Tribune 06/10/02

Sunday June 9

SUCCESS BOMB: Sweet Smell of Success was once one of the highest-touted projects coming to Broadway. And yes, it was nominated for big Tony awards. But it wasn’t enough to stave off closing the show next week. Backers will have lost their entire $10 million investment. “Instead of running five years, Sweet Smell of Success barely limped its way through three months. What happened?” Washington Post 06/09/02

PROVING AN AUDIENCE FOR THE AVANT-GARDE? A new avant-garde production of King Lear in Los Angeles is carrying a lot of hopes. Produced “in six sites in a 30,000-square-foot former power plant just off the 5 Freeway, this King Lear features postmodern aesthetics, a suspended car wreck and an array of other, similarly outsized effects. Four years in the making, the production is one of the theater community’s most highly anticipated events this season. However, it will be a tough ticket; only 140 people can see each show during its short run. But more than the usual wishes for a well-received production, those involved hope the success of this King Lear will prove there is, indeed, an appetite here for this kind of large-scale avant-garde work – and will justify their plans to produce more such events.” Los Angeles Times 06/09/02

WHAT AILS THE TONYS: Frank Rizzo is fed up with the Tony Awards broadcast. “Last week’s show on CBS was simply awful, registering the lowest ratings ever. Even the one-hour show on PBS – traditionally the smarter segment – suffered from sameness and self-importance. It doesn’t have to be that way. Remember Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White in a hideous musical number at the Oscars years back? Following that humiliation, the Oscars changed. Why can’t the Tonys?” Rizzo offers a list of suggestions to fix the Tonys. Hartford Courant 06/09/02

END OF AN ERA IN BOSTON: Robert Brustein has ended 22 years running American Repertory Theatre, and, in critic Ed Siegel’s opinion, “the Boston area loses its most important cultural leader.” His aesthetic changed the way theatre is done in Boston. Not that everything was a success – Brustein’s championing of new and experimental theatre and his willingness to take chances led to a lot of duds. But “to put the best light on it, when you swing for the fences, as ART usually does, you are bound to strike out more. The hits and misses are all a function of the ART’s aesthetic, one that at its most adventurous is uncompromisingly postmodernist.” Boston Globe 06/09/02

Friday June 7

LEAST-WATCHED TONYS BROADCASTS STILL HELPS BOX OFFICE: Last Sunday’s Tony Awards TV broadcast got its lowest ratings ever. Some blame the nationally televised Sacramento Kings/LA Lakes playoff game running opposite the awards, which attracted more than three times as many viewers. Still, plays in contention for Tonys saw box office sales double Monday after the bradcast. Baltimore Sun (AP) 06/07/02

GOT THEIR GOAT: Producers of The Goat are protesting a color ad that mistakenly got printed in this upcoming Sunday’s New York Times Arts & Leisure section that proclaims that the play Metamorphoses won a Best Play Tony last weekend. But it was The Goat, the Edward Albee play that won the award. “It wasn’t clear how the mix-up occurred. The section’s entire run is printed Wednesday for distribution on Saturday and Sunday.” Nando Times (AP) 06/06/02

Thursday June 6

BROADWAY’S OFF-YEAR: The numbers are in and they’re not pretty. “A total of 10,958,432 tickets were purchased during the season, a decline of 7.9% from last year, when it reached a record-breaking 11.5 million. It was the first time the numbers fell below 11,000,000 since the 1995-1996 season. According to an in-depth analysis of the season’s statistics released last week by the League of American Theatres and Producers, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the softening national economy, and ‘the ensuing demographic changes of theatregoers’ – meaning fewer tourists in New York City – are all to be attributed for the decline.” Backstage 06/05/02

WHY I LEFT THE RSC: In March, star director Edward Hall famously quit the Royal Shakespeare Company during rehearsals for Edward III. He refused to give reasons, “beyond admitting disagreements over casting, but the press had a field day. Here was one of the rising stars of the younger generation – the kind of blade Adrian Noble’s controversial restructuring was supposed to be attracting – and the son of the RSC’s founder Sir Peter Hall to boot, washing his hands of the project.” Now he talks about the incident: “The notion that I left that show in order to do a commercial production is insulting, preposterous and slanderous.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/06/02

Wednesday June 5

CLOSING SMELL: Failing to win major Tony awards, the Sweet Smell of Success is closing on Broadway. Star John Lithgow: “A lot of critics disliked this show, and a lot of important critics disliked it a lot. The whole time I’ve worked on it, I’ve loved it and thought it was something unique and new and daring.” Nando Times (AP) 06/04/02

Tuesday June 4

FLORIDA BUSH PLAYS HARDBALL: The State of Florida and Miami’s Coconut Grove Playhouse are in a dispute about money. The governor is threatening to veto $500,000 allocated to the theatre if the theatre’s board doesn’t release the state from responsibility for $15 million in maintenance for the Playhouse. “On Friday afternoon, Gov. Jeb Bush’s office faxed the Playhouse an 18-line memo, which caught managers there by surprise. The state, which purchased the Playhouse property in 1980, leases it back to the board for $1 a year. But as the landlord, the state remains obligated to provide maintenance, according to the lease, which runs through 2063.” Miami Herald 06/03/02

GUTHRIE DECIDES TO GO AHEAD: Though Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura vetoed $25 million in proposed state funding for the Guthrie Theatre’s new theatre, “the Guthrie Theater board has decided to continue with design and pre-construction work on its $125 million complex proposed for the Mississippi riverfront in Minneapolis.” The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/04/02

STRITCH SOUNDS OFF: Producers of Sunday night’s Tony Awards were generally ruthless about pushing winners to keep their speeches short. Most wrapped up the talking as soon as they heard the music nudge them when their two minutes were up. One who didn’t, and was caught mid-sentence was Elaine Stritch. “The 76-year-old Broadway star was thanking her producers when the orchestra started playing over her speech…’Please, don’t do this to me’,” she pleaded as the telecast cut to commercial. “Backstage, Stritch, crying and shaking with anger, said, ‘I am very, very upset. I know CBS can’t let people do the Gettysburg Address at the Tonys, but they should have given me my time’.” New York Post 06/03/02

Monday June 3

THE GOAT/MILLIE TAKE TOP TONYS: Go figure – Thoroughly Modern Millie wins Best Musical at Sunday night’s Tony Awards, but “the critically acclaimed but offbeat Urinetown: The Musical won for direction, score and book of a musical.” So the ingredients for Urinetown were better, but Millie still made the better salad? The New York Times 06/03/02

Sunday June 2

BROADWAY – WHO AM I? “These days … Broadway’s most conspicuous malady seems to be less its economic vulnerability — though that certainly remains a concern — than a severe personality disorder. Seeking to stay healthy in an age ruled by technology and mass-produced images, the mainstream New York theater has never seemed so desperately eager to please or less sure of how to do so.” The New York Times 06/02/02

• REVIVAL FEVER: “Yes, we’re living in the 21st Century. But if you look at this season’s Broadway marquees – or at the nominations for tonight’s 56th annual Tony Awards – you’ll see Broadway remains obsessed with reviving old shows, turning movies into musicals and beefing up its box office by trading on a movie star’s appeal. Whatever happened to new plays and playwrights? Challenging work? Actors committed to the stage?” Miami Herald 06/02/02
• SERIOUS COMPETITION: Most years the big notice at the Tonys is reserved for the musicals. Not this year. This year the action’s in drama, with three serious, edgy, first-rate contenders. “For those who thought the Tonys were a sanctuary for conservative old-timers, this race is a real stunner.” Dallas Morning News 06/02/02
• JAZZING UP THE TONYS: How to make the boring Tony Awards more interesting? “I’d have a show that screamed Broadway in capital lights, a spectacle that Ziegfeld wouldn’t be ashamed to put his moniker on, or at least one that wouldn’t make him churn up his grave after seeing it on TV. Admittedly, I haven’t yet been paid to work out the details, but I could hardly do worse than has been done, could I?” New York Post 06/02/02

WHEN THE TRY-OUT GOES SOUTH: This whole business of out-of-town tryouts before bringing a show to Broadway is presumably to find out what works and fix the things that don’t. But sometimes the reverse happens. The Tony-nominated Thoroughly Modern Millie, for example, started out at the La Jolla Playhouse with “a relaxed comic spirit. Its silliness didn’t feel leaden; it was buoyant.” By the time it got to Broadway it was clear that “the creative team went to work, and apparently couldn’t stop from futzing with every single element, even the elements that worked.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

END OF THE AVENUE: Denver says goodbye to a beloved theatre – the Avenue has lost its lease and is closing after 16 years. The place was a dump, but it was home to “perhaps the funniest theater company in Denver history”. “Just the other day I was thinking, I hate this (bleep) hole. I’m not going to miss it here at all. I hate the (bleeping) leaks. It’s hot in the summertime. There are mice downstairs. But now everybody’s started talking and . . . Oh, this is just so sad!” Denver Post 06/02/02

REGIONAL THEATRE IN DECLINE: What happened to America’s regional theatre movement? It all started so promisingly… Robert Brustein says its gone “downhill slowly but steadily, fueled by the disintegration of public finances for serious art, by dependence on the tastes of an indiscriminate subscription base, by an incursion of commercial fare into regional theaters, by the loss of a basic understanding that nonprofit theater was meant to be different than commercial theater. Over the years, nonprofit-theater executives began acting more and more like commercial producers, bringing to their communities not so much Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen – not to mention new generations of playwrights – but the best of Broadway and off-Broadway.” Hartford Courant 06/02/02

LONDON’S AMERICAN ACCENT: American plays and performers have invaded London’s West End, dominating this summer’s offerings. “It’s hard to generalize about the reasons for this, but in a London too often forced to rely on revivals, there is a great hunger for energetic new writing. The spicy, stinging dialogue of so many contemporary American plays appeals to the British, as does the size and scope that the nation’s drama appears to have reacquired since it emerged from the back porch in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.” The New York Times 06/02/02

• AND AMERICAN STARS? “Could there also be another, less frequently cited factor that makes London attractive: that British critics are seen as something of a soft touch compared with their New York counterparts, who may in turn be less blinded by celebrity glare? One wonders, for instance, whether Gwyneth Paltrow in Proof would have prompted the same set of raves in New York.” The New York Times 06/02/02

Friday May 31

BROADWAY DOWN: After a decade of solid gains, Broadway saw a decline in business for the season just ended. “The total taken for the entire season stood at $642.5m (£438m), $22.9m less than in the previous year. The year 2000-1, by contrast, had seen a big yearly increase of 10.4%. The number of people buying tickets dropped almost one million to 10.9 million, below the 11 million mark for the first time since 1995-96.” BBC 05/30/02

HANDICAPPING THE TONYS: Who’s going to win at this Sunday’s Tony Awards? When the nominees were announced, it seemed like a wide open field. But “in the last week, a strong consensus has formed as to who will win come Sunday night at 8, when Broadway’s elite will gather at Radio City Music Hall to hand out some precious silver-plated tchotchkes and draw the curtain on the 2001-2 season.” The New York Times 05/31/02

• ON THE OTHER HAND… “A highly unscientific survey of 15 Tony voters (there are 731 in all, all theater insiders), indicates that the races in several categories have tightened up considerably in the past few days.” New York Post 05/31/02

Thursday May 30

POWERED BY COKE: London’s West End theatres are alive with references to cocaine. “With so many coke references in front of you in the theatre, you begin to wonder just what’s going on backstage. For centuries, acting – like journalism – was one of the great drinking professions. Actors and alcohol have traditionally gone together like Burton and Taylor. Yet the eclipse of the stage-drunk by the stage-junkie suggests something has changed.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/30/02

SPEAKING OF SUCCESS: It’s not just playwrights and directors who make an actor great in a role. The right vocal coach can transform a performance. Patsy Rodenburg is the top vocal coach in the UK, the voice behind some of the country’s great actors. “While all theatrical voice coaches aim to expand the way actors speak both physically and mentally, Rodenburg has a reputation for radical methodology. In life, as in her books, she seems driven by a rigorous curiosity about how every aspect of an actor’s physicality, mental state, and even elements in their personal history, can erupt both positively and negatively in the way they speak.” London Evening Standard 05/28/02

THE MAN WHO’S SUCCEEDING BRUSTEIN: Director Robert Woodruff is taking over the artistic directorship of American Repertory Theatre, succeeding the legendary Robert Brustein, who is leaving after 23 years. What can ART’s subscribers expect? “A good guess would be yet more envelope-pushing interpretations of classics. At least that’s what’s suggested by the most recent Woodruff-directed project in Cambridge.” Boston Magazine 05/02

Wednesday May 29

STRATFORD’S GOLDEN YEAR: Canada’s Stratford Theatre Festival redefined what theatre could be outside of the world’s urban centers, and this year, it turns fifty. The sleepy farming town in western Ontario has become Canada’s answer to Cannes, and the golden anniversary is making headlines across the country. Edmonton Journal 05/29/02

• IT COULD’VE BEEN FLASHIER: Stratford’s 50th anniversary is the type of national event that should have been celebrated with champagne corks popping, crowds of delirious fans, and plenty of self-congratulation. “Instead, Monday’s bash had all the glamour and excitement of a community centre fundraiser. The mood was feel-good in a peculiarly restrained, understated lords-and-ladies-of-Upper-Canada-on-their-best-behaviour kind of way.” Toronto Star 05/29/02

Tuesday May 28

AN ODE TO CHICAGO: Chicago has more than 200 theatre companies. This year’s Tony award nominations were dominated by productions which had their start in Chicago. “Theater in Chicago has reached critical mass after growing steadily in size and quality since the 1980’s. The Tony nominations are only the latest indication of how important this city has become as a feeder of plays not just to New York but also to other cities and countries.” The New York Times 05/28/02

BACK FROM THE FRINGE: There are plenty of fringe theatre productions that pass into oblivion after they finish their first run. Now a fringe fan is capturing fringe theatre on digital cameras, recording productions for history. “He hopes to build enough interest to persuade chains such as Hollywood Video or Blockbuster to carry them, and eventually to move into cable TV.” Los Angeles Times 05/27/02

Monday May 27

PLAYING SWEET: It wasn’t too many years ago that playwright Peter Gill was bitter and frustrated by British theatre. “Now 62, the Cardiff-born writer and director, who made his name at the Royal Court in the 1960s, is enjoying the kind of exposure that is generally accorded only to the very young or very dead.” The Guardian (UK) 05/27/02

Sunday May 26

THE ASIAN MOZART? Andrew Lloyd Webber believes he’s found the composer who could rejuvenate musical theatre. A R Rahman is a sensation in his native India. “His scores have been composed for some of India’s most successful films, including Dil Se and Lagaan, which was nominated for best foreign film in this year’s Oscars. With sales of more than 100 million, his albums have sold more than Britney Spears and Madonna combined.” Now Lloyd Webber has asked him to write a musical and is producing it in London’s West End. The Telegraph (UK) 05/25/02

BACK TO THE PAST: More and more theatre artists are looking back to ancient Greece and Rome. “We are seeing so many playwrights build new works from a common source of history, myth and tradition. It is as if they — and we, their audience — are on a scavenger hunt through the past. We are looking for treasure in the form of cultural continuity; old griefs and pleasures felt again and more clearly; revelations about who we are and whether we can (or cannot) change.” The New York Times 05/26/02

IF HARTFORD’S TOO CLOSE… why not Seattle for that out-of-town big-budget Broadway-bound musical? Producers of Hairspray have brought the show for a tryout before heading to New York. “The fact that Seattle is auditioning for this role now attests to the changing nature of Broadway production and to the city’s burgeoning cultural profile.” Seattle Times 05/26/02

Friday May 24

TONYS DIRTY TRICKS: Someone has been writing nasty letters to Tony Awards judges, pretending to be Tony-nominated actor Gregg Edelman. “Last week, at least four prominent Tony voters, including Into the Woods composer Stephen Sondheim, received nasty letters, ostensibly written by Edelman, accusing them of failing to appreciate the actor’s talents and of bad-mouthing him behind his back. The letters were printed on stationery with Edelman’s name in capital letters at the top and were signed ‘G.E.’.” Edelman says he didn’t write them. New York Post 05/24/02

Thursday May 23

A GOVERNOR PILEDRIVES ARTS FUNDING: Governor Jesse Ventura of Minnesota, he of the pro wrestling background and snarling visage, has used his veto pen to wipe out tens of millions of dollars of arts funding from this year’s state budget. Hardest hit is the nationally renowned Guthrie Theater, which had been scheduled to receive $24 million for a new theater on the Mississippi riverfront, and will now receive nothing at all. Ventura claims that government funding of the arts is a slippery slope (though he just signed a bill funding a $330 million ballpark for the local baseball team,) while the Guthrie’s artistic director calls the governor destructive and dictatorial. Minneapolis Star Tribune 05/23/02

UGLY SMELL: Producers of Tony-nominated musical Sweet Smell of Success think the press has been unfair. “They’ve fired off a letter to Tony voters that takes theater columnists from the New York Times, the New York Post and Variety to task for ‘going out of their way to undermine Sweet Smell of Success at every opportunity.” New York Post 05/22/02

IN SEARCH OF FAME: There is an increasingly popular strain of show that exists as much for its ever-changing cast of famous players as for the show itself. “These shows exist on regular injections of famous names. They change their casts like a drag act changes frocks – each one just as fabulous, just as glittery as the one before – and interest is as much in what the next change will be as in the show itself.” The Scotsman 05/20/02

Wednesday May 22

ONLY BROADWAY: Broadway has rebounded in a big way since the dark days after September 11. The help Broadway got from the city in the form of ticket purchases and financial assistance was welcomed. But Off-Broadway and other performing groups were not included in the bailout, and hard feelings remain. The New York Times 05/22/02

WHAT’S WRONG WITH BRITISH THEATRE: Director Declan Donnellan is back in London to stage Tony Kushner’s new play, but he’s got some misgivings about the local arts scene. “People involved in theatre in Britain are mistreated and misunderstood. ‘We are quite cruel to artists. Even the way we call them ‘luvvies’ is a put-down. There is an envy of the artist that is dressed up as anger in this country. Look at the way that the theatre only makes the front news when it’s bad news or something goes wrong at the RSC. I still think of Britain as home, but it is quite hard for it to be’.” The Guardian (UK) 05/22/02

THOROUGHLY UNINSPIRED: How did we end up with Thoroughly Modern Millie as the favorite to win this year’s Best Musical Tony? “The musical season was generally as unreliable as the year in precipitation. There were only seven new tuners, and only five of them had original songs, so when it came down to picking the four nominees for best score, basically 80 percent of the shows that opened got a nod! (Anybody want to write a musical? We’ll have plaques up the wazoo.)” Village Voice 05/21/02

Tuesday May 21

HOW TO START A THEATRE WITH NO MONEY DOWN: “In the insular world of Toronto’s theatre community, Ronald Weihs and Judith Sandiford are outsiders – but outsiders who have emerged as important players.” With no government funding, they’ve started their own theatre and become a refuge for small companies. National Post 05/20/02

SELLOUT: An Australian critic is tired of the kind of theatre he’s been seeing lately. “Authenticity in the theatre is up for grabs these days. Commercialism and homogeny, not passion and difference, are turning some sections of the mainstream theatre into a sterile playground, if there can be such a thing. So many productions are predictable and lacking in nerve.” Sydney Morning Herald 05/21/02

Sunday May 19

THE MONSTER THAT ATE BROADWAY: When the giant, traditionally West Coast-based media companies began making a move on the New York theater scene several years back, independent producers shrieked that the invasion would mean the end of meaningful theater in the city. “Their concerns may have been overstated, at least as to how rapidly they might be displaced, but the reality is that major companies have settled in and altered the landscape. The resurgent interest in family-oriented fare… the new look of Times Square; the sustained appeal of Broadway to tourists: these can all be traced in some measure to the commitment large companies have made to the theater district. New York Times 05/19/02

SPRAWLING TOWARDS SUBURBIA: “The suburbs still may offer a more desirable lifestyle for millions of Americans, but the performing arts industry relentlessly glorifies the urban experience. The arts, we’re often told, thrive on big-city challenges and iconography. That’s especially true in Chicago, with its long-standing but self-aware tradition of gritty theatrical excellence. But while the big downtown theaters… suck up most of the attention and money, theaters beyond the city limits are struggling. And it has become increasingly clear that a theatrical life in the suburbs — even in the more affluent areas — does not necessarily mean greener pastures.” Chicago Tribune 05/19/02

Friday May 17

MILLIE BY A HEAD? It’s campaign season on Broadway, and productions are trying to get noticed by the Tony judges. Thoroughly Modern Millie has pulled into the lead with an advertising blitz and reinvigorated box office. Urinetown is fading (it just wouldn’t play out on the prairies), and Mama Mia! seems content to sit back and count its money. New York Post 05/17/02

TWO PLAYS RUNNING: Alan Ayckbourn’s new play is really two plays that run on adjacent stages. “The audience stays put. People are invited to see both plays at separate performances but that is not essential to their understanding either one. The plays start at the same time, break for intermission at the same time and are supposed to end at the same time, give or take a few seconds, so that the actors can run back and forth between the two theaters and bow at the same time.” The New York Times 05/17/02

Thursday May 16

I LOVE/HATE L.A.: “The playwrights who call Los Angeles home share a passionate love/hate relationship with the place. Catch them in the middle of workshop rehearsal for a new play, and they are likely to sing the joys of working in a place that offers artistic freedom, cultural diversity, an affordable lifestyle, a high concentration of great actors, the option of dabbling in industry work, and an abundance of strange and fascinating subject matter. Catch them on a bad day and you’ll hear your fair share of ranting: L.A. writers are stigmatized, ghettoized the second they attempt to step outside the city limits.” Backstage 05/15/02

Wednesday May 15

TONYS GET HOSTS: The Tony Awards finally have hosts – Gregory Hines and Bernadette Peters. Several stars had been asked to host, but declined. “Industry reaction to the Peters-Hines combo is pretty much what it’s been for this whole lackluster season: yawn. Says one producer: ‘I think everybody’s looking ahead to 2003. Maybe things will be more exciting next year’.” New York Post 05/15/02

BARBICAN CHIEF ROASTS RSC: The head of London’s Barbican Centre has lashed out at the Royal Shakespeare Company for abandoning its leases on two theatres at the complex. “The two stages the RSC used at the Barbican were built for it to its specifications and the company received £1.8m a year in Arts Council subsidy to perform on them. Graham Sheffield also criticised the Arts Council, which funded the RSC, for failing to exercise ‘either responsibility or common sense’ over the RSC’s decision to quit its long-time home in the capital.” The Independent (UK) 05/15/02

STAR STRUCK: “In what seems to be the new mode of the London summer theatre season, big-ticket stages are crawling with Hollywood film stars: Matt Damon, Summer Phoenix and Casey Affleck (the little brother of Gwyneth’s ex-love, Ben Affleck) have taken over as the pot-smoking cast of slackers in This Is Our Youth, at the Garrick. Their director, Laurence Boswell, also directs Madonna. The sudden influx of U.S. star power has taken the London media by storm. So many American actors to gush over, so little glam-shot space!” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/15/02

MAD FOR THE MATERIAL GIRL: The hottest ticket in London’s West End? Madonna’s stage debut, which opened this week. “Fans arrived at 11am and waited in drizzle for eight hours for a chance to see the 43-year-old singer’s West End debut in David Williamson’s Up For Grabs – an arts-world satire in which she plays Loren, a ruthless dealer going to any length to shift a Jackson Pollock. Queueing was a tiresome process, but cheaper than paying between £150 and £400 on the black market.” The Guardian (UK) 05/14/02

• BLOODY AWFUL: So how’d she do? Reactions ranged “from lukewarm to decidedly icy – and that was from her fans. The singer’s performance was variously described as ‘awful’ ‘stiff’ and ‘forced’.” The Independent (UK) 05/14/02

Tuesday May 14

ACTORS – ONE-IN-FOUR WORKS: New statistics compiled by the Screen Actors Guild show that “23% of union members did not work during 1996-2000 and that 36% have worked less than five days in those five years.” It’s important to observe that many actors qaulified for membership in the union don’t actively work anymore. But… Yahoo! (Variety) 05/13/02

LONE COWBOY: What made Adrian Noble leave his job as head of the Royal Shakespeare Company? Well, there was all the criticism, of course. Noble had the unfortunate habit of talking about his plans for the company in the first (and only) person. Did he ever have the support of the company’s board for his grandiose plans? We may never know – but he’s become a good example of why it’s so important to play well with others. New Statesman 05/13/02

Monday May 13

JOBS JOBS JOBS: “Training films, or ‘corporate videos’ to give them their official title, are one of the more curious backwaters of the acting game. There is a huge market for in-house educational tapes, the sort used by major companies to demonstrate to staff new customer-care techniques or safety codes in the workplace. Some actors won’t touch them, but they are handy fill-ins, and pay can be high.” The Guardian (UK) 05/13/02

Sunday May 12

RSC’S FINAL BARBICAN BOWS: The Royal Shakespeare Company has wrapped up its final performances at the Barbican Centre in London, amid much confusion and controversy over its continued presence in the UK’s capital city. The decision to vacate the Barbican was made by recently resigned director Adrian Noble, and some observers suspect that the direction of the RSC will be due for reevaluation once a new management team is in place. BBC 05/12/02

GOING HOLLYWOOD: London’s West End theatre scene is rivaled only by New York’s Broadway in prestige, and lately London is taking a page from the Big Apple’s book of ticket-selling strategy. Hollywood stars with a yearning for the ‘legitimate stage’ have been infesting Broadway for years now, and this season, the phenomenon of the movie-star stage play has made the leap across the pond. Certainly, stars like Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow (both of whom, it should be pointed out, can effect convincing British accents) will do great box office, but is the trend towards using Hollywood stars even remotely good for theatre? Many think not. The Guardian (UK) 05/11/02

Friday May 10

PENIS BAN: The touring Australian show Puppetry of the Penis has been an international hit. But not in New Zealand. One city council has banned the show from a planned performance in the city’s opera house. The Age (Melbourne) 05/10/02

Thursday May 9

END OF AN ERA: After 21 years playing in London, Cats, the longest-running show in West End history, is closing. “The houses were still very good, but it’s an expensive show to run. There comes a point when the margins don’t make sense any more.” For the last show, some 150 of the show’s alumni performers will take part, including the original cast. BBC 05/08/02

Wednesday May 8

PSSST – WANNA HOST THE TONYS? Nathan Lane, Steve Martin, Angela Lansbury and Whoopi Goldberg have all said no to serving as host of this year’s Tonys, and organizers are getting nervous. “Theater people still smart at the memory of the infamous ‘hostless’ Tonys three years ago, a telecast that was widely considered a fiasco. ‘We’re scrambling to line someone up, but so far, we’re stuck’.” New York Post 05/08/02

IS LLOYD WEBBER A RADICAL? It’s easy to deride Andrew Lloyd Webber’s vanilla spectacles as empty. But seriously, he’s more often been an innovator in his career – and poised to do it yet again. “Lloyd Webber is McCartney to Stephen Sondheim’s Lennon. He suffers from just the same under-valuing as an innovator because his essential impulse to go for the big, thumping number with the catchy tune will always obscure the subtlety and bravery he is capable of.” The Telegraph (UK) 05/08/02

Tuesday May 7

TONY NOMINATIONS: The musical Thoroughly Modern Millie led Tony Nominations Monday with 11. “The show, based on the 1967 movie musical of the same title, was followed by another new musical, Urinetown: The Musical and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, which will compete in the musical revival category. Both received 10 nominations each. For best musical, Millie and Urinetown will be competing against Mamma Mia! and Sweet Smell of Success.” The New York Times 05/07/02

• NO STARS: No show really dominates here. “Based on yesterday’s announcement and the buzz leading up to it, this appears to be more of a share-the-wealth year with competition in almost all the categories.” Boston Globe 05/07/02
• EVEN FIELD: “There is a diverse field for best play, with Edward Albee’s very different take on adultery in Edward Albee’s the Goat, or Who is Sylvia? up against Mary Zimmerman’s reinterpretation of classical myths in Metamorphoses, the much-acclaimed sibling rivalryin Suzan Lori-Parks’ Topdog/Underdog , and Turgenev’s Fortune’s Fool. Although the latter was written in 1848, it made this category because the production is its first Broadway staging.” Philadelphia Inquirer 05/07/02

NEW THEATRE BIENNIAL: Munich’s 8th biennial of new musical theatre has just concluded. The works presented promised much. “That none of them was the kind of absolute masterpiece that will revolutionize the art world forever after should not be a cause for concern: Art occurs in the here and now, and there is no need to worry about the future and eternal values. Experimentation is more important.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/06/02

Monday May 6

DRABINSKY RETURNS? Canadian theatre impressario Garth Drabinsky is accused of perpetrating a fraud of $100 million before his company Livent collapsed a few years ago. But that isn’t stopping the dsigraced showman (who can’t set foot in the US because he’d be arrested) from plotting a Broadway comeback. He plans to bring The Dresser back to New York. The New York Times 05/06/02

WAS SHAKESPEARE GAY? A portrait of one of Shakespeare’s patrons has renewed speculation about his sexuality. “The debate over Shakespeare’s sexuality is 150 years old and will hardly be resolved by this girlish-looking portrait of Southampton. But the identification of the subject of this painting, described by some British newspapers as ‘Southampton in drag,’ has reawakened speculation over the possible bisexuality of Shakespeare, who left his wife, Anne Hathaway, in Stratford-Upon-Avon when he moved to London.” The New York Times 05/06/02

Sunday May 5

POST-CATS POLITICS? London has a long tradition of political theatre. But “decades of middle-class angst and musicals have banished big ideas from the stage.” Now comes Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul, and “after more than a decade in which the death of political drama was loudly mourned or celebrated, depending on your point of view, the body has started twitching. Could it be heading for resurrection?” The Observer (UK) 05/05/02

THE RSC CHALLENGE: Adrian Noble’s tenure as head of the Royal Shakespeare Company has been turbulent. “The R.S.C. has sometimes soared during Mr. Noble’s 11-year reign, sometimes spluttered, sometimes glistened, sometimes resembled an overweening clump of tacked-together metal.” But Mr. Noble has at least been grappling with the problems facing his theatre. “The company may still carry its performers safely into the future, but another conductor or artistic director will have to ensure that it does.” The New York Times 05/05/02

SWEAR BY IT: The board of directors of a Texas theatre demanded the director of a production of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas remore all the swear words. But “32 of the 34 cast members walked out two weeks ago rather than remove the 27 occurrences of ‘g-damn,’ as the Crighton Theatre board of directors had ordered. The director and cast argued that the profanity was integral to the meaning of the play.” Now the owner of the play’s rights has granted the rights to produce the play to those who walked out. Houston Chronicle 05/05/02

SONDHEIM AS ERA: Stephen Sondheim is a god to serious music theatre fans, who will be converging on Washington for the major Sonheim retrospective about to get underway. “Together, the revivals at the Kennedy Center and on Broadway certify what has been apparent to musical theater aficionados for decades: that over the last 30 years, the once humble musical comedy form has been dominated and transformed by Mr. Sondheim and his collaborators into something intellectually challenging and morally weighty.” The New York Times 05/05/02

WORDS TO BE PERFORMED: Why did Dickens never become a playwright? “The verbal arts – novels, plays, screenplays, opera, poetry, etc. – have always had crossover practitioners. At one time, almost all playwrights were also poets, and many poets aspired to writing plays. But the link between the novelist and the playwright is a very special one.” New York Post 05/05/02

Friday May 3

COUNTDOWN TO TONY: Next Monday Broadway’s Tony nominations will be announced in what promises to be “one of the most interesting Tony contests in years.” Here’s an informal survey of theatre professionals with ideas about what should win. The New York Times 05/03/02

• DISMAL YEAR: “Surveying the generally dismal offerings, one nominator says: ‘If the Tonys really are about excellence, then we should leave some of the categories blank this year.’ That, of course, is not going to happen. The Tonys aren’t about excellence anymore. They’re about ticket sales and hype and publicity; they’re about marketing Broadway as a ‘destination point’ and a ‘brand name’.” New York Post 05/03/02

THE PRODUCERS LIVES: The Producers seems to have successfully made the transition to new lead actors. “The actors playing them are no longer named Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. And the hard-working, perfectly likable fellows who have replaced them, Brad Oscar and Steven Weber, don’t begin to approach the same standards of teamwork. It is as if they had been shoved into someone else’s custom-tailored suits and then asked to grow or shrink into the clothes through sheer willpower.” But the show still works fine. It’s still “the flashiest, brassiest and most purely entertaining show in town.” The New York Times 05/03/02

• MORE ABOUT THE SHOW: There are pluses and minuses to the new pair. But “it’s important to know that the show was never just a vehicle for two actors. It remains the adorable, impolite extravaganza, an orgy of bad taste directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman with more ideas per second than most musicals have in an evening.” Newsday 05/03/02

Thursday May 2

THE DOCTOR IS IN: The Royal Shakespeare Company has fallen on hard times. “Threatened strikes. Demoralised actors. Uprisings in the Midlands. Rancorous criticism of Noble himself, culminating in his extraordinary resignation last week. What happens next? Not an easy one to answer. All one can do, as a critical observer with no access to the books, is offer a plan to those who even now are busy restoring the RSC’s damaged reputation…” Herewith, critic Michael Billington’s nine-point plan to restore the RSC’s fortunes. The Guardian (UK) 05/01/02

Tuesday April 30

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE BACKS OFF CONTROVERSIAL NOBLE PLAN: A week after director Adrian Noble announced he was leaving the Royal Shakespeare Company, the RSC says it may not demolish its theatre in Stratford after all. The controversial £100 million plan was pushed for by Noble and came in for heavy criticism. BBC 04/29/02

• LONDON THEATRE CHURNING: Is the London theatre world in turmoil? “Noble’s announcement comes at a time when Britain’s noncommercial theater sector is in a volatile state, with artistic directors coming and going with dizzying speed. At the National Theatre, Trevor Nunn will be succeeded by Nicolas Hytner next March. At the Donmar, Sam Mendes will give way to Michael Grandage in November. And Michael Attenborough is succeeding Nicholas Kent and Ian McDiarmid at the Almeida.” Los Angeles Times 04/30/02
• SPECULATION ABOUT NOBLE SUCCESSOR: How about Micahel Boyd? “As an associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1996, he has been responsible for a remarkable series of hard-edged, hard-hitting and sparkily energetic productions.” But mention of his name to RSC insiders elicits a raised eyebrow. The Telegraph (UK) 04/30/02

YOUTH CRUSADE: London’s National Theatre has been on a mission to attract younger audiences. Under director Trevor Nunn’s constant drumbeat on the issue, “the proportion of NT patrons aged 25 or under has risen from a woeful 6 per cent in 1998 to about 13 per cent today.” Now the launch of an ambitious (and expensive) initiative to further address the issue. A “five-month season opening this week will see 13 world premieres staged in the all-new Loft theatre and a modified Lyttelton, twinned spaces created at a cost of £1.2 million.” The Times (UK) 04/30/02

Monday April 29

POLITICALLY SPEAKING: “The rise and fall of political theater – and politics in all the arts – can be seen as a cycle that peaks during times of social unrest.” Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul is a political play made hot by the headlines of the day. “Will we now see a rebirth of plays that speak to the state of the world and not just the problems of the individual? Or are plays such as Homebody/Kabul‘ anomalies for audiences that still would rather be entertained than informed?” San Jose Mercury News 04/28/02

AFTER THE FALL: Adrian Noble’s departure from the Royal Shakespeare Company was probably the inevitable result of the controversy of his bold plans for the company, revealed over the past year. But “whoever takes over from him at the RSC – and if Noble is convinced that his plans are visionary, how can he not want to see them through? – will have to deal with the acrimony, mess and uncertainty left by someone else’s plans. It’ll be arduous. It’ll also be a terrific opportunity. The RSC must retrench and reconsider itself. It should think about what’s gone wrong: why, so often over the past few years, its productions have been verbally indistinct and visually profuse – the opposite of what the RSC should be offering. And it should think about what went right.” The Observer (UK) 04/28/02

Sunday April 28

APPRECIATING STEPHEN: Stephen Sondheim is “widely acknowledged to be the greatest living theater lyricist-composer. But that understanding continues to evolve with revivals of his dense, richly textured and challenging productions, the majority of which neither succeeded commercially on Broadway nor, for that matter, received unqualified critical praise.” On the eve of a massive retrospective of his work in Washington DC, some of the theatre artists most strongly identified with his work talk about his influence.” Los Angeles Times 04/28/02

JUST FOR OLD TIMES? “There are currently 11 revivals and 24 new shows on Broadway; off-Broadway, there are six revivals and 28 new shows.” Is this too many revivals? “Why is there this hunger for new plays or new musicals, so that revival virtually becomes a dirty word? Unlike, say, classical music, the theater is not a fuddy-duddy art devoted fundamentally to fresh interpretation of a glorious past. And yet our own glorious past is ingloriously neglected. If you have never seen Hamlet before, then Hamlet is not a revival but a new experience – in effect, a new play.” New York Post 04/28/02

SHOW AS STAR: The recent casting flap over replacing Nathan Lane in The Producers was a clue to the show’s need to keep the show going without bankable stars. “The goal at The Producers is to make the show the star. It must have been problematic when Lane and Broderick were perceived as essential to the big-ticket experience. After all, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Cats have packed the seats for decades without audiences caring who was playing what.” Newsday 04/28/02

Friday April 26

TRENDS: Louisville’s Humana Festival is America’s foremost showcase for new plays. It’s generally a bad idea to look for themes among the assembled offerings. On the other hand… Boston Phoenix 04/25/02

HIGH-STAKES MISCASTING: The Producers is a Broadway money machine. So when the show needed to replace Nathan Lane in one of the lead roles it could have had any actor it chose. Instead – disaster – a bad choice and a PR blowup. There are plenty of explanations for why it happened. But the incident shows how much of an impact the right (or wrong) actor can have on a show. Chicago Tribune 04/26/02

Thursday April 25

BRINGING IN THE YOUNG: “New audiences are the Holy Grail of theatreland and a lot of people both in London and in the regions expend a great deal of effort in the quest to find them.” That’s why theatre people are looking at London’s Garrick Theatre, where young people are turning out for a new play. “It’s only when you sit in an audience full of people under the age of 26 that you realise how rare it is.” The Telegraph (UK) 04/24/02

LOOKING FOR THE UNION LABEL: The controversial national tour of last year’s Broadway revival of The Music Man is rolling into Southern California, where it will continue to attract protests over its use of non-union actors and musicians.For the unions, this is an important battle, since the show is the first national tour of a Broadway production, a designation that traditionally comes with a union label. Los Angeles Times 04/25/02

ANGLA FRANCA: This year’s Montreal and Quebec City international theatre festivals offer something not often seen on Quebec stages in recent years – English. “Partly that’s just coincidence and partly it’s due to the growing use of English as a lingua franca in Europe, but there are also signs here of blossoming relationships between Quebeckers and artists in the rest of Canada.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/24/02

FENDING OFF ROUTINE: It takes “about 50 performances” in a role before an actor can begin to relax in it. “But eventually the routine of performing every night will start to transfer the experience of acting from that of an adventure to that of a job. It may take time but it’ll happen. And it’s then that a decent actor starts to repay the money invested in him.” The Guardian (UK) 04/24/02

NOBLE’S LEAVING, BUT WHY? Some are suggesting that Adrian Noble is leaving the Royal Shakespeare Company because he is having success with a new musical in London’s West End. Noble says that’s not true. Others are betting that he simply got sick of all the criticism that comes with the RSC’s top job. Noble says that’s not it either. So why did he resign? Noble’s not saying, apparently. BBC 04/25/02

Wednesday April 24

NOBLE QUITTING RSC: Adrian Noble, who drew the wrath of theatre fans across the UK with his plan to demolish the Royal Shakespeare Company’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon and replace it with a modern theatre complex, is resigning from his position as the RSC’s artistic director. Noble was a controversial figure from the moment he assumed the top position at the world’s most famous Shakespeare company in 1991, but few would deny that he is a skilled director and shrewd businessman. BBC 04/24/02

THE LITTLE THEATRE THAT COULD: London’s Bush Theatre is turning 30, and it has a track record as one of the best small theatres in town. “What exactly is the Bush’s secret? One simple answer is its loyalty to writers. The Bush also has a happy knack of catching writers at a formative stage of their careers. I suspect that the Bush’s sustained creativity over 30 years also has a lot to do with the cramped, confined space itself: it both induces audience complicity and releases the imagination of artists.” The Guardian (UK) 04/23/02

FINDING SHAKESPEARE’S HOUSE: “Remains of a timber framed house which Shakespeare may have built, and lived in with other actors from his company, have been found within a stone’s throw of the site of his Globe theatre, and just round the corner from the modern replica where the 438th anniversary of his birth will be commemorated today.” The Guardian (UK) 04/23/02

Tuesday April 23

UK’S NATIONAL THEATRE MAKES A PLAY FOR YOUTH: “You can say a lot of things about the National Theatre, but you cannot say it’s sexy. In the battle of the theatrical brands, it has lost out in recent years to younger, hipper, more compact theatres to which the film stars and younger audiences have thirstily gravitated. In the twilight of his reign, Trevor Nunn is being seen to do something about this. For a five-month season which calls itself Transformations, the National is funking itself up.” The Telegraph (UK) 04/23/02

SINGULAR SENSATION: Suzan-Lori Parks has had a big month, winning a Pulitzer and having her play open on Broadway. But it wasn’t overnight success. “At 38, Ms. Parks has been at the drama thing for a long time, ever since, as a Mount Holyoke student, her creative-writing teacher encouraged her to write plays. She wanted to write novels. Still, when your teacher is James Baldwin and he tells you you should be writing plays, well, you find yourself writing plays.” Dallas Morning News 04/23/02

I WRITE THE PLAYS: Saddam Hussein, whose novel Zabibah and the King, was published a year ago to “rave reviews from the local press,” is having the book produced as a play in Iraq’s National Theatre. It is billed as “a tragic tale of a ruler who falls in love with an unhappily married woman.” Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/23/02

Monday April 22

FIGURING OUT LONG WHARF: New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre is a major American regional theatre. Doug Hughes, the theatre’s director until he unexpectedly resigned last June in controversy, helped raise the profile of the theatre and upped its subscriptions and attendance. But new director Gordon Edelstein, arriving from Seattle’s ACT Theatre, has his job cut out for him… The New York Times 04/22/02

FLOPS SO GOOD THEY’RE BAD: There’s a thriving market in recordings of Broadway flop productions. “The train-wreck appeal of seeing the mighty fall is enormous. Gloating aside, you can also better appreciate artistic triumphs if you know failures. And then there are the backstage stories. Flops have particularly rich ones, and hearing their music in that context can give them a dramatic new dimension.” Philadelphia Inquirer 04/21/02

QUALITY ROAD SHOW: It’s generally accepted that touring companies of Broadway shows are a notch or two (or more) below the quality of what you can see in New York. But producers of The Lion King are hyping their touring company as better than the New York version. Could it be so? Denver Post 04/22/02

Sunday April 21

WHATEVER – IT SELLS TICKETS: “Nudity in theater can wear many different masks. It can be revolutionary or regressive, powerful or pointless. It can be comic, erotic, heroic, subversive, insightful or just plain god-awful. It may be as old as the art of theater itself, a vestigial remnant of ancient tribal rituals designed to sublimate or stoke primitive passions.” Or it may be a shameless attempt to draw a crowd desperate to see Kathleen Turner in the buff. Los Angeles Times 04/21/02

SOME COLUMNS JUST BEG FOR ANGRY LETTERS: “It has been noted that the performing arts are the ones most suffering from the age divide. The audience for conventional theatre is dying and not being replaced. This does not trouble me much, as most theatre is simply dumb. It does not mean that art is dying… I do not know who would be better equipped to appreciate plays: old people, with their far longer attention span and patience for the static, or young people, who can actually hear. The ideal audience may not exist.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 04/21/02

Friday April 19

KILLING THE PUPPETMASTER: “The oldest puppet theatre in Britain, which trained generations of puppeteers who went on to shows like the Muppets and Spitting Image, will close its doors in two weeks, and may shut forever at the end of the year.” The Guardian (UK) 04/18/02

KNIGHT PLAYWRIGHT: Alan Ayckbourn is one of England’s most popular playwrights. He’s “an odd mix. He plays the relaxed, easy-going egalitarian but, at the same time, he is clearly keen on his K (Though people singularly fail to cope with it. The milkman said: ‘Congratulations on your knighthood, Mr Ayckbourn’) and I reckon his six honorary degrees and two honorary fellowships are important to his sense of self-esteem.” The Telegraph (UK) 04/18/02

Thursday April 18

CRADLE OF TALENT: London’s Bush Theatre is turning 30, and its list of alumni talent is formidable. “For three decades and more than 350 productions, this tiny powerhouse of British theatre (100 seats, all of them uncomfortable) on unsalubrious Shepherd’s Bush Green in west London, has developed so much nascent talent that, by rights, it should be called the National Theatre.” The Telegraph (UK) 04/18/02

NOW THAT’S DEVOTION: When one thinks of the world’s great theatre centers, one might be forgiven for overlooking Albania. But the tiny European country’s National Theater sells out nearly every show, despite the poverty of its public and a building so dilapidated that hardy audience members carry umbrellas to deflect the rainwater that leaks through the ceiling. The government would love to fix up the National, but no one knows where the money would come from. Minneapolis Star Tribune (AP) 04/18/02

Wednesday April 17

ARE BRITISH THEATRES RACIST? A new report suggests it. “Of 2,009 staff jobs in English theatre only 80 were held by black or Asian workers at the most recent count. Only 16 out of 463 board members were black or Asian. A survey of 19 organisations in a range of art forms in 1998 found that 6% of staff were black and Asian, but that more than half of those worked in catering or front-of-house areas. Ethnic minorities are variously estimated to form 10 to 15% of the population as a whole.” The Guardian (UK) 04/17/02

WHY THE PRODUCERS FIRED HENRY GOODMAN: Goodman is a good actor. So why did he get canned from a great role in Broadway’s The Producers? Perhaps because Nathan Lane made the part so well. “Lane is fat, lovable, vastly camp and totally harmless – an American cross between Elton John and Frankie Howerd. Goodman could hardly be more different. As London audiences who saw his recent Olivier-winning Shylock will recall, he oozes danger, cruelty and anger. Lane’s humour is comfortingly white and cuddly; Goodman’s is disconcertingly black and biting.” Casting is, as they say, an inexact science. The Telegraph (UK) 04/17/02

• GOODMAN SPEAKS: “I think you’re dealing with the pressure of Broadway, dealing with an industry where just giving a good performance isn’t enough. I respect that they’re dealing with an industry of millions of dollars on the line, and when you are, you start dealing with people as commodities, not as people. This is as much about the boardrooms as it is about the boards.” The New York Times 04/16/02

Tuesday April 16

A STAR IS BORN: “Brad Oscar, who spent a year filling in for Nathan Lane in the Broadway musical The Producers, was abruptly handed the starring role of Max Bialystock Sunday night. The powers behind the show had concluded that Lane’s replacement, British actor Henry Goodman, wasn’t working out and dismissed him only four weeks into his contract. Oscar will appear opposite Steven Weber, who took over for Matthew Broderick.” Washington Post 04/16/02

Monday April 15

TROUBLE PRODUCING: Producers of The Producers have fired Henry Goodman, the London stage star whom they had chosen to replace Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock in the show. “Creator Mel Brooks and director Susan Stroman, along with the producers of the show, were ‘unhappy with the lack of progress Henry was making in the role’.” New York Post 04/14/02 

Sunday April 14

MAY WE SUGGEST ‘THE PANIC ROOM’? “Great composers are in short supply. Top-flight lyricists are an endangered species. Male singing stars are as elusive as four-leaf clovers. But even in a challenging age for new talent, the Broadway musical can still count on one endlessly renewable resource: the movies.” The New York Times 04/14/02

Friday April 12

GOING NEGATIVE: It’s not just positive reviews that sell tickets. Sometimes it helps to go negative. Reviews for the Broadway production of The Smell of the Kill were generally brutal last week. Particularly scathing was Bruce Weber’s New York Times piece. So producers took the review and republished it in an ad in the Times, mocking Weber and hoping to generate a little buzz. Backstage 04/11/02

BROADWAY REVIVAL: By most accounts, it’s been a pretty lackluster season on Broadway. But heading into the home stretch, a new group of plays has just opened and things are suddenly looking up. Newsday 04/12/02

Thursday April 11

A LAW TO HELP PLAYWRIGHTS: A law is being proposed in the US Congress that would give playwrights greater bargaining rights with producers. Currently, “playwrights must negotiate for themselves with unions or other groups to get plays produced. They commonly are offered take-it-or-leave-it contracts. Because playwrights own copyrights to their work, they have been considered since the 1940s independent contractors to producers instead of employees with collective bargaining rights. The new legislation would allow them to negotiate and enforce contracts with producers collectively.” Nando Times (AP) 01/10/02

WHEN ROBERT ASKED LARRY: Robert Brustein asked his friend Larry Gelbart to write a new adaptation of Lysistrata. Gelbart agreed, but in the script he delivered “the sexual references were so voluminous and repetitious that they put off several of the participants” so Brustein pulled the script . “Gelbart declared himself a victim of political correctness, and now, amid bruised feelings on all sides, there are two competing musical adaptations of Lysistrata moving ahead, one by Mr. Brustein in Cambridge and one by Mr. Gelbart in New York.” The New York Times 04/11/02 

ACTORS UNION URGES BOYCOTT: Actors Equity union has asked its members to boycott the annual National Broadway Touring Awards this year. “The union has indicated it is unhappy with the league’s policy of not differentiating between Equity and non-Equity productions on the road,” and non-union touring productions are particularly rankling the union this year. Backstage 04/10/02

ATTACKING RALPH: Ralph Richardson’s archive of personal letters includes evidence of a nasty fight with novelist Graham Greene. “The row was over Richardson’s performance as a sculptor during rehearsals of Greene’s 1964 play Carving a Statue. The play flopped, ending the novelist’s 10 year run of successes in the West End. Even in rehearsals, the archive discloses, Greene blamed Richardson for not speaking the lines properly or understanding the part.” The Guardian (UK) 04/09/02 

SIR ELTON, THEATRE EXEC: Theatre-lover Elton John has been appointed chairman of the trust that runs London’s historic Old Vic Theatre. “Opened in 1818, the Southwark theatre is regarded as being one of the most important in London. ‘It is hoped that Sir Elton’s involvement will ‘energise and enthuse the theatre-going public.’ The Theatre Trust predicted that Sir Elton would lead the Old Vic into a new phase of development and growth, paying tribute to his ‘profound love and respect’ of theatre.” BBC 04/11/02

Wednesday April 10

ANOTHER SCOTTISH THEATRE DOWN: Glasgow has seen its third theatre company close this year because of lack of money. Whose fault is it? Maybe the Scottish Arts Council. “All three companies were losers in the most recent round of three-year funding applications, making their positions unsustainable in a market-place allegedly controlled not by the work produced, but by boxes ticked.” Glasgow Herald 04/09/02

GOING YOUNG: London’s National Theatre has been slammed for not appealing to youngr audiences. To address the charge, the theatre is “staging 13 world premieres, building a studio theatre, converting conventional auditoriums, and giving permission to take a beer into the show.” The Guardian (UK) 04/10/02

APPRECIATING THE ELIZABETHANS: Shakespeare’s London had 200,000 inhabitants, and their craving for drama was extraordinary. One company, the Admiral’s Men, staged 55 new plays among the 728 performances they gave in the capital between 1594 and 1597. More than 300 men wrote for the theatre during the so-called English Renaissance; we know the titles of more than 1,500 of the plays composed between 1590 and the closing of the theatres by the Puritans in 1640. That so far surpasses the output per theatregoing head today that the only comparison is with television.” The Times (UK) 04/10/02

CHANGING THE WORLD WITH THEATRE: Drama teacher Rick Garcia believes theatre has the power to change people. So he’s gone to work in the most-forgotten part of Austin Texas to work with kids. He’s “chosen this industrial hinterland where theatre is hardly in the community’s vernacular to stage his grand experiment in education and the arts. ‘There is art,’ says Garcia of the neighborhood, ‘but it’s not the biased impression of what a European Anglo educated mind perceives as art’.” Austin Chronicle 04/09/02

Tuesday April 9

PARKS’ EXCELLENT YEAR: As Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog wins this year’s Pulitzer for drama, the play opens on Broadway. It’s been a good year for Parks. She won the 2001 MacArthur Fellowship, known by many as a “genius grant,” and the 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship. Broadway.com 04/08/02 

• THEATRE’S GOOD FORTUNE: “The two lonely, rowdy brothers who make up the entire cast of characters of Suzan-Lori Parks’s thrilling comic drama give off more energy than the ensembles of “42nd Street,” “The Lion King” and “The Graduate” combined.” The New York Times 04/08/02
• JUST A GOOD TIME: “This is by far Parks’ most readily communicable work so far. It is not a play you learn from, but an evening you experience – and enjoy.” New York Post 04/08/02 
• LESS THE SECOND TIME AROUND: “Something essential has been lost in the transition from the intimate thrust stage of the Public to the gaping proscenium of the Ambassador Theatre.” Theatremania.com 04/08/02

Sunday April 7

BRITISH ON BROADWAY: It isn’t as if Americans don’t perform their own work, but Broadway would be a much poorer place if the Brits didn’t take such a “profound” interest in things American “Two classics of the American theater are now big hits on Broadway: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! They are staged by the current and former artistic directors of London’s Royal National Theatre.” Boston Globe 04/07/02

A LITTLE DIRECTION: Directing a play is the result of a synthesis of experience. “I find the difficulty in going to plays is that the very good ones don’t teach me anything because they catch you up – you’re completely swept up into the experience. You learn more from the second-rate plays, because your critical faculties switch on and you think about what the actors are doing and not doing.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/06/02

FADED PROMISE: This current Broadway season began on a note of giddy celebration. With last year’s The Producers proving that there’s gold and greatness to be had, a giant wave of shows was announced for the 2001-02 season. As May 1, the Tony deadline, approaches, the season limps to its conclusion, with anemic offerings in the categories of new musical, new play and musical revival.” Hartford Courant 04/07/02

Friday April 5

NON-UNION IF IT’S CHEAPER: A non-union production of The Music Man has been running into protests in the cities it plays. The actors union complains that “the Broadway show is charging Broadway ticket prices, while not paying performers Broadway salaries, but rather lower nonunion rates.” Theatres that book the show say “they respect Equity and the other unions. But their primary responsibility is bringing quality product to their faithful patrons. For that reason, they’ll book both Equity and non-Equity productions.” Backstage 04/05/02

SHAKESPEARE WITHOUT ALL THOSE WORDS: A Georgian director is presenting a version of Hamlet that takes removes the words. “Our ambition is to go straight to the core of Shakespeare’s language and capture the images within the words.” Reminded that some in the audience might not get the message, director Paato Tsikurishvili had an answer ready: “I recommend that you read the play before the performance.” Backstage 04/05/02

Tuesday April 3

CUTTING ROOM CRUELTY: Ah, what actors do to make a living and further their careers. This one landed a lucrative TV commercial – big exposure, lots of repeats, and terrific money. But just as he was checking out those £4,000 Antarctic cruises, the director called and… The Guardian (UK) 04/03/02

Monday April 1

DISAPPEARING BLACK THEATRE: “Gone is the heyday of institutional black theater, the rich years after Ward’s famous 1966 New York Times piece – American Theatre: For Whites Only? – inspired the Ford Foundation to award a $1.2 million startup grant for the NEC. Nationally, the number of black theater companies has dwindled from more than 250 in the the early 1980s to about 50; in South Florida, founder-led black theaters in Fort Lauderdale (the Vinnette Carroll Theatre) and West Palm Beach (the Quest Theatre) have vanished, leaving only the 31-year-old M Ensemble to tackle serious black theater on a consistent basis.” Miami Herald 03/31/02

BIGTIME THEATRE, LITTLETIME TOWN: “Nowhere else in the United States is the concept of repertory theater honored as it is at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. ‘The original dream and hope of the regional theater movement was to maintain standard repertory companies doing classical work. Oregon is now the exemplar of that model. A lot of other theaters look at them with great envy.” Los Angeles Times 03/31/02

TROUBLE WITH SHAKESPEARE: The Royal Shakespeare Company is in turmoil. “There’s mounting disapproval about seismic changes unrolling under the aegis of Adrian Noble, the RSC’s artistic director and chief executive. One of the most worrying indicators about the dangerous state of play at the Royal Shakespeare Company, one third of whose income comes from nearly £13 million of taxpayers’ money, is that after a summer, winter and now a spring of discontent, none of its many critics on the inside will go on the record. It’s not hard to see why.” The Observer (UK) 03/31/02

Friday March 29

WHY THE BRITISH OKLAHOMA! FALLS SHORT: Trevor Nunn’s version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic is good, but not quite right. “To the English, Americans are a sort of mutant breed, whose optimism is a sure sign of emotional aberration. The English are constitutionally unable to fathom it, and for good reason. American optimism has its root in abundance and in the vastness of the land that Oklahoma! celebrates. Britain, on the other hand, is an island the size of Utah. Its culture is one of scarcity; its preferred idiom is irony — a language of limits.” The New Yorker 04/01/02

Wednesday March 27

SUPPORTING THE THEATRE VILLAGE: The Royal Shakespeare Company is picking up support for its plans to build a new “theatre village” in Stratford. “However there are some doubts that the £100m project may be too much of a financial risk.” BBC 03/26/02

CRITIC SEES HIMSELF ACCUSED ONSTAGE: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel theatre critic Damien Jaques was surprised, sitting out in the audience of a play he was reviewing, to find his name and picture featured as part of a piece about September 11. “This piece about Sept. 11 did not include head-and-shoulder portraits of Osama bin Laden, Mohamed Atta, Mullah Omar, Rudy Guiliani, Donald Rumsfeld or George W. Bush. But I was up there on the big screen, apparently the symbol of what is wrong with this world.” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 03/26/02

Tuesday March 26

BROADWAY RETURNS MONEY: Broadway has largely recovered from its swoon after September 11. So the theatres are giving back some of the money they received from the city. “On Monday, the League of American Theatres and Producers returned $1 million of a $2.5 million stipend given last fall by the city to purchase tickets to 11 Broadway shows that were facing the prospect of a bleak winter.” Newsday (AP) 03/26/02

LIVENT SETTLEMENT: When the mega-musical producer Livent went bankrupt in the late 90s, actors working in touring productions were stranded without paychecks owed to them. Now the Canadian actors union is distributing money finally collected from the company. “Artists covered by the settlement will receive payments ranging from CAN$20 ($12.80) to CAN$15,000 ($9,615), depending on their respective claims.” Backstage 03/25/02

Sunday March 24

RSC SLAPS ‘MODERN’ GAG ORDERS ON STAFF: Times are not good at the Royal Shakespeare Company. A slew of controversies has erupted in the last year, most of them focused around artistic director Adrian Noble. Now, the RSC seems to have imposed a gag order on its staff, to the outrage of many. “A spokeswoman described the introduction of a confidentiality clause in the contracts of all permanent and contract employees… as ‘simply a matter of modernising our antiquated contracts into line with all other commercial organisations.'” The Guardian (UK) 03/22/02

• JUST WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN THERE? “Writing about the Royal Shakespeare Company is like trying to make a nice, clear shape out of a vast pool of mercury. Where is the company going? What strange new initiative will its embattled director, Adrian Noble, dream up next? Aren’t artistic standards seriously slipping? Yet every time I have girded my pen for the attack, the RSC has foiled me with a production I’ve found genuinely exciting.” The Times of London 03/22/02

OKAY, BUT NO MORE PINBALL WIZARD, GOT IT? The intersection of rock music with the stage musical has never been a clean one, and no one has ever been quite sure what to make of it. From Stephen Schwarz’s Godspell to Elton John’s Aida, the music of youthful rebellion has often stumbled when combined with the ultimate cornball theatre form. But increasingly, it looks as if the crossover is here to stay, and the question becomes not ‘will it work,’ but ‘how can we make it work?’ Boston Globe 03/24/02

COURTING CONTROVERSY: Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, a play about a meeting between two nuclear scientists, one Danish, one German, in 1941, has been under fire by numerous critics since its debut. Some say that the play doesn’t condemn Nazi policy strongly enough, others claim historical innacuracy. Frayn himself is circumspect: “With hindsight I think I accept some of these criticisms. [But] I’m not so sure about a greater stress on the evil of the Nazi regime. I thought that this was too well understood to need pointing out. It is, after all, the given of the play.” The Guardian (UK) 03/23/02

Friday March 22

ONE-TRACK MINDS: Few American theatres would attempt even once what Chicago’s Eclipse Theatre does every year. Eclipse performs the works of a single playwright exclusively for an entire season, with the intention of gaining deeper understanding through immersion. But this is no “greatest hits” troupe: the playwrights, and the plays themselves, tend toward the lesser-known, and audiences seem to be up to the challenge. Chicago Sun-Times 03/22/02

Wednesday March 20

PAY FOR PRACTICE: In London previews of an elaborate production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang carry a discount of £2.50 off the regular £40 ticket. Not that a preview is some half- (or even three-quarter-) baked version of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that will open April 16, say the producers. On the other hand… The Guardian (UK) 03/20/02

Tuesday March 19

WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? A new report by the New York State Council on the Arts chronicles the limited role of women in the theatre. “Progress with regard to women’s participation in the theatre has been both inconsistent and slow. Latest figures indicate that advancement has stalled or even deteriorated. 23% of the productions were directed by women and 20% had a woman on the writing team. Women get paid on average only between 70-74 percent of what men earn. New York State Council on the Arts 03/02

GRAVES DESIGNS NEW CHILDREN’S THEATRE: Architect Michael Graves has designed a new $24 million “solid-but-whimsical assemblage of geometric shapes addition” for Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company. Now, all the company has to do is raise the money for it. The Children’s Theatre has 24,000 subscribers, making it the Twin Cities’ second-largest theatre after the Guthrie. St. Paul Pioneer Press 03/19/02

Monday March 18

MAN OF THE THEATRE: Actor-director-writer Carmelo Bene has died at the age of 64. He was “the enfant terrible of Italian stage and screen” and “shared the distinction with Dario Fo of being a theatrical artist who also became a literary phenomenon. Afflicted with almost every illness in the medical books, and obliged to have four by-pass operations in the late 1980s (repeated in 2000), he reappeared in public in 1994 as the sole guest of Italian commercial TV’s most popular late-night talk show. He held his own for two hours against the onslaught of a sceptical but bemused audience. ” The Guardian (UK) 03/18/02

Sunday March 17

A HISTORY REPEATING: The Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible has people commenting “that the play is ‘timely’. What do they mean exactly? That it’s timeless. Currently the play resonates in two directions: on the one hand, the theocratic government under which the Puritan inhabitants of Salem lived had a sexual morality as rigid, and a punishment as cruel, as those of the Taliban; and on the other hand, the notion of a society in which all dissent is construed as opposition is not remote.” The Guardian (UK) 03/16/02

PRICKLY EXPERIMENTAL: At 27, the Wooster Group is one of America’s oldest experimental theatre companies. How to stay experimental for so long? It’s not easy. “Originally, the way people joined the group was when someone committed in such a way that it seemed inevitable. The truth is that we haven’t really had anyone who’s asked to join in 15 to 20 years. You have to ask to join.” Woe to the critic who tries to probe too deep: “You come from a place that’s so alien to us, it’s almost like talking to someone from another planet. You don’t have the wildest idea about what we’re doing. And yet, it’s because you don’t have the wildest idea, that you’re able to articulate it so well.” The Telegraph (UK) 0316/02

ACTING UP: It may all look like acting – but acting for the screen and acting in a theatre are very different things. “The size of gestures, which are vastly magnified by the screen, the importance of vocal nuance, the tonal difference demanded by cinematic intimacy and, in movies, the need to convey character partly by projecting image” – some actors are good in one genre but not in the other. New York Post 03/17/02

Friday March 15

AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER… All those stories and plays that end with loose ends unwrapped – it’s difficult not to wonder what happens to the characters after the story has ended. Brian Friel has written a play to answer some of those questions. “A character from one Chekhov play meets a character from another, a real Moscow in the 1920s where the three sisters’ brother Andrey meets Uncle Vanya’s niece Sonya. The result, a short play lasting an hour and five minutes, is called Afterplay.” Financial Times 03/15/02

TOURIST TRAP: Is Broadway running out of original ideas to lure the tourists in? How else to explain a succession of movies remade for the stage? “Sometimes this leads to travesties such as Beauty and the Beast and Saturday Night Fever. Other times it ends in mere repackaging of the source material, as in last year’s inexplicable phenom The Producers. There is always the question of why…” The Globe & Mail 03/15/02

Thursday March 14

PUCCINI A LA BAZ: When Baz Luhrmann’s bohemian odyssey Moulin Rouge hit theaters last year, with its over-the-top theatrics and reworked pop songs, “some critics reached for rhapsodic analogies, others for aspirin bottles.” Luhrmann’s next project is a daring attempt to bring Puccini’s La Boheme to Broadway, and to do it without bastardizing the music as with Elton John’s Aida. “His idea is not exactly to reinvent La Boheme, but to make it accessible for audiences unschooled in the opera tradition.” The New York Times 03/14/02

Wednesday March 13

SCREEN TO STAGE: More and more movies are transferring to the stage. Used to be it was the other way around – successful theatre productions were fodder for the big screen. “The relationship between the two art forms used to be a straightforward one, characterised at its most fraught by healthy sibling rivalry. Movies have always represented populism and youth, while theatre, at least until the late 1960s, still clung to those high-culture, elitist ideals that take more than the odd Rocky Horror Show, or Jamie Theakston joining the cast of Art, to dispel.” The Independent (UK) 03/10/02

DEMOCRACY ONSTAGE: A theatre company in Bonn wants to use the former East German parliament building for a performance of a work that would put 600 of the city’s residents in a reenactment of a parliamentary session. But the current president of Germany’s parliament has protested the plan, saying that the performance would “compromise the dignity and respect of the German parliament.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 03/12/02

Tuesday March 12

SEARCH FOR STRUCTURE: Playwright Tony Kushner is “one of the very few dramatists now writing whose works are contributions to literature as well as to theater. (Stoppard is only a pretender to that crown.)” He has “substance, eloquence, intelligence, and emotional power.” Still, after seeing Kushner’s latest play Homebody/Kabul twice, critic Robert Brustein wonders if Kushner has the sense of formal structure to carry off a project like this. The New Republic 03/11/02

ACCIDENTAL TOURIST: Monologuist Spalding Gray is supposed to be on tour now reprising his Swimming to Cambodia piece. But he’s been having trouble concentrating after a nasty car accident in Ireland. “It took an hour for the stupid ambulance to arrive. I ended up in one of those horrible Irish country hospitals and they wanted to leave me there in traction for six weeks.” Chicago Tribune 03/12/02

Monday March 11

DENVER CENTER CUTS BACK NEW PLAYS: The Denver Center Theatre Company says it will close its literary office and stop development of new works because of endowment losses in the stock market. “On a regular basis we get 1,000 plays a year, and we have to pay people to read them. It is something we strongly believe in, but if it comes to cutting that or the work we do for our audiences, we will always go with our audience.” Newsday (AP) 03/09/02

TAKE IT OFF: “Stage nudity, as with most things along the gender divide, reminds you that it still isn’t a level playing field out there. Stage censorship was abolished in 1968 and suddenly the gloves, and everything else, were off. Hair appeared, Oh! Calcutta! came, costume budgets shrank and audiences thronged for culturally condoned titillation. And ever since, actresses have been harassed, hoodwinked and hornswoggled into acceding to wily directors’ assertions that the nude scene was essential to the plot.” Not so for males… The Observer (UK) 03/10/02

Sunday March 10

MISS ME KATE: A one-woman play about actress Katherine Hepburn at Hartford Stage has attracted a lot of attention. This week Hepburn’s family called the play “trash.” Some critics feel that the actress’s life “has been sanitized, protected and manipulated over the years and a fresh light is welcome after decades of image polishing. Others feel this is a rush to appropriate a life before its final curtain.” Hartford Courant 03/10/02

WHAT ABOUT A SCOTTISH NATIONAL THEATRE? Scottish theatre is looking for a new direction. “A Scottish National Theatre is proposed. The suggested model, a commissioning body with neither a theatre building nor its own permanent company, remains a controversial one. Ultimately, like the ever-present issue of funding for Scottish drama, the future of the project lies in the hands of the politicians.” The Scotsman 03/09/02

NEW AGE: More and more theatres are actively soliciting and producing new plays. Indianapolis’ 18th annual Festival of Emerging American Theatre (FEAT) opens this week. “It’s new works that are going to keep the theater alive. Doing stuff just from the past, or large commercial productions, isn’t going to provide the testing grounds for the really great writers of the future to develop.” Indianapolis Star 03/10/02

Friday March 8

ACTORS GET MONEY FROM LIVENT: When the Livent theatre empire went crashing into bankruptcy in 1999, it owed a lot of people a lot of money. Including actors. Now “Canadian Actors’ Equity Association has cut cheques for 163 members, proceeds of a $157,200 cash settlement from the now-defunct Livent.” National Post 03/06/02

Thursday March 7

OF BRAND NAMES AND CRISES: The Royal Shakespeare Company seems to lurch from crisis to crisis. “Is something rotten in the state of Stratford? Is it a genuine company? Or is it simply an umbrella organisation trading on a brand-name and housing a number of discrete, increasingly isolated projects?” The Guardian (UK) 03/06/02

BRIT INVASION: Three of Britain’s top directors are currently working on Broadway. All three are also former (or about-to-be) artistic directors of London’s Royal National Theatre… The New York Times 03/07/02

SEX AND THE CITY-STATE. REALLY: For his swan song with The American Repertory Theater, Robert Brustein planned a production of Lysistrata. Larry Gelbart, author of the M*A*S*H series on TV and co-author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, wrote a racy adaptation. (After all, it is about “women who stage a sex strike to get their husbands to stop war.”) But it was too racy. (One proposed title: Phallus Doesn’t Live Here Any More.) Now ART is putting together a new version, and Gelbart’s will get a reading at the Manhattan Theater Club next week. New York Observer 02/06/02

Wednesday March 6

TWO QUIT ROYAL SHAKESPEARE: Controversy continues to dog the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the past week two directors have quit the company over “artistic differences.” “The departure of Edward Hall, son of the RSC’s founder Sir Peter Hall, follows that of the rising young star David Hunt. Both quit even before rehearsals began for five Jacobean plays which are supposed to epitomise the RSC’s new appetite for adventure.” The Guardian (UK) 03/06/02

PINING FOR THE SWINGING 60s: Some of London’s most-successful plays this season have something in common – they’re “set in the early 1960s and deal with an England in rapid transition. When you consider the recent vogue for 1960s revivals – including Peter Nichols’s A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, John Osborne’s Luther, David Storey’s The Contractor and In Celebration and David Rudkin’s Afore Night Come – it is clear that our theatre is offering a radical re-evaluation of a once- despised decade.” The Guardian (UK) 03/06/02

TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM: In tough financial times, arts organizations are often pitted against one another in a desperate grab for the few public dollars available. So it was fairly unusual stuff in Minneapolis last month when the Shubert Theater, which has more reason than most to cry about shoddy treatment and lack of funding, announced that it would rescind its funding requests for the year, in order that other deserving groups might see bigger handouts. The mayor praised the move, arts advocates threw up their hands, and behind it all was politics, politics, politics. City Pages (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) 03/06/02

• THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: The Shubert has a particularly bizarre place in the history of Twin Cities theatre. Among other things, it has been closed, reopened, remodeled, moved (yes, the building) one block down Hennepin Avenue at a public cost of $5 million, and used as a political pawn by Minneapolis politicians of every stripe. Occasionally, some people have even put on plays there. City Pages 02/24/02

Tuesday March 5

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE IN DC: The UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company is taking up residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington for the next five years. “Tthe residency will be underwritten by $250,000 from Prince Charles, who is president of the RSC board.” Washington Post 03/05/02

Monday March 4

THE REAL WILLY: A new documentary goes looking for the “real” Shakespeare. It’s “about the so-called Marlovians, the folks who say that Marlowe was the guy, as opposed to Francis Bacon or Edward de Vere, inter alia. Or, for that matter, the rustic actor named William Shakespeare who commonly holds the laurels.” Salon 03/02/02

Sunday March 3

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ORCHESTRA? “For decades and for economic reasons, more and more shows have played Broadway or gone a-touring with increasingly thin pit orchestras. In recent years, secondary touring editions of everything from Ragtime to Titanic have thrown a sparse handful of live musicians on top of what’s known as a ‘virtual orchestra,’ a computerized whatzit (there’s more than one brand) designed to sound like a bigger and grander and more fabulous orchestra than the one at hand.” Even the experts can’t always tell…so is there anything wrong with this? Chicago Tribune 03/03/02

RICHARD RODGERS AT 100: “What would Rodgers think of the hoopla surrounding the centennial of his birth and the celebration of his musical legacy? He was more interested in the next show that was right in front of his nose. ‘I don’t imagine he wanted to think about [his legacy] very much because he hated thinking about death and that the next century would probably not include him’.” Hartford Courant 03/03/02 

ODE TO THE GLOBE: Shakespeare purists may scoff at the rebuilt Globe Theatre in London, but after five years, the Globe has sold more than a million tickets and filled 80 percent of its seats. And the actors? “I’ve played in all sorts of places, but I think this is the most exciting building to act in in the world. You feel the audience is so there. The feeling onstage is almost as if you are part of them and they are part of you. The reaction of the audience is from the gut, unconditioned by all the stuff you get at the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theater. People react as they want to.” The New York Times 03/03/02

TRUTH IN HISTORY? More and more people seem to get their history from the entertainment they consume. So should we worry about accuracy? About artistic license? “If real history and real people are portrayed, how accurate is accurate enough in plays about the Salem witch trials, the movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, the sculptor Louise Nevelson, the scientist Richard Feynman, a 19th-century deformed Londoner and two New York brothers who died in a house stuffed with years of debris? Are there good and bad reasons to change the facts? When reaching back into history, do artists have a responsibility to more than their artistic vision?” The New York Times 03/03/02

Friday March 1

A SHOW FOR OUR TIME? How’s this for a self-serving pitch to come see a show? The choreographer of the new Broadway revival of Oklahoma says: “When Oklahoma! first opened during World War II, I think it brought great comfort to the audience. And here it is, coming in after Sept. 11, a show about fighting for territory. It’s also a safe and known entity. And right now, I think people in New York need to feel comfort and joy in the theater.” The New York Times 03/01/02

MILLER TO GUTHRIE: Playwright Arthur Miller has decided to produce his new play Resurrection Blues, at the Guthrie Theatre in the Twin Cities this fall. “I have to decide where to do it first, away from the big time. (New York) is not an atmosphere conducive to creation. The tension is high because there’s so much money resting on a poor little play.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 03/01/02

Wednesday February 27

DOES SCOTTISH TRAVEL? “Scottish theatre just doesn’t get the audiences or the accolades in London that it deserves. A few years back Stephen Daldry predicted that Scottish theatre was going to be next year’s Irish, like brown is supposed to be the new black. But it has never happened. The English have a resistance to Scottish writing that they don’t have to Irish writing. They feel the latter is superior and value its lyricism and poetry. But Scottish theatre has grown out of a much more working-class tradition.” The Guardian (UK) 02/27/02

Tuesday February 26

CLOSED FOR SICKNESS: Producers of the new Edward Albee play Occupant, about sculptor Louise Nevelson, have closed the show for a few weeks until Anne Bancroft, the show’s star, recovers from pneumonia. “Bancroft is expected to return to the production March 19 and appear in the show for the last three weeks of the run.” Backstage 02/25/02

Monday February 25

TRY-OUT BLACKOUT: Time was when theatre productions regularly came to Connecticut for try-outs before moving to Broadway. The Connecticut stop happens much less frequently these days, but when they do come, some producers try to discourage critics from reviewing their efforts. Do they have something to hide? Hartford Courant 02/24/02 

NEW THEATRE IN TOWN: Four years ago two men came to Greensboro, North Carolina  with dreams of starting a new theatre. They quickly raised $5 million, bought the old Montgomery Ward department store building and transformed it into a handsome new home. “In a large metropolitan area, it would not be unusual for an arts group to raise $5 million (or a lot more) in a few years.” But in medium-size Greensboro, the feat has tuned heads. Winston-Salem Journal 02/24/03 

Sunday February 24

WELL, THERE’S ONLY SO MANY WAYS BOY CAN GET GIRL: “A funny thing happened to the modern musical on its way to the theater: it became serious — boy usually doesn’t get girl anymore — and the endings are not always neat and tidy. Has musical theater changed in any lasting way? Must an audience always leave a show humming?” The New York Times 02/24/02

SIX DECADES OF MIDWESTERN MELODRAMA: What is it about Oklahoma!, anyway? How did a Broadway production which made heroes out of the type of Midwestern stock characters Easterners usually only want to see as hicks and comic foils become the Great American Musical? Some say it’s the unusually dark (for 1943) storyline, some credit the songs which stick in your mind and your soul. Whatever it is, Oklahoma! is nearly six decades old, and still as relevant and popular as ever. The New York Times 02/24/02

Thursday February 21

GLOBAL CONTRACTS FOR PERFORMERS? As the entertainment industry becomes more globally centralized and mega-corporations control film TV and stage, performers are looking for ways to protect themselves. Performers’ unions are trying to put together a global contract. “Our experience has been that a diversity of voices and viewpoints in the marketplace is something that cannot exist in a massively consolidated industry; that ultimately the voices that emanate from those different consolidated TV and radio stations are coming from a single source which dictates that those voices are going to be singing the same tune.” Backstage 02/20/02

Wednesday February 20

ONE ORDER OF ABSOLUTISM, HOLD THE SELF-DOUBT: North American audiences have a hard time with gray areas in our theatre. By our peculiar set of dramatic values, good guys should be good, bad guys bad, and never the twain shall meet. All of which pretty well shuts us out of the fascinating world of Expressionism, so popular in Europe 100 years ago. “For this kind of theatre to work the audience has to know that everybody, including themselves, is potentially evil. They understand when the hero, in a weak moment, jumps a whore or takes a bribe. To use the word so detested by North America’s right wing, such an audience is ‘relativist.'” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 02/20/02

Tuesday February 19 THE V PLAY STRIKES CONTROVERSY AGAIN: “Advertisements for internationally renowned play The Vagina Monologues, which opened in Auckland New Zealand this week, feature a pair of female lips positioned vertically in a suggestive link to the play’s title.” Publications are refusing to carry the ads.

The Age (Melbourne) 02/19/02 

Sunday February 17

DOES MINNESOTA NEED MORE COLD? “Call it cold, contextual or daring. Everyone seems to have an opinion about French architect Jean Nouvel’s industrial-strength design for Minneapolis’s new Guthrie Theater on the Mississippi River.” The current Guthrie, which claims to be America’s original regional theatre, is a warm, intimate building situated in one of the city’s most beautiful neighborhoods, whereas the new design shows a mass of steel and glass rising from the middle of a slowly reemerging “mill ruins” district. Minneapolis Star Tribune 02/17/02

WHO’S AFRAID OF GETTING OLD? It’s been 40 years since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Edward Albee is officially a septuagenarian, a period of life when many playwrights are content to fade into the background. Not Albee – two new plays will have their New York openings in the next month, and the general consensus is that the writer is having his most prolific and successful period at a time of life when so many others have little left to say. The New York Times 02/17/02

Friday February 15

TONY THINKING: There don’t look to be any new shows with the blockbuster potential of The Producers waiting to open on Broadway this spring. But “this year’s Tony races may well be the most competitive in years, with intense jockeying for nominations and some close races for prizes.” The New York Times 02/15/02

Thursday February 14

ROUNDABOUT TO BUY PARTY PALACE: New York’s Roundabout Theatre – one of the city’s most successful repertory theatres, has decided to buy the old Studio 54. “The Roundabout plans to buy the legendary 1970s disco for $25 million to stage musicals. It will use $9 million expected from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and up to $32 million raised from triple tax-exempt bonds. With more than 46,000 subscribers and more than 700,000 audience members last year, the Roundabout has been on a roll since emerging from eight years of bankruptcy in 1985.” Newsday 02/13/02

Tuesday February 12

A TOUGH ROOM: The first-ever Korean theatre production to travel to London’s West End met with mostly dismal reviews last week. The Korea Times isn’t thrilled by the reviews: “Despite the producers’ translating the lyrics to aid English-speaking audiences, most of reviews said that the production was ‘incomprehensible’ (The Times 02/06, Guardian 02/05) or ‘unintelligible’ (Daily Telegraph 02/06) with London’s Evening Standard saying the lyrics ‘sink beneath criticism’s reach’.’’ Particularly cutting, notes the Korea Times was the Telegraph reviewer’s making “a derogatory reference to dog-eating Koreans.” Korea Times 02/12/02

KENNEDY CENTER RECORD: The Kennedy Center’s upcoming festival devoted to the work of Stephen Sondheim set a record for one-day ticket sales at the center yesterday. “The day’s take for the center’s upcoming Sondheim Celebration topped out at $639,000. That snapped the center’s previous one-day, single-ticket record of $526,000, set by Beauty and the Beast in 1996. The total take for the series, including group sales and subscriptions, reached $2 million.” Washington Post 02/12/02

Monday February 11

SAG ELECTION INVESTIGATION: The U.S. Department of Labor has launched an official investigation into the Screen Actors Guild’s botched elections. “At the center of the drama is Valerie Harper, who narrowly lost her bid for the office of president to Melissa Gilbert during the fall elections. At the last minute, voting rules were changed arbitrarily, and a decision to rerun the election was challenged by Gilbert’s camp. Broadway.com 02/08/02

ALL ABOUT EVE: “For 25 years, Eve Ensler was a fairly obscure downtown playwright, ambitious but thwarted, anguished by bad reviews and tortured by injustices personal and global. Most of that changed three years ago, with the breakaway success of The Vagina Monologues, a series of bawdy, straight-talking narratives about women’s sexual triumphs and traumas. Since then, the play has been produced on every continent and in countless communities; it is as pervasive as Our Town, as political as ‘Take Back the Night.” New York Times Magazine 02/10/02

Sunday February 10

THE MAKING OF SECOND CITY: Chicago is a great theatre town. But it didn’t get that way all at once. The Chicago Tribune’s longtime theatre critic Richard Christiansen traces what made Chicago theatre great. Chicago Tribune 02/10/02

SCIENCE ON STAGE: “Science is sexy, and not just in the media-friendly, zeitgeist-riding sense of the word. Now Broadway and Hollywood are getting in on the act.” But can a drama do a good job at conveying complex scientific ideas? The Telegraph (UK) 02/10/02

Friday February 8

GUTHRIE’S NEW LOOK: Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater unveiled plans for its new home on the Mississippi River this week. The complex, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, will feature three separate theaters, the largest of which will incorporate the old Guthrie’s famous “thrust stage” design, and will be located along a newly revitilized riverfront district in downtown Minneapolis. Minneapolis Star Tribune 02/08/02

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: “A new sketch by Harold Pinter is due to get its world première at the Royal National Theatre in London on Friday. The playwright, who is receiving treatment for cancer, will be acting in the sketch, called The Press Conference. The piece is one of five the National is staging in the first of two evenings devoted to Pinter’s sketches.” BBC 02/08/02

RETURN OF THEATRE ROW: “[New York’s] 42nd Street Development Corporation has announced the re-opening of Theatre Row, a grouping of five performance venues that began as 19th-century tenements, survived the blight of burlesque, and ultimately found itself transformed into an early marker for a gussied-up Times Square. With a planned opening date of April 1, Off- and Off-Off-Broadway denizens who formerly knew Theatre Row as ‘heavy on the atmosphere, light on the amenities’ will hardly recognize the gleaming, five-story facility currently wrapping up construction.” Backstage 02/07/02

Thursday February 7

LONDON STAGE, LOOKING BACK: London may be the one place in the English-speaking world “where one can still binge on plays without indigestion.” One reason may be that, in the words of director/playwright Harold Pinter, “In England, looking back is a conditioned reflex that no one overcomes.” So it is that British theater right now is bristling with first-rate productions of works from all over the twentieth century. The New York Times 02/07/02

QUESTIONING COPENHAGEN: Playwright Michael Frayn’s popular Tony-award-winning play Copenhagen, about a meeting between physiicists Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg may have to be revised. A Danish institute has released a series of correspondence between the two that calls into question elements of the play. “The release of this material – mostly drafts of unsent letters that the Danish physicist Neils Bohr wrote to German physicist Werner Heisenberg – was not scheduled to occur until 2012, 50 years after Bohr’s death. But the controversy and debate triggered by Frayn’s play, which was first produced in 1998, convinced the archive’s overseers that now was the moment to present more information.” Chicago Sun-Times 02/07/02

Wednesday February 6

KATE’S WEST END WIN: The flashy revival of Kiss Me Kate has won London’s West End Critics Circle Theatre Award for best musical. Humble Boy, written by Charlotte Jones, won the best new play award. BBC 02/05/02

NEW BIALYSTOCK AND BLOOM: March 17 will be the last performance of The Producers for Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. Both men turned down substantial increases to continue, Lane citing his health and Broderick, film commitments. British actor Henry Goodman will replace Lane; no final decision has been made yet on a replacement for Broderick. The New York Times 02/06/02

Tuesday February 5

BROADWAY IS BACK: Following one of the roughest periods in memory, when tourists stayed away from New York in droves fearing terrorist attack and some shows closed, Broadway is bouncing back. And now 2002 is promising to be a busy year. True, there are not as many splashy new musicals as in some recent years, and plays and one-person shows seem to be the most popular additions to the Great White Way, but the most important component – the audience – seems to be returning. Dallas Morning News 02/05/02

REGIONAL THEATRE REVIVAL: While London’s West End may still be suffering for ticketbuyers, an unexpected theatre revival is happening elsewhere in England. “In a resurrection of which even Lazarus would have been proud, audiences have begun to return in their thousands to theatres which only two years ago were being written off as embarrassing anachronisms.” And those audiences are younger too… The Guardian (UK) 02/04/02

• UP UP UP: “Regional theatre attendances across the UK have increased by as much as 92% in a revival of the art form across the country.” BBC 02/04/02

Monday February 4

BEHIND THE AVANT GARDE (THERE ARE PROBLEMS): The term “avant garde” was big in the 1960s. We still persist in calling anything new or even a bit unusual avant garde. But “through sloppy and overzealous use, the term has become problematic: Its attempts to describe work that challenges theatrical conventions too often end up reinforcing them.” The New Republic 01/28/02

PINTER ILL: Playwright Harold Pinter has been diagnosed with cancer. “The 71-year-old was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus last month and is undergoing chemotherapy.” The Guardian (UK) 02/01/02

WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN WHAT HAPPENS ON STAGE: “People have always come to the theatre to flirt, to politic, to talk, to traduce, to gossip, to fight, to face out social disgrace or to enjoy it. Whether it’s Athens or Jacobean London, or 17th-century Paris, or late 19th-century Moscow, showtime is not just about what the actors do to the audience; it’s more about what the audience do to each other. You sometimes get the impression, from the past, that the shows were a rather unnecessary distraction from the main event.” New Statesman 02/04/02

Sunday February 3

AWARD THIS: The Olivier Awards are British theatre’s top prizes. But there are so many inconsistencies and anomalies in the way the awards are set up and run that one critic wonders if they deserve their prestige. The Telegraph (UK) 02/02/02

THRILLED BY HIS SUCCESS…SORT OF: Playwright Mark Ravenhill’s play was such a success at London’s National Theatre that it’s moving to the West End. He’s thrilled – sort of. “Only in Britain can a play – and a playwright – slip easily from the subsidised theatre into the commercial sector. Only in Britain can a writer move freely from Artist to Entertainer and back again – or indeed dispense with any concerns about what is Art and what is Entertainment and just write. But is this a good thing?” The Guardian (UK) 02/02/02

SONDHEIM SUIT SETTLED: The backer who financed Stephen Sondheim’s Gold and then sued for rights to the production has dropped his lawsuit. “In exchange, if the show is produced commercially, he will be reimbursed the approximately $160,000 he had invested in its development.” The New York Times 02/02/02

Friday February 1

IT’S THE SERVICE CHARGE THAT GETS YOU: Another show on Broadway is joining The Producers in offering tickets for $240 a seat. But it’s not a musical – “the lead producer of The Crucible, said yesterday that 30 prime orchestra seats a night would be available at $240 apiece, a price that includes the tickets’ new $200 face value plus a $40 commission charge. The New York Times 02/01/02

MY FAIR HEADLOCK: A Broadway show based on the life of a real person? Sure, lots of them. But, a politician? Well, yes, it’s been done. But, I mean, this one’s about Jesse Ventura. Jesse Ventura, the former wrestler who’s governor of Minnesota? Yeah, him; and it’s a musical. Um… I think that will be a first. Baltimore Sun (AP) 01/31/02

Thursday January 31

NEW L.A. THEATRE: Actor Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne have donated $2.5 million to help build a new theatre. “The interior of the Culver Theater, a former cinema that opened in 1947, would be overhauled to create a flexible space with about 400 seats and a smaller upstairs facility that would seat 100. The exterior of the building, which has been designated a historic landmark, would be preserved as provided under city ordinance. The building will be named the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The point of the theater is to give young talent a chance to develop. Los Angeles Times 01/30/02

Wednesday January 30

DIRECTION FOR DIRECTORS: Britain’s first university graduate degree in theatre directing has finally come into being. “Besides access to mentors from an ‘attachment’ or ‘anchor’ theatre or touring company, each student will have links to one of six leading drama schools and the benefits of the highly-regarded arts and drama teaching at Birkbeck.” The Guardian (UK) 01/29/02

RESCUING LONG WHARF: Gordon Edelstein’s appointment as new director of New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre “is seen among theater insiders as a much-needed lift for Long Wharf, which has been experiencing decreased revenue, declining subscriptions and mixed notices. It is difficult to interpret whether the slide is because of the recession, the shock of Sept. 11, a reaction of the loss of [previous director] Doug Hughes’ leadership, or programming.” Hartford Courant 01/30/02

NOISES ON: The hit musical in London right now is Umoja, a survey of South African culture and history. A big part of the show is the drumming. Fast. Furious. Loud. Mostly loud, so loud that neighbors are complaining and officials are threatening fines. The producers, who may have to pay for insulating the theater, argue that “In all fairness, you don’t buy a flat in the West End and not expect some level of music and noise – this is the entertainment capital of the world.” BBC 01/30/02

Tuesday January 29

DITCHING ROYALTY: London’s Royal National Theatre is quietly dropping the “royal” designation from its official name. “‘We can’t recall the last time a member of the royal family came here for an official visit. The sort of people who need to be attracted to the National Theatre don’t, quite frankly, give a stuff about whether it is royal or not.” The Observer (UK) 01/27/02

SHARING THE RISK AND REWARDS: “Some of the biggest names in UK theatre including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Fry are appealing to wealthy stage fans to back a new company that will share the risk of putting on costly stage productions. Theatreshare, headed by Fry and allied with Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, hopes to become a major player in the West End.” BBC 01/29/02

LONG WHARF’S NEW DIRECTOR: New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre has hired Gordon Edelstein to be its new artistic director. Edelstein is currently director of Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre, where he’s credited with reviving the company’s artistic and financial fortunes. Seattle Times 01/28/02

Monday January 28

THE BROADWAY AUDIENCE: Who goes to Broadway shows? White (81 percent) college-educated (75 percent) women (63 percent) over 40 from out of town (47 percent) with an average annual income of $93,000. New York Daily News 01/28/02

ALMEIDA’S SURPRISE CHOICE: It was widely assumed that, for its next artistic director, London’s fashionable Almeida Theatre would “go for one of the young Turks of British theatre or perhaps continue the tradition of getting actors to run the place.” Instead, the theatre chose Michael Attenborough. He hadn’t even applied for the job. The Telegraph (UK) 01/28/02

Sunday January 27

THE GREYING OF BROADWAY: This season Broadway stages are populated with senior citizens. “The aging of Broadway is a serious matter, and many theater people say that its impact on their industry, and the new stage generation, is crucial. Some say the presence of so many theater veterans is an exciting chance for Broadway giants to display their wares to those who know them and those who don’t. But other people in the theater see it as a symptom of what they consider major problems: the age of the theater audience, the inability to attract and keep young, innovative playwrights, and the unwillingness of Broadway to take a chance on anything but the familiar.” The New York Times 01/27/02

IN SEARCH OF RISK: For the past 12 years, the Almeida Theatre in north London has been a hotbed of critical acclaim. Now Jonathan Kent, its artistic director, is leaving. Why? He believes that “to do good work you must be ‘frightened’. What does he mean? ‘I was watching a TV programme that maintained that some people have a ‘risk chromosome’. Perhaps I have one. The Almeida has been based upon taking impossible and absurd challenges.’ (Example of risk chromosome at work: against the advice of the board, Kent and Ian McDiarmid undertook to raise a £1 million in one week to stage Richard II and Coriolanus.They did it).” The Observer (UK) 01/27/02

THEATRE WOES IN ANOTHER STRATFORD: The town of Stratford, Connecticut had expensive million-dollar dreams for its Shakespeare theatre But “renovations for the theater were halted in midsummer 2000 when it was clear there was no more money and workers walked off the job, leaving rolls of carpet in the lobby and boxes of new seats in the balcony.” Now “the state doesn’t want the white elephant. (You get the impression talking to state officials privately that the state just wishes the theater would just go away.) And the town, which has financial problems of its own, isn’t exactly eager either. It certainly doesn’t want to be in the theater-management business.” Hartford Courant 01/27/02

TAKEOUT BARD: If you can order pizzas and Chinese food to be delivered, why not Shakespeare? A small company of actors in New York has started a business delivering The dozen or so actors “offer Bard specials that can be ordered a la carte and performed in your home. Prices start at $50.” New York Post 01/27/02

Friday January 25

SUPER-SIZE IT? When planning a new show for New York, one of the first things a producer must ask is – how big a show should it be? “In some ways this is always the question a producer asks in trying to balance the art and commerce of putting on a show. But over the last few seasons, with more musicals crowding into the pipeline, musical-friendly theaters in short supply and Broadway economics more daunting than ever, the conventional wisdom regarding what size show belongs in what size theater has been challenged as never before.” The New York Times 01/25/02

Thursday January 24

ANOTHER NON-UNION SHOW: Former Supreme Mary Wilson is the latest big name to sign on to a touring non-union Broadway show. “Wilson is about to hit the road in a revival of Sophisticated Ladies, the Duke Ellington revue that won several Tonys in 1981.” The show is eschewing union performers in favor of cheaper cast members. Actors Equity is trying to fight the proliferation of such touring companies. New York Post 01/23/02

THE UNLIKELY HIT: “Three childhood friends from Cleveland — Hank Unger and two brothers, Matthew and Michael Rego — have pulled off the unlikely feat of mounting a new Broadway musical while in their early 30’s. Moreover, the company has done so with a show that few would have ever dreamed of being a critical and popular hit: a low-budget musical with a surreal subject — an evil conglomerate that controls a city’s bathrooms — written by an unknown writer and composer, and with a title that makes a lot of prospective audience members wince.” The New York Times 01/24/02

Tuesday January 22

SO MUCH FOR THE 21st CENTURY: Theatre Basel has just opened a new theatre – one its artistic director proudly proclaimed on opening night is a “theatre for the 21st Century. “The audience, not sure it had heard correctly, was sitting on wobbly seats in a gray, cold and uncharismatic concrete house with two galleries and cheap chipboard walls. To get in, people had crossed a foyer as charming as a baggage-claim office and clambered up small wooden stairways to narrow gallery passages squeezed between red concrete walls and the glass facade of the building, all the while feeling like uninvited guests in the proverbial can of sardines. If this was the theater of the 21st century, you would not want to see any theater again in this century. Or else the artistic director was telling tall tales.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 01/22/02

Monday January 21

DENVER THEATRE IN DANGER OF CLOSING: The Denver Civic Theatre will be out of business by the end of this season if it doesn’t get a slug of new cash. Business has died since September 11. “Before Sept. 11, our revenues were growing 20-30 percent per production. We were budgeted for a 25 percent gain over last year, but right now we are running 50-60 percent behind. We’ve done about four times as much marketing, our reviews have been excellent, and we still finished about about $100,000 behind in ticket sales.” Denver Post 01/21/02

SHAKESPEARE SENSIBILITIES: Are “ethnic sensibilities” hindering American theatres from producing some Shakespeare plays? That’s what one theatre company manager told the annual conference of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America last week. The group includes more than 70 companies of the 130 to 150 that use the name of Shakespeare in their title. Chicago Sun-Times 01/21/02

Friday January 18

CLASSIC MUSICALS DOMINATE OLIVIERS: The Olivier Awards, British theatre’s most prestigious awards, have named this years nominees. The list is dominated by revivals of classic musical theatre. “The revival of Kiss Me, Kate got nine nominations, while My Fair Lady was given eight, including one best actress nod for former TV soap star Martine McCutcheon.” BBC 01/18/02

PRICE OF SUCCESS: Four of Boston’s best small theatres have been served notice by the actors union Actors Equity – no more union actors without proper union contracts. The theatres have been hiring union actors on “guest” contracts which pay less than regular contracts. But the union says now that the theatres are more established and routinely hiring union players, they have to pay the full rate. ”We didn’t object to them using this contract while they were getting off the ground. But as the companies grew in quality, size, and stature, Equity started grousing, as did some local performers and producers.” Boston Globe 01/18/02

Thursday January 17

END OF THE ROAD: The announcement that Cats would close in London signals the curtain on Andrew Lloyd Webber. “Like a gambler who has enjoyed a fabulous winning streak in a casino, then seen his luck turn, he is now down to his last chip: The Phantom of the Opera. What a comedown for the man who, during the heyday of his career, had as many as five musicals running simultaneously in London’s West End and almost as many on Broadway.” The Age (Telegraph) 01/17/02

DISNEY IN AUSTRALIA: Disney has announced it is getting in to big musical theatre production in Australia, producing The Lion King and Aida. “The news is a much-needed boost for the musical theatre genre, battered by a string of early closures and cancellations, including the 1970s musical Hair last year, and Sunset Boulevard and the $10 million Pan in recent times.” The Age (Melbourne) 01/17/02

Wednesday January 16

ARTS COUNCIL TO RSC – STAY ON BUDGET: The Royal Shakespeare Company is to get £50 million from the Arts Council of England to develop a new “theatre village.” The RSC has to raise another £50 million to fund the project, and the Arts Council says it won’t contribute anything more if the costs rise about the £100 million budget. BBC 01/16/02

ASSISTING TO THE TOP: Want to succeed in the theatre as a director? Then first it helps to be an assistant director. But what, exactly does an assistant director do? Despite the feeling of some that “they just sit there nursing a sort of parallel production in their mind, it can involve everything from researching historical background to rehearsing the understudies – or sitting quietly in the corner getting bored.” The Independent (UK) 01/13/02

Tuesday January 15

NINE LIVES AND THEN SOME: The second-highest grossing musical of all time will end its record run in London this spring after 21 years and nearly 9000 performances. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats has never been popular with critics, but audiences have gravitated to it consistently wherever it has opened. The Broadway production of the show closed in 2000 after an 18-year run. BBC 01/15/02

Monday January 14

STARLIGHT DIMS: After 7,406 performances in 18 years, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Starlight Express closed in London. Lloyd-Webber’s whose long-running shows have been closing one by one in the pasty year in London and New York, says he’d like to take Express on the road. BBC 01/13/02

• A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TOURISTS: “Like the characters and plot, the over-amplified songs are forgettable, with Richard Stilgoe’s often inane lyrics adding to their synthetic feel. Yet Lloyd Webber’s something-for-everyone score, which ranges from pop and blues to country and gospel, the triumph-over-adversity story, and bravura pyrotechnics proved to be an unbeatable tourist-friendly combination.” The Times (UK) 01/14/02

GOODBYE FANTASTICKS: After 17,162 performances, The Fantasticks closes in New York, the longest-running play in the city. The show was a career starter for many actors in its 42-year life. The New York Times 01/14/02

THE PROBLEM WITH REALISM: When theater people claim something is “realistic,” what do they mean? Maybe the conclusion is simply that realism has become a hopelessly slippery term since it was invented in 19th-century France to define works more concerned with showing the world as it is than as it should be.” The New York Times 01/13/02

Sunday January 13

THINKING SMALL: A rash of new one-person and small-cast shows is taking over America’s theatres. “The attraction for one-person shows is obvious. Financially, they’re cheap. Less payroll, less housing, less wine and cheese at the cast party. And when fiscal times are tight, the push for these shows can be seductive, especially if they can be marketed in some new way. But with the number of one-person or tiny-cast shows proliferating, one wonders if anyone is thinking big anymore. Is anyone thinking even moderately? Or have we just created a new type of boutique theater that might amuse or distract – but hardly excite – us?” Hartford Courant 01/13/02

THE BEST THEATRE JOB IN BRITAIN: “Three things have made the Almeida the most exciting theatre in Britain. First, an eclectically international programme: everything from Molière and Marivaux to Brecht and Neil LaBute. Second, top-level casting that has given us Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet and Ivanov, Kevin Spacey in The Iceman Cometh and Juliette Binoche in Naked. Third, a territorial expansion that has seen the Almeida colonise the Hackney Empire, the old Gainsborough film studios and even a converted bus depot in King’s Cross.” Now it’s all Michael Attenborough’s to run. The Guardian (UK) 01/12/02

Friday January 11

ATTENBOROUGH TO ALMEIDA: Michael Attenborough, one of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s guiding lights over the past decade, has been appointed artistic director of the Almeida theatre in north London. “The choice shocked the theatrical world, being another blow to the Royal Shakespeare Company as it goes through one of the biggest upheavals in its history.” The Guardian (UK) 01/11/02

WHY THEATRE IS NOT AN ESSENTIAL ART FORM: In the distant past it was, and theatre appealed to all classes of people. “It was only in the eighteenth century that the preferences of the middle class, which is to say middlebrow taste, began to dominate the theater. These preferences not only obliterated the distinctions between high tragedy and low comedy, between the sacred and the profane, but proscribed any effort to combine the two, as Shakespeare and his contemporaries did so successfully in a previous age.” The New Republic 12/31/01

NEW BROADWAY DIGS? A group of Broadway producers is looking into converting an old multiplex movie theatre into “at least one commercial 499-seat off-Broadway theater, some smaller performance spaces, a rehearsal studio and administrative offices.” New York Post 01/11/02

Thursday January 10

TEAR IT DOWN: The Royal Shakespeare Company has been harshly criticized for saying it will tear down its theatre in Stratford-upon Avon. But some British MP’s are loudly encouraging the demolition, deriding it as a “monstrous carbuncle. Pull it down – it’s a hideous building. I’ve only ever been in the gods there and I’ve ended up seeing about a third of the play.” The Guardian (UK) 01/09/02

(SAD) PORTRAIT OF THE CRITIC: English film critic Kenneth Tynan was the country’s “most gifted theater critic since Hazlitt.” Now his diaries have been published, and “alas–and damn it!–the Tynan diaries leave us with the overwhelming sense of a life helplessly adrift and all purpose spent in a no-man’s land where absolutely nothing is at stake. This forlorn, furiously name-dropping, occasionally sadomasochistic record of the years 1971 to 1980–held back from publication by his widow, Kathleen, and now released by his eldest daughter, Tracy–shock and sadden us in the miserable picture he presents of himself ‘snarling, retching and wanking’ into the abyss.” New York Observer 01/09/02

THE THEATRE SURVIVAL GAME: Berlin is facing budget cuts, and support for some of the city’s cultural institutions is going to decline. “Which theaters will the incoming culture minister from the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor party to East Germany’s ruling communists, close down? The list of candidates is long, cuts in cultural funding make the need evident, and people are placing bets all over town. For now, only one thing is certain: The Friedrichstadtpalast revue theater will survive.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 01/10/02

Wednesday January 9

FANTASTICK FINISH: After a stunning 42-year run, New York’s longest-running musical is closing. The Fantasticks is arguably the most successful musical of the 20th century, and the closing took the theatre community somewhat unaware. “During its…run it has been made into a television special and a feature film, employed actors who went on to win Tonys, Emmys and Oscars, and had its melodies recorded by the likes of Harry Belafonte and Barbra Streisand.” The New York Times 01/09/02 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday January 8

BUT MOM! EVERYBODY’S GETTING ONE! The Royal Shakespeare Company is making waves with its plans to demolish its historic 1930s-style home and replace it with a much larger and more elaborate performance complex. This week, the scheme will face government scrutiny. “The company’s plans to redevelop in Stratford while pulling out altogether from its London home at the Barbican complex have sparked controversy.” BBC 01/08/02

Monday January 7

OF POLITICS AND THEATRE: “For most of the 20th century, especially after the Un-American Activities Committee hearings, American theater – apart from Miller – has not been very politically engaged. Which is why it’s remarkable that today we have two very politically oriented playwrights in August Wilson, with his panoramic cycle of the 20th century black experience, and the emerging Tony Kushner.” New York Post 01/06/02

TOUGHER TIMES DOWNTOWN: While plenty of attention (and help) has been offered to Broadway theatre, downtown theatre (closer to the World Trade Center) has been having a tougher time. “One response has been the formation of Downtown NYC, a coalition of theater owners, dance and theater companies, producers, art galleries, restaurants and other small businesses.” The New York Times 01/06/02

END OF A LONG RUN: The Fantasticks didn’t figure to make it through the season when it opened back in 1960. “When The Fantasticks closes Sunday after 17,162 performances in New York, it will have outlived any other show in American theater history. The show has had more than 12,000 different productions in the U.S. and more than 700 productions in 67 other countries.” New York Post 01/07/02

Sunday January 6

BROADWAY DOWN: Broadway ended 2001 with ticket sales down by $22 million and selling 500,000 fewer tickets. “Broadway theaters recorded $373,128,667 in sales for the season starting in June. That represents 6,473,223 tickets sold. The equivalent figures for 2000 were $395,311,555 and 6,981,071 tickets.” New York Daily News 01/03/02

Friday January 4

LONDON THEATRE’S BIG CHEESE: Who’s the biggest cheese in London theatre? Andrew Lloyd-Webber tops The Stage magazine’s annual poll. “The musical maestro and West End venue owner heads the list for the second year running. Despite a slow year for Lloyd Webber productions, his company Really Useful Group is seen as a hugely powerful influence and his reputation extends worldwide.” Director Peter Hall just makes the Top 20 list at No. 20. The Guardian (UK) 01/03/02

MAKING THE PITCH FOR $480: How well are those $480 tickets to the Broadway production of The Producers doing? Well enough that Inner Circle, the company selling the tickets, is trying to interest other Broadway hits in bumping up their prices too. “While box-office reports indicate that the Inner Circle has done well with the $480 tickets, none of the other shows have yet decided to offer similar tickets through the company.” The New York Times 01/04/02

HIGHEST-PAID BRITISH ACTRESS IN HISTORY: Who’s the highest-paid British actress of all time? Now it’s Jane Leeves, who has signed a £20 million contract for a new season of the US sitcom Frasier as the “semi-psychic physiotherapist Daphne Moon – earning more than triple the fees of Britain’s highest-paid Hollywood actress, Catherine Zeta Jones.” The Guardian (UK) 01/01/02

GUTHRIE FLOODS: Minneapolis’s famous Guthrie Theater has been forced to close for repairs after a water main break flooded the theater’s offices and backstage area. The damage is expected to be repaired by the end of the month, but a number of design drawings, archive material, and other bits of Guthrie history were destroyed. The Guthrie is planning to move to a controversial new riverfront complex in 2005. Minneapolis Star Tribune 01/04/02

WARNED OFF: Those warning notices theatres post in their lobbies often seem so arbitrary or unnecessary. The New Yorker offers a list of lobby notices it would like to see: “WARNING: During this afternoon’s performance, there will be a chatty women’s group from Great Neck seated directly behind you.” The New Yorker 12/31/02

Thursday January 3

OUR BEST PLAYWRIGHT? Okay, he’s a little late, but John Heilpern writes that Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul is the “best play of the past ten years.” “His new play is a magnificent achievement on every challenging,deeply compassionate level. It confirms Mr. Kushner’s place—if confirmation has been needed – as our leading playwright, to whom attention will always gladly be paid.” New York Observer 01/02/02

TEARING DOWN THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE? The problems with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s theatre in Stratford-on-Avon are well known. It’s not a pleasant place to perform in or to see a play. “As part of a £100 million ($145.4 million) capital project, the company wants to demolish the theater and replace it with one designed by the Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat.” And that’s brought howls of protest. The New York Times 01/03/02

Wednesday January 2

ILIAD MEETS HIGH-TECH: “UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television launches a retelling of Homer’s The Iliad that incorporates online community, video feeds, digitally projected images, an interactive floor show, and, oh yes, actors. The idea is to make one of The Iliad’s primary themes – hero Achilles’ constantly shifting allegiances to the Greeks and the Trojans – a metaphor for how 21st century people find their lives shaped by technology and media.” Wired 10/02/02

TOP BILLING: “Sorting out the billing for a play is an archaic and labyrinthine business, the rules of which are understood only by a very few: but basically, the more famous you are, the more you can hog the advertising and the light bulbs. What all actors hope for is to get their name above the title of the play on the poster. ” The Guardian (UK) 01/02/02