Category: theatre

Monday December 31

IRISH CONNECTION: London’s West End is full of Irish theatre at the moment. “A London theatregoer might be tempted to look for a movement, a tradition. But ‘We are likely to see connections between Irish playwrights with a kind of visitor’s logic, whereas they will see the differences’.” The Times (UK) 12/31/01

Sunday December 30

ROAD SHOW: The Full Monty is a hit on Broadway. But plans for a national tour took a dive. Now new producers for the tour have been found, and everything from the ad campaign to the way the show looks and loads and travels has been changed. Will it work? Los Angeles Times 12/30/01

SHAKING UP THE WORLD: England’s world of non-profit theatre has been static for 20 years. But a series of events coming in the new year promises to transform the theatre world and determine its future course. The Observer (UK)12/28/01

IN APPRECIATION: Theatre critic Urjo Kareda has died at the age of 57. He was a critic at the Globe & Mail and the Toronto Star, and exerted an enormous influence on Canadian theatre. Toronto Star 12/30/01

Friday December 28

ANGELS IN AFGHANISTAN: “Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul is no less current than the daily reports from the war in Afghanistan, even though the play was four years in the writing and finished before Sept. 11. After a brilliantly wrought first act that manages to embody the confusion of the West, along with its obsession about Afghanistan, within a single monologue, the play unwinds in a tangle of cross-purposes, in which nothing is as it seems.” Christian Science Monitor 12/28/01

Thursday December 27

OUT WITH A BANG? Several of London’s top theatre directors are stepping down from their institutions in 2002. “But what’s the best way to say goodbye to a top job in the theatre itself? With a bang, a whimper or something in between? Is there a temptation, especially if one has been financially embattled, to blow one’s annual grant on a self-indulgent splurge of spectacularly improbable work?” The Times (UK) 12/27/01

KAREDA PASSES: Legendary Canadian theatre manager and critic Urjo Kareda has died in Toronto at the age of 57. “Mr. Kareda was a former theatre critic at The Toronto Star and literary manager of the Stratford Festival as well as artistic director of the Tarragon Theatre for the past 20 years.” Toronto Star 12/27/01

Wednesday December 26

SIR NIGEL HAWTHORNE, 72: The actor died at home. “Sir Nigel achieved world-wide fame as the bumbling yet suave civil servant Sir Humphrey in the TV hit Yes Minister, but was a classical actor with a wide repertoire ranging from Shakespearean leads to raw comedy. It was once said that he spent the first 20 years of his distinguished career being ignored and the rest of it being discovered.” The Guardian (UK) 12/26/01

Monday December 24

OFF-BROADWAY’S BIG YEAR-END: From November to early March, Broadway is blah as far as new productions opening. Why? It’s all about jockeying for Tonys. Off-Broadway, on the other hand, has had a very productive end of the year… New York Post 12/23/01

THE ART OF SCIENCE: Time was the arts ignored the fields of science and math. No longer. “The new math-sci drama cluster has justifiably been hailed as a welcome trend. By investigating this terrain, one can address all the standard passions — love, competition, jealousy, benevolence, evil — while tackling issues of philosophical and social importance. And maybe teaching us a little something to boot.” Seattle Times 12/23/01

Sunday December 23

THE COWARDLY WEST END? Playwright Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, “a brutal satire on terrorism and undoubtedly the best and most talked about new play of 2001, has still not been given a West End transfer, despite opening to ecstatic reviews at Stratford in May.” McDonagh says it’s because West End theatres are cowardly about presenting controversial work since September 11. The Guardian (UK) 12/22/01

Thursday December 20

KUSHNER AND KABUL: Tony Kushner’s play Homebody/ Kabul is the most awaited play of the year. “Homebody/ Kabul, directed by Declan Donnellan, is Mr. Kushner’s first major work since the lightning bolt that is Angels in America struck nearly a decade ago. As a whole, this tale of cultural quest still has its own journey to make before reaching the level of Angels (which went through many years of gestation before reaching Broadway). But it definitely has the potential to get there.” The New York Times 12/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• LONG ROAD: “The play might well be called Passage to Afghanistan, in tribute to another influence. As in E.M. Forster’s India, a woman is lost here as well. But while it’s occasionally incoherent and overlong, Homebody/Kabul is a passionate and fascinating play, bubbling with ideas.” New York Post 12/20/01
• RUGGED TRIP: A play that’s “like an overheated mind boiling over with multilingual opinions about the world. Unlike Kushner’s longer and more sweeping Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul isn’t roaring agitprop, even though it implicitly argues for consistent Western engagement with Afghanistan. His elliptical plotting and over-articulation finally wear you out. Even with last-minute cuts, the play clocks in at 3 hours 45 minutes – and where the sharp, entertaining Angels made its time fly, Homebody meanders.” Washington Post 12/20/01
• DAUNTING PROMISE: “The eerily timely work about Afghanistan, which runs almost four hours, is comparably mesmerizing and mournful, vast and intimate, emotionally generous and stylistically fabulist, wildly verbal, politically progressive and scarily well informed.” Newsday 12/20/01
• CAN IT OUTLIVE ITS MOMENT? “At a time when the usual quotient of skepticism regarding America’s foreign policy has been muffled by an unofficial edict from above – America, love it or shut up – Kushner both loves it and refuses to shut up. Politicians, academics and telegenic pundits have weighed in on the current mood in America. But little has been heard from artists and playwrights on the order of Kushner.” Los Angeles Tribune 12/20/01
• GOOD TIMING: “The world is so convulsed over that recently departed regime that Homebody is probably the first U.S. play in decades to be able to traffic in the intricate history of a foreign country without the need to provide an audience with footnotes. We’ve got CNN instead.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/20/01
• LONG ROAD TO KABUL: “In many ways, it is a prickly and flawed work. As Kushner notes in an introduction to the text, ‘It was very hard to write this play.’ Originally five hours long, it was cut back to a little under four hours before its opening, and even then, in performance, it sometimes has the print of an unfinished work.” Chicago Tribune 12/20/01
• HIGH AMBITIONS: “It is impossible to watch this play as a purely philosophical work. Nor does Kushner, an explicitly left-wing playwright, mean us to. He has done his homework, studied the internecine eruptions of Afghanistan throughout history, well before most of us (he wrote this in 1998), and he has his characters expound on the details at length. However, because we, too, now know some of these things upon entering the theater, we can focus less on the depths of Kushner’s learning, more on what he makes of it, and conclude that, at bottom, Homebody/Kabul is thin stuff, as politics and as drama.” Boston Globe 12/20/01
• KABUL CABAL: It’s a “wildly ambitious, if only partially satisfying new play.” Chicago Sun-Times 12/20/01
• NAGGING QUESTIONS: “This work, which lasts just under four (with two intermissions), reveals the writer’s enduring infatuation with his own cleverness and consequent reluctance to edit himself. There are mesmerizing moments, but they are mixed in with ostentatiously cute wordplay and long-winded, pedantic speeches — including a climactic sermon, delivered by a Taliban minister, full of predictable pacifist propaganda.” USAToday 12/20/01

WEST END THEATRE STRIKE? London’s theatre workers have voted by a margin of 99.7 percent to reject their latest contract offer and voted 98 percent to authorize a strike. “The average hourly rate in the West End is £6.33, and many earn much less.” BBC 12/19/01

THEATRE-AID: Some 150,000 tickets to New York cultural events are being donated to families who lost relatives in the World Trade Center. And “the League of American Theaters and Producers, backed by $1 million from New York State, is to deliver 3.4 million coupon booklets offering discounts on Broadway tickets, Midtown hotels, parking garages and theater district restaurants. The goal was to keep a flow of local audiences pouring into the theater district as the number of national and international tourists has dropped. A recent survey by the league found that since Sept. 11, half the Broadway audience has come from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, compared with about 43 percent last season. Over all, Broadway sales this season are about 85 percent of what they were last season.” The New York Times 12/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• Previously: THEATRE BAILOUT ANGERS THEATRE FOLK: New York City’s plan to buy 50,000 tickets to Broadway plays in the new year as a way of boosting endangered productions has found some conscientious objectors. “Even as the measures to buffer Broadway were being announced, owners of smaller theaters across the city were increasingly upset about being left out. ‘I think its boneheaded. There’s a lot of insulted theater owners downtown right now’.” The New York Times 12/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Wednesday December 19

THEATRE BAILOUT ANGERS THEATRE FOLK: New York City’s plan to buy 50,000 tickets to Broadway plays in the new year as a way of boosting endangered productions has found some conscientious objectors. “Even as the measures to buffer Broadway were being announced, owners of smaller theaters across the city were increasingly upset about being left out. ‘I think its boneheaded. There’s a lot of insulted theater owners downtown right now’.” The New York Times 12/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)

SADLY, BROADWAY CARNAGE MAY BE AVOIDED: “It appears we may never get to see Stephen Sondheim and Scott Rudin go mano a mano in the courtroom.Though neither side is commenting, word around Broadway is that Sondheim’s camp is putting out settlement feelers to Rudin’s. The two Broadway giants are locked in a deliciously nasty legal battle over the rights to Sondheim’s unproduced musical ‘Gold!'” New York Post [first item] 12/19/01

A MIDDLE-EAST BARD: An English Shakespeare company takes Hamlet and Twelfth Night to the United Arab Emirates. But it’s hardly a cross-cultural experience. The production is staged in the Dubai Ritz Carlton for the (mostly) American and Brit tourists. And there aren’t even many of them – tourism in the Middle East being what it is post-9-11. The Independent (UK) 12/19/01

NEA RELEASES SOME HELD-UP GRANT MONEY: “After holding back its initial approval, the National Endowment for the Arts has decided to give the Berkeley Repertory Theater a $60,000 grant for a production of Tony Kushner’s new play on Afghanistan. The endowment’s acting chairman held up two grants last month at the very last step in the approval process, a move that generated discussion about the NEA’s procedures and the artists’ work… Officials at the NEA have steadfastly refused to discuss the rationale behind the scrutiny since the acting chairman’s action became public almost three weeks ago.” Washington Post 12/19/01

Tuesday December 18

LIVE-AID: The City of New York has announced plans to buy 50,000 tickets to Broadway shows in January. “The 50,000 tickets will cost the city’s administrations about $2.5 million at a time when New York city is trying hard to cut its greatly overspent budget. But the city’s leaders argue that by propping up Broadway, one of New York’s most famous attractions, as much as $12 million could be generated in revenue for struggling businesses.” BBC 12/18/01

WILLY-WORLD: Developers have unveiled plans for a new Shakespeare theme park in Stratford-on-Avon. “Details of the multimillion pound plan to build Shakespeare’s World, which would cover a 30-acre site and would target tourists and daytripping families, have been circulated this month to surprised Stratford councillors.” The Observer (UK) 12/16/01

Monday December 17

MY FAIR PROFIT: The West End revival of My Fair Lady has recouped its costs in record time for a lavish musical, breaking even in just 18 weeks. Advance sales of £10 million helped break the previous record for the musical Oliver!, which needed 35 weeks to make back its money. BBC 12/17/01

NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE: Australian producers proposed to charge $100 for a play featuring a (briefly) nude Elle Macpherson (hey – naked celebrities are a big draw on London’s West End). But after slow sales, the play was postponed. “Producers say that rather than being gripped by a new prudishness, theatre-goers are so blase that even the promise of a celebrity appearing naked isn’t enough for them to rush the box office. Meanwhile, the audiences who see live theatre only once or twice a year would rather spend their money on tried and tested family fare such as The Wizard Of Oz, which continues to do great box office business in Sydney.” Sydney Morning Herald 12/17/01

REBUILDING THROUGH THEATRE: For years drama classes at Sacramento’s Luther Burbank High School were “a dumping ground, the place for kids who needed an extra elective or some last-minute English credits.” But a new principal who believes students ought to have the experience of the arts “issued a decree – part of a plan to make the campus shine again – that drama would return to Burbank…” Sacramento Bee 12/16/01

CAMPAIGN FOR LIVE MUSIC: The British Musicians Union is mounting a campaign to protest the use of recorded music for live Christmas pantomime shows. “The pantomime season traditionally provides extra employment for musicians in theatre pits, but the MU says that there is a growing trend for productions to use pre-recorded tapes instead of live music.” BBC 12/17/01

Sunday December 16

ACTING AS ARCHAIC ART: What’s it like being an actor in Canada? “Being a stage actor is kind of like pursuing an archaic art, in the way people perceive it. Sometimes it feels as if you’re a member of a medieval guild still making horseshoes. Here it does feel a bit odd at times to be an actor, especially a stage actor, because people don’t really get what that is. People always have to say, ‘Well, have you done any commercials?’ so they can place you somehow.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/16/01

TV’S ERODING INFLUENCE: So much post-war drama owes its roots to live stage forms. “But today music hall, variety and revue are all virtually extinct, which means that writers have no popular bank on which to draw. TV, with its endless dreary round of soaps, quizzes and celebrity-led self-improvement shows, is our inherited common culture, giving dramatists little to work on.” The Guardian (UK) 12/16/01

THE GLORY AND EGOS BEHIND TANTALUS: Tantalus was an $8 million, 10-hour drama which debuted at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in October 2000. It “was one of the landmark theatrical sensations of the last decade. It was also, as we soon discover in a new television documentary about its creation, a nest of backstage tension, tears, uncertainty, battered egos and stubborn wills.” Chicago Tribune 12/16/01

FIRST STOP – CHICAGO: Chicago is becoming the city of choice for trying out a play before heading to Broadway. Why? Well, it’s far enough from New York that “you can get work done.” And the city’s homegrown theatre tradition is strong – it’s a city that recognizes and appreciates good theatre. Chicago Sun-Times 12/16/01

Friday December 14

DEATH BY DEFUNDING: Twenty-five year-old Australian puppet company Handspan may go out of business because the state of Victoria has discontinued its annual $100,000 grant to the company. The company, which has an international reputation, says “the decision will almost certainly mean the company’s death. Its board will meet next week to decide whether to fold, or struggle to exist on project funding.” The Age (Melbourne) 12/14/01

A FUTURE FULL OF $480 TICKETS? So is anyone buying those $480 tickets to The Producers on Broadway? Evidently – “so far, the primary target audiences for these tickets are corporations that want to entertain clients or hotel concierges.” And the idea has been successful enough that a company wants to expand the super-premium idea to other hot shows. Los Angeles Times 12/14/01

Thursday December 13

FIGHTING THE L.A. THEATRE CLICHE: Los Angeles has a big theatre scene. But there are clichés about how and why theatre exists there, that it “exists in the shadow of the real reason people are in Los Angeles — movies and television. The result is that a lot of talented people are honing their chops on the stage, but they’re also constantly asking themselves, ‘Is the HBO guy here tonight? And can he help me’?” LA Weekly 12/12/01

Wednesday December 12

DISCARDING THE GUTHRIE: Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre is getting a new home. So what should happen to the old one? “On November 9, the Minneapolis City Council voted 8 to 3 to grant a demolition permit to the Walker Art Center, which owns the theater. Ten days earlier, a city-council subcommittee rejected a recommendation from the city’s Historic Preservation Committee that the 38-year-old building be spared the wrecking ball.” Historic preservationists are fighting back. CityPages 12/12/01

WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK: “Actors come in two types – those who read reviews and those who read them but tell you they don’t. Whether your notice appears in the Uttoxeter Bugle or the London Evening Standard, the possibility that you’re being heralded as the next Lawrence Olivier is simply too much to resist.” The Guardian (UK) 12/12/01

A STRONG OPINION IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE SHOW: Actor David Soul (from Starsky and Hutch) wins a case in British court against a critic who claimed that Soul’s play was ‘without doubt the worst West End show’ he had seen.” Turns out, the critic actually had never seen the show… The Independent (UK) 12/12/01

Monday December 10

WHEN DIRECTORS STEP ON PLAYWRIGHTS: Playwright David Grimm was looking forward to seeing his play produced at Washington’s Studio Theatre’s Secondstage three weeks ago. But he walked out at intermission, angry at the wholesale changes the director had made in his script. Soon rights for producing the play were withdrawn, and the production has closed down. “The reason it is copyrighted is that it is the property of that author. You can’t make changes to the play without the author’s permission. It’s as simple as that. And theaters violate that all the time.” Washington Post 12/09/01

Sunday December 9

THEATRE AS A LIFESTYLE CHOICE: Los Angeles has a thriving theatre scene, but it’s an ongoing struggle for companies to survive. One small theatre is trying to Position itself as a creative community that both artists and audiences want to be a part of. “The Evidence Room’s rising profile is due not only to its programming, but also to its status as a hangout, with a high-ceilinged space and a large lobby, where the social interaction belies notions that theater is of interest only to the over-50 crowd.” Los Angeles Times 12/09/01

SUN SETTING ON LLOYD-WEBBER? “For the first time in many years, there is not a single Lloyd Webber musical touring. His latest musical, “The Beautiful Game,” never made it to the United States, while its predecessor, “Whistle Down the Wind,” had its world premiere in Washington, D.C., but folded before getting to Broadway. Are we approaching the final curtain of the Lloyd Webber saga? Don’t bet on it just yet.” The New York Post 12/09/01

Friday December 7

THEATRE CRASH: Losses to New York theatres since September 11 have been substantial, says a new study. And with an economic slowdown, things aren’t likely to get better soon. “Using the information supplied by the 101 companies who participated in the survey, the report estimates that the direct loss of income for these groups was nearly $4.8 million through Oct. 31.” Backstage 12/05/01

YOU CAN GO BACK: Three years ago the Twin Cities comedy troupe Brave New Workshop managed to scrape together $500,000 to move into a new home. But the larger theatre never really worked out, and the company has struggled ever since. So it’s moving back to its old digs. “I’d much rather have a smaller, profitable theater than a larger, money-losing theater.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 12/05/01

Thursday December 6

CRITICAL DIRECTIONS: Eight Toronto theatre critics changed roles last weekend, leaving the audience to direct short scenes from Canadian plays. “The theatre provided the venue and technical support. The would-be directors had final say over casting. In the interest of justice for all the poor, victimized theatre folk whose livelihoods and careers have been tragically affected by unfeeling pundits, it would be fun to report that the critics failed miserably at their new tasks. But the evening was both fun and enlightening.” National Post 12/06/01

Wednesday December 5

OUT OF WORK AGAIN: You’re an actor and your show has come to an end. When are you officially unemployed? “Is it when your final curtain falls? The next morning? Or the start of the following week? If you finish on a Saturday night, as I’ve just done, you should at least be able to afford yourself a Sunday without anxiety, but some actors I know are making frantic phone calls to friends and contacts even before the Sunday omnibus of The Archers has started.” The Guardian (UK) 12/05/01

Tuesday December 4

THE STATE OF CANADIAN THEATRE: Canada has always struggled to create and sustain a thriving national theatre scene. Two new books highlight the quest: one an anecdotal history of Canadian theatre in general, and the other a history of the Stratford Festival, arguably the nation’s most celebrated theatrical institution. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 12/04/01

Monday December 3

BROADWAY DOWN – BUT JUST A BIT: Broadway’s woes after September 11 have been well-reported. But halfway through the current season box office grosses aren’t catastrophic. They’re “just about five percent below the figure for the comparable period from last year. Attendance is slightly more downbeat: The figure through half the season — 5,372,640 — is down 6.9 percent from last year.” MSNBC 11/30/01

STARMAKER: Jenny Topper is leaving as head of the West End’s Hampstead Theatre. “After organising Europe’s first women’s arts festival and hanging out with the likes of the Beach Boys back in the multimedia fusion years of the early 1970s, Topper has always followed her hunches and evolved into one of British theatre’s most successful starmakers.” The Times (UK) 12/03/01

Sunday December 2

THEATRE AFTER THE USSR: How has theatre changed in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union? As the system and patronage changed, so did the way of making theatre. And as the needs of the audience and the aesthetic of the time evolved, so too did the impetus behind making theatre. A group of Russian theatre artists discusses how their world has changed. The New York Times 12/02/01 (one-time registration required for access)

WHY CHICAGO THEATRE IS SO GOOD: Chicago is known as a great theatre town. But it’s not just quantity or quality that make it great. “As varied as its theater scene is, there is something distinctive about it, too. Directors working here call Chicago’s decisive acting style variously muscular, aggressive, no-nonsense, and substantial.” Christian Science Monitor 11/30/01

Friday November 30

A PIECE OF THE LOOT: Everybody in the theatre world has been talking about the Producers producers’ nerve of charging $480 a ticket for some seats to the show. Now they’re also talking about how all that extra revenue is getting split up. How does it figure in percentages and cuts for various unions and other interested parties? New York Observer 11/28/01

FINALLY, SOME JUICY BROADWAY GOSSIP! “For a musical that has yet to play a single performance on Broadway, Stephen Sondheim’s “Gold!” is causing one juicy backstage brawl, pitting the celebrated theater composer against one of the entertainment industry’s most powerful producers, Scott Rudin.” New York Post 11/30/01

Thursday November 29

THE UNION LABEL: In an attempt to “shame the Arts Council into properly funding the development of new musicals, the most popular working class theatrical entertainment” the Trades Union Congress is “helping pay for the development of the first big rap, ragga, gangsta and banghra musicals. For the time, the TUC is becoming a patron of the experimental arts.” The Guardian (UK) 11/29/01

THE STRANGEST AWARD IN CANADA: Has it really come to this? Is the provincial government of Ontario really handing out cash awards to theatre groups as a reward for doing the best job of raising money from non-governmental sources? Yup, that’s about the size of it – best bowing and scraping performance wins the day. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 11/29/01

THE ACCENT CANNA TAKE ANYMURE, KEPTIN! An Edinburgh professor has released a tutorial for actors wishing to learn a Scottish accent, perhaps the most-often massacred dialect in Western film. The biggest challenge in teaching Americans and Brits the Scottish sound, it turns out, is getting them to stop trying to talk like Scotty from Star Trek. BBC 11/29/01

THE SWEETEST SOUNDS: In 1926, Richard Rodgers had two hits running on Broadway at the same time. He was 23. His later collaborations with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein seem to be the stuff of Neil Simon plays. In fact, they were more the stuff of Eugene O’Neill. Chicago Tribune 11/25/01

Wednesday November 28

CIRQUE DU SAME OLD SAME OLD: Has Cirque du Soleil gone stale? “A multi-million-dollar international business, with seven shows running concurrently on four continents, Cirque du Soleil is as challenging and innovative as a chain of McDonald’s. It’s a pleasant enough package, but once you’ve tasted one, you’ve tasted them all. It likes to promote itself as avant-garde, but this circus takes no risks.” The Guardian (UK) 11/28/01

Tuesday November 27

NOBLE DEFENSE: Royal Shakespeare Company director Adrian Noble is under siege for his plans to reinvent the company. But he says he won’t back down. “These views mask snobbery and the belief that publicly subsidised theatre should never mix with the West End. I happen to believe that’s complete bollocks.” The Observer 11/25/01

NO WONDER SAM MENDES WANTS A BREAK: He won three Tonys a couple years ago with Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing; his first movie, American Beauty, brought him the 1999 directing Oscar; he’s finishing up his second movie, The Road to Perdition, with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman; his Broadway revival of Cabaret is a hit, and this season he’ll be directing all-star casts in Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya. Then he plans to quit his day job. Newsday 11/27/01

Monday November 26

IN DEFENSE OF CRITICS: “In the past six years, more and more people have told me not only that theatre reviewing is half dead, but that all newspaper criticism is in danger of becoming irrelevant. Who needs to know what critics think when your chat group’s opinions are available on-line? Who cares what critics may write when the real news is the star’s recent breast job? Apparently, the age of global culture and digital democracy has little place for critics. It’s self-interested, of course, but I think these trends have been overstated.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/26/01

LLOYD-WEBBER FOREVER: Andrew Lloyd Webber is at the place in his career where some are writing his professional obituary. But though his last show flopped and some of his long-running vehicles have closed, he’s full of energy for the future. “I have got more tunes sitting around at the moment than I have ever had in my career. If anybody wanted a tune, I could write it. I have two or three of the best things I have ever written in my little locker.” The Telegraph (UK) 11/26/01

Sunday November 25

TEN-MINUTE TAKE: Theatre is not an immediately reactive art form. But Soho Theatre had an idea to make it more so. “Each morning one of the Soho Theatre’s chosen writers turned up at 10am for a meeting with the appointed director. Armed with the newspapers, they decided on a topic for that day’s play. The writer spent the morning hammering out a script. At 2 pm the actors turned up for a rehearsal. At 5.30 pm the play was presented in the bar of the Cafe Lazeez downstairs in Dean Street. For 10 minutes or so, people ceased mobile-phoning, chattering or drinking to listen.” The Guardian (UK) 11/24/01

Friday November 23

GOLD STANDARD: Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman have filed a $5 million lawsuit against producer Scott Rudin, claiming he is trying to kill a musical they have been working on for nearly 10 years. GOLD! was scheduled to open in Chicago next year, but the pair say legal threats by Rudin have scared off the director and the theater operators.” Nando Times (AP) 11/23/01

PLAYING YOUNG: New York’s annual Young Playwrights Festival plays older than its participants. “The festival, founded by Stephen Sondheim, is 20 years old. The competition for inclusion has attracted as many as 1,500 entries from writers 18 or under; past winners include Kenneth Lonergan and Rebecca Gilman.” The New York Times 11/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Thursday November 22

BACKSTAGE ETIQUETTE: What should you say to your friend the actor when you go backstage after the show? Careful, It’s “a diplomatic minefield. In fact it’s a nightmare. What should you say? How frank should you be? Speak honestly? Lie through your teeth? Or adopt a middle way, seasoning your praise with a few genuine observations in the hope they’ll be helpful? Like, “The more you can smile, the better it is.” My advice is to lie through your teeth. Actors require only one thing – to be told that they were superb and that the piece as a whole was a life-changing experience.” The Guardian (UK) 11/22/01

Monday November 19

TAKING THE BARD TO THE HOME OF THE BARD: Shakespeare is the most-performed playwright in America. Now, for the first time, an American company has been invited to perform at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Stratford home. “Exchanges like this are a good way of overcoming the purely artificial prejudices which say that Americans can’t do Shakespeare.” The Times (UK) 11/19/01

STRATFORD AT 50: Canada’s Stratford Festival is 50 years old. It runs on a $30 million budget, employs 800 people, and is a Canadian favorite. “One of the crazier aspects of the original Stratford scheme was the whole idea of starting a festival of classical theatre in a country not exactly known for its vibrant theatrical life.” Toronto Star 11/19/01

Sunday November 18

FINDING A NEW NICHE FOR THEATRE: No corner of the arts world has suffered since September 11 to the degree that large-scale theatre productions have. And although ticket sales are beginning to rebound from their disastrous slump, tourists are still staying away from the big shows in New York and London. Does this mean that theatre will finally turn away from the sort of big-budget, flashy spectacles designed to draw out-of-town rubes, and back to serious displays of acting? Maybe, but the industry has to get through the winter first. Boston Herald 11/18/01

A PASSION FOR AMERICANA: For some reason, the British love American theatre, perhaps more than most Americans do. “You could, if you were a dyspeptic American theatre critic, attribute this to schadenfreude on the part of the British public, ever eager to extract solace from writers who have found cause to question the sanctity of the American Dream, but you would be entirely wrong. First of all, far from being cynical about American culture, for more than 50 years the British have had a love affair with it.” The Telegraph (UK) 11/17/01

Thursday November 15

PUBLIC DOWNTURN: New York’s Public Theatre has laid off 20 percent of its staff to balance its budget. “The theater’s endowment is now down to about $23 million from $40 million, largely because of its two consecutive Broadway flops — On the Town, and The Wild Party, which together lost $14 million — and the closing of successful Public productions on Broadway like Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk.” The New York Times 11/15/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NEW DIRECTOR FOR GUTHRIE THEATER: “The Guthrie Theater has hired Susan Baird Trapnell, executive director of the Seattle Arts Commission, to be its new managing director. When she takes the post on Feb. 1, Trapnell will become the first female managing director in the theater’s 38-year history. She replaces David Hawkanson, who resigned in July after five years.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 11/15/01

STRASBERG AT 100: Acting teacher Lee Strasberg is a legend (and still a living one). “Because of the on-camera success of so many of Strasberg’s students – Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Dustin Hoffman among them – he gained a worldwide reputation as the father of modern film acting.” On the other hand, “The estimable director/critic Robert Brustein once labeled Strasberg a ‘highly overrated cultural icon,’ and Marlon Brando wrote that it wasn’t Strasberg who taught him to act but Stella Adler and Elia Kazan.” Backstage 11/14/01

FAILURE TO GRADUATE: It was a big hit in London, but despite some big-time hype and anticipation Down Under, The Graduate is closing early and canceling its Australian tour. The Age (Melbourne) 11/15/01

LITTLE THEATRE, NEW YORK STYLE: It might be New York, but most of the theatre going on is made by those who aren’t in it for the money. Off- and Off-Off Broadway has a whole different set of rules than the big time. But that doesn’t mean the big time isn’t just around the next corner. Financial Times 11/15/01

Wednesday November 14

SAVING BRITISH STAGE DESIGN: “Whether this is a good or bad thing, there is little doubt that British stage design ranks as the best in the world. We regularly scoop all the prizes at international exhibitions and competitions, and our reputation for craftsmanship and resourcefulness is second to none. The downside of this success is that the profession has become hopelessly overcrowded.” The Telegraph (UK) 11/14/01

TO BOOTH OR NOT TO BOOTH: The musical Phantom is considering selling tickets at the reduced-price TKTS booth on Broadway. To hear the other shows tell it, this would be a disaster for competing musicals. “Perhaps the most popular musical in Broadway history, Phantom does huge repeat business even at full price. According to one recent survey, nearly 50 percent of its audience had already seen the show at least once.” At half price, it would suck up much of the tourist business. New York Post 11/14/01

A DRESSING ROOM OF ONE’S OWN: In the theatre, “getting your own dressing room is the ultimate status symbol. The two critical factors that denote the importance with which you’re regarded by the management are how many people you’re required to share with and how near you are to the stage.” The Guardian (UK) 11/14/01

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE STRIKE: As the Royal Shakespeare Company gets ready to open its big new holiday show, “backstage staff at its London base at the Barbican have voted nine to one in favour of strike action which could wreck its final winter season there.” The Guardian (UK) 11/14/01

Tuesday November 13

THE ONLINE PLAY: A new play debuts in London this week. It’s been written online by the audience. “More than 200 theatregoers have made specific script contributions, over 1,200 have voted on plot twists and thousands more have tracked the development of the drama which has unfolded on www.whatsonstage.com week by week over the past two months.” The Guardian (UK) 11/12/01

Monday November 12

PRINCESS DI ON STAGE: A new musical about Princess Di has opened in Germany. “This is only the latest in a line of art events based on or dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales in the four years since her death. It is performed in German for now, but will switch to English when it moves on a tour of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The musical interprets the story of Diana’s life from her first public appearances to her now famous interview with Martin Bashir to her last evening in Paris.” BBC 11/12/01

LA’S NEW THEATRE FOR A STATUE: Los Angeles has a new opera house. OK, it was designed for the Academy Awards, and it’s located in a shopping mall. It was also designed “with blind eye and tin ear.” It’s designed for TV and it’s an “ungracious building” for a human audience. “Inside the theater, the assault never ceases.” And the acoustics? A mess. Los Angeles Times 11/12/01

Sunday November 11

PLAYING ON: “What is the general feel of the West End since Sept. 11? Contradictory. The lobbies at first nights are as jampacked as they always were, the streets outside still teem with gawkers and autograph-hounds, and getting a taxi after a show is just as difficult and just as likely to lead to a vendetta on the sidewalk. Yet restaurants and pubs seem less busy in the early evening, meaning you can actually get a drink without breaking Britain’s unwritten law against queue-jumping.” The New York Times 11/11/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday November 9THEATRE IN NEW YORK: A group of cultural leaders gets together to talk about the state of theatre in New York: “Theater-making is bracketed by the need for money and space, and the talks centered on such crucial issues as public policy, real estate, and the relations among theater, film, and television industries. A flurry of reports made clear that the events of 9-11 have exacerbated preexisting trends: people choosing stay-at-home entertainment, audiences hesitating to purchase tickets in advance, and government abandoning its support of the arts.” Village Voice 11/06/01

• THEATRE SINCE 9-11: “One of the panel’s most salient points was the growing gap between Hollywood, which has moved on from the events of September 11, and New York, where artists are still digesting the effects of the attack and searching for meaning within their own work.” Actors Update 11/06/01
• WHO GETS WHAT IN NY THEATRE: It’s a $13 billion industry. “Twenty-nine companies with budgets of $10 million or more, representing the largest arts organizations, account for 70.7 percent of the total revenue among arts groups. Meanwhile, at the bottom of this pyramid, 185 organizations with budgets under $100,000 constitute one half of one percent of total revenue.” Actors Update 11/06/01

Thursday November 8

BARNUM, THE FATHER OF POSTMODERNISM? “The fragmentation of truth, the ascendancy of appearances, the fluidity of self, the breakdown of master narratives, the triumph of ironic detachment: all the tendencies that we loosely label ‘postmodernism’ are commonly assumed to be the products of mass-media technology and multinational capital.” But look back a century farther, to the P. T. Barnum who observed that “The public appears disposed to be amused even when they are conscious of being deceived.” The New Republic 11/12/01

ALBERTA THEATER LOOKING GOOD AGAIN: “Alberta Theatre Projects has emerged stronger and healthier after its recent financial crisis. Two years ago, the Calgary theatre company was on the brink of collapse, after losing donors and subscribers. Now the A.T.P. is boasting a modest operating surplus, and nearly a thousand new subscribers.” CBC 11/07/01

ANTHONY SHAFFER, 75: Anthony Shaffer, award-winning playwright and twin brother of playwright Peter Shaffer, has died at his home in London. Anthony Shaffer’s best-known work was Sleuth, which was a success in London, won a Tony on Broadway, and was nominated for two Oscars as a movie with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier. Nando Times (AP) 11/07/01

Wednesday November 7

MAYBE IT’S JUST BAD THEATRE: West End theatre business is down 15 percent from last year. Eight shows have closed recently. But is the current crisis to blame? Nope. “Would an all-male Canadian play about an obscure Antarctic expedition have done any better in boom times? Would Ronald Harwood’s ridiculous Hollywooden exploration of a composer’s private problems – with dialogue like: “Hello Freud.” “Hello Mahler”- have wowed them even if the midwest tourists had been arriving as usual? I can’t think of a single show that doesn’t owe its demise either to its own internal failings, rotten reviews, or the simple fact that it had exhausted its audience.” The Guardian (UK) 11/07/01

Sunday November 4

“NO-BRAINER” GOUGING: Hike Producers tickets to $480 a seat? Why it’s a no-brainer, say the show’s producers. “These producers are only legitimizing unabashed profiteering, and the notion that the theater is for the privileged and that greed is good. It’s as if those people who wait in line hoping for cancellations for every show were suddenly told, ‘We’re going to have an auction for these unused tickets right here on the sidewalk. Now what am I bid’?” Hartford Courant 11/04/01

BROADWAY AND THE ART OF HUMMING: Which is more important to the success of a Broadway musical – the lyrics and story or the music? Three current shows give contradictory answers. But a hint: “No one ever left a musical chanting the words rather than humming the tunes.” New York Post 11/04/01

Friday November 2

IF YOU CAN MAKE IT THERE…: “Catharsis comes in surprising packages these days. Who would ever have thought three months ago that the most emotionally stirring shows in Manhattan would be a sincerely kitschy musical set to the songs of Abba (Mamma Mia!), an earnest story-theater rendering of Greco-Roman myths (Metamorphoses) and a dizzy, well-known romp like Noises Off? Strange times breed strange diversions, however. And what [those three] have in common is that they bypass that celebrated skeptical New York mind to go for the gut.” The New York Times 11/02/01 (one-time registration required for access)

FOR $480, YOU GET THE UNDERSTUDY: “Nathan Lane, the Tony Award-winning star of The Producers, appears to have developed a polyp on his vocal chord and will be out of the hit show indefinitely, his spokesman said yesterday. News of Lane’s ailment comes just one week after the producers of The Producers raised their top ticket price to a staggering $480.” New York Post 11/02/01

• Previously: CONTROL OR GREED?: Is Broadway only for the rich? Many are asking, after producers of The Producers jacked up prices for some seats to $480 a ticket. “The scalpers have snatched up and warehoused thousands of our seats. You cannot get good seats for at least six months because they are in the hands of scalpers. We are simply trying to regain control of some of our inventory.” New York Post 10/27/01

Thursday November 1BROADWAY AND THE $480 TICKET: Wasn’t it yesterday that Broadway was on its knees begging us all to ‘support’ it in its darkest hour? Who feels like supporting it now? The dishonest idea that the $480 ticket is ‘doing good’ is the last straw. This latest example of greed cleaves the already huge rift between those who can still afford to go to Broadway and those who cannot. New York Observer 10/31/01MODERNIZING SCOTTISH ACTING SCHOOLS: “The popular perception of drama schools as being noisily peopled with big-mouths who have seen the video of Fame once too often and posh kids too thick for real university courses is, of course, only partially deserved.” Now two new directors have been brought in to “modernise a course fraying at the edges” at Scottish drama schools. Glasgow Herald 10/31/01Tuesday October 30BRECHT BAN: Newly released documents reveal that ministers in the British cabinet tried to keep Bertolt Brecht and his German theatre company out of the UK during the Cold War. “It is extraordinary to see the tricks the Foreign Office got up to to keep Brecht out and the pressure they were under from the German Embassy in London who were running a Brecht boycott from 1953.” The Observer (UK) 10/29/01THE WORLD’S MOST UNPRONOUNCABLE PRIZE: “The first recipient of Canada’s single largest arts prize is Toronto theatre director Daniel Brooks, it was announced last night at a ceremony at the University of Toronto. Brooks, 43, was named the inaugural recipient of the Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Canadian Theatre, worth $100,000. The award, to be handed out annually, was created in January of this year to recognize an artist in mid-career ‘who has contributed significantly to the fabric of theatrical life through a total body of work.'” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10/30/01Monday October 29THE THEATRE OF PLAYS: London’s West End is suddenly full of plays about the theatre: “Take these portraits as a fair reflection of today’s Equity membership and you will go home convinced that the average cast includes incompetents (Star Quality, Noises Off), adulterers and serial seducers (Over the Moon, The Royal Family) and dipsomaniacs (Noises Off, Over the Moon), most of them capable of breathtaking vanity and bitchiness (all five shows).” The Times (UK) 10/29/01Sunday October 28CONTROL OR GREED? Is Broadway only for the rich? Many are asking, after producers of The Producers jacked up prices for some seats to $480 a ticket. “The scalpers have snatched up and warehoused thousands of our seats. You cannot get good seats for at least six months because they are in the hands of scalpers. We are simply trying to regain control of some of our inventory.” New York Post 10/27/01NOT YOUR AVERAGE TEAR-DOWN: So the Royal Shakespeare Company wants to demolish its Stratford building; it is, after all, not a very good place in which to perform, as currently structured. But the UK’s building preservation authority isn’t likely to grant tear-down approval. “This is a building redolent with the ghosts of the country’s greatest actors. And what must really be preying on English Heritage’s mind is the precedent that demolition would create.” The Telegraph (UK) 10/27/01Friday October 26GOUGING AS PUBLIC SERVICE: “Annoyed” (can you say “greedy”?) at the thriving scalper trade for The Producers, the show’s producers plan to hike the price for 50 prime seats per show – to $480 a ticket. “The sum is nearly five times the current cost of $100 for the most expensive seats, itself a Broadway high.” The New York Times 10/26/01 (one-time registration required for access)NOT ON OUR LIFE: Lincoln Center Theater has removed a new musical from its schedule next year. Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is loosely based on his failed marriage. But Brown’s wife, said to be unhappy with the script, had her lawyers contact Lincoln Center to tell them that the couple’s divorce settlement bars Brown from writing about certain aspects of the marriage…and when the lawyers get involved… New York Post 10/26/01THE MISTAKEN ROYAL: London’s National Theatre is marking its 25th anniversary… er, make that the Royal National Theatre, its full name (which is almost never used). Turns out the “Royal” designation was an accident, a mistake, reveal the theatre’s leaders at the 25th anniversary party. The Independent (UK) 10/26/01Tuesday October 23PUBLIC’S DONORS QUIT: New York’s Public Theatre is in trouble, losing lots of money. Now, two of the theatre’s largest donors have resigned from the board, citing the “theater’s poor financial management. The resignations present the often turbulent Public with one of its most pointed crises in years.” The New York Times 10/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)WHAT’S A THEATRE “VILLAGE”? The Royal Shakespeare Company defends its plans to tear down its Stratford theatre and build a new “theatre village.” “The rebuilt RST will be the most significant new theatre building of the new century, with the ambition to be one of the world’s best playhouses for Shakespeare.” The Guardian (UK) 10/23/01Monday October 22THE NEW BROADWAY: A new generation of young producers is making a mark on Broadway. “Experimental theatre has been around forever. What’s new [as vividly embodied in ‘Blue Man Group’] is the blending of an experimental aesthetic with a sound fiscal property.” Backstage 10/19/01REBUILDING A CLASSIC: So the Royal Shakespeare Company wants to tear down its Stratford theatre and rebuild. What should go up in its stead? “Has theatre design really got anywhere since Epidaurus? In Britain, in the 25 years since the completion of the National, results have been patchy. No one seems to know quite what theatre ought to be – the stuff of bands of roaming players and minstrels, or a fixed repertoire point in the fast-turning world of towns and cities, housed in more or less grandiloquent buildings?” The Guardian (UK) 10/22/01Friday October 19THE SURPRISE TEAR-DOWN: The Royal Shakespeare Company was thought to be considering a major renovation of its building; plans for demolishing the art deco theatre came as a surprise. “There is considerable scope for remodelling, but the important historic parts of this theatre are well worth fighting for.” The Times (UK) 10/19/01Previously: TEARING DOWN SHAKESPEARE THEATRE: The Royal Shakespeare Company plans to demolish its theatre at Straford-upon-Avon. “The 1932 Art Deco listed building will be bulldozed as part of a grand plan by the RSC’s director, Adrian Noble, for a £100 million ‘theatre village’ on the banks of the Avon.” The Independent (UK) 10/18/01THE NOSE KNOWS: Julie Taymor did the improbable by making Disney (The Lion King) cool with even the most jaded Broadway denizens. Now she’s taking on a new project – Pinocchio. She sees the story as “a fable about adolescence, that awkward age when hormones start kicking in, you smoke dope, and need to break away from your family and discover your own identity.” The Telegraph (UK) 10/19/01Thursday October 18EMPOWERING BROADWAY: To help New York theatre, legislation is being proposed in the US Congress to “make Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres empowerment zones, much as economically disadvantaged neighborhoods such as Harlem are designated, so that producers get tax credits for paying salaries.” Backstage 10/17/01NORTH AMERICA’S LARGEST THEATRE FEST: Ontario’s Stratford Theatre Festival is 50 years old. It’s the largest repertory theatre in North America and Canada’s largest performing arts company. “Attendance has sailed past the half-million mark and year-end surpluses have gone over $4-million for the past two years. This year, Stratford is spending $40.8-million and will have sold more than 600,000 tickets by the time the season ends in November.” But is the festival showing its age? How about an upgrade in progrmming… The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/18/01TEARING DOWN SHAKESPEARE THEATRE: The Royal Shakespeare Company plans to demolish its theatre at Straford-upon-Avon. “The 1932 Art Deco listed building will be bulldozed as part of a grand plan by the RSC’s director, Adrian Noble, for a £100 million ‘theatre village’ on the banks of the Avon.” The Independent (UK) 10/18/01BUT NO CELEBRITIES IN THE CAST: Typically of an expensive musical, North West has lavish effects (a bomber lands on stage right after intermission) and a huge cast (36 actors play 180 different roles). But it’s not on Broadway, or the West End. It’s gearing up for a two-year run in Moscow. The Moscow Times 10/18/01SATIRE IS OKAY AFTER ALL. MORE OR LESS: In response to comedian Rowan Atkinson, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said “planned security legislation will not harm freedom of speech for comedians. I think we are able to tell the difference between comic sketches and comedy and people who are trying to whip up and incite religious hatred.” BBC 10/18/01Previously: SAFETY TRUMPS RIGHT TO LAMPOON: A prominent U.K. comedian has publicly condemned the nation’s proposed antiterrorism legislation pending in the House of Commons. Rowan Atkinson (best known in the U.S. for his turn in Four Weddings and a Funeral) claims that a measure in the bill designed to prevent religious hate speech would have the effect of making the satirizing of religion a crime. He is backed by several of Britain’s top satirists. BBC 10/17/01Tuesday October 16REVIVING THE MAGIC: London’s “West End has recently been littered with new musicals that haven’t caught on, leaving producers sometimes sizeably in the red.” So what is generating London theatre box office? Revivals, the good old days… The Times (UK) 10/16/01Monday October 15WHAT IRISH THEATRE IS: The Dublin Theatre Festival neatly showcases the poles of contemporary Irish theatre. At one end is “the notion that theatre is not a separate art form but a crossroads where all the forms – musical, visual and verbal – meet. The other offered a chance to share the vision of the man who led the revolt against this idea by seeking to return to the roots of theatre.” Irish Times 10/12/01Sunday October 14LO, HOW A ROSE E’ER BLOOMING: “The discovery that the remains of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre are in a reasonable condition has led to calls for more to be spent on excavating the site… It is the only Elizabethan theatre left in the world of which there are substantial remains.” BBC 10/14/01Friday October 12SOME OFF-BROADWAY LOOKING BETTER: Three long-running off-Broadway successes were, like most other shows, hit hard by the September 11 attacks. Still, three of them are bouncing back: Blue Man Group, Stomp, and De La Guarda. It may be no coincidence that all three and “high-energy, textless performances that require no English — or any other language for that matter — to enjoy.” The New York Times 10/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)Thursday October 11TRACING THREE DECADES OF BRITISH THEATER: Michael Billington has been the theater critic at London’s Guardian newspaper for thirty years now, and he has watched the business evolve in countless ways. Where plays were once dominant, musicals are now the backbone of the industry. Superstar composers and directors have come to wield remarkable power. But “the first, and most striking, fact is that the basic structure of British theatre has more or less survived.” The Guardian (UK) 10/10/01Tuesday October 9GUTHRIE LIKELY TO BE RAZED: Minneapolis’s historic Guthrie Theater, America’s first ‘regional’ theater company, is preparing to build a gleaming new base of operations on the banks of the Mississippi River. But a great battle has broken out over what to do with the old building, which adjoins the famous Walker Art Center. Preservationists and theatre fans want it to stay; the Walker wants to tear it down in order to expand its sculpture garden. So far, the Walker is winning. Minneapolis Star Tribune 10/09/01LOOK FOR THE NON-UNION LABEL: A current national tour of “The Music Man” is being seen as a test case for a radical idea: non-union musicals. The entire cast of the show is non-union, and while labor leaders scream and the show’s producers claim (dubiously) that the tour could not be going better, the rest of the theater world waits and watches. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/09/01Friday October 5WELL – IT WORKS FOR LONDON: The Melbourne Theatre Company has found a way to get people through the doors – hire movie stars. By casting big names, the theatre “experienced an ‘unprecedented leap’ in subscribers – a 20 per cent increase.” The Age (Melbourne) 10/05/01PAYBACK: Business is improving on Broadway. So much so, that some producers say they’ll start paying back union workers who voluntarily took pay cuts of 25 percent to keep shows playing last week. Theatre.com 10/04/01Thursday October 4WORKED TO DEATH: Has workshopping plays before they get to Broadway ruined the creative process? Stephen Sondheim thinks so. “Over the years these things got bigger and more formalized, and now they’re just glorified backers’ auditions. No thanks. Send me back to New Haven, where you had audiences full of real people, not show buffs and vultures who were hoping for the show to fall on its face.” Toronto Star 10/04/01THE OFF-BROADWAY ADVANTAGE: In some ways, a lot of off-Broadway shows are now doing better than their glamorous Great White Way brethren. “Off Broadway audiences are mostly made up of New Yorkers — not tourists whose visits to the city have dropped off precipitously — and are typically stalwart and devoted theatergoers. And its theaters are smaller than those on Broadway, making them easier to fill. And they do not have Broadway’s sometimes daunting ticket prices.” The New York Times 10/04/01 (one-time registration required for access)Wednesday October 3DEFENDING THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE: Protests about Adrian Noble’s plans to makeover the Royal Shakespeare Company have been raining down on the company. Now Noble responds to the critics and says the moves are essential. “My excitement about the future is that we can take the ensemble one step further, working with a company of actors, exploring an idea in the kind of detail that pays artistic dividends.” The Guardian (UK) 10/03/01THE COMPLEAT SHAKESPEARE: The only surviving folio of Shakespeare’s complete plays is about to be sold. “The First Folio of Shakespeare, published in November 1623, is the cornerstone of English literature, effectively the first edition of the complete plays. Eighteen of them have survived only because they are in this posthumous volume, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra.” How they were printed says a lot about them. The Times (UK) 10/03/01THE INVISIBLE ACTOR: An out-of-work actor wonders about taking a movie extra role to pay the rent. But should he? “The job of an extra is to meld with the background, be forgettable, make no mark whatsoever. For an actor to stray across the invisible line from performer to supporting artiste is too high a price to pay, even for a day. Even for a free lunch.” The Guardian (UK) 10/03/01BACK ON BROADWAY: After a down week on Broadway, theatre attendance has soared. “Unprecedented agreements on pay cuts and other economic concessions have allowed several endangered shows to stay open. Long lines have returned to the discount ticket booth in Times Square. And, perhaps most important, cast members say that audiences have begun to laugh easily and naturally again.” Boston Globe 10/03/01BUNDY GOES TO YALE: After a long high-profile search, Yale University has named James Bundy, who runs the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, to be the new dean of the School of Drama and artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre. “Bundy, 42, who officially takes over in July, succeeds Stan Wojewodski, who has headed the graduate school and its professional theater for 11 years.” Hartford Courant 10/03/01NOT SO HOT JOB? Bundy is “credited with helping to save the Great Lakes Theater Festival from financial disaster while polishing its artistic merits.” But is the Yale job such a great one these days? Applications to the school are down, attendance at the theatre has “nose-dived.” “The job’s multiple personality – part academic, part artistic, part managerial – is considered so difficult that the search for a new dean took more than a year. Several high-profile artistic directors at regional theaters across the country turned down the job.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/03/01Tuesday October 2THEY ALREADY BAILED OUT THE AIRLINES… A bill has been proposed in the US Congress to help promote New York. The new law “would allow individuals to deduct $500, and joint filers $1000, from their federal income taxes for the cost of meals, lodging or entertainment in New York City through Dec. 31, 2002. Taxpayers would be eligible for the deduction whether or not they itemized their taxes.” Theatre.com 10/01/01CLASSIC COLLABORATION: “For most of the 20th century, British productions of Molière, Ibsen, Chekhov and others generally used translations by scholars with a great knowledge of French, Norwegian or Russian, but no experience of writing for the stage.” More recently, “name” writers (who often have no knowledge of the plays’ original languages) have been hired to adapt classic translations. But do such rewrites serve plays’ integrity? The Times (UK) 10/02/01FUNNY AGAIN… What leaders and commentators are saying to comedians is, “The country needs you to go back to being funny.” But can they really go back? “This may be the event which historians look back to as the beginning of a new era of sensitivity, introspection and growth. It could produce new styles, new textures and new subjects.” Nando Times 10/01/01Monday October 1BROADWAY REBOUND: It was easy, when Broadway attendance plummeted in the days after September 11, to fear for the future of theatre in New York. But a week later the theaters were packed with people, and it was clear that people came out to the shows for a sense of community. And isn’t that one of the things theatre does best? Hartford Courant 09/30/01PEGGY SUE ANULLED: There were lots of hopes for the musical Peggy Sue Got Married when it opened in London this summer. A co-production was planned for Toronto, and “during the first three weeks of its London run, the show demonstrated signs of building an audience, with steadily increasing advance sales and tour groups signing on for months ahead. But the terrorist attack on the United States on Sept. 11 had a negative effect on London theatre, as many tourists cancelled trips abroad and group bookings were cancelled.” Toronto Star 10/01/01

Sunday September 30

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR BROADWAY? One of New York’s senior theatre critics thinks that the doomsayers are overstating the crisis facing Broadway. “During World War II in London, I recall watching theater while Hitler’s doodle-bug, pilotless missiles droned and spluttered overhead. Later, von Braun’s rockets plopped down and caused indiscriminate devastation. There was nothing one could do about them. The thinking was: One may as well go to the theater.” New York Post 09/30/01

LIVING LIFE BACKWARDS: Kenneth Tynan was the 20th Century’s greatest theatre critic. But his biggest accomplishments were made by his 30s, and he was irrelevant by the time he dies. A new book examines his life. “It is, of course, gratifying for a theatre critic to discover that Tynan, undoubtedly the greatest dramatic critic of the 20th century, probably the greatest since Hazlitt, should, 21 years after his death, be one of the publishing sensations of the year.” The Telegraph (UK) 09/29/01

Friday September 28

SELLING THE NATIONAL THEATRE: The president of Nigeria wants to raise money for his impoverished government. So he’s planning to sell off government enterprises – including the country’s National Arts Theatre – to the highest bidders. “But groups of Nigerian musicians, actors and actresses are staging a series of performances and road marches in protest at the sell-off plans. ‘We have made it clear to the government that the National Arts Theatre is the soul of the nation and it should not be sold’.” BBC 09/28/01

ACTING PROACTIVE: No sector of the arts world has suffered in the wake of the September 11 tragedy like the theatre. While many people look to music, literature, and visual art to help sooth their troubled souls, the prospect of an evening of song and dance or high drama still appears to be uninviting to most of the public. In Boston, one of America’s great regional theatre centers, companies have banded together to try and draw the public back into their world. Boston Globe 09/28/01

Thursday September 27

FIT TO LEAD? Is the British Arts Council investigating the appointment of Nicholas Hytner as director of the National Theatre? “In a letter to the Arts Council, the executive director of the Nottingham Playhouse Venu Dhupa complained that the post was not advertised.” BBC 09/27/01

Wednesday September 26

MISS SAIGON DIRECTOR TO HEAD NATIONAL: Nicholas Hytner has been named director of London’s National Theatre, succeeding Trevor Nunn. “Hytner is a director of real distinction, with a host of successes to his name. He is extremely confident when it comes to filling big stages, and has been in charge of some of the National’s most ambitious and popular successes over the years.” The Telegraph (UK) 09/26/01

• TAKES OVER IN 2003: Hytner is the fourth middle-aged, white, Cambridge graduate to head the National, but Hytner says “I am not against older folk coming here and having a good time, but the age of the audience will come down when we reflect something other than the homogeneous concerns of a white, middle-aged, middle-class audience.” The Guardian (UK) 09/26/01
• POPULAR CHOICE: “Is the affable Hytner his own man? What will he bring to the job that Trevor Nunn didn’t? Hytner has a five-year contract, but is continuity rather than change likely to be his watchword? Up to a point, yes.” The Times (UK) 09/26/01
• GOOD CHOICE: “He’s hugely popular within the building and has real substance. And, although he pays due and proper tribute to his predecessor, there are already encouraging signs that, at the National, Hytner will be very much his own man.” The Guardian (UK) 09/26/01

PROFESSOR HAROLD HILL LEAVES TOWN: “Broadway’s most powerful union has told the The Music Man to take a hike. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees is the only union that has not offered to help The Music Man. The other theater unions – including Actors’ Equity – have agreed to the cuts. IATSE, which represents stagehands and other members of the backstage crew, has also suspended discussions with two other shows, Proof and The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.” New York Post 09/26/01

NOT SO FUNNY: Comedians want to go on with their shows, but “find themselves having to strike a delicate balance between sympathy and satire, unfamiliar territory for both mainstream comics and for alternative comedians. Now, in dealing with an event far darker than any comic can recall, both camps are facing a whole new array of challenges, including many audiences with little patience for anything anti-American.” The New York Times 09/26/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday September 25

BROADWAY BACK UP: Audiences returned to Broadway theatres this past weekend. “A number of Broadway shows played to standing-room-only crowds on Saturday and Sunday, though tickets to all but the most popular productions were heavily discounted. Yesterday, many producers said 25 percent to 50 percent of their business this past weekend came from the half-price TKTS booth in Times Square.” New York Post 09/25/01

• NY THEATRE FAMILY CRISIS: Broadway’s sudden downturn is the worst and most abrupt ever experienced in New York. “Will the tourists return? Will old shows close? Will new shows come in? The questions affect everyone from the makers of wigs, shoes and marquees to restaurateurs, fight directors, ticket sellers and those who write advertisements or publish programs: all of whom depend for their livelihoods on the Great White Way.” The New York Times 09/25/01 (one-time registration required for access)

FROM STREET TO GLOBAL ENTERPRISE: Cirque du Soleil has made the leap. But how to keep the creative edge without becoming corporate? Maybe by expanding beyond tents. “We’re talking about a hotel where basic hotel services would be offered, but there might also be a butler character that pops up at different occasions during the daytime with surprises for the customer that would make them crack a smile. A butler with a crazy face would serve you breakfast in the morning, so maybe that would brighten your day. But we’re also talking about restaurants, clubs, spas and bus stations.” Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/25/01

Monday September 24

KEEPING KATE ALIVE: “Kiss Me Kate posted its closing notice last week on Broadway after business bombed. But on Sunday, the show’s cast and crew decided not only to take a 25 percent pay cut to keep ths show open, but also to spend 25 percent of their salaries on buying tickets to the show, which they’ll then donate. Sunday “the play began with an actor walking on stage, sweeping off the closing notice and singing the first few words of the first song in the Cole Porter musical, Another Op’nin’, Another Show. The audience cheered.” Nando Times (AP) 09/24/01

WEST END WORRIES: As Broadway ticket sales tank, London’s West End worries it too will find business dissolving. “In an average year, Americans and Canadians buy between 7 and 10 per cent of all West End seats, and overseas visitors account for about a third of the total. The concern in and around Shatfesbury Avenue is that, unlike during the Gulf War, when there was only a significant drop in the number of North American tourists, the West End’s continental and Australasian customers will also dwindle, as thousands cancel international flights.” The Times (UK) 09/24/01

Sunday September 23

THEATRE OF TERROR: “How a new generation of theater artists will respond to the shattering events of that day remains to be seen. Because of the long process involved in getting a work from the page to the stage, the playwrights’ response will not be immediately evident. However, artistic directors are already looking at their own programming – at shows that they had already announced, as well as plays from the repertoire of world drama – for work that will give refuge, illumination and inspiration to their audiences.” Hartford Courant 09/23/01

Friday September 21

WHEN THE TOURISTS STAY HOME: It’s grim on Broadway. Shows are going bankrupt and five are closing. Six others, including several long-running productions, are on the verge of shutting down. “A show like Rent, for example, needs to bring in about $40,000 a day to meet its costs. Its sales since the attacks have ranged from $1,800 (on Sept. 11) to $14,000 (on Wednesday).” The New York Times 09/21/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• PAY CUTS INSTEAD OF LAYOFFS: To keep big Broadway shows from closing, theatre unions make deal with producers – “a 25 percent across-the-board pay cuts for cast and crew at five shows – Chicago, Rent, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and The Full Monty. The cuts will be in place for four weeks beginning next week. If business does not improve, they can be renegotiated.” New York Post 09/21/01
• PRODUCERS PIN HOPES ON THE ROAD: With business so bad on Broadway, producers are hoping that touring road shows will be their “lifeline.” Meanwhile, some touring productions have abandoned air travel for the ground. Chicago Tribune 09/21/01
• THEATRE DISASTER: Broadway’s “total income fell more than 60 percent from the previous week.” Theatre.com 09/20/01
• THEATRE IN A TIME OF TERROR: “My feeling is that at no time in our lives have we needed the theater more, and my hope is that the suffering theater community itself will take heart knowing how close it is to our own hearts. Can any of us imagine a world without theater? Only one of darkness. When the theaters went dark for two days last week, there was no choice. But the traumatized city seemed darker still. Theater has always been our eternal refuge, embrace, hope, solace and home.” New York Observer 09/20/01

Thursday September 20

A DIFFICULT ACT: “Broadway is one of the worlds of New York reeling hardest from the events of last week. People don’t seem to feel right enjoying themselves, being entertained. So yesterday was not a typical matinee day. The restaurants around Times Square were not full. The sidewalks were not crowded. Tour buses were in short supply. And tickets were available (except for The Producers, which sold out). Producers, theater owners and unions are all talking about how to keep business on Broadway alive over the next few weeks, when tourists are expected to stay home.” The New York Times 09/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

A WOMAN TO TAKE OVER THE ROYAL NATIONAL? There’s a high-level and highly-secretive search under way for someone to succeed Trevor Nunn as artistic director of the Royal National Theater, “arguably the most important arts organisation in Britain.” Given the current demands of the position, “I can’t help thinking it’s less likely to go to a middle-class Oxbridge-educated male than to a dynamic, persuasive female.” The Irish Times 09/20/01

Wednesday September 19

BROADWAY’S TOURIST PROBLEM: Broadway shows are suffering as tourists stay home. “Among those hardest hit are some of Broadway’s best known titles, including long-running shows like Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Rent, productions that rely heavily on tourists, which are in short supply as a steady stream of frightening images spread across the country and the world. Also hurting were a handful of well-received revivals, including The Music Man, Chicago and Kiss Me, Kate.” The New York Times 09/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• AID FOR THEATRES: New York mayor Rudy Giuliani offers an aid package to help Broadway theatres. “We may be going through a period in which even people who are not afraid and certainly willing to do different things may not feel like going to a Broadway play. We want to make sure they get through this period of time.” BBC 09/19/01
• Previously: BROADWAY HIT HARD: “Four Broadway shows have announced they will close prematurely at the weekend due to a fall in ticket sales since the suicide attacks on New York and Washington last Tuesday.” BBC 09/18/01

DON’T MESS WITH THE SHAKESPEARE: Theatre unions hate the idea, Prince Charles has expressed his displeasure, and critics are lining up in opposition to Adrian Noble’s plans to restructure the Royal Shakespeare Company. “At the heart of the protest lies a total dismay at the RSC’s abandonment of ensemble repertoire: the belief that you go to Stratford to see a resident company in an accumulating programme in three theatres. Until recently it was the company’s core philosophy.” The Guardian (UK) 09/19/01

Tuesday September 18

BROADWAY HIT HARD: “Four Broadway shows have announced they will close prematurely at the weekend due to a fall in ticket sales since the suicide attacks on New York and Washington last Tuesday.” BBC 09/18/01

Sunday September 16

REWRITING A CLASSIC: Playwright David Henry Hwang’s Flower Drum Song rewrite “will likely send musical comedy purists into a C-major fit. In Hwang’s story, San Francisco’s Chinatown circa 1960 is glimpsed through the prism of a Chinese opera theater struggling with its off-night success as a Westernized nightclub, run by the tradition-bound owner’s James Dean-styled son. The show’s song list remains largely the same—A Hundred Million Miracles, I Enjoy Being a Girl, even Chop Suey. The new libretto removes the original’s quaint arranged marriage complications, however, in favor of a brash backstage musical romance.” Los Angeles Times 09/16/01

Friday September 14

KILLING NY THEATRE: Broadway producers are worrying that the World Trade Center attacks may help kill the good times Broadway has enjoyed for the past decade. New York theatre depends heavily on the tourist trade – that was already down this summer from last year’s record levels, and is “likely to dry up now that New York City ‘has a big bull’s-eye painted on its face’.” New York Post 09/14/01

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE STRIKE AVERTED: “A planned strike for Saturday by production workers at the Royal Shakespeare Company has been called off. Technical staff were planning to strike in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, over redundancies. But [the union] has not ruled out strikes on future Thursdays and Saturdays, if a revised redundancy package is not accepted.” BBC 09/14/01

ANOTHER MAJOR AWARD FOR ARTHUR MILLER: American playwright Arthur Miller “is among five recipients of the Japan Art Association’s 2001 Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award, which is intended to honor lifetime achievement in categories not covered by the Nobel Prizes.” With all his prizes and honors, Miller, at 85, might seem like a man who has figured things out. He says not. “I don’t have any big answers offhand,” he insists. “I struggle with everything, just like everyone else does.” USAToday 09/14/01

Wednesday September 12

NEED FOR THE NEW: Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s director recently resigned saying he’d “run out of ideas” about how to revitalize the theatre. Perhaps “if Birmingham has a problem, it is that its audiences haven’t been exposed to the new theatre written over the past 10 or even 20 years.” The Guardian (UK) 09/12/01

CANCELLATIONS AFTER TERRORISM: Latin Grammys, Emmys, canceled in wake of terrorist attacks. Broadway closes up. Nando Times (AP) 09/11/01

• NY CANCELLATIONS: New York theatres go dark after terrorist attack. Theatre.com 09/11/01
• WASHINGTON CANCELLATIONS: DC theatres cancel after attack. Theatre.com 09/11/01

Tuesdy September 11

ORIGINAL SHAKESPEARE: A rare almost-perfect first folio edition of Shakespeare plays is about to be auctioned. “It’s an awesome thought that if this book had not been published, most of what we know of Shakespeare would have disappeared from the world. None of the cue copies and prompt copies survives.” The Guardian (UK) 09/11/01

THE OTHER ACTORS’ STRIKE: So the dreaded Hollywood actors’ strike planned for earlier this summer was averted, and everything was fine in the world of performer/producer relations, right? Wrong. “The final countdown to a possible strike by UK actors over pay and conditions is to get under way on Tuesday… [and] threatens to bring the UK film industry to a standstill.” BBC 09/10/01

COLLABORATIVE STAGING: London’s legendary West End is one of the world’s dramatic centers, and playwrights count themselves lucky to have one of their works put on at one of the district’s many theaters. But a dot-com company has come up with a bizarre idea to have its users write, as a group, the latest play to premiere at the Soho Theatre. BBC 09/10/01

Friday September 7

WHAT’S NEW? The new Broadway season is set to go. Lots of new musicals, including the ABBA invasion ready to take on The Producers. Lots of plays too, but proactically no new plays…The New York Times 09/07/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE OVERTIME PENALTY: When a kid’s show ran over its alloted time in LA’s Ford Theatre last week, the sound suddenly went dead on stage. “We were running a little long. Apparently the [Ford’s] managing director told the show’s director to stop the show. She said, ‘No, we have eight minutes left.’ So he instructed his crew to stop running the sound.” LA Weekly 09/07/01

Thursday Septermber 6

THE FANTASTICKS WILL CLOSE AFTER MORE THAN 17,000 PERFORMANCES: It’s the longest running musical ever, playing for forty years. But finally, the seemingly indestructible The Fantasticks is closing, ending its off-Broadway run on January 6 next year. The problem, as usual, is finances. Don’t feel too bad for the producers: in a 153-seat theater, The Fantasticks has grossed over $23 million. Nando Times (AP) 09/15/01

BEWARE THE IDES OF SEPTEMBER: The technical staff at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon goes will strike on September 15, the same day that RSC has scheduled a production of Julius Caesar. The union charges that “about two-thirds of technical staff at the company could lose their jobs if plans to abandon the fixed Shakespeare season at Stratford upon Avon go ahead.” BBC 09/05/01

THEATRE WITH A POINT: “Political theatre has not fared well of late. It has, over the past few years, acquired all the style of chintz curtains, the charisma of a scout master and the intellectual independence of the Catholic Church.” New Statesman 09/03/01

A BREAK FROM THEATRE: Village Voice theatre critic Michael Feingold is taking a break from the critical grind. Why? “If writing and thinking about theater becomes a grind that needs relief, the problem may be the extent to which it isn’t at its best. That’s no surprise. To cite Shaw, ‘The theatre is, was, and always will be as bad as it possibly can’.” Village Voice 09/04/01

Wednesday September 5

CAMERON’S LONDON: Theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh has slammed London and defended National Theatre director Trevor Nunn. “No other country in the world does everything in its power to stop the public from visiting its centre. More go to the theatre and cinema that football matches, yet the whole place is grinding to a halt…” Theatre.com 09/04/01

Monday September 3

HEY, IT WORKED FOR THE PRODUCERS: Sylvester Stallone says on his website that he’s planning to bring a musical version of his movie Rocky to Broadway. He won’t star, but he’s planning to write the script. Chicago Tribune 09/03/01

Thursday August 30

FRANK EMILIO FLYNN, 80: Blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn has died in his home town of Havana. With the Symphonic Orchestra of Havana, he performed music of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven which had been transcribed into Braille. He was best known, however, as a pioneer of Latin jazz. Nando Times (AP) 08/29/01

Tuesday August 28

BASICALLY BARENBOIM: Conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim has had a controversial year. Prodigiously busy musically, he’s also been embroiled in spats from Berlin to Israel. Though critics increasingly pick holes in his musical interpretations, “he remains one of the most discussed musicians of our age — not least because, among his Protean gifts, is a talent for stirring up controversy that borders on genius. That is evident from the battles he has fought over the past few months.” The Times (UK) 08/28/01

SCHNABEL, 92: Legendary piano teacher Karl Ulrich Schnabel died Monday in Connecticut at the age of 92. “Schnabel taught master classes in Europe, Asia and in North and South America. He began teaching at age 13, preparing students who wanted to study with his father.” Nando Times (AP) 08/28/01

Monday August 27

DECIDING ARCHER’S ART: Playwright and British MP Lord Archer is in jail for perjury, and he’s facing big claims on his fortune. Does this mean he’ll lose his art collection, reportedly worth tens of millions of pounds? The Art Newspaper 08/24/01

Friday August 24

BERKOFF IN THE DOCK: Playwright Steven Berkoff is considered a genius by some, a true original.”This is the dramatist who recently declared that he should take over the National and fire all its existing staff. This is the dramatist who has caused stir after stir in the theatre, back in 1975 shocking Edinburgh by using the c-word 29 times in the course of a 90-second speech. Now Berkoff faces a damages claim for £500,000 from a woman, who cannot be named, alleging that she was raped, assaulted and racially abused by him.” The Times (UK) 08/24/01

• BERKOFF DEFENDS: Berkoff says the law should be changed so that men like him couldn’t ne charged with rape. “It’s the most terrible thing that’s ever happened to me, but it will be resolved. It’s ironic that it should happen now when everyone is finally beginning to see that I am sensitive.” The Guardian (UK) 08/24/01

Thursday August 23

ARTS CZAR STEPS DOWN: Evan Williams, Sydney’s de facto arts Czar, is retiring. “Williams was the boss of the bosses of the Art Gallery of NSW, the Australian Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (the Powerhouse), the NSW State Library, the Historic Houses Trust, the Sydney Opera House, the State Records of NSW, and the NSW Film and Television Office.” Sydney Morning Herald 08/23/01

Wednesday August 22

CLEVELAND CURATOR LEAVES: Diane De Grazia is leaving the job of chief curator of the Cleveland Museum of Art. “An expert on 17th-century European paintings and drawings, De Grazia came to Cleveland from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/22/01

WHEN THEY REALLY REALLY DON’T WANT YOU: Last week the Scottish Ballet informed Robert North it wouldn’t be renewing his contract as artistic director. Now North has been told by the Scottish government he has to leave the country within eight days or he’ll be thrown in prison… Glasgow Herald 08/22/01

Tuesday August 21

IT’S A MONEY THING: Why did David Ross leave as director of San Francisco’s SFMOMA? It was money. Ross saw some opportunities for himself to make some money. The museum’s board thought Ross’s being the head of a website that sells art was a conflict. And, as the economic downturn was affecting the museum, Ross was thought not to be the person to get the museum through it. “David is an entrepreneur – he comes up with 15 ideas an hour – and it’s hard for nonprofits to deal with that. Now he has come to a point where there is an opportunity to go to a for-profit and benefit financially from his ideas. We understand. When you tell someone like David to stop, you destroy him.” San Francisco Chronicle 08/21/01

Monday August 20

THE GREAT ART SCAMMER: Michel Cohen was such a successful player in the art markets that he could borrow $100 million to buy paintings, with few questions asked. But he also couldn’t resist trying to double his money in the stock market, and when the market crashed, he vanished with a lot of other people’s money. National Post (Telegraph) (Canada) 08/20/01

Friday August 17

NEW RODGERS BIO SAYS: Outwardly, Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, who died in 1979 at 77, seemed to have led a charmed life. But he was an alcoholic, and “the drinking increased throughout his life – playwright Moss Hart once saw him down 16 scotch and sodas in one sitting – and in 1957, he was hospitalized for depression and alcoholism at Payne Whitney, which the novelist Jean Stafford called a ‘high-class booby hatch’.” New York Post 08/17/01

Wednesday August 15

ACCIDENTAL CAREER: Christopher Wheeldon is the hottest young choreographer around right now. Not long ago the 28-year-old British-born dancer was a star with New York City Ballet. How he got there, though, started with an ankle injury. The Guardian (UK) 08/15/01

Tuesday August 14

TALL AND TAN AND SUED: The Girl from Ipanema (she of the song’s inspiration) is now 57, and she owns a boutique called Girl from Ipanema in Sao Paulo, where she now lives. The families of the men who wrote the song – claiming copyright – are suing to stop her from using the name on the store. National Post (Canada) 08/14/01

Monday August 13

REMEMBERING JOHN GIELGUD: “Now that Gielgud, who seemed immortal, nevertheless died in 2000 at the age of 96, a century of Anglophone theater seems to have gone with him. Partly because theater has changed, the dashing romantic leading man à la Olivier and the sensitive, musical-voiced protagonist à la Gielgud are seldom called for nowadays, even in Shakespeare.” The New York Times 08/12/01 (one-time resistration required for access)

WHAT WRECKED BRANDO: Marlon Brando was poised to be one of the great actors of the 20th Century. But his contempt for his profession and the way Hollywood was set up to accomodate him made for the unraveling of his career. The New Republic 08/13/01

Sunday August 12

MENOTTI AT 90: Gian-Carlo Menotti is turning 90. “So much fuss. All of a sudden I’m famous not because I write good music but because I’m old and still here. My advice to composers is, try to reach 90, and everyone will love you.” But though he is beloved in Italy and still has some champions, elsewhere his music has been passed by. The New York Times 08/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday August 10

LIFE AFTER VIRGINIA: What was Leonard Woolf’s influence and contribution to Virginia Woolf’s work? A set of letters, written by Leonard after his wife’s suicide to a woman he had a prolonged afair with, shed some light on Virginia’s creative life. Irish Times 08/10/01

Thursday August 9

ONLY TWO MORE YEARS OF MISHA? Mikhail Baryshnikov is 53 and still dancing. “He has had six operations to one of his knees. Some mornings he is so stiff that he has to crawl to the bathroom and get under a hot shower before he can move easily. He is convinced he will die at 60. He says, ‘All my relatives died very young. I really believe in genetics. I hope I am wrong. I will go when I am 55, when I am 60. I am prepared: at least I can speak about it. . ‘.” The Telegraph (UK) 08/09/01

Wednesday August 8

POETRY CON: Ravi Desai pledged millions of dollars for poetry programs at major American universities. But after fanfare over the gifts died down, Desai failed to come through with the money. “Most business cons are for riches. This was a con whose payoff was to rub shoulders with poets. What did he gain, except for an engraved ax?” Poets & Writers 08/01/01

JORGE AMADO, 88: Jorge Amado was Brazil’s most popular and most successful novelist; his 32 books have sold millions of copies in more than 40 languages. Perhaps his best known – at home and abroad – was Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, which sold two million copies in Brazil alone. Amado had been in ill health for several years. The New York Times 08/07/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday August 7

BIG BUCKS, BIG THANKS (EXPECTED): Alberto Vilar has given more than $200 million to the cause of opera. “The magnitude of his giving would guarantee his fame; the conditions often attached to those gifts, however, have given him a quirky notoriety. Vilar persuaded the Met to give the names of major underwriters greater prominence in its programs; this took some effort.” Opera News 08/01

TAKING IT PERSONALLY: Wall Street Journal Pulitzer Prize-winning opera critic Manuela Hoelterhoff is every bit as outspoken in her personal life as she is in her reviews. Now she’s in court defending herself from a lawsuit brought by one of her most powerful New York suburban neighbors. Seems she made a cutting remark about part of his anatomy and he took it personally… New York Magazine 08/07/01

HARMONICA MASTER DIES: “Highly-acclaimed musician Larry Adler, widely acknowledged as the world’s greatest harmonica player, has died at the age of 87.” BBC 08/07/01

COULD SOMEONE FETCH MR. CLINTON $10 MIL? “Former President Clinton has agreed to write his memoirs for Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher announced Monday, in a deal expected to involve one of the biggest advances ever for a nonfiction book. The book is expected to be out in 2003.” Ottawa Citizen (AP) 08/06/01

Monday August 6

WHOLE LOTTA CONTEMPT GOIN ON: Writer Arunhati Roy has been protesting a court decision in India not to stop work on construction of a dam. The court charged her with contempt of court for her characterization of the decision. And now the court is deciding whether her response to the contempt charges is further contempt. The Times of India 08/04/01

READING IS BELIEVING: Victor Hugo is widely considered to be the greatest French poet of the 19th century by scholars and lay readers alike. But aside from repeated viewings of the musical version of Les Miserables, most English speakers have never had much of a chance to judge Hugo’s work for themselves, most of his work having never been well-translated. A new collection aims to change all that. The Weekly Standard 08/06/01

LETTERS SPECULATE ON PLATH’S DEATH: “A set of unpublished letters written by the late former poet laureate Ted Hughes – including one blaming anti-depressants for Sylvia Plath’s suicide – have been acquired by the British Library. The collection of over 140 letters and other documents were written to literary critic, biographer and friend of Hughes, Keith Sagar, over a period of nearly 30 years.” BBC 08/06/01

Sunday August 5

ADAMS EXHIBIT OPENS IN SF: “The first comprehensive exhibition of Ansel Adams’ work since his death in 1984 reinforces his status as America’s foremost nature photographer and secures a place for his work on museum walls.” Detroit News (AP) 08/05/01

• WHAT IF ADAMS HAD GONE DIGITAL? With the advent of digital technology, the art of photography is likely to change forever. Many famous photographers of the pre-digital era would likely have had little use for the new technology, but Ansel Adams, who was so eager to control every aspect of his work, would likely have embraced the form. San Francisco Chronicle 08/05/01

CAPTURING A SOLDIER’S GROWTH: Photographer Rineke Dijkstra has always been fascinated by the changes people go through as their lives progress, and her photos reflect the uncertainties of such change: “frankly expressive, roughly life-size, head-on views of people at points of change in their lives or moments when they are vulnerable or not quite composed before the camera.” Her newest project finds her following a new recruit to the French Foreign Legion. Arizona Republic (NYT News Service) 08/05/01

Thursday August 2

EINAR SCHLEEF, 57: German actor, author, and director Einar Schleef has died in Berlin. “Schleef worked in the mid-1970s at East Berlin’s Berliner Ensemble, founded by Bertolt Brecht. In 1976, in the face of resistance to his work from the communist authorities, he left for the west. After Germany was reunited, he returned to the Berliner Ensemble.” Nando Times (AP) 08/01/01

Wednesday August 1

JAZZ KING: Jazz at Lincoln Center has named Bruce MacCombie, dean of the School for the Arts at Boston University, as its new executive director. He’s a composer and former dean of Juilliard, and he replaces Rob Gibson, who was removed from the job in February in part because of his “divisive” management style. The New York Times 08/01/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ART DONATIONS: Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who died last week, left much of her art collection to Washington’s Freer Gallery and the National Gallery of Art. The National gets “a cubist still life by Diego Rivera; it will be the second Rivera painting in the gallery’s collection.”

Thursday August 30

THE MEANING OF CHEKHOV: Chekhov is so popular in Britain he could be considered the country’s national playwright. “Why this British love affair with Chekhov? Are there unusual similarities between post-war British and pre-revolutionary Russian society?” The Independent (UK) 08/28/01

THEATRICAL HIJACKING: “Sets, costumes and musical instruments for Caetano Veloso’s Noites do Norte show were stolen when gunmen held up a truck transporting the equipment to the Rio de Janeiro airport.” International Herald Tribune 08/30/01

Wednesday August 29

LOS ANGELES LOSES A THEATRE: Los Angeles’ Shubert Theatre, for 30 years home to the big Broadway musicals, is being torn down to make way for an office tower. The touring business has been in a slump in recent years, so while the Shubert will look for another large theatre to occupy, it’s not in the mood to build another. “The economics of big theaters are very difficult.” Los Angeles Times 08/28/01 & 08/27/01

ANNIE CAN’T FIND AN ANNIE, AND CLOSES: Having taken off with Bernadette Peters, nearly crashed with Cheryl Ladd, then soared to new heights with Reba McIntyre, the revival of Annie Get Your Gun is running out of gas on Broadway. The producers hoped to get Dolly Parton to take over the lead. She said no. They’re saying good-bye. New York Post 08/29/01

FAME OR THEATRE: Playing Star Trek’s Jean Luc Picard made Patrick Stewart a household name. But it btook him away from his real love – the theatre. Now he’s resolved to make theatre the center of his career – and he’s a lot happier for it. The Guardian (UK) 08/29/01

Tuesday August 28

FOR THE BIRDS: How one Chekhov (and Meryl Streep) fan invests 36 hours, a looong bus ride, and sleeping out on the street overnight to score some “free” tickets to the Central Park star-studded production of The Seagull everyone’s trying to see this summer. Is it worth it? How could it not be after such and investment? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/28/01

Monday August 27

GETTING IN TOUCH: The art of theatre “has for a while now, with rare exceptions, been stupendously out of touch” with popular culture. But if some recent projects are any indication, that may be changing. The New York Times 08/27/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday August 26

REINVENTING THE GUTHRIE: Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre is planning for a new three-stage theatre complex on the banks of the Mississippi. But it is also looking to reinvent itself – both in the region as well as on the national scene. Minneapolis Star-Tribune 08/26/01

BUSY SEASON: What’s new on Broadway this year? Eighteen shows are definite, nine probable and 19 more possible for the 2001-02 season. Only 27 shows opened all of last season. Broadway Online 08/25/01

Friday August 24

LA TICKET AGENCY CLOSES: Ticketsource, a theatre ticket service in Los Angeles that was popular with small theatre companies, suddenly closed last week. “In the aftermath of TicketSource’s collapse, sharply diverging accounts have surfaced about the company’s structure and who’s responsible for its demise.” Backstage 08/23/01

THEATRE ON TV: A new six-part series on the history of theatre debuts on America’s PBS. “Pursuing its own areas of interest, acknowledging its bias and incompleteness upfront, Changing Stages manages a tough thing. It is general enough to appeal to the masses (at least masses of liberal arts public television types), yet specific enough to rope in avid theatergoers.” Los Angeles Times 08/24/01

BERKOFF IN THE DOCK: Playwright Steven Berkoff is considered a genius by some, a true original.”This is the dramatist who recently declared that he should take over the National and fire all its existing staff. This is the dramatist who has caused stir after stir in the theatre, back in 1975 shocking Edinburgh by using the c-word 29 times in the course of a 90-second speech. Now Berkoff faces a damages claim for £500,000 from a woman, who cannot be named, alleging that she was raped, assaulted and racially abused by him.” The Times (UK) 08/24/01

• BERKOFF DEFENDS: Berkoff says the law should be changed so that men like him couldn’t ne charged with rape. “It’s the most terrible thing that’s ever happened to me, but it will be resolved. It’s ironic that it should happen now when everyone is finally beginning to see that I am sensitive.” The Guardian (UK) 08/24/01

Thursday August 23

A LARGE PROBLEM: “When large characters do appear on screen, they’re more often than not depicted as loveless, over-eating objects of ridicule with flatulence problems. ‘Overweight people are the last politically correct prejudice. Those actors have every right to create those characters, but I don’t think they’re as sensitive as they need to be.'” New York Post 08/23/01

BRUSH UP YOUR PORTER: If anyone can give Mel Brooks’ Producers a run for the money, Cole Porter’s sparkling Kiss Me, Kate, from fifty years ago, may be the one to do it. Los Angeles Times 08/23/01

Wednesday August 22

BOYCOTTING THE MAN: The American actors union Actors Equity is urging a boycott of a traveling non-union production of The Music Man. “While theatrical chestnuts like Cats often tour with non-Equity casts, that rarely happens with the first national tour of a new Broadway production.” The New York Times 08/22/01 (one-time registration required for access)

EXPLAINING THEATRE: Playwright Alan Ayckbourn spends a week trying to explain how theatre works. “I reckon most people were surprised that the conjurer should be so willing to give away his tricks. But it is the mediocre artists who are defensive about the way they work. Only the great are unafraid to make themselves available.” The Guardian (UK) 08/22/01

Tuesday August 21

BETRAYING THE PAST? So David Henry Hwang is updating Flower Drum Song to remove offensive stereotypes for a Broadway-bound production. “To remove every line left from the original book is akin to repainting a work of art or rearranging a piece of classical music. Taking another’s thoughts and ideas and reworking them to suit your own agenda is not being ‘politically correct,’ it’s a blatant attempt to go back in time and develop a new culture based on concepts that didn’t even exist at the time the piece was created.” San Francisco Chronicle 08/21/01

STARLIGHT DIMS: The London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express is closing after 17 years. “Starlight Express, which opened in March 1984, is the second-longest-running musical in West End history, after Lloyd Webber’s Cats, which began its run here in 1981. By the time it closes, it will have been performed 7,406 times and been seen by more than eight million people.” Ottawa Citizen (AP) 08/21/01

Monday August 20

THEATRE AS EVENT: Some regular theatre-goers have a deep dark secret. “Deep down they are appalled at the ineptitude that often passes for theater these days and they hate themselves for continuing to support it. They are embarrassed that there are no 21st-century O’Neills, that Tennessee is long dead and that the theater they know doesn’t measure up to the glories of the past. Yet they still go. Even though they hate themselves for doing it. And you know what? I hate them for it, too. Because in a real way they create a climate where there is no theater culture in New York, only theater events.” The New York Times 08/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday August 19

GOOD/NOT GOOD: “In a way, a book comparing Stephen Sondheim’s career with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s looks like an interesting and sensible idea. But, on reflection, it just shows how hopelessly slack any standards of judgment in this area are. It is a bit like comparing Mozart with Salieri. Sondheim, at his best, is the nearest musical theatre has come to producing a major imagination since Kurt Weill’s American musicals. Andrew Lloyd Webber is just rubbish from beginning to end.” The Observer (UK) 08/19/01

UNION WORRIES: The union fuss over a non-union touring production of The Music Man is more than just an issue of using non-union actors. “It’s not simply that Equity is protesting non-union shows. It’s worried that The Music Man – in skipping over the first-run, union tour – will set a precedent and other producers, thinking that theatergoers nationwide won’t be aware or care if what they’re seeing is an Equity show or not, will smell increased profits by going non-union.” Hartford Courant 08/19/01

Friday August 17

BOYCOTTING THE MUSIC MAN: The American actors union Actors Equity is boycotting a touring non-union production of The Music Man. “Non-union tours of shows have increased over the years to fill a growing number of halls across the nation and their lucrative “Broadway” series, but in the past, the non-union shows have been scaled-down productions of Annie or Cats that followed tours under Equity contracts. The Music Man marks the first high-profile Broadway show to go directly on tour with non-union actors.” Hartford Courant 08/17/01

NEW RODGERS BIO SAYS: Outwardly, Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, who died in 1979 at 77, seemed to have led a charmed life. But he was an alcoholic, and “the drinking increased throughout his life – playwright Moss Hart once saw him down 16 scotch and sodas in one sitting – and in 1957, he was hospitalized for depression and alcoholism at Payne Whitney, which the novelist Jean Stafford called a ‘high-class booby hatch’.” New York Post 08/17/01

RIGG LASHES OUT AT NATIONAL: Actress Diana Rigg has slammed London’s National Theatre’s facilities, describing the dressing rooms as “battery-hen hatches”. She said: “As actors, we don’t expect to be pampered, but we have to be in top form to go out there and do it. The conditions are absolutely ludicrous for a theatre built from scratch and it makes me cross every time I enter the building.” The Independent (UK) 08/17/01

• FRONTRUNNER DUCKS NATIONAL: Stephen Daldry, touted by many as the best candidate to take over London’s troubled National Theatre after Trevor Nunn departs, has taken himself out of the running for the job. “An impresario and nurturer of new talent as well as a gifted director, many were convinced that only he could drag back the young theatre-makers and audiences who have deserted it.” The Guardian (UK) 08/16/01
• A SHORTER SHORTLIST: The National’s board has a shortlist of four names to take over from Trevor Nunn. Neither Daldry nor another frontrunner, Sam Mendes are on it. BBC 08/16/01

Thursday August 16

NEW STRATFORD STAGE: Canada’s Stratford Festival is adding a new stage. “The 250-seat thrust stage, a theatre of classical origins where the audience will sit on three sides in a replica of the Festival Theatre, will be Stratford’s fourth producing venue. It will join the 1,800-seat Festival, the 1,100-seat Avon and the 500-seat Tom Patterson — and will be the first such addition to the facilities in 30 years.” Toronto Star 08/15/01

SADDAM ON STAGE: Zabibah and the King, a best-selling novel in Iraq, will be transformed into a big-budget stage play in Baghdad; it is rumored that a 20-part TV version of the story will be filmed as well. Saddam Hussein himself is believed to have written the original story, which is perceived as an allegory of the relationship between Iraq and the Western world. Salon 08/15/01

Wednesday August 15

PLAYING YOUNG: London’s National Theatre is making some changes to appeal to younger audiences. “The season will employ a range of devices – new work, affordable seats, a party atmosphere – to pull in new punters and seduce high-profile practitioners turned off by the National’s current spaces. There is more to this than the notion of cheap beer and expensive DJs swinging into the early hours.” The Guardian (UK) 08/15/01

• PLAYING AT THE NATIONAL: Trevor Nunn’s last season at the helm of the National Theatre is a mixed one. Does it recognize the problems inherent in the institution? Does it take any chances? Not hardly. International Herald Tribune 08/15/01

Monday August 13

REMEMBERING JOHN GIELGUD: “Now that Gielgud, who seemed immortal, nevertheless died in 2000 at the age of 96, a century of Anglophone theater seems to have gone with him. Partly because theater has changed, the dashing romantic leading man à la Olivier and the sensitive, musical-voiced protagonist à la Gielgud are seldom called for nowadays, even in Shakespeare.” The New York Times 08/12/01 (one-time resistration required for access)

WHAT WRECKED BRANDO: Marlon Brando was poised to be one of the great actors of the 20th Century. But his contempt for his profession and the way Hollywood was set up to accomodate him made for the unraveling of his career. The New Republic 08/13/01

Sunday August 12

STAGING GROUND: Theatre in Los Angeles is a troubled lot for an actor. “Pay is low, if there’s any pay at all. Competition can be surprisingly fierce. And the city’s sprawling, polyglot theater scene, while arguably the nation’s most diverse and prolific, hasn’t attained the same recognition as New York’s or Chicago’s.” Then there’s the lure of Hollywood, and many see theatre as a stepping stone to the big screen. Still, it’s now possible to make a career as a stage actor here… Los Angeles Times 08/12/01

THE FEAST/FAMINE SYNDROME: The new Broadway season has officially begun, but there are few new plays opening. Compare that to a five-week span this spring when 13 shows opened. “Why do we have this famine/feast pattern on Broadway? It’s called the Tonys. Producers rush their shows in just under the Tony deadline so that they will be fresh in the minds of Tony voters. Oddly enough, these coveted Tony awards don’t really mean that much. Who won the major awards in 2000, or 1999? To be honest, I’d have to look it up myself, and I’m in the business. They are not the commercial tool they once were.” New York Post 08/12/01

THE PURITY FACTOR: Directors reinterpreting plays in their own conception (and sometimes contrary to a playwright’s expressed wishes) has become common on today’s stages. Is a purist approach better? Or does a play need to adapt to stay vital? Philadelphia Inquirer 08/12/01

THE LEADING MAN PROBLEM: “Finding charismatic, vocally secure leading men for musicals is one of the toughest jobs in show business. Just ask the Broadway casting directors who have to scour the earth for candidates. ‘The problem is that when you’re dealing with leading men in their 30’s and 40’s who are talented, they can work in television and film all the time. Why should they commit to a year on Broadway’?” The New York Times 08/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE ARTIST AS MUSEUM: Lincoln Center’s recent Harold Pinter Festival was quite professionally accomplished. “The qualities that make Mr. Pinter a major playwright were all present: the fusion of restraint and violence, angst and brazen humor, silence and language that could be chantlike, raucous or percussive, naturalistic or purely sensuous. But they seemed embalmed here. There might as well have been a glass wall between the audience and the stage.” The New York Times 08/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday August 10

CAN’T GET PAST THE P WORD: The Australian show Puppetry of the Penis is attracting enthusiastic crowds in Toronto, and the show has sold so many tickets its run has been extended. But there are no corporate sponsors for the show – perhaps because of the subject? Toronto Star 08/09/01

Thursday August 9

THE NATIONAL GOES FOR A YOUNGER CROWD: Britain’s National Theatre will convert the Lyttleton Theatre into two smaller performance spaces, seating 650 and 100 people. At the same time, the prices for tickets and drinks are being lowered. It’s an attempt to attract no only younger audiences, but younger writers and directors as well. BBC 08/09/01

Wednesday August 8

THE DOWNSIDE OF STARS: A famous Hollywood name on the marquee can draw crowds to Broadway. However, “adding movie stars tends to be a recipe for mediocre theater. Even with microphones, which compensate for a lack of vocal training, and an audience that may not know real stage acting when it sees it, movie stars on stage rarely rise above the gently damning reviews they tend to receive, which often say that they ‘acquit’ themselves or are ‘credible’.” Slate 08/07/01

Friday August 3

THE BOOMING WEST END: Tourism is down in the UK and some thought theatre ticket sales in London might fall too. Not so, though – sales are up 7 percent over last year. “Figures for April to June 2001, released by the Society of London Theatres on Tuesday, show sales rose from £2.4 million to £2.6 million in the same period in 2000.” BBC 08/03/01

HE’S BAAACK: Twenty years ago actor Tim Robbins helped found LA’s Actors’ Gang Theatre. Movie stardom ensued, and four years ago, after piloting the theatre through “a long list of edgy productions” Robbins relinquished artistic control of the company. Now he’s seized control again, provoking a rebellion in the company. Celebrity? Money? Conflicting artistic visions? LAWeekly 08/02/01

FREE – THE COSTLIEST TICKETS OF ALL: There’s an all-star cast performing in Chekhov’s The Seagull this summer in New York’s Central Park, and amazingly, the performances are free. Or are they? People are camping out overnight in line to get tickets, and the experience is…shall we say, arduous: “It is a farce. These tickets are paid for with time. More money can be earned, borrowed, even won. But time, once gone, can never be reclaimed. These are, perhaps, the most costly tickets of all.” Washington Post 08/01/01

Thursday August 2

LOST IN TRANSLATION: The movie musical is never as good as the Broadway original. (Well, maybe West Side Story came close.) But the prize for worst movie adaptation goes to On The Town. “The stage-to-film adaptation that most readers took pains to mention because it gave them pains was this 1944 Bernstein-Comden-and-Green classic that became a 1949 Bernstein-Chaplin-Edens-Salinger-Comden-and-Green non-classic.” Broadway Online 07/31/01

BUT WHOM DO YOU WRITE FOR? “Indian critics still suggest that there is something artificial and un-Indian about an Indian writing in English. One critic disparagingly declared that the acid test ought to be, ‘Could this have been written only by an Indian?’ I would answer that my works could not only have been written only by an Indian, but only by an Indian in English.” The New York Times 07/30/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Monday July 30

BACK IN THE BLACK: In the 1980s there were more than 200 African American theatres in the US. Now there are fewer than 50. Thus the importance of the National Black Theatre Festival opening in Winston-Salem this week. “The event, which is held every other summer, has become a dependable place for actors, directors, playwrights and producers to network and recharge their batteries.” Winston-Salem Journal 07/30/01

Sunday July 29

CONSUMPTIVE DISORDER: “New York and London have a lot in common: the same long-running musicals, even a shared pool of actors, directors and designers.” But as for how they consume theatre – they’re different worlds. The Guardian (UK) 07/28/01

DC DETOUR: Washington is a pretty good theatre town, isn’t it? And yet, any given season’s hottest new plays don’t seem to play the capital. Why? Is it audience taste? Politics? Washington Post 07/29/01

Friday July 27

HIGH C FOR HIT TIX: The Producers top prices hit one hundred dollars, so now several other big hits have hiked the ante. Incoming musical Mamma Mia! is the only other at a hundred right now, but several more are getting close. At $95: Cabaret and The Lion King. At $90: Chicago, Contact, 42nd Street, Kiss Me, Kate, The Music Man, and Oklahoma. None yet match the all-time Broadway top price, however. That was $125 for Ragtime. Broadway Online 07/25/01

Wednesday July 25

PROTESTING A LESBIAN ROMEO: Protests have greeted a production of Romeo and Juliet in Birmingham that features the couple as lesbians. “People are becoming heartily sick of this sort of thing being offered up as entertainment. What a pity we have to see this sort of sensationalism in an attempt to fill seats.” The Age (Melbourne) 07/25/01

SHOW MUST GO ON: The much anticipated West End opening of My Fair Lady was marred by an extended power failure. Without power for set changes, backstage workers carried props on by hand. BBC 07/25/01

SCOTTISH NATIONAL THEATRE: The Scottish Arts Council is supporting the establishment of a National Theatre. “Its ‘main objective’ would be to commission companies, directors and performers to put on productions at home and abroad, as well as encouraging a strong network of regional theatres.” BBC 07/25/01

Monday July 23

PRODUCING THE SCALPERS: Tickets for Broadway’s The Producers are so hot, they’ve created a buzz among scalpers. “Internet brokers who operate elsewhere are getting between $300 and $425 for mezzanine and balcony seats in August and September. Better locations are more pricey, passing the $500 mark.” Ottawa Citizen (CP) 07/23/01

Sunday July 22

WHERE IS THEATRE THAT MATTERS? “Theater is the only form of art or entertainment that people who consider themselves culturally sophisticated aren’t embarrassed to boast about ignoring. So the question is: How might theater, which was at the center of the culture for at least half of the last century, start to find its way back there?” The New York Times 07/22/01 (one-time registration required for access)

POST-QUITUM DEPRESSION: Last month the well-regarded Doug Hughes quit as artistic director of the Long Wharf Theatre over a longstanding personal dispute with the theatre’s board president. Now the theatre searches for a replacement. But who would want the job “when potential candidates are wondering if they would be seen as a visionary or a hired hand. And they would surely want to know what kind of a board leader they would have to deal with – one who is an obsessive fixture in the theater’s executive offices, or one who focuses on raising funds and the theater’s profile.” Hartford Courant 07/22/01

END OF AN ERA? Half a century ago, the Royal Shakespeare Company ushered in what would be a Golden Age of Shakespeare on the British stage. But the company is in the midst of some fundamental changes that threaten to bring the era to an end. Sunday Times (UK) 07/22/01

Friday July 20

MAJOR HOAX: A major musical said to be based on the life of former British Prime Minister John Major has been revealed as a hoax. “The show was said to chart the politician’s rise from a school drop-out to the corridors of power and was hoped to arrive in London’s West End early next year.” BBC 07/20/01

Thursday July 19

FROM BUZZ TO BOMB: Seussical was last year’s most anticipated musical on Broadway. Yet it closed after losing $10 million “Why did Seussical fail to live up to its powerful promise? How did a show with arguably the best buzz in years end up bombing on Broadway?” The New York Times 07/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)

HIP-HOP TO THE RESCUE: “There’s plenty of reason to think that hip-hop could do for theater what it has already done for music, fashion, language, and the rest of the culture — that is, shape it through the infusion of new sounds, styles, and energy.” Before that can happen, though, hip-hop plays will have to be about something more than hip-hop. The New Republic 07/18/01

WITCHING HOUR: It has to be said that The Witches of Eastwick was not a great show when it launched in London last year. But Cameron Mackintosh is loathe to give up on an idea, and he’s remade it for a second try. The verdict? Better, says one critic. The Times (UK) 07/19/01

• Previously: MACKINTOSH HEADS FOR THE SHOWERS: With some of his long-running shows closing, and new shows failing to settle in to extended runs, mega-producer Cameron MackIntosh says he will no longer produce new shows. Backstage 07/12/01

GAMBLING ON ENTERTAINMENT: Toronto’s casinos are paying enormous fees for entertainers and presenting easily digestible programs. The city’s legit theatres and concert venues are crying foul as they find their patrons going elsewhere. “The casino people are not making sense of the economic realities of the promotions business. They’re running loss leaders to finance their gambling, food and beverage operations, and they don’t have to pay attention to the bottom line of their promotions business.” Toronto Star 07/16/01

Wednesday July 18

HELP FOR AUSSIE MUSICALS: “The development of musicals in Australia has, at best, been a tough and protracted affair. Few see the light of day beyond the workshop or outside the subsidised festival sphere. In order to encourage local composers and librettists, an annual $50,000 prize for an original musical has been established.” Sydney Morning Herald 07/18/01

Tuesday July 17

DIRECTIONLESS: In England, “new theatre directors are rapidly becoming an endangered species. “There’s now a generation of directors in their late twenties and early thirties who have never had the chance to work on a main stage, and there’s no question that they are being lost to TV, radio and film instead.” The Times (UK) 07/17/01

A TICKET BY ANY OTHER NAME: New York’s discount theatre ticket booth TKTS has filed suit in London to prevent a discount service their from using the TKTS name. The New York Times 07/17/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Sunday July 15

BY INVITATION ONLY: London’s National Theatre is not advertising for a new artistic director. Instead, the theatre’s board is interviewing candidates by invitation only. Critics are unhappy: “A leading regional theatre director said that because there was no advertisment the board would simply invite well-known, high-profile theatre directors – which she called ‘a clique of predictable favourites’.” The Independent (UK) 07/13/01

Friday July 13

MACKINTOSH HEADS FOR THE SHOWERS: With some of his long-running shows closing, and new shows failing to settle in to extended runs, mega-producer Cameron MackIntosh says he will no longer produce new shows. Backstage 07/12/01

TRYING TO GET BACK ON TOP: Andrew Lloyd Webber has booked a theatre on Broadway this fall for a revival of his 1975 show By Jeeves. Sir Andrew is “said to be smarting from the fact that, since the closing of Cats last year, he has only one show – The Phantom of the Opera – running in New York. Once the undisputed king of the Great White Way and the West End, he has not had a hit show in years.” New York Post 07/13/01

KID CULTURE: Australian theatre companies and funders have discovered that there’s a big market for children’s shows… Sydney Morning Herald 07/13/01

NEW SHAW DIRECTOR: Canada’s Shaw Festival names Jackie Maxwell as its new artistic director. “She was artistic director at Toronto’s Factory Theatre from 1987-95 and head of new-play development at the Charlottetown Festival from 1996-2000.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/12/01

Thursday July 12

TICKET SLUMP: Ticket sales in London’s West End are down. “Box office takings have dropped by about 10 percent in theatreland as overseas visitors, notably those from the United States, stay away amid fears about the foot-and-mouth crisis.” First casualty – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s acclaimed The Beautiful Game. The Age (Melbourne) 07/12/01

IT GOES TWO WAYS: “All drama demands interaction between performers and audience. Is it really at its best when we sit in silent ranks, applauding when we’re told to, filing in and filing out in careful awe? A glass wall seems to have descended between audience and players. But whose idea was it to put theatre on this pedestal of respectful silence?” The Independent (UK) 07/11/01

DIRECTOR AS CEO: We usually think of directors as being the one responsible for success of a productionj. But “the director of any big show – whether a musical, a full-scale Shakespearean or classic drama – is in fact profoundly reliant on an army of collaborators whose names and contributions the public never registers unless they scour the small print of the programme. The director is often less magician and dictator than he is manager and facilitator.” The Telegraph (UK) 07/12/01

RUSSIAN ROCK OPERA REACHES 20: Yunona and Avos may not be as big as, say, Jesus Christ, Superstar, but, everything considered, it’s doing well. When the collaborative work of poet Andrei Voznesensky and composer Alexei Rybnikov opened, “rock opera was considered an undesirable genre and the musical was staged in what was considered the theatrical underground.” Now it’s out in the open. Sunday’s was the 779th performance. The Moscow Times 07/11/01

Wednesday July 11

SHUBERT GETS NEW LEADERSHIP: Hartford’s historic Shubert Performing Arts Center has finalized a deal with an Ohio firm to take over the management of the theater. Job cuts are expected, as well as an eventual expansion of the Shubert’s season. Hartford Courant 07/10/01

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS: Street theatre is the fastest growing art form inBritain. “Public open spaces are being transformed as the South Bank, Somerset House, the RNT and the Barbican all play host to street arts, and every city in Britain wants to have its own street arts festival.” So isn’t it time to take it seriously? The Guardian (UK) 07/11/01

Tuesday July 10

TOUGH TIMES FOR BLACK THEATRES: “In the 1970s and ’80s, there were as many as 200 African-American theaters in the United States. Today, there are fewer than 50, and only a handful of those have budgets of more than $1 million. ‘The challenges of black theaters are the exact same challenges that white theaters face, however the results are more devastating for us, because we started out with so few companies’.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 07/08/01

PLAY IT AGAIN: Didn’t like Witches of Eastwick the first time around? Never mind – it’s coming back. The state of finances and risks in commercial theatre are such that “shows in the West End and on Broadway aren’t so much made as forever being remade.” The Times (UK) 07/10/01

RE-OPENING IN NEW HAVEN: A new management company has taken over New Haven’s historic Shubert Performing Arts Center. Under a five-year contract, “the Shubert will have more varied programming and eventually operate year round. A Broadway season is expected to be announced later this week.” Hartford Courant 07/10/01

Monday July 9

SAG LOSES ANOTHER: Just ten days after accepting the job as head of the troubled Screen Actors Guild, John Cooke abruptly resigned it. “The decision by Cooke, a former Disney executive, to back out of the top SAG staff job has escalated already fierce infighting within the union.” Inside.com 07/09/01

Sunday July 8

STAYING VIABLE: What does the theatre world have to do to compete with the vast array of entertainment options available in the 21st century? Stop trying to be television, for one thing. “The theater must appeal to our inner sense of wonderment – and, even more simply, the awareness of human skills and human ingenuity.” New York Post 07/08/01

THAT GUY JUST NEVER WRITES ANYTHING NEW: “Imagine a whole theatrical industry built on only 12 plays.Shakespeare festivals are a central pillar of the American theater. Increasingly, they and the many other companies that produce the Bard seem to be limiting themselves to the same dozen of his 36 works.” Dallas Morning News 07/08/01

Friday July 6

STATE OF INDIANA V. GAY CHRIST: “A group hoping to block performances of a college play featuring a gay Christ-like character filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday. The play features a character named Joshua who is growing up gay in modern-day Texas. The story parallels parts of the Gospels, and some of the 12 other male characters bear the names of Christ’s disciples.” Nando Times (AP) 07/05/01

Thursday July 5

ALL FRINGE IS LOCAL: Toronto’s Fringe Festival is one of North America’s most successful theater extravaganzas, with over 100 companies set to perform in this year’s edition. But despite the festival’s tendency to hail itself as a “global” event, 90% of the troupes involved are from Ontario, and the majority of those are from Toronto itself. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/05/01

Tuesday July 3

WHEN WE WERE FUNNY: What has happened to English political humor? “Pessimists long for the days when British comics were eager to draw blood. That was the era, they tell us, when the Comedy Store rang to denunciations of Thatcherism and hymns of praise for the miners, when Spitting Image could pull in an audience of ten million or more on a Sunday night. The talk was of protest, not production companies.” The Times (UK) 07/03/01

Monday July 2

MY FAIR SICKNESS: One of the stars of London’s My Fair Lady has actually performed her role less often than her understudy in the past few months. Even the understudy’s understudy has had a few turns on the boards. Now some critics are suggesting big-ticket shows ought to give partial refunds when a star is missing. The Independent (UK) 06/30/01

Sunday July 1

A CALL FOR ELITISM: The internationally acclaimed Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada has launched a new marketing campaign designed to make itself more accessible and alluring to the general public. But the flashy posters and cleverly site-specific taglines have some longtime Stratford fans worried that such measures amount to the dumbing-down of the theatre experience. National Post (Canada) 06/30/01

COPYCATS WANTED: With the success of The Producers acting as a sort of artistic sparkplug, Broadway types are swinging into high gear in an attempt to continue the reinvigoration of the musical theatre form. Of course, the success of such endeavors is somewhat dependant on there being enough good musicals to throw at the public, and some observers are already worried about the potential for a glut of mediocre song-and-dance shows. Hartford Courant 07/01/01

BROADWAY HAT TRICK: Remember the name, because director John Rando is about to do something that few others have even attempted – have three of his productions running on Broadway at one time. “He may not have the credentials of proven English hitmakers like Nicholas Hytner (“Miss Saigon”) or Trevor Nunn (“Les Misérables”), but Mr. Rando is on his way.” The New York Times 07/01/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday June 29

REMEMBER ABBA? IF YOU DON’T, YOU SOON WILL: Mamma Mia!, a mother-daughter story built around 22 songs by Swedish vocal group that collapsed twenty years ago, opens on Broadway in October. Not just opens, but opens big. It’s now booking through September 2002, and at $100 a ticket, it ties The Producers as the most expensive show in town. New York Daily News 06/29/01

REMEMBERING RICHARD RODGERS: It’s the centennial year of the composer’s birth. On tap: Broadway revivals of The Boys from Syracuse and Oklahoma; London revivals of South Pacific and The Sound of Music; special shows at MOMA, the Met, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian; TV documentaries and books; a dedicated website. And a nomination for Rodgers-to-remember: “No Other Love,” adapted from the score for Victory at Sea – musical swords into plowshares. Broadwayonline 06/28/01

Monday June 25

FOR WHAT AILS YE: Shakespeare fans aren’t happy with recently announced plans to restructure Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company. “It seems that the RSC’s artistic director, Adrian Noble, became bored with directing Shakespeare a few years ago – indeed, he has pretty much said so. Now he seems also to have got bored both with the Stratford theatres and with London’s Barbican spaces. I am sorry for him, yet, I must confess, not all that sympathetic.” New Statesman 06/25/01

WHYFORE ART THOUGH DRAMATURG? It seems like every theatre these days employs a dramaturg. But these so-called “conscience of the theatre” figures are a sign of something wrong in the creative process. “There are many excellent dramaturgs, just as there are many excellent designated hitters in the American League. But the designated-hitter rule, because it creates an unnecessary team member, is a disservice to baseball, and the emergence of the dramaturg as a distinct position is likewise a disservice to the theater.” Chronicle of Higher Education 06/25/01

OVERREACHING OR MICROMANAGING? Did Long Wharf Theatre artistic director Doug Hughes resign over a personality dispute with the company’s board chairperson, or was he pushed into resigning? Was it a power struggle? A case of a micro-managing board chair or an overreaching artistic director? The New York Times 06/25/01 (one-time registration required for access)

COLD – REAL COLD: Now they’re voting not only on who ought to be the National Theatre’s next artistic director, but when current director Tony Nunn ought to leave. “A British poll reports that The poll of 1,000 theatre goers showed that 88% would prefer Trevor Nunn to step down as soon as possible.” BBC 06/25/01

Sunday June 24

IRRATIONAL NATIONALISM: British theatre critics have made a habit (and, some would say, a crusade) of beating mercilessly any London production that has enjoyed previous success in America. “Having a hit in New York seems to be the best way to ensure that your play is panned in London, so why do so many American dramatists persist in casting their pearls before swinish British critics?” The Observer (UK) 06/24/01

NUNN’S HABITS: Trevor Nunn has come under almost continuous fire since taking over the helm of Britain’s National Theatre, yet, under his leadership, the National has achieved near-unprecedented success. This contradiction doesn’t surprise one critic: “Nunn is a hard man to warm to – there is something defensive in his manner, and a touch of the martyr about him. But it seems to me that his first three-and-a-half years at the NT, though troubled at times by flops and disappearing directors, have produced an often outstanding body of work in which quality has been mixed with the best kind of populism.” The Telegraph (London) 06/23/01

Thursday June 21

MERCHANT OF STEREOTYPING: Canada’s Stratford Theatre has made changes in its production of Merchant of Venice after Canadian Muslims protested the production’s stereotyping of a minor character. “Apparently, [the director] inhabits some cultural bubble where anti-Semitic jokes have been banished but anti-Islamic ones are still hilarious.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/21/01

THE POLITICS OF BUILDING: Dublin’s Abbey Theatre has a long and glorious history. But its building is decrepit and hardly worthy of a national institution, and there are plans to replace it. But how to do it? Controversy dogs all the options. The New York Times 06/21/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday June 19

GRAND PLANS: “The Grand Canyon will serve as the panoramic backdrop for a single performance combining music, dance and theater in one of six huge-scale projects announced Monday by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.” Nando Times (AP) 06/19/01

Sunday June 17

MIDDLE AGE BLUES: Last week’s abrupt resignation of Doug Hughes as director of Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre “raises larger questions facing regional theaters as they move from an era based on the vision of its founding fathers (and mothers) to one based on new generations of artistic leaders dealing with boards more willing to shape the institution. One thing is clear. This matter has nothing to do with art but rather the art of getting along.” Hartford Courant 06/17/01

Thursday June 14

SHORT (OF CASH) VIC: London’s Young Vic theatre asked for £6 million from the Lottery fund but got only £250,000. “We really have a crisis. The building is falling down. It was built in 1970 as a series of breeze blocks on top of each other, a temporary structure. We have to spend £80,000 each year on repairs just to keep the building open. We had been led to believe we would get more.” The Independent (UK) 06/13/01

Wednesday June 13

BOUNCED FROM BROADWAY: The Bells are Ringing closed on Broadway last weekend, but 18 members of the company have complained that their checks bounced. “In a business where many deals are still made with a handshake and a good name is perhaps an entrepreneur’s most valuable asset, this is shaping up as a public relations nightmare for the producers.” The New York Times 06/13/01 (one-time registration required for access)

PRESERVING THE SHOW: Theatre is a fleeting art – once a show closes its run, there is little left to preserve it. But a few collectors have always recognized the value of storing away as many aspects of theatre’s history as can be gathered, and the results can be surprisingly effective in guarding the memory of long-forgotten productions. The oldest such collection in the U.S. is at Harvard University, and celebrating its centennial. Boston Phoenix 06/13/01

Sunday June 10

WHAT’S NEW IN MOSCOW: “Throughout the 1990’s, a time when Russian culture, society and politics were in turmoil, Russian directors largely ignored contemporary plays and retreated to the stability and familiarity of the classics.” Now a contemporary play – hated by critics but a major hit with audiences, looks like a signal that contemporary theatre is reviving in Russia. The New York Times 06/09/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THEATRE OLYMPICS: “which originated in 1995 in Delphi, Greece, and continued in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1999 before coming to Moscow this spring — is bigger than ever. Nearly 150 productions from 35 countries as far-flung from Russia’s capital as Colombia and Australia are being presented during the 70-day extravaganza.” The New York Times 06/09/01 (one-time registration required for access)

PERSONAL STRUGGLES: The sudden resignation of Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre artistic director Doug Hughes is a sign of the changing power structures in the American regional theatre movement… Hartford Courant 06/10/01

• SEASON CRUMBLES: With Hughes gone, some actors pull out of the upcoming season. Now four of next season’s eight plays are out of the lineup. Hartford Courant 06/10/01

Friday June 8

SHOULD AWARDS BE DITCHED? There are too many awards. They encourage all the wrong sorts of behavior. So “should there be a moratorium on theatre awards? Is the whole process corrupt, commercial, absurd? Are there just too many awards? Or is award-granting a real service to the theatre communityfland to the public at large?” Backstage 06/07/01

TIME TO MOVE ON: Broadway’s Tony awards have been handed out, confirming what everyone knew – it was a disappointing year for the Great White Way, unless your name was Mel Brooks. Expensive fiascoes and ambitious failures abounded, but the new season looks more promising, if somewhat less adventurous. New York Post 06/08/01

A LOT OF NIGHT MUSIC: “After three months of anticipation, an unexpected lineup of directors was announced… for the Kennedy Center’s “Sondheim Celebration,” six musicals by the composer that will be performed in repertory next year at the Eisenhower Theater.” The ambitious project will cost $10 million. Washington Post 06/08/01

ENGLISH RULES: “The language of international commerce is perceived as cosmopolitan, cool and attractive to a younger, increasingly sophisticated audience – which is why it is used to advertise everything from cigarettes to high fashion.” Theatre too. Frankfurt’s English Theatre is thriving – in fact it’s the cool place for Germans to hang out. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/08/01

UNSUNG: Broadway’s conductors are a largely anonymous crew, coping with changes in the making of music for the stage. Remember the days when saxes and horns actually blew their notes to the audience rather than into close mikes? The New York Times 06/08/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Thursday June 7

LET’S CANCEL THE TONYS ON TV: So this year’s Tony broadcast’s ratings went up. “In principle, the show’s mix of artistic celebration and commercial improvement sounds great. If the Tony telecast could bring bigger audiences to Broadway without doing more harm than good, who would complain? But it can’t. The Tony telecast diminishes what the Tony awards celebrate, and a great deal more besides, and ought to disappear before it can do so again.” The New Republic 06/06/01

Wednesday June 6

HUGHES QUITS: By most accounts, over the past four years Doug Hughes had reinvigorated New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre as its artistic director, and had ambitious plans for the future. But Monday he abuptly resigned, citing an “unworkable” relationship with the chairwoman of the board of trustees. It’s a tangled story some are having difficulty swallowing. Hartford Courant 05/06/01

ALSO RANS ALSO CLOSE: Two more Broadway shows announce they’re closing after a lack of any boost from last weekend’s Tonys. That’s four shows that have called it quits this week. Backstage 06/06/01

COMMITED THEATRE: Ten Thousand Things Theatre is a behind-bars operation – prison bars, that is. Company members say inmates are a more commited audience than those on the outside. “Our paying audiences are more reserved, and that throws the actors. After our touring shows [in prisons], it sort of feels like the audience is only halfway there.” St. Paul Pioneer-Press 06/04/01

PRODUCING “BLAND POP CULTURE?” The Producers is touted as a victory over “show-business corporate-think that creates… bland pop culture.” But from a contrarian point of view, the show might be seen rather as a victory for show-business corporate-think. It’s surely a victory for producers: ticket sales tripled after the show swept the Tony Awards. The Tonys also appeared to boost ticket sales for Proof and 42nd Street. Other nominees who didn’t win are closing, including Jane Eyre, Bells Are Ringing and A Class Act. New York Review of Books 06/21/01 & New York Post 06/05/01

A GAY PLAY? REALLY? NY theatre critics Ben Brantley and John Simon were guests on Charlie Rose last week, when the conversation took a bizarre turn: ” ‘There’s a type of play that Ben likes that I don’t,’ Simon said. ‘For lack of a better word, I would call it the homosexual play.’ Brantley looked stun- ned. ‘I don’t quite categorize it like that,’ he replied. ‘Well . . . sometimes categories creep up on one without one’s even realizing that they’re there,’ lectured Simon.” New York Post 06/06/01

Tuesday June 5

ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS?

• The New York Times says ratings for Sunday’s Tony Awards broadcast stayed flat: “The fast national rating — meaning an early tally — for the two-hour CBS portion of the broadcast was a 6.4. That is only a slight improvement over the record low last year, when the fast national rating for the CBS broadcast was 6.1, down from 7.0 in 1999.”
• Meanwhile, Inside.com reports that “according to preliminary ‘fast affiliate’ Nielsens, the CBS coverage averaged a 2.5 rating, 6 share among adults 18-49 and a 6.4/10 in households. That 2.5/6 kept CBS an unimpressive fourth for the time period, but represents a stout 32 percent improvement over last year’s 1.9/5.

GOODBYE BRITS: “The success of The Producers and 42nd Street surely marks the last rites of the doomy, gloomy through-sung British blockbusters that conquered the world in the Eighties and kept on running for most of the Nineties. The joy in New York at getting back to what it has always done best is everywhere apparent, not least at Sunday night’s Tony Awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/05/01

INVENTING (AND MOCKING) MIDDLE-CLASS MANNERS: Molière “thought that it was the job of society to bring sex and love into a single official currency, and the job of comedy to announce the unofficial, black-market rate of exchange.” His plays may have been the stuff of sit-coms, but his life was more like a soap opera. The New Yorker 06/04/01

Monday June 4

PRODUCERS PRODUCES: True to predictions, The Producers walked away with most of the trophies at Sunday night’s Tony Awards. Producers won a record 12 Tonys. “The show had already broken two Broadway records, selling more than $3 million worth of tickets the day after it opened and drawing 15 Tony nominations, beating the previous record, held by Company in 1971.” The New York Times 06/04/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• STRONGEST LINK: ” ‘Voting people off the island’ is part of what Tony voters have done by giving The Producers every one of the record 12 Tonys for which it was nominated – the small island of Manhattan doesn’t have room for everyone. For some shows, closing notices will not be long in waiting. For a few besides The Producers – Proof, 42nd Street – awards will lead to profitable tours into that larger world for which Broadway is the tryout.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/04/01
• BACKSTAGE quotes at the Tonys… Theatre.com 06/03/01
• CHRONOLOGY OF A PHENOMENON: The Producers from the start… Theatre.com 06/03/01

DEFENDING THE RSC: The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Adrian Noble has been taking heat for his plans to restructure the company. “Noble envisages a revitalised Stratford that is a mecca for artists, a centre of scholarship and a place that offers audiences flexible performance spaces. He vehemently justifies the new system on both practical and philosophical levels.” The Guardian (UK) 06/04/01

I’LL REVIEW WHEN (IF) I WANT TO: The Auckland Theatre Company had announced a new policy where special “media night” performances of new plays would be held for critics. But reviewers for New Zealand’s publications – including the NZ Herald – protested, insisting on being able to see whatever performances they wanted. So the theatre has backed down. New Zealand Herald 06/04/01

Sunday June 3

STORY TIME: As recently as last year, many were saying that the days of story musicals was over. But this season proved that stories can still rule and that grand concept isn’t everything. Dallas Morning News 05/03/01

MISSING IN ACTION: Where did the Brits go on Broadway? “First, they can’t get a movie to Cannes, and now they’re being eclipsed in New York, a city whose Anglomania is nowhere more evident than in its theatre.” Sunday Times (UK) 06/03/01

THERE ARE OTHER SHOWS YOU KNOW… Maybe it’s difficult to remember back that far, but before The Producers hit Broadway and became a sensation, there were other shows thought to be pretty good. In the wake of Producers mania, other Broadway shows have had to adjust their pitches. “Because we opened so early in the season, we’ve had to remind everybody that we were once embraced by the press like they are.” Los Angeles Times 06/03/01

Friday June 1

ANOTHER BROADWAY RECORD: Broadway had another record year at the box office. “The take for the current season was $665 million, up from the running total of $603 million for the 1999-2000 season (which itself was up from $588 for the 1998-1999 season). Attendance is also up, with paid attendance increasing from 11.4 million for the 1999-2000 season to 11.9 million for the 2000-2001 season.” Theatre.com 05/31/01

Thursday May 31

ROOTING FOR THE UNDERDOG: It’s no secret that The Producers is going to win Tonys for everything in sight. And yet, one critic votes another for best in show. Why? I know colleagues will think I’m crazy – The Producers is a Rolls-Royce, and A Class Act is, I don’t know, a Vespa. Yet there are sentimental reasons for voting Class. New York Magazine 05/28/01

STAGE PRESENCE: A sure winner at Sunday’s Tony awards will be Betty Corwin. More than 30 years ago she thought it would be a good idea to make videotapes of stage performances, which otherwise would be lost when the show ended. Now, 4500 tapes later, she’s getting a special Tony for excellence. Boston Globe 05/31/01

Wednesday May 30

DENUDING THE RSC? There are at least a couple of things wrong with the Royal Shakespeare’s plans to restructure. “One is that the RSC may become so little a company, let alone an ensemble, that it will end up with no distinct identity at all. By renouncing its regular six months a year at the Barbican, the RSC will now have no firm London home. RSC could become a mere trademark, one that will sporadically appear on the front of the Young Vic, the Round House, a West End theatre, or even the Barbican, giving spurious credibility to what may be little more than an ad-hoc cast or summer-stock touring troupe.” The Times (UK) 05/30/01

PROTESTING PENISES: Protesters in Wales have “demanded the banning of a sold-out Australian stage show in which two men manipulate their genitalia into various shapes from a hamburger to sea anemone.” The show is in the middle of a two-month tour, and ran for five months last year in London’s West End. The Age (Melbourne) 05/30/01

Sunday May 27

UNION BLUES : “Theatre union Bectu has reacted “with horror” to the announcement that the Royal Shakespeare Company is scaling down operations at the Barbican Centre in London.” BBC 05/25/01

• SALVAGE JOB: The Barbican’s top man defends the decision. The Observer (London) 05/27/01

FALLING STARS: The theatre world continues to wonder if anyone can save the musical. The Producers may have reinvigorated the form somewhat, but, by and large, there’s not a lot going on that we haven’t seen a hundred times before. The new breed of musicals aren’t being written for already-popular stars the way the classics were, and the dearth of quality productions has started to affect not only the Broadway stage, but the nation’s regional theatres as well. Hartford Courant 05/27/01

HARDEST JOB IN SHOW BIZ: You’re standing in the wings as the theatre darkens, and the voice of the stage manager comes over the PA, informing the audience that you will be taking the stage shortly. The audience erupts in boos. Welcome to the world of the Broadway understudy. New York Post 05/27/01

Friday May 25

TAKING STOCK OF BROADWAY: One way of taking stock of the state of Broadway is to look at the quality of plays and the health of the box office – both of which seem to be doing fine right now. Another way is to make note of the theatres – those that came into service this season, and those which disappeared forever. Theatre.com 05/24/01

REINVENTING SHAKESPEARE: The Royal Shakespeare Company has the prestige, but “the current structure of the RSC, where actors must commit to a lengthy contract in order to perform with the company, is a deterrent to many actors and directors.” So the RSC is restructuring, allowing “shorter contracts, bold programming of plays and better pay and conditions for actors.” BBC 05/25/01

Thursday May 24

NEW TENNESSEE WILLIAMS PLAY: The White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut is presenting the world premiere of a Tennessee Williams play this summer. “The Day on Which a Man Dies, subtitled an occidental Noh – a Westernized Japanese drama unearthed from the playwright’s papers – is “the latest piece of Williams marginalia to be unearthed from the papers of the Pulitzer-winning author.” Theatre.com 05/23/01

PICTURING SHAKESPEARE: “A retired Canadian engineer, telling a tale of ancient family ties, mistaken judgments and surprise revelations, has roiled the world of Shakespeare scholarship by saying he possesses a striking portrait painted in 1603 showing Shakespeare as a coy man of 39, with a full head of hair and a Mona Lisa smile.” The New York Times 05/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

NEW A.R.T. DIRECTOR: Robert Brustein is stepping down as director of American Repertory Theatre next summer. And after looking at 70 candidates, the company has chosen Robert Woodruff, a director known for his avant-garde work to replace Brustein, who is 70. The New York Times 05/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

TAKING MUSICAL OUT OF MUSICAL THEATRE: There is only one university in Canada offering a degree in musical theatre. Make that was. The program is being discontinued and its classes rolled into the university’s acting program. It’s about the money. CBC 05/24/01

Wednesday May 23

BEST OF (OFF) BROADWAY: Thirty-four New York theatre folk pick their favorites of the off-Broadway theatre season. Village Voice 05/22/01

CHICAGO VICTORY: Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre has won this year’s Regional Theatre Tony award. “For theaters outside New York, this award, which is given in advance of most of the Tonys in other categories, is singularly important.” The New York Times 05/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday May 22

ODE TO THE MATINEE: “A long caravan of jokes, anecdotes and put-downs have encircled matinees, and left them identified solely as the last refuge of little old people trying to get out of the rain.” Yet there’s a certain magic to theatre in the middle of the day… New Statesman 05/21/01

A THEATRE THAT’S MAKING IT: While other arts organizations plead for money to survive, the Sydney Theatre Company posts its second annual surplus – modest ($120,161) to be sure, but still a surplus. In 1999 the company posted a record surplus of $802,666. Sydney Morning Herald 05/22/01

Monday May 21

PRODUCERS WINS: The Producers wins a record 11 Drama Desk awards in New York. The New York Times 05/21/01 (one-time registration required for access)

UNDER THE BIG TOP: When the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua’s tent burned down last year, a replacement tent was quickly located. But it wasn’t the same. The problem? It was a (horrows!) vinyl tent. Not the same as canvas, is it? Evidently such things matter to the Chatauquans. “They try and talk you into their newfangled materials. But it’s the air in there. And the sound. Nothing else is the same.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 05/21/01

NEW SCOTTISH NATIONAL THEATRE: A new Scottish government study recommends £10 million be spent on developing a new Scottish National Theatre. The Scotsman 05/21/01

SIR PETER PLAYWRIGHT: Playwright Peter Shaffer is knighted by the Queen. “A unique figure among modern dramatists, for three decades he produced a series of successful plays which tackled huge themes, making him the playwright who makes mainstream audiences think about the big ideas of their times.” The Times (UK) 05/21/01

Sunday May 20

THE TONY AUDIENCE: Broadway’s Tony awards make for an odd broadcast. Does anyone watch them? “The show’s ratings have been so consistently disappointing that they have become a standard joke on the show itself.” The New York Times 05/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

A FEW GOOD SCORES: For some years now, the Tony category for best musical score has been something of an embarrasment “ever since Broadway was occupied by British invaders and Disney investors.” But this year there are finally some scores that have meat on their bones. The New York Times 05/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday May 18

IT’S GETTING UGLY OUT THERE: Unless you’re Mel Brooks, it’s a bad time to be opening a new musical on Broadway. In addition to the much-expected early closing of Seussical!, several other high-profile shows are shutting down quickly, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which lasted less than a month. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/01

Thursday May 17

WHAT DREAMS MAY DIE: Seussical was the most anticipated show of the current Broadway season. But the reviews were bad, business never got going full steam, and now the show is closing May 20. Theatre.com 05/16/01

• LOSING BIG: The show lost $11 million, making it one of Broadway’s all-time biggest losers. The New York Times 05/17/01 (one-time registration required for access)

EWWWW: Quick, name the hottest ticket in New York. Right, The Producers. Easy one. But the second most popular show in town is just starting to generate the buzz that Mel Brooks gets when he blows his nose. And speaking of bodily excretions, the name of the show is “Urinetown,” and it’s about corporate greed, vanishing natural resources, and, well, you know… Chicago Tribune 05/17/01

Tuesday May 15

RETURN OF THE GLADIATORS: A French company has spent four years constructing a gladiators’ coliseum in which it will stage battles beginning this summer. The project includes an arena with seating for more than 6000, chariots and other antique-looking gear, and “a cast of horses, lions and tigers, as well as scores of gladiators, legionnaires and slaves. Perhaps only the French would have the Gaul to do something like this.” New Zealand Herald 05/15/01

JASON MILLER, 62: Actor and playwright Jason Miller has died of a heart attack. In 1973, Miller was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist. The same year he won both a Pulitzer and a Tony for his play That Championship Season. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/15/01

Monday May 14

YA GOTTA HAVE HART: As a playwright, director, producer, and play doctor, Moss Hart was indispensable to the theatre, “a tireless collaborator who reliably helped to mint the only currency Broadway trusts: hits.” But “directorial brilliance in the theatre is evanescent, and Hart’s plays, despite frequent and occasionally effective revivals, have been undermined by the very influence they exerted on subsequent writers for the stage, film, radio, and television.” A new biography puts Hart out front again. The New Yorker 05/14/01

Friday May 11

ALL DC’s A STAGE: Time was (and not all that long ago) that Washington DC was a cultural backwater. Then came the fabulous museums and the Kennedy Center. But somewhere along the way, a thriving theatre scene got going. The city now boasts 80 theaters staging 300-plus productions a year. Christian Science Monitor 05/11/01

A DRAMATIC CAREER: After 32 years, one of America’s finest theatre instructors is retiring. Vera Katz had her work cut out for her as a Jewish woman at predominantly black Howard University, but she won respect from students and colleagues alike with her fervent desire to learn about African-American culture, and her devotion to her craft. Washington Post 05/11/01

Thursday May 10

LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT: Nudity is so often used on stage these days, one wonders if it makes any impact. “Nudity, like any other element of theater, can be used well or badly, or even perniciously. If it’s used boldly, creatively and sensitively, it can make us think and feel, as well as look. Otherwise it will prove merely meretricious, sleazy or boring.” LA Weekly 05/11/01

Wednesday May 9

A PREVIEW OF TONYS TO COME? The New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical goes to The Producers. Is anyone surprised? The only real contest in the awards was for Best American Play, where the critics needed four ballots to agree on Proof as the winner. New York Post 05/09/01

THE LIVING THEATRE: Audiences and tastes keep changing, why not theatres? Seriously – why must a theatre built for one purpose stay the same even when time has passed? Shouldn’t the interiors of theatres be made to change with the times? The Guardian (UK) 05/09/01

Tuesday May 8

RUNAWAY HIT: The Producers wins 15 Tony nominations, tying the record for most nominations for a single show. Here’s the list of nominees. Theatre.com 05/08/01

• RESISTANCE IS FUTILE: “[T]his year The Producers is going to sweep just about every Tony Award in sight. No clever ad campaign is going to change that… Instead, smart theater people say, the producers of the also-rans should use their ad dollars to target mainstream theatergoers, not Tony voters.” New York Post 05/08/01

THE NEW MUSICALS: Is it a new era for American musicals? There are lots of new projects and the new genre has become a hit. “But does quantity also indicate quality? Or are we simply witnessing a rat race toward the lowest common commercial denominator? Does the new work stack up against the great American classics of the 20th century?” Backstage 05/07/01

THEATRE THAT PAYS: Why shouldn’t London’s National Theatre produce popular musicals? And if they have a commercial afterlife, so much the better, says producer Cameron Mackintosh. As for the some £600,000 a year National director Trevor Nunn stands to make for directing My Fair Lady – “Why Not? He’s done an incredibly talented piece of work.”The Telegraph (UK) 05/08/01

Monday May 7

GETTING WITH THE PROGRAM: Admittedly, program books are a small part of a theatre production, but that hasn’t stopped Playbill from making a mint providing glossy, slickly produced books to local troupes around the country. Now, a Boston entrepreneur is giving Playbill some competition, and the Hub’s theatre companies are starting to take notice. Boston Herald 05/07/01

Friday May 4

WE ALREADY GAVE YOU A BUCK… The Florida State legislature cuts Miami’s Coconut Grove Theatre allocation by $500,000 (the theatre’s total budget is $5.4 million). “I have to repeat and repeat again, the theater is already receiving a substantial subsidy with its $1-per-year lease. . . . I’m sorry, but in good conscience I couldn’t allow my colleagues to give additional money to the Playhouse. They have accountability issues that still need to be attended to.” Miami Herald 05/04/01

TIMING IS EVERTHING: A flood of new shows is opening on Broadway. “The producers of Broadway shows are convinced that they have to open close to Tony time. They want that boost of publicity after the nominations, and the boost from the show itself.” MSNBC (Reuters) 05/04/01

Wednesday May 2

IT’S NOT A MUSICAL, BUT… It’s turned into a hot season for Broadway. First The Producers becomes the biggest thing to hit the street since The Lion King. Now it’s time for drama. August Wilson’s King Hedley II finally made it to Broadway and the reviews are ecstatic. “You will hear some of the finest monologues ever written for an American stage, speeches that build gritty, often brutal details into fiery patterns of insight.” The New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time registration required for access)

PRODUCERS SCORES: The Producers isn’t just popular – now it’s scooping up nominations for awards, winning 14 Drama Desk nominations yesterday, including Outstanding Musical. New York Post 05/02/01

• BUT IT’S FOR MY DYING MOTHER… Ticket demand for The Producers is intense. The show is sold out for months, but people are calling the box office with all sorts of stories, including several “dying request” tales. New York Post 05/02/01

Tuesday May 1

GRANDPA’S LEGACY: Long before he became famous as Grandpa Walton, Will Geer was putting on Shakespeare plays in a tiny theatre high up in the Santa Monica Mountains. “The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum survives as a showcase for Shakespeare and a training ground for young actors who come to practice their craft outside and under the stars.” Dallas Morning News 05/01/01

KIDS, INCORPORATED: Children’s theatre is a tricky business, and companies that put on truly great productions without resorting to cliched slapstick or pretentious preaching are few and far between. One of the nation’s best children’s theatre companies is in Silicon Valley, and this month, it will face one of its greatest challenges: replacing the man who has made the troupe what it is today. San Jose Mercury News 05/01/01

Sunday April 29

A NEW ERA FOR BROADWAY? Does the success of The Producers signal the beginning of a new era on Broadway? “The Producers isn’t just a hit; it’s a fully-fledged event in a city that thrives on such things, and its cultural repercussions look sure to be felt in English-speaking theatre the world over, although given its subject matter, the show seems an unlikely export to Germany.” The Observer (UK) 04/29/01

REINVENTING THE NATIONAL: As Trevor Nunn leaves as director of Britain’s National Theatre, a reevaluation is in order. “The National should do what it uniquely can do, what it was brought into existence to do – create a living, evolving organisation offering the whole range of world theatre, subject to perpetual reinvention and rediscovery.” The Observer (UK) 04/29/01

Friday April 27

RETURN TO DRAMA: Musicals are still the hot fare on Broadway, but serious drama is back. “Six dramas and one comedy-drama – nearly double the number in recent seasons – are currently on Broadway stages. And make that eight dramas, if you count Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party, which is advertised as a comedy but is more serious than a typical Simon play.” Christian Science Monitor 04/27/01

Wednesday April 25

PRODUCING AN INVESTMENT: Theatre is a risky investment. But Mel Brooks’ The Producers had such potential it easily attracted financial backing. Now those backers stand to make a big return on their investments. The New York Times (AP) 04/25/01 (one-time registration required)

A VIEW OF THE NEW: It’s generally considered a good era for new British theatre. English theatres are hot for new material. “According to Arts Council statistics, new writing made up 20 per cent of staged work in subsidised theatres from 1994-96, more than the classics.” The Times (UK) 04/25/01

Monday April 23

FOR BETTER AND WORSE, AN ORIGINAL: No matter who’s in The Producers right now, for many people there could be only one Max Bialystock. Only one Tevye. Only one Pseudolus. In fact, only one rhinoceros. That’s Zero Mostel. Mostel, who died in 1977, “was among those originals – like Grock, Chaplin and perhaps Marceau – who are not just more than the sum of their parts, but are also more than the sum of their roles.” New York Post 04/22/01

Sunday April 22

A GOOD REVIEW CAN HELP: The Producers, which opened this week on Broadway to rave reviews, broke Broadway box office records Friday, selling $3 million worth of tickets on a single day. (Lion King previously held the record for $2.7 million in single-day sales). The New York Times 04/21/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ME AGAINST THE WORLD: How can one play change so much? A playwright marvels at how interpretations of his play change when it is transferred from one country to another. “Cultural assumptions were batted back and forth, cultural specificity went clean out the window, and time and again I was forced to ask not what could my writing do for the rest of the world, but what could the rest of the world do for it?” The Guardian (UK) 04/21/01

Friday April 20

PRODUCING A RAVE: “Everybody who sees The Producers — and that should be as close to everybody as the St. James Theater allows — is going to be hard-pressed to choose one favorite bit from the sublimely ridiculous spectacle that opened last night.” The New York Times 04/20/01 (one-time registration required)

• PRODUCERS CASHES IN: The Producers, which opened Thursday night on Broadway, has a $15 million advance sale. So the show’s producers have bumped the price of a ticket to $100 a seat to cash in. The New York Times 04/20/01 (one-time registration required)

STOP TALKIN’ TO YERSELF, PADDY, AN’ DO SOMETHIN’: It’s hard to imagine modern Irish drama without monologues. Those revelatory asides to the audience, however, may be exactly what’s wrong with the genre. “The monologue always traps the characters in the field of memory; they never do anything in the present… there is the impression that these characters have lived, that they live no more and are trapped in torment.” Irish Times 04/19/01

SHAKESPEARE’S BORING AND GORDIMER’S A RACIST: Teachers in South Africa’s major province want to ban Hamlet, Lear, and Othello, among others, because “they have unhappy endings, lack cultural diversity and fail to promote the South African constitution’s rejection of racism and sexism.” In the same province, an education bureaucrat has nixed Nadine Gordimer’s 1981 book, July’s People, because “…the story comes across as being deeply racist, superior and patronising.” Gordimer, a Nobel Laureate who battled apartheid for 40 years, intends to fight what she calls “the judgment of a nobody.” The Guardian (London) 04/19/01

Thursday April 19

MUSICAL MISERY: You knew it had to happen eventually – some disgruntled Red Sox fan would acquire the ability to put “The Curse of the Bambino” on stage, and do so, with all the hand-wringing and hopeless pessimism that define baseball’s most loyal fan base. Well, it’s happened, but the author is (gasp) from New York. Boston Herald 04/19/01

GETTING TO KNOW A LEGEND: One of the most successful playwrights, songwriters, and directors in American theatre history, Abe Burrows, is getting a fresh look from theatre aficionados. Burrows’s personal papers, notes, and correspondence have been donated to the New York Public Library by his son, TV producer James Burrows. The New York Times 04/19/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Wednesday April 18

CHANGE OF COURSE? London’s National Theatre has begun its search for a new director to succeed the controversial Trevor Nunn. The theatre board is clearly open to a new direction for the theatre. The Independent (London) 04/18/01

Tuesday April 17

THE RSC IN MICHIGAN: London’s Royal Shakespeare Company made a deal to do a residency in Ann Arbor Michigan and the University of Michigan. Michigan got RSC performances and workshops for two weeks while the RSC got $2 million – money it used to produce projects near to its heart. The Times (London) 04/17/01

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater was America’s first major professional theatre company not based in New York, and it has thrived ever since. But the Guthrie’s mission includes public service, and a series of recent grants have allowed the company to take their top-quality product to the people of the Upper Midwest’s small towns. Minneapolis Star Tribune 04/17/0

SCALING DOWN THE MUSICAL: Anyone with three friends and a good-sized loft can put on a play, and small theatre companies around the country take regular advantage of this fact, but musicals are another story. Musicals are often simply too elaborate to stage on a small scale, and they require decent singing voices as well as acting skills, so many companies don’t bother. But one Chicago troupe is making the case for the small-scale musical. Chicago Tribune 04/17/01

Sunday April 15

DON’T FORGET TO ASK FIRST: Miami’s Coconut Grove Playhouse made some additions to its production of Side by Side by Sondheim but didn’t ask permission from owners of the show’s rights. So the show has been shut down in mid-run. “This was cheeky, arrogant chutzpah and a violation of copyright law. This is about morality and ethics.” Miami Herald 04/15/01

FIGHTING HISTORY: “All actors who tackle classic roles, and some not so classic, have for generations been aware of predecessors who have shone in those roles. But once upon a time, such comparisons were relevant only as long as the public’s memory lasted. Now, video has changed all that.” New York Post 04/15/01

Friday April 13

WHAT MAKES A DIRECTOR: It’s all about the casting. “Directing is 90 per cent casting,” says Woody Allen. “Its impact on the audience can’t be overestimated. A cast can be the only reason to see something. The people who write the cheques think so.” Globe and Mail (Toronto) 04/13/01

Thursday April 12

SHAKESPEARE SWALLOWED WHOLE : The Royal Shakespeare Company began “This England – The Histories” on Monday, an omnibus one-week/22-hour staging of Shakespeare’s two tetralogies: eight long plays spanning one turbulent century, from the 1380s to the 1480s. “This whole-enchilada approach to Shakespeare’s history plays is not new. But the artistic logic behind the “This England” venture is dubious.” The Guardian (London) 4/12/01

IT’S BRILLIANT! WHAT’D THEY SAY? Tom Stoppard’s latest play, “The Invention of Love,” has been playing to rave reviews in New York, and audiences seem to love it as well. So what’s the play about? No one has the faintest idea. “The play comes with homework: seven stories and a two-page time line in the Playbill, which are required reading if you don’t have time to pick up a Ph.D. in classical literature.” New York Post 04/12/01

WHAT’S NEW AT HUMANA: America’s best showcase for new plays has concluded in Louisville. This year the festival celebrated its 25th anniversary “with a marathon of six world premieres of full-length works, along with shorter stuff that included seven Phone Plays you listened to by picking up what looked like pay phones in the lobby.” Boston Phoenix 04/12/01

Wednesday April 11

SO MUCH FOR THE MONEY: British theatre fans were delighted a few weeks ago when the government announced it would spend an additional £25 million to support theatre. But now the celebrations have died down, and not everyone is celebrating… The Guardian (London) 04/11/01

TRANS-ATLANTIC ENGLISH: British actors often play American characters convincingly. But American actors playing Brits? Not so often. One reason is that “native speakers of the Queen’s English use a greater range of sounds and do more work with their speaking muscles than North Americans. The British actor simply has to ‘drop things’ to sound American, while the North American actor has to add them on, forcing their mouths into unfamiliar shapes.” The Globe and Mail (Canada) 04/11/01

Tuesday April 10

HUMANIZING THE THEATRE: Louisville’s six-week Humana Festival of New American Plays is 25 years old this year, and the city could not be more proud of its success. The secret appears to be the way the festival makes the playwright the star, and avoids the kind of infighting and sink-or-swim pressure of the New York theatre scene. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/10/01

Monday April 9

‘PRODUCERS’ PRODUCING: The word of mouth has been good, and Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” looks like it will be a hit on Broadway, with $13 million in advance tickets already sold. “I am back doing what I was born to do. And I love it.” BBC 04/09/01

Sunday April 8

FIRE TRAPS: After fire inspections, one in every three of London’s West End theaters has been told to improve safety equipment or face closure. “About 15 theatres have been told they must install fire alarms and improve their safety measures within the next six months, because they may be a danger to people working backstage.” The Independent (London) 04/07/01

SELL OUT? Given its recent commercial dealings Is London’s National Theatre, “conceived as a world library of drama and a radical alternative to the commercial theatre, gradually becoming a classier version of the West End? Has it lost sight of its original visionary idealism?” The Guardian (London) 04/07/01

HUMANA REPORT: This year’s Humana Festival is concluding. “As usual, the festival consisted of six full-length plays and a stew of well- meaning gimmickry: five telephone plays, an hourlong sequence of minutes-long playlets by 16 writers; and an amusing serial play by Arthur Kopit, an apocalyptic cartoon delivered in three 10-minute segments.” The New York Times 04/07/01 (one-time registration required)

Wednesday April 4

MARKET RESEARCH: Chicago’s ETA Creative Arts Foundation has been quietly staging rough readings of plays and theatre pieces since 1975. “Trying out new material with controlled audiences is a test-marketing gambit familiar to filmmakers and stand-up comics, and though many theaters do it as well, few have been doing it as long, as regularly or as elaborately as ETA.” Chicago Tribune 04/04/01

Tuesday April 3

GUTHRIE SELECTS ARCHITECT: French architect Jean Nouvel has been chosen to design Minneapolis’ new $100-million Guthrie Theatre complex. Nouvel is “internationally renowned for his glassy, modern buildings. His works include the Arab World Institute in Paris, the Lyon Opera House in Lyon, France, and a concert hall and cultural center in Lucerne, Switzerland.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune 04/03/01

• THEATRE CENTRAL: Minneapolis is a hotbed of theatre, with two nationally prominent theatres and a rich climate of theatre productions. Now the Guthrie Theatre is planning a 3-theatre $100-million expansion. The New York Times 04/03/01 (one-time registration required)

Monday April 2

GREG BRADY, SCAB? Actos Equity union and producers of a non-union roadshow of “The Sound of Music” are locking in a dispute over pay and working conditions. Barry Williams, of Brady Bunch fame, is starring in the show, caught, it would seem, in the middle. Washington Post 04/02/01

Sunday April 1

GARTH RETURNS: Producer Garth Drabinsky is up and working again with an array of new projects. The Toronto showman, who had built the “largest live theatre production company in North America”, saw his empire crash around him in 1998. Now he’s well on the comeback trail. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 03/31/01

RSC, INC: The Royal Shakespeare Company is going global, casting American stars, licensing productions, making publishing deals, securing corporate deals and hiring Salman Rushdie’s literary agent )known as the Jackal. RSC director Adrian Noble has “taken time out of the rehearsal room, travelling the world to turn the company into a global money-earner.” The Independent (London) 03/31/01