Category: theatre

“In an era in which national funding and patronage for the arts have been all but gutted by Bible-thumping senators, Kersnar has come up with a way to continue doing what he and his partners are good at, and still keep his family out of the poorhouse: Shaking the Tree – a company formed specifically to produce plays for the viewing pleasure, and instruction, of wealthy family audiences.” – Salon

Stephen King and John Mellencamp are collaborating on writing a musical together. Yes, it’s a ghost story. “Our goal is some day to end up on Broadway. We’re not going to take it straight to Broadway.” – Chicago Sun-Times (Billboard)

Debate about the direction of London’s National Theatre rages on in the press. Does no one like the National these days? “In order to establish the right mission for a national theatre, we need to strip the idea of theatre back to the bone. There is no place for retrospective seasons based on the architecture of the building, no room for knee-jerk reliance on the classics.” – The Guardian

The theatrical version of “The Lion King” finally moves to Hollywood in the newly-restored Pantages Theatre – and it looks every bit as good as it does on Broadway. – Los Angeles Times

The commercial failure of “The Wild Party” on Broadway last season “raised broad questions both about the Public Theatre and about Broadway’s capacity to handle unorthodox fare. An examination of the musical’s short, troubled life highlights those issues and the problems that can arise in the increasingly frequent partnerships between nonprofit theaters and commercial producers.” – New York Times

The musical “Napoleon” opened in London this week to generally dreary reviews. But though the show is being billed as new, it looks awfully familiar to the effort that bombed in Toronto six years ago. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

When asked if there is a crisis in black theatre in Britain, Nicolas Kent, director of north London’s Tricycle Theatre, has more than a little to say. “I could go on and on listing the problems. The fact that there is no theatre building run by a black or Asian director, that there is no black children’s company and that theatre staffs and boards are overwhelmingly white.” And what about so-called “color-blind casting?” “We don’t just need to be told that the RSC is to have a black Henry VI. What we need is enough money to support black companies to do black-generated work.” – The Guardian

A new program at Ontario’s Stratford Theatre Festival brings corporate executives together to learn management lessons from Shakespeare. Sessions include: “How might the leaders in Hamlet have been more effective leaders?” and “How would you rate a Shakespearean leader?” Days are jammed with seminars, the evenings devoted to social dinners and two Stratford performances, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘As You Like It’. Perhaps because of the cost and because a few of the participants are on government payrolls, the vast majority wanted to remain anonymous.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

George C. Wolfe heads into his eighth season at the helm of New York’s Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival with two costly Broadway flops in his wake – and $14 million in losses his theater has had to absorb. “Theater veterans have been asking why the Public’s board backed Mr. Wolfe on yet another risky Broadway venture so soon after the last one, and how it could stand by him when artistic directors around the country have been let go simply for losing subscribers.” – New York Times

NEW YORK SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL EXAMINED: What does the New York Times Story mean? – Theatre.com

“Big themes hover around this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival. The first has to do with the transition from a monocultural society to a multicultural one, which Ireland is beginning to experience with some ferocity as the success of its ‘Celtic tiger’ economy sucks in more migrants and refugees. Suddenly, this year in Dublin, the youngsters working in the cafes and burger bars are no longer Irish, but North African, Filipino, Russian. It’s a change that has come as a profound culture shock to a country so long used to the experience of mass emigration, depopulation and loss.” – The Scotsman