Category: theatre

The line between non-profit and commercial theatre has all but disappeared. Non-profits are trying to be more entrepreneurial in hopes of generating more income, while commercial theatre looks to mitigate its risks. – Hartford Courant

Why is it that great stage musicals rarely translate well to film? The release of “The Fantasticks” after sitting around for five years on the shelf after it was made, gives some clues. – Los Angeles Times

“It is tempting to think of Harold Pinter’s career as a series of rooms which together make up a remarkable, if draughty (his rooms tend to be draughty) house. Pinter brought poetry back into the theatre; he said things by the unsaid. People make jokes about his pauses, but the pauses are as eloquent as the lines. – The Observer (UK)

No such thing as opening quietly out of town anymore. “Seussical” got a plateful of bad reviews at its Boston tryouts earlier this month. Some are saying that’s a good thing – the show is being revamped (fixed) before it heads off to Broadway this fall. – Boston Globe

There is a regional theatre crisis in England. But one theatre has managed to flourish with little public funding and a lot of hard work. But at considerable cost…  – The Guardian

“The lefty firebrand comic and the Tory peer” – an apt description for the unique collaboration of Andrew Lloyd Webber and comic Ben Elton on their new musical “The Beautiful Game,” about a young soccer team in 1969 Belfast.  – The Times (UK)

For the first time in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 125-year-old history, a black actor has been cast in the role of an English monarch: 24 -year-old David Oyelowo will play the title role in the upcoming “Henry VI Parts I, II, and III.” – BBC

• After two decades of underfunding, Britain’s regional theatres were promised a £37 million rescue package from the Arts Council of England (to be paid out between 2002 and ’04). But “there is a general acceptance that regional theatre must reinvent itself. [It’s] at a crossroads, a crossroads littered with signs pointing in different directions.” – The Telegraph (UK)

London theatre is being overrun by Hollywood actors anxious to earn a little stage credit. And the theatres are glad to have them too, knowing that a plump box office is sure to follow. But is the star search wrecking the West End? – The Independent (UK)

Andrew Lloyd Webber is back to writing musicals after a long break. But this time he’s got a new partner and some new perspective. “I was bored with musicals. Working with Ben Elton has completely made me rethink where I was coming from musically. And this is an original musical. Everything I have ever written before has been based on something else, like a book or a film.” – The Sunday Times (UK)