Category: theatre

ENDLESS LIVES

“Cats” the musical closes on Broadway this week, the longest-running show in Broadway history.  But “it’s not as if the world will suddenly go ‘Cat’-less come Monday morning. You can rent the video version. You can wait for the PBS pledge drive airing of the version available on video. You can wait in the Kaiser Permanente waiting room of your choice, and eventually you will hear the Muzak version of ‘Memory’.” – Los Angeles Times

LAST WORDS

Poet Ted Hughes’ last work, a theatrical adaptation of Euripides’ “Alcestis,” is being staged by acclaimed director Barrie Rutter in North England. “Theatre may not be life, but it is difficult not to find elements of Hughes’s own story in this his last passionate work about grief, sacrifice and resurrection.” – The Telegraph (UK)

MORRIS MAJOR

London’s Soho Theatre, founded in 1968, was one of the city’s first fringe venues and launched the careers of several famous playwrights. But by the early 1990s, the company had lost its way, not to mention its audience – until Abigail Morris took the helm as artistic director. “In just eight years the Soho has gone from bust to boom, and Morris, whose only previous experience was running a feminist theatre company in the late 1980s, has become a major player in Britain’s new-play culture.” – The Guardian

IS THE REBUILT GLOBE AUTHENTIC?

London’s rebuilt Globe Theatre has become one of the city’s leading tourist attractions. But an Elizabethan scholar contends that the building is not an authentic replica of the old Globe, as the theatre claims.  “Joy Hancox, who looks a bit like a British Angela Lansbury, has for the last several years waged a kind of crusade, contending that she holds the key to unlock a complex architectural mystery that has the Globe at its center. Indeed, she is beginning to convince others that the new theater is not the precise replica its designers have claimed, and that it is only a matter of time before it will have to be torn down and rebuilt.” – Architecture Magazine

HAMLET THROUGH THE AGES

What is it about Hamlet that makes him the pinnacle of a male actor’s career?  “Each generation and each individual actor who takes him on expresses something different. Each Hamlet is unique but of his time; he is everything and so can be anything. All the humanity, suffering, playfulness, imagination, intelligence, philosophical acceptance of mortality, love of others, self-disgust, Renaissance humanism, medieval Christianity, cruelty, wit and neurosis that a director or actor wishes to find is there, but the cocktail of his personality will be differently mixed by each interpreter.” – The Independent (UK)

STOMACHING GOOD THEATRE

“Theaters talk a great deal about how they want to keep their patrons happy, how they want to attract younger audiences and how they want to stir discussion. But too often they ignore the obvious fact that along with first-rate fare on the stage, a good cup of coffee, a calming glass of wine, some simple but appealing food and a few cafe tables might do the trick, making the theatergoing experience something more than a park-the car, sit-through-the play, run-for-the-garage kind of night.” – Chicago Sun-Times

SING-ALONG SOUND OF MUSIC COMES TO BROADWAY

“Ever had a craving to croon along with Julie Andrews as she celebrates a few of her favourite things? Like to pretend you’re Mother Superior figuring out how to solve a problem like Maria? Wonder what it’s like to be 16, going on 17? Singalong, which has a splashy red-carpet opening Wednesday night at the Ziegfeld Theatre, gives you the chance to find out.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

SPACEY RAISES MONEY

Actor Kevin Spacey is in London pounding the pavers trying to raise £1 million from 200-350 investors to create a foundation to fund plays and other theatrical events. “I don’t think the fund managers knew what to expect when they turned up and at first they just sat there, arms folded and looking pretty skeptical. By the time Kevin had done his bit a lot of them were ready to invest.” – The Guardian