Category: theatre

Portland theatre critic not only wrote critical reviews of a theatre company’s shows but went to funders to ask why they gave money to the theatre. “It appears to me through it all he’s trying to close us down. If he gets away with it, guess who’s next? I don’t mind being blasted, that’s part of it. But this goes over the line.” – Portland Business Journal

One must resist the temptation of calling anyone the last this or last that; history – whether of theater, of film, or of the world — is far too cyclical for lasts. Still, with the passing of Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Alec Guinness, some sort of era seems to have ended. If actors were onions, the core of Richardson would have been shrewd common sense; of Redgrave, quirkiness and neurosis; of Olivier, romantic dash; of Gielgud, exquisite lyricism; of Guinness, all-encompassing humanity.” – New York Magazine

What does it mean to call something “musical theatre” these days? The genre has fragmented in so many directions it’s difficult to tell. “Depending on one’s own tastes and vantage point, the rampant diversification of what used to be a fairly predicable entertainment category either signals the pending doom of musical theater, or its financial and aesthetic salvation.” – Seattle Times

New sleek movie versions of Shakespeare leave out something important: words.  “This begins to give some idea of what is lost when Shakespeare’s words take a back seat to the ambitions of directors and critics who are more concerned with their own agendas than with Shakespeare’s poetic art.” – The Atlantic

“The Edinburgh Festival is doing all it can to accelerate the death of world culture. Director’s Theatre is In; and most things worth caring for in spoken theatre are Out. The festival’s new production of Valle-Inclan’s ‘Barbaric Comedies’ is already something of a local scandal, but there is a danger that the scandal is about the wrong thing.” – Financial Times

“The current state of play in the theatre is actually decidedly encouraging on many fronts. I would hazard a guess that the recent drive towards cheap TV programming and its dumbing down have driven ranks of citizens out of their living rooms in search of better arts and entertainment in public venues. I’m also not convinced the net is going to produce future generations of stay-at-home IT and virtual-reality addicts.” – The Independent (UK)

“Who says the theater has reached a dead end? The current London season is filled with confirmations of how protean the discipline remains, as variable and potentially surprising as human beings themselves. Local observers may lament the Americanization of the London stage, with its adaptations of Hollywood movies and reliance on brand-name celebrities. But if you look past pandering hits like “The Graduate,” you’ll discover an abiding, very British penchant for playing with plays, a delight in demonstrating what theater can do that other forms cannot.” – New York Times

”There is absolutely nothing new about my leaving. I will certainly be here a year beyond this; I’m already planning the season beyond this one. … It could be another two, three, or four years” before there is a successor, he says.  – Boston Globe

A former clown in the Bolshoi Circus and founder of the only “cat theater in the world” has taken his group of feisty felines on a world tour – their repertoire includes the “Nutcracker”, “Swan Lake” and “Cats From Outer Space”. While his cats are capable of executing “pawstands” and walking tightropes, the director attests that his performers do have wills of their own. “It is impossible to train cats in the true sense. I play with cats, and they play with me.” – Daily Yomiuri (Japan)

Founding director Robert Brustein will step down as head of American Repertory Theatre after 22 years. “Brustein has functioned as a director, adapter, fund-raiser and playwright (the ART will stage his adaptation of Chekhov’s ‘The Proposal, the Bear, and the Wedding Reception’ and his new original play `The Face-Lift’ this season, which opens next month with a limited run of `The King Stag’). He also has remained unapologetic about some of the company’s more misguided productions.” – Boston Herald