Category: theatre

Puppets are hot these days. “For proof, they point to puppeteers who find themselves in demand from Hollywood to Moscow, colleges granting MFAs in puppetry to people who have contracts before they collect their diplomas, and a steady membership growth in national groups.” – Christian Science Monitor

Theatre promoter Garth Drabinsky is back, determined to start producing again in Canada, even though he’s charged with a variety of malfeasance in the US. “All of this has been an incredibly emotionally draining experience – a real roller coaster ride – and certainly not something I planned or relish,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “And I am determined to be completely cleared of every allegation.” – Chicago Sun-Times

The Boston Academy of Music is producing Gilbert & Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore” in collaboration with the Boston National Historic Park and the U.S. Navy in front of the USS Constitution. “The ship is being incorporated wherever possible into the action. There will be some entrances and exits involving the ship, and we’ll be incorporating the evening colors ceremony, which involves the firing of the ship’s cannon.” – Boston Herald

The chairman of the Arts Council of England  says there’s a crisis in British theatre. “British theatre is living in the past and is failing to attract young people,” he says, and called on the government to pour an extra £100 million into the arts to help solve some of the problems.  – The Independent (UK)

As actors increasingly lash our at critics after receiving negative reviews (Donald Sutherland and Kelsey Grammer, most recently), the role of the critic – and arts journalism in general – is being widely debated. Should a critic be a neutral mediator of experience? Or a subjective arbiter of taste? “The critic is not a straw-poll merchant, a tipster or a second-guesser of audience taste, simply an individual paid to record his or her reaction. Throughout history this has been a source of creative tension between artists and critics.” – The Guardian

• New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company raised the curtain this week on the $25-million restoration of its Broadway home – the controversially renamed American Airlines Theatre. “As for the protests that accompanied the theatre’s renaming after a corporate donor, [RTC Artistic Director Todd] Haimes said he was comfortable with his decision, and was amply prepared for the outcry. ‘Within five years all the theatres will be renamed for corporations, and no one will notice.’” – Theatre.com

Woody Allen and Marvin Hamlisch have teamed up together to make a musical theatre adaptation of Allen’s movie “Bullets Over Broadway.” – Theatre.com

The story behind Kelsey Grammer’s failed turn with the Bard is worthy of the most Shakespearean plot. “There were villains about to be sure, people who seemed to be wide-eyed in anticipation of yet another TV celeb trying to gain acting credibility by doing a bit of the Bard – and failing so publicly. There was palace intrigue, with Grammer himself allegedly investing in the show to keep it afloat, making it seem more of a vanity production than it already was. Then there were the ghosts – of other productions, near and far. Throw in a little envy and a lot of hubris, and you have a story for the ages, or at least the age of celebrity.” – Hartford Courant

• Okay, so the Brits picked up a good share of the recent Tony statues up for the winning. But “if the New York theater sometimes looks a bit like Shaftesbury Avenue-by-the-Hudson, there are parts of London this summer that might be Broadway-on-the-Thames or even Hollywood-Near-the-Atlantic.” – New York Times

“From the vantage point of a composer who has just spent 10 blissful months alone at his desk writing and orchestrating a choral symphony, Broadway looks like (and I say this with affection) Armageddon.” – New York Times