Category: theatre

The Tony Awards have usually been dominated by the British, but this year more American plays and artists are in the spotlight. “There’s no more apt symbol of the shift in British fortunes on Broadway than the revival of  “Jesus Christ Superstar,” whose lone Tony nomination – best revival of a musical – has been dismissed as a sop to Andrew Lloyd Webber.” – The Guardian

“In small but growing numbers, celebrated songwriters and performers cite varied reasons for leaving the safe confines of successful rock careers to roll the dice with musical theater projects. And in deed, if not by design, they’re starting to mend a decades-old rift between popular music and the stage ripped open by the birth of rock ‘n’ roll.” – Los Angeles Times

The numbers are in for the 1999-2000 Broadway season, which officially closed Sunday: Box-office sales hit an all-time New York high of $603 million, with 11.4 million theatergoers – the second-highest attendance on record. – Backstage

Everyone likes to beat up on Broadway’s Tony Awards. But they can still make a show’s future, so they mean a lot. Some producers are “spending as much as $250,000 to advertise a show with a good chance of winning best musical, trying to book television appearances and in some cases picking up the telephone to cajole Tony voters they know.” – New York Times

A while back, Stephen Sondheim complained to the New York Times’ Frank rich that too much of Broadway’s recent fare is “recycled culture,” and lumped shows like “Lion King” in with spectacles like “Cats.” What’s he want to go dissing “Lion King’s” Julie Taymor for? “He should be championing her. Sondheim and Taymor are kindred spirits, erudite and verbal to a degree that makes them outsiders in the context of Broadway.” – New York Press

Who’s to blame for the sad state of Britain’s touring theatre companies? “This is not a story of villainous theatre managers unable to recognize a good thing when it is stuck under their noses. It is the story of an often ignored, certainly underfunded and distinctly unglamorous sector of theatre that is in crisis.”  – The Guardian

As the commercial actors’ strike in the US enters its fifth week, there’s little hope of a speedy resolution on either side. Actors want cable jobs to adopt residual-payment structures; advertisers insist on flat-rate buyouts. As production days dwindle, the strike’s economic impact on L.A. is estimated to reach up to $25 million. – Times of India (Reuters)

It’s so whorish, isn’t it, all these Hollywood actors skittering over to London to get a little legitimate stage credit under their belts? Not that that’s what Donald Sutherland’s doing, mind you. Sutherland “learned his craft in Britain. He arrived in 1952, aged 18, to study at the London Academy of Dramatic Art before going on to do a seven-year apprenticeship on almost every stage in the country. Afterwards, to hone his vocal technique, he added another year in Scotland at the Perth Repertory Theatre.” Now he’s back, starring at the Savoy. – The Guardian

German theatre has a fascination with youth right now. Young German playwrights have more commissions than they can deal with.  “Only five years ago, new playwrights were relegated to weeklong runs in basements and small black-box auditoriums. Today, German theater companies feel pressure to include at least one new play in every main-stage season. Indeed, one director grumbled that theaters are ‘just desperate for pretty young flowers to put in their hats.’ ” – New York Times

There was a time when all American theatre seemed to flow from New York. Now, because of the economics, new work – particularly new plays – almost never start in New York. “What does manage to find its way there can be as odd and eccentrically selected as an ill-sorted group of birds who get blown hundreds of miles from their native habitats by a hurricane.” – Dallas Morning News