Category: theatre

John Gielgud’s career stretched out over three-quarters of a century. Why so many movies in his last decades? “It seems that he was also driven towards film by the increasing difficulty of remembering lines. It further transpires that much weight must be given to the financial pressure of Gielgud’s extravagant domestic establishment in Buckinghamshire, which made him chary of refusing any part – even to the extent of making two films with Michael Winner and the ghastly Caligula (1980). – The Telegraph (UK)

Boston’s new theatre impresario dynamo has big plans for the city. In just a few short months he’s already made a mark. “We’re seeing the emergence of a diverse not-for-profit theater community – though I wish to God we could figure out what to call it. In Chicago, it’s the off-Loop community. In New York, it’s off-Broadway. We don’t have a name for it, but it’s very positive.” – Boston Globe

The AFL-CIO’s national leaders have publicly backed the month-long actors strike being waged in New York and Los Angeles against the commercial production industry. – Backstage

Many child actors who make it big in film at a young age – think Mark Hamill (the original Luke Skywalker) or “ET’s” Henry Thomas – soon face dwindling career choices and dead-ends. “It’s always miserable to be a child, but to become a child star in a big, big film must be like having the biggest party of your life and then never getting to leave your room again.” – The Age (Melbourne)

London critics blasted the opening of “Notre Dame de Paris,” based on the 19th-century novel by Victor Hugo. “The story of the hunchback Quasimodo who falls for Esmeralda is set in 1482 but also has been updated with soldiers in riot gear, New Age travellers and refugees.” – Ottawa Citizen (CP)

Novelist/playwright Michael Frayn’s new book “Celia’s Secret” is a literary practical joke: a story of how, during the run of his play “Copenhagen,” he received letters that seemed to shed new light on the nuclear physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr (whose mysterious meeting in 1941 is the subject of the play). The letters, of course, soon turn out to be fakes, forged by one of his actors. – The Independent (UK)

Measuring the odds. – New York Observer

— who has died aged 96, “was challenged only by Laurence Oliver for the title of greatest English actor of the 20th century.” – The Telegraph (UK)

CLASSICAL ACTOR: “He was the last survivor of that triumvirate of legendary theatrical knights – Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John – who dominated acting in England and vitalized Shakespeare in what became a golden age of classical theater.” – New York Times

THEATERS GO DARK FOR GIELGUD: Sir John continued working until a month ago, but had taken a break from working because of his failing health. – BBC

“History’s greatest speaker of Shakespearean verse.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

He “had the most perfect male vocal instrument of them all, and no one who heard it on stage or on screen will likely ever forget it.” – Los Angeles Times

Four New York theater directors – Graciela Daniele, Brian Kulick, Marianne Weems, and Evan Yionoulis – discuss theater today. They agree theater is thriving, but “quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality. It feels there’s not that much difference now from the mentality of Broadway.” – Village Voice

A Hartford high school reinterprets “Fiddle on the Roof” and draws controversy.  “In their interpretation Tevya became an African American female; Yente the Matchmaker became a drag queen, and Tevya’s daughter, Chava, became a young man who falls in love with another young man. ‘There was no objection to making one of the characters gay, only that two sets of male lips came together.’ – Hartford Courant