Category: theatre

In this five-part series, the Chicago Tribune traces the fortunes of the Famous Door Theater, a tiny theater company that finds itself on the brink of extinction when one of its productions bombs at the box office. Part one 11/28/99
Part two 11/29/99
Part three 11/30/99
Part four12/1/99
Part five 12/2/99 – Chicago Tribune

Reconstruction of a crucial portion of Broadway has been rumored for two years. But now it looks like changes are afoot. Current tenants of the Judith Anderson, INTAR, Samuel Beckett, and Harold Clurman Theatres, four pillars of West 42nd Street’s Off-Broadway Theatre Row, are on month-to-month leases. The theaters may be virtually demolished in early 2000 to make room for a modern complex containing six new theatres topped by an apartment tower. Backstage

Last month a Texas county withdrew funding from the Texas Shakespeare Festival because of a production of “Angels in America” to which local officials objected. Here’s a version of playwright Tony Kushner’s letter defending the play against “art bullies.” The Nation

While straight plays may be endangered species on the Great White Way, Off Broadway has no shortage of stars. New York Times

“Lion King” cleans up at London’s Evening Standard Theatre awards. BBC

After a string of pratfalls, insolvency, scandals, four directors, London’s Covent Garden reopens next week after a £214 million makeover. London Telegraph

David Mamet recently took aim on the art of acting calling for a return to the heroic values of an earlier age. Maybe it’s time, says one critic, to move away from the uniformity of realism and less-is-more and study Chekhov’s nephew. London Telegraph

New York’s Roundabout Theater has been a study in hard-luck stories. But now it’s embarking on a swank $21 million redo of a forlorn old movie house and looking for benefactors to get the job done. New York Times (removed to paid archive)

More and more regional theaters are turning to co-productions. It’s a bit of a dance, with each theater trying to be collegial as it works with a partner to create something artistic without stepping on each other’s toes. Hartford Courant

“Just when you think the American musical has nowhere to go, it leaps up and rushes in a new direction.” Cleveland Plain Dealer