Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks offers a foolproof guide.
Category: theatre
The Fall Of Kings: Henceforth, Only Queens Shall Reign At ‘Medieval Times’
“For the 34 years Medieval Times has been in business, [its] monarch has been a man. But the show, which draws an estimated 2.5 million customers each year, is replacing all of its kings with queens. And its peculiar brand of dinner theater – a sort of G-rated Game of Thrones – is taking on an unlikely resonance amid the national jousting over gender equality provoked by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.”
Portland’s Small Theatres Band Together To Cope With Soaring Rents
As with just about any cool city these days, real estate costs in the City of Roses have been rising faster than cash-strapped arts organizations can keep up with – especially for the clear-space buildings that theatres need. As several of Portland’s smaller companies lost their spaces at around the same time, they got creative.
Hal Prince Is Turning 90, And He’s Serving Up Broadway Dish For His Birthday
Michael Paulson picks out some choice tidbits from a series of conversations Prince recorded with producer Jeffrey Seller (Hamilton, Rent). For instance, the M.C. in Cabaret was Prince’s idea.
How The Masses Find Common Ground With Shakespeare, Through Alcohol
Well, that’s one way to be more Elizabethan: “Drunk Shakespeare is akin to watching a live version of Comedy Central’s Drunk History, only the audience is drinking along with the cast in real time — and sometimes even changing the direction of the performance.”
A Theatre In Liverpool That Had No Heating And Sticky Floors Has Transformed Into ‘The People’s Theatre,’ But How?
The seating was bad, and the theatre was basically a disaster. Three phases of development have changed that, but so have the plays and actors: “While the return of the Everyman Rep might have made headlines last year, there has been an unofficial rep company at the Royal Court for the last decade, performing homegrown work to a homegrown audience, many of whom are experiencing theatre for the first time. Along with acting ability, comic timing and an authentic Liverpool voice, its members also need confidence to work with the audience.”
Why Play Readings Don’t Do What They’re Supposed To For Audiences – Or Playwrights
Play readings are, frankly, disappointing. “They’re like walking by a food truck and hearing your stomach rumble, but just when you get your wallet out the truck drives off. … It’s just people sitting there in chairs, sometimes walking up to an ugly music stand to read, and sometimes (woo-hoo!) sporadically engaging another actor at another stand. This is not inherently dramatically interesting.”
Old Vic Theatre Institutes New Program After Harassment Claims About Kevin Spacey
The programme comes after an internal investigation commissioned by the theatre led to 20 people making claims against Spacey.
Harassment And Bullying Are Rife In UK Theatre: Survey
In the wake of the Weinstein and Spacey scandals, “The Stage carried out a survey to determine the scale to which harassment and bullying has affected, and continues to affect, theatre and performing arts professionals.” Here is an extended presentation and analysis of the survey results. Among the leading stats, 43% of respondents had experienced bullying in the course of their theatre work, and 31% had experienced sexual harassment.
Goodspeed Cancels Woody Allen’s ‘Bullets Over Broadway’
“The storied Connecticut nonprofit that launched Annie and has been a prominent showcase for musical theater talent for more than four decades, announced this afternoon it was canceling an upcoming production of Bullets Over Broadway in response to the resurgence of allegations that Woody Allen had inappropriate sexual contact with Mia Farrow’s daughter Dylan.”