Category: theatre

For a play running at the Lincoln Center, actors and designers converged on New York from six different countris. “Under most circumstances, obtaining a United States visa is arduous. In the case of these visiting artists, the ordeal involved proving that they had a good reason to enter the United States, that they were not a security threat and that they had no intention of staying in the country. The Trump administration’s travel ban — and the legal turmoil around it — has made the whole process all the more bewildering.”

This is in addition to performances that reduce the sound volume and turn up the lights – so-called “relaxed” performances – and are aimed at slightly different audiences, for “people who feel more at ease knowing they are able to leave the auditorium at any time. These include people with dementia and people with babes in arms.”

Yep, it’s the Bard. “Dozens more men than women are acting on stage because of the continuing fascination by arts institutions and audiences with William Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies and histories – written during a time and in a place where women were legally prohibited from acting.”

“Like a hardcover book, ‘cast album’ is starting to seem like a retronym. LPs are only available as collector’s items, and even CDs are on their way out. Instead, new scores, or just individual tracks from them, are downloaded or streamed in digital format, often before a show has opened. They can then be played in any sequence or combination a listener may devise.”

“Licensing fees for shows can often be the highest expense on a school production’s budget. Depending on the show, amount of performances, ticket prices, etc, they can often range to $2,000-$3,000.  In fact, according to MTI’s Cost Estimator, a 4 performance run of “Annie” with an auditorium of 200 seats, tickets at $15 and a 4 performance run(standard for most high schools) would likely cost between $1,998 – $2,703. That’s a lot for any school but near impossible for one with very little funding.”

I’ve conducted a thought experiment. If I were running a regional theater company and decided to devote an entire season to plays by women, which ones would I choose? Within five minutes, my imaginary season was planned. Not only did I make a special point of including two pre-1960 works that are now largely (if not entirely) forgotten, but I deliberately steered clear of the usual staples. No “Little Foxes,” no “Raisin in the Sun,” no Caryl Churchill or Sarah Ruhl —just six fine plays that I picked for no other reasons than that I think they’re good and are likely to appeal to the average playgoer, regardless of gender.

Andrew Lloyd Webber: “Theatre is highly labour-intensive. On the whole, the prices of West End theatre are incredibly reasonable considering the cost of putting something on.” Told that tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child are over £100, ALW said, “We don’t charge anything like that for School of Rock.” (Orchestra/stalls seats for School of Rock in the West End are currently £129.50.)

“The Canterbury Heritage Museum has attracted fewer and fewer visitors in recent years, but a rescue plan involving the Marlowe Theatre is set to revitalise it. Janice McGuinness tells the story.”

“I go to a lot of musicals. I listen to a fair amount of pop music. A lot of pop music that is successful is catchy. A lot of musicals that aren’t successful aren’t catchy. Brit composers seem addicted to wordy exposition that furthers the plot but leaves the brain the second the song has stopped. Even pop stars who should know better – *cough, cough Gary Barlow* – seem to think a musical is more about a thesaurus than a chorus.”