Kris Vire: “What we have in this moment, I believe, is a theater community that feels newly empowered in the wake of last year’s explosive Profiles Theatre saga to root out bad behavior within its ranks, and a new generation of artists in the social-media age who believe criticism should be a back-and-forth conversation with many voices participating.” (Not that Hedy Weiss is planning to participate, of course.)
Category: theatre
Should Theatre Critics Be Focused On Issues Larger Than The Performance In Front Of Them?
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: “There’s a thing where just because you’re an arts journalist, you’re automatically assumed to be quote ‘woke’. But that’s actually part of what this moment is about, it’s about not being so complacent with your own perceived tolerance.”
So Far, Audiences For Broadway’s ‘1984’ Have Fainted, Vomited, And Been Arrested
So that’s going well, then? “‘I’m not surprised, since this experience is unique, bold and immersive,’ [said star] Olivia Wilde, who broke her tailbone and dislocated her rib during previews.”
How, In This Time Of Collapsing Theatre Coverage, Is London’s ‘Theatre Record’ Still Alive?
The guy who runs it works for free, and it takes its content from printed reviews. (But are there any printed theatre reviews anymore? Or will there be in the future?)
What Do We Know About Shakespeare’s Politics?
Not a lot because, well, he was a playwright. But “some themes recur; and some messages in the action of his plays are too powerful to miss. Such themes are most abundant in the four plays written at the height of Shakespeare’s powers. In Polonius’s classification, they are tragical-comical-historical. They are about the state in moments of stress, and about individual men acting politically. In these four plays, six themes emerge.”
Is The Controversy Over Hedy Weiss’ Chicago Theatre Review Overblown?
Theater is of course a highly public endeavor, and the world outside is a big bad place, with lions and tigers and critics who have opinions. If its practitioners want safety, they should practice their craft behind closed doors.
Does The Public’s “Julius Caesar” Controversy Prove Theatre Still Matters?
“Amid all the dumbed-down outrage, it’s good to be reminded that theater is still a dangerous art form. The reason Plato, the church fathers, generations of Lords Chamberlain and Jesse Helms and his National Endowment for the Arts-axing kind distrusted the stage had little to do with its use as a forum for intellectual debate. Rather, it is the power of spectacle — the symbol made flesh — that has made theatrical performance throughout history so disconcerting to those in authority.”
‘Indecent’ Isn’t Closing On Broadway After All
“In a rare, almost unheard-of move, the play’s producers announced late Thursday that the production – which was set to close on June 25 because of poor ticket sales – would in fact stay open through Aug. 6 at the Cort Theater. The play, which was written by the Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel, won two Tony Awards and was nominated for three.”
Napoleon III’s Historic Theatre Will Have Its Original Stage Machinery Restored
A multi-year restoration of the 1857 theatre at the Château de Fontainebleau, which has already seen the golden jewel-box auditorium refurbished, will focus in its final phase on the original scenic machinery, the upper salons, and “the podium that houses one of France’s most important stage sets.”
After Ten Years, ‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’ Is Finally Making It To New York
“Jerry Springer — The Opera was supposed to come to Broadway more than 10 years ago after its [Olivier] award-winning premiere in London. That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, but that brazen musical will finally have a proper run in New York as part of the Off Broadway troupe New Group’s 2017-18 season, the company announced on Wednesday.”