“We needed to devise a way of working that didn’t rely on either a subsidy or the star power supplied by Spacey. What producing model would allow the Old Vic, a £13 million turnover break-even business, to continue generating its own work, and to stay solvent?” Old Vic executive director Kate Varah writes about how she, artistic director Matthew Warchus, and their colleagues found the way.
Category: theatre
You Know What Theatre Criticism Needs? More Hatchet Jobs, Like In The Old Days
Matt Trueman: “The sad truth is that a proper old-fashioned panning is good for a critic – and, by extension, good for criticism. … Hard hits get hits [i.e. page views]. It’s the critical equivalent of slowing down at a crash site. Because a great critic going full-pelt, venting his or her vitriol on to the page, is a thing of real beauty. Dark, splenetic, grisly beauty, but beauty nonetheless.” (He thinks hatchet jobs are good for theatre, too.)
The Art Of Stage Makeup, By The Makeup Designer For The Musical About Makeup Moguls
Angelina Avallone (War Paint) explains it all to (and tries out some of it on) the previously clueless Kurt Andersen. (audio)
British Parliamentary Inquiry: UK Theatre Has An Affluence Problem
The report, published following the inquiry into Skills in the Theatre Industry, revealed that the number of performers, directors and writers from more affluent background and the underrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic theatre workers continues to be a major concern for the industry.
This Year’s Tony Nominations Rewarded Risk-Taking
The “Hamilton” effect hasn’t transformed Broadway into a multicultural model kingdom, but there does seem to be more of a sense after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s improbable hip-hop juggernaut about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton that long shots with creative ingenuity and passionate conviction are worth the investment.
Ben Brantley And Jesse Green Talk Tony Noms
Brantley (speaking from London): “As might have been predicted, angry crowds have already gathered in Trafalgar Square to protest the snubbing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, further straining already frayed Anglo-American relations.”
‘Hamilton’ Is A More Effective Show Now That Obama Has Left Office, Says Critic
Alyssa Rosenberg: “There’s no question that Hamilton is indelibly associated with the Obama administration.” (Lin-Manuel Miranda gave one of the first public performances of any portion of the show at the White House in 2009.) “But frankly, it was a relief to see [it] with some distance from the Obama era.”
2017 Tony Award Nominations: The Complete List
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 leads the pack with 12 nominations, edging out Hello, Dolly!, which received 10.
Peter Marks: Are Americans Too Lazy To Appreciate Shakespeare?
“In our age, the canon of classical works to which audiences are exposed shrinks by the year. Oh, the old favorites aren’t going anywhere. Romeos and Hamlets will continue to wax poetic before our eyes — although, methinks, in smaller and smaller venues — and costume shops will be backed up into the future with orders for Macbeth’s tunics and Desdemona’s nightgowns. Yet the fact that many theater companies seem to believe they can fulfill their classical mandates with only the most widely known plays, or worse, sacrifice more challenging plays to the popular-entertainment demands of the box office, makes me wonder whether these are signs of a deeper problem.”
Judi Dench Decries “Laziness” Of Young Actors
She suggested that younger actors were not curious. “It is not laziness, it is just non-curiosity. I think it is terribly important to know that whole history of theatre we have, why you’re in it, what people did before, the lives of actors.”