“When Jim Barrie took the original show to theatre he had to give stagehands more time to switch scenery. He created a scene that could be performed at the front of the stage. This scene featured a pirate ship and Captain Hook. The role soon expanded and the rest is history.”
Category: theatre
Edmonton Theatre Cancels Production Of “Othello” After Outcry
“Listen, I love it when directors and actors make bold choices with Shakespeare, or play against him – and a lot of innovation begins in university or amateur theatres. But there’s a difference between subversive takes and regressive ones.”
Are There Plays That Should No Longer Be Produced? (And How To Decide?)
“Just as we need to produce more women, LGBTQIA artists, and people of color (that is to say, more people who aren’t straight white men), we need to consider what plays should no longer be produced. This is not about political correctness. This is not about censorship. This is drawing a moral line that defines what is in and out of bounds in our culture.”
Trying Desperately To Outwit The High-Tech Scalpers Of Harry Potter And Hamilton
Though both shows are making tons of money in their home theaters, they’re trying new things as Hamilton preps for its London opening and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for New York. “‘I’ve been in the business 50 years, and I’ve lived through lots of scalping,’ said Cameron Mackintosh, producer of Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. ‘It’s just got far, far more sophisticated, because of automation’s creeping stranglehold on human beings.'”
Limited-Run Musicals On Broadway: A New Business Model?
Limited-run plays have become standard on Broadway these days, but musicals tend to keep their runs open-ended for as long as the tourists keep coming. So it’s unusual that there are two limited-run musicals on Broadway right now (Sunset Boulevard and Sunday in the Park With George), following another (Falsettos) earlier in the season. Howard Sherman looks at why this phenomenon has developed and whether it can work financially.
Rajiv Joseph Wins $25K Horton Foote Playwriting Award
The author of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and Guards at the Taj will receive the prize at the end of this month. The award from the Dramatists Guild of America was launched just last year, with Stephen Karam (The Humans) the winner.
Lessons In The Power Of Diversity From A Portland Theatre
“There are, unsurprisingly, literally hundreds and hundreds of contemporary writers of color whose plays will move, engage, titillate, outrage, and delight audiences.”
Broadway Is Finally Addressing Its Bathroom Problem
“Theater owners, confronted day after day by long lines of women (and, sometimes, men) clogging lobbies and snaking down stairwells while nervously waiting for an available bathroom, are excavating, annexing, converting and renovating their buildings to remedy the chronic inconvenience. The biggest landlords are also retraining ushers, experimenting with new methods of crowd control, and even reversing the genders on restrooms.”
How Dael Orlandersmith Built A One-Woman Show About Ferguson, Mo.
Rosalind Early reports on how the Repertory Theater of St. Louis sent the playwright-performer on a “listening tour” and how her work there is and is not like that of Anna Deavere Smith.
‘Lurid Gimmicks’: How Lillian Hellman Achieved Success And Fell Short Of Greatness
“She imagined herself a woman of stern integrity: a playwright who would speak truth to audiences who would pay attention because the magic of the theatre would draw them in. But to attract audiences, she resorted to the kinds of tactics that could make critics shudder.” Alice Kessler-Harris looks at where Hellman pulled the balancing act off and where (and why) she failed.