Category: theatre

Wear comfortable shoes to Broadway, people. Along with “Dear Evan Hansen,” other shows “that are regularly offering standing room these days are such favorites as ‘Hamilton,’ ‘The Book of Mormon,’ ‘Beautiful,’ ‘Waitress,’ ‘Kinky Boots’ and ‘School of Rock.'”

Until now, the piece had only been referred to as “Play Without a Title, and the poet/playwright had completed the first of its planned three acts when he was murdered in the Spanish Civil War. Writer Alberto Conejero has now completed those two acts – and given the work a rather loaded title.

There’s a new minimum wage for actors at L.A.’s 99-seat theatres (a special Equity category), but theatre owners, as well as some actors, say the minimum wage threatens their work, and they want it to go away.

The powerhouse Chicago company commissioned a stage adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath in 1985, but the show didn’t open until the fall of 1988 – and didn’t make it to Broadway (via La Jolla and London) until 1990. The man who wrote the script and ended up directing it, the woman who cast it, the man who designed the production, and the woman who played Ma Joad (Lois Smith) remember how it all came together.

You want a good ticket to a play in London? Head to the box offices on September 20, when about a quarter of tickets haven’t sold just before the curtain rises.

“Wages for actors and stage managers working in subsidised repertory theatre are expected to increase by £50 per week, under what Equity is calling a ‘massively good settlement’. The union estimates that the new agreement could result in ‘at least’ an additional £1 million going into members’ pockets by 2019.”

“The musical, about an anxious adolescent whose social status improves after the suicide of a high school classmate, has benefited from strong reviews and positive word of mouth. And, in another sign that it is breaking through in a crowded theater season, it has begun attracting a stream of celebrities.”

“London fringe venue the Print Room has moved to defend itself over casting Caucasian actors in a production set in ancient China, describing the play as a ‘very English’ one. The theatre was widely criticised for its use of four Caucasian actors in a play by Howard Barker called In the Depths of Dead Love.”

Howard Sherman: “The Print Room would do well to consult with Asian artists … if they wish to remedy this situation, rather than forging forward with abstract, disingenuous excuses that fool no one who actually understands what diversity and inclusion genuinely mean.”

“The Encounter” is a one-man show—sort of—and it’s many things at once: a journey to the Amazon, a parable of time travel, a plea to secure the planet, and a head trip.