Cherry Jones went onstage with a banana peel stuck to her dress. A sick Jefferson Mays threw up onstage and the director asked him to keep it in. John Leguizamo had to improvise after a propmaster forgot a key prop, only to have Ben Brantley scolded him in print for not knowing his lines.
Category: theatre
I Had Repeated Psychotic Breaks Onstage At The Royal Shakespeare Co.
Mark Lockyer writes about the horrific experience of developing bipolar disorder (and self-medicating with alcohol) while playing Mercutio in a run of Romeo and Juliet at Stratford in 1995.
Arena Stage Launches Program To Develop 25 New Shows About Politics And Power (Oddly, That’s A Rarity In D.C.)
“Although the notion may sound like a no-brainer – presenting plays in Washington about the effect of decisions reached in the White House or on Capitol Hill – in actuality, there has long been a reluctance on the parts of many theaters here to concentrate too much on political topics.” Now the District’s leading resident theater is aiming to change that.
How An East Village Funhouse Became A Show Business Empire: The Blue Man Group At 25
“They are bald, blue and earless. They do not talk. They play with their food (and their paint), perform wild music on instruments of their own devising and are the centerpiece of an international entertainment empire with 550 full- and part-time employees and annual revenues of $100 million. But perhaps the most striking thing about the men of Blue Man Group … is how comprehensively they have moved from the fringes to the mainstream, and beyond.
Off-Broadway’s New Latino Theater Project In Action
In May, Jacob Padrón launched The Sol Project to help develop Latino/a theater artists and get their work produced at major Off-Broadway and regional companies. Laura Collins-Hughes looks at how, now that it’s up and running (the first of Sol’s 12 plays is already in previews), the Project works.
Jury Finds Creators Of ‘Jersey Boys’ Guilty Of Copyright Infringement
The verdict is that the musical’s creators used, without permission, substantial portions of an unpublished autobiography by Tommy DeVito, a founding member of the group The Four Seasons. The jury held that 10% of the show’s success is attributed to the unauthorized material – which could lead to a big cash award to DeVito’s widow.
Claim: Theatre Is A Refuge In An Age Of Social Media And Divisive Politics
“It’s an imaginative, empathetic exercise, and we could probably all do with a little bit of that. Particularly in this time of social media and polarisation and fake news stories and who we choose to follow making us more extreme. We’re growing further apart. Here is one of the few places we actually have a communal, social experience. Now, more than ever, theatre has not just a possible role but an obligation to preserve these pockets of unmediated, unpoliticised, social, communal, empathetic works.”
A Week Post-Pence, “Hamilton” Sets New Record For Broadway Box Office
The show grossed $3.3 million in the week. “It is not clear how many seats “Hamilton” sold for a $998 box office price, but the show’s high average paid admission last week — $303, which is also a Broadway record — suggests that a substantial number of seats were sold for a premium ( these are the official box office prices — many people pay more buying tickets from resellers).”
Why Are Costume Designers Shafted When It Comes To Representation – And Money?
Basically: “Given our gendered views on who makes clothing and how much their time is worth, it is telling that in the female dominated, garment-based field of costume design, designers are expected to act not only as designer, but also (still) as laborer.”
London Blackout Hits West End Theatres
The electrical outage was almost perfectly times to disrupt theatre performances Friday night. The power went out just after 7 PM and didn’t go back on until after 9.