“If I have a general criticism, which is true of my Shakespeare acting and most Shakespeare acting I hear, is that it’s too slow. It’s too reverent. It’s like taking a rap song in 400 years from now, that we think is really wonderful, and deciding it really should be said slowly so all the lovers of rap can hear every word.”
Category: theatre
Paris’s Hit Staging Of ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ Coming To Broadway
“The [Théâtre du] Châtelet production …, based on the 1952 movie, is directed by Robert Carsen, designed by Anthony Powell and choreographed by Stephen Mear. It faithfully reproduces the dialogue and action of the film, with its songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, and its famous splash-in-the-puddles, rain-drenched dance solo for Gene Kelly.”
Top British Theatre Awards Go To Nicole Kidman, James McAvoy
“The award for top play was picked up by Stephen Adly Guirgis’ ‘The Motherf**ker with the Hat,’ which was directed by Indhu Rubasingham. The New York-set comedy centers on a drug dealer, recently released from prison and trying to go straight, and his volatile girlfriend. The production formed part of the Rufus Norris’ first season as artistic director at the National Theater.”
The New And Fearless Generation Of Playwrights Is Bringing About A New Golden Age Of Theatre
“There’s nothing like a Tony Award for getting regional theaters interested in a new play. But I don’t think Broadway should be the ultimate goal of today’s best playwrights.”
New York Was Too Homogenous For This Artistic Director, So He Moved To Des Moines
“Soon some of the wrestling fans were coming to hear their favorite wrestlers read poetry—and in turn some of the poetry fans started going to wrestling matches to see their favorite poets wrestle. Conversations started happening between these groups of unlikely spectators, and a popular event was born.”
Broadway Is Having A Wonderfully Diverse Season … In Front Of The Curtain
But backstage is a different story. When will that change?
Please Remember To Turn On Your Cellphones After Intermission
“The most striking new development is the normalization of onstage digital communication: the number of shows in which mobile devices and social media are not the subject of comment or criticism, but simply a contemporary reality.”
The Musical For – And By – People Who Hate Musicals
“The ingredients of Futurity, a new off-Broadway show, promise a noble failure. The story crams together the bloodiness of the American civil war, the barbarity of slavery, the purity of mathematics, the promise of artificial intelligence and the wisdom of Ada Lovelace (Lord Byron’s daughter, who was an early computer scientist and a metaphysicist).”
Why One (Successful) Artistic Director Quit Her Theatre
“I realized in that moment that my craft, my artmaking and the reasons I came to theater in the first place were not present in the room anymore. What was present was worry about making payroll. And that is anathema to creativity. It started shutting down the joy of being an artmaker.”
Broadway’s “Lion King” Creates A Virtual Reality Version That Gives Viewers Control
The Disney stage blockbuster on Wednesday released 360-degree footage of its opening song “Circle of Life” that lets users look left, right, up, backstage and at the audience, even when sitting on a couch.