Michel Houellebecq’s “Elementary Particles “has nothing to do with Islam. But that didn’t stop [Dubrovnik] Festival organizers from removing it from the lineup when an analysis carried out by the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency said it represented a serious security risk.” Well, they’ve changed their minds.
Category: theatre
Investing In Broadway – A Fun Way To Lose Money
Broadway producers may use the Internet for all sorts of things, but rarely for raising money. Shows are financed pretty much the same way they were 50 years ago, face to face and on the phone.
The ‘Casting Couch’ Is Still A Problem – And It Seems To Be Getting Worse
“The exploitation of actresses – and actors – is not confined to Hollywood. Equity, the UK actors’ union, is receiving ever more complaints and has established a working party to investigate and draw up a set of industry guidelines.”
UK Refuses Visa To Georgian Theatre Company
Manchester’s Flare festival invited The New Collective, a young group based in Tbilisi, to perform next month. “But the British authorities are so concerned that this young collective will want to migrate to the UK that their visa application has been refused.”
Is Live Theatre Anachronistic In Today’s Mobile Always-On World?
“Think about it: we (mostly) ask our audiences to commute to a particular location, step into a dark building, shut off all access to the outside world, be quiet, and not disturb us as we attempt (not always with success) to transport them to the world of a play that is—to hit on another tired trope —a reflection of the world we have asked them to ignore.”
Sheesh, The Stuff Ya Gotta Do When You Get A Tony Nomination
“The week of the Drama Leagues is the peak of what publicist Chris Boneau calls ‘the month of hate,’ a post-nomination frenzy leading up to the Tonys on June 7.” Here’s (just) some of what the nominees have to do during “the month of hate” – even as they keep performing eight shows a week.
The Top Ten Musicals Of All Time (As Chosen By A Brit Critic)
Mark Shenton of The Stage selects some no-brainers (Sweeney Todd, A Chorus Line), some head-scratchers (Pippin?), some obscure-to-Yanks titles (what’s The Hired Man?), and some appalling omissions (where are West Side Story and Gypsy??).
Can A New App Bring Young People To Broadway?
There’s certainly a market opportunity. The global theater industry generates tens of billions of dollars in revenue each year. That puts theater in comparable territory to the global film industry, which according to the MPAA made $36.4 billion in revenue in 2014. Yet approximately twenty percent of tickets go unsold on Broadway, and about thirty percent go unsold in London’s West End, TodayTix says.
Broadway Has Been Taken Over By The Brits (Again!)
“Broadway Anglophilia is certainly not a new phenomenon. With its august tradition of theatrical excellence, Britain has long been exporting its top-tier thespians to our shores, and this talent has cultivated a taste for language tautly delivered and wit served extra dry. Yet the current wave of British stars stands apart from previous generations.”
‘Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time’, ‘Hamilton’ Win Big At 2015 Drama Desk Awards
“Off Broadway hit Hamilton and Tony contender The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time topped the 2015 Drama Desk Awards, with Hamilton taking seven awards including the title for new musical, and Curious Incident claiming six including the award for outstanding play. Broadway musical An American in Paris, one of the frontrunners in the Tony race with a dozen nominations, danced away with four trophies.”