Category: theatre

“I could arguably say I wrote that, though what’s different about that and real composing is that I didn’t have a blank page and have to come up with something out of nothing.”

“The actors playing [big-name characters] off Off Broadway, at the Flea Theater in TriBeCa, are not famous — but they’re young, hopeful and ravenous enough about performing to do it free.”

“He has shape-shifted alongside Eric Idle on ‘Spamalot,’ John Kander on ‘The Scottsboro Boys,’ and Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Bobby Lopez on ‘Mormon,’ for which he did dance arrangements only (though that assignment included the chance to write a spiky, Metallica-inspired guitar solo for the Devil in ‘Spooky Mormon Hell Dream’).”

“Frances has done what the rest of us have been trying to do all semester: cry during a performance, a kind of truth we’ve learned can only be achieved when an actor is connected to his or her body, an idea I pretend to understand but don’t.”

“I suspect that lack of critical coverage is one reason why free is treated with suspicion. Free seldom gets reviewed.”

“What I really want is for my children to love the theater, to appreciate all their access, but have absolutely no desire to pursue it as a career.”

“Hollywood has a long record of crimes committed against Broadway shows.”

“Regional theatres are being targeted by a new live broadcasting scheme that will transmit shows from outside London to cinemas across the UK.” Organizer Quantum Digital “estimates that venues taking part in the programme could expect to earn up to £30,000 per broadcast.”

“[It’s] modulation. For Lear, the first half of the play contains four titanic temper tantrums of near bipolar intensity, and the second half tips over into dementia, bottomless grief and (spoiler alert) death. In rehearsing these opening scenes, I need to constantly remind myself how far I still have to go, like a marathoner husbanding his resources.”