Category: theatre

“‘There’s something particular about the European experience,’ [a respected director] said. I don’t think you’d quite understand.’ Thankfully, those days have largely gone, at least in the UK; audiences are quite used to seeing black actors in anything from Edwardian comedies to Victorian dramas, contemporary writing as well as revered classics.”

In the case of Let It Be, just beginning previews on Broadway, “one Beatles tribute band is in the curious position of defending itself against copyright infringement claims leveled by another Beatles tribute band.”

Rupert Christiansen: “Part of the problem is that I dislike the mainstream of modern directorial style, with its penchant for hyperactive visual sensationalism, combined with a tendency to sloppy or estuarine verse-speaking. But my doubts may go even deeper than that.”

“The Globe theatre is sending a production of Hamlet on the first genuine world tour in theatre history. Starting on 23 April 2014, the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the company will spend two years travelling by planes, trains, boats and buses to visit every nation on Earth – 205 countries in all.”

“Theatre should never be about quotas, but it is odd that people who are neighbours, family and workmates – whether of European descent, or Aboriginal, Chinese, Vietnamese or Indian – are so rarely seen on stage. A nation as multicultural as Australia – the population comprises people from 250 different ancestral backgrounds – is conspicuously monocultural in the mainstage theatre.”

“Alienation opened at Perth’s State Theatre Centre on July 2 in controversial circumstances when Philpott, who did not attend, arranged to have notes placed on audience seats that read: ‘This production does not reflect my original, scripted or communicated intentions as the playwright’.”

“The black British story isn’t always being told. It’s amazing to me as we are so diverse in this country.”

“Women have been burned out of their place in dramatic criticism by a tradition of misogyny in the field of journalism.”

Let these six images of “Venus in Fur” promos (many with thigh-high black leather boots, of course) be your guides.

“The studio said Thursday it has joined up with Tony Award-winner producer Kevin McCollum, film producer John Davis and entertainment executive Tom McGrath to develop at least nine musicals based upon the studio’s films over the next several years.”