“So far, only two of the four top-nominated shows” – Kinky Boots and Pippin have seen an uptick in ticket sales,” with Matilda‘s receipts actually dipping slightly. (On the other hand, Bette Midler’s one-woman show I’ll Eat You Last, snubbed by Tony, saw a 17% increase in income.)
Category: theatre
Helen Mirren Wants To Make Up With Youths She Yelled At Outside Theatre
“I would love to track them down and invite them to see the play. I felt rotten but on the other hand they were destroying our performance so something had to be done.”
Why Pulitzer Winner Ayad Akhtar Wrote Disgraced
“I was at a dinner party in 2006 with some friends and talk turned to Islam and a couple of European friends were there … who I don’t think had identified me as Muslim, at least not in any operative sense. And I noticed in a very subtle way how that evening shifted their idea of me and it always – after that night, it always struck me that this would be a great idea for a play.”
Helen Mirren (Dressed As Queen Elizabeth) Storms Outside Theatre And Tells Crowd To…
“I went outside,” she said, laughing, “dressed as the Queen – and told them, not too politely, to ‘go away’ as they were spoiling the play.” Twitter fans have reported she really wasn’t too polite. In fact, they’ve tweeted she was most forthright. With a capital ‘F’, apparently. True or not, there was no more drumming.”
At Lortel Awards, ‘Piano Lesson’ and ‘Whale’ Turn Up Winners
“‘The Piano Lesson’ won the most awards in competition — four — for outstanding revival, director (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), lead actress (Roslyn Ruff) and featured actor (Chuck Cooper).”
Broadway Producer Snipes At NYTimes Theatre Reporter In Ad
“The quote is a direct response to Times theater reporter Patrick Healy’s Q&A that ran on Wednesday May 1 with Irish author and playwright Colm Toibin, who wrote Testament as both a critically lauded novella and a theatrical monologue.”
Broadway Spat Over Non-Union Actors
“This is the second time the Wing and the League have promoted a non-union show. Last year, in a stunning display of bad taste, a scene from a tacky-looking cruise-ship production of “Hairspray” was broadcast on the Tonys. Equity protested because cruise ships are not required to use union actors.”
Mariinsky Unveils Gleaming New Theatre
“The new building sits beside the historic 19th-Century Mariinsky Theatre, the birthplace of ballets such as Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. At $700m (£450.5m), it has divided opinion, with some criticising the modernist architecture and cost.”
Surreptitious Theater In The NY Public Library Reading Room
“For three pairs of readers scattered among the laptop-laden tables, wearing special headphones hooked up to iPod Nanos and shuffling through a pile of suspiciously literary books, the act of reading was transformed into a strange – and sometimes very loud – drama of turning pages, pointing fingers and eerily drifting thoughts.”
How The Old Vic Is Incubating New Theatre
Old Vic New Voices director Steve Winter writes about the simple but crucial ways – including age-blind grants and a focus on process rather than outcome – his programme helps theatre artists and projects to develop.