Category: theatre

Hytner is the widely acclaimed director of the National Theatre. “Any further cuts would be a disaster, he argues. Not for the National Theatre (or the Royal Opera House, or the British Museum), whose privileged status and ability to raise private funds shelter them, but for the majority of other orchestras, galleries and theatres, especially those outside London.”

“Foundations, corporations and civic sources have pitched in to aid a company known for developing fine actors and producing gold-standard versions of August Wilson plays.”

“Mark Forstater, the film producer behind Monty Python and the Holy Grail has launched a High Court claim that he is the ‘seventh Python’ and entitled to royalties from the Broadway and West End stage musical spin-off, Spamalot.“

“London’s the O2 is looking to expand its programming beyond live music and establish itself as an entertainment destination similar to the Southbank Centre … And the O2’s chiefs have said they will even consider creating a permanent theatre to stage everything from seasonal shows to straight plays.”

“What makes a great stage actor? As a competition to find Britain’s best am-dram society gets under way, old hands Roger Allam, Miriam Margolyes and others offer a few words of advice.”

“Ousted Toronto theatre director Ken Gass has unveiled plans for relaunching his long-dormant Canadian Rep Theatre with productions of plays pulled from the Factory Theatre during a boycott.”

Nicholas Nickleby, The Mahabharata, Angels in America, Gatz – “[M]arathon plays, at their most effective, require an act of sustained imaginative commitment that can turn an audience of disparate individuals into a pop-up community, forging a bond that endures far longer than the walk back to the parking lot.”

“I’ve always sipped something when writing lyrics, because it’s the words that are difficult. Writing music is hard, too, but you can always just sit at a piano and move your fingers around the keys – even if you’re not writing, you feel like you are. Lyric-writing is all sweat.”

“The venue is intended to be the most complete recreation yet of an indoor Jacobean theatre.”

“The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, released data Monday that showed most shows roared back from a post-Superstorm Sandy listlessness, pulling in $27,019,880 for the week ending Sunday, far better than the $20,881,272 earned during the seven-day period before.”