“Take, for example, the robot KUKA – the hulking star of a French nouveau-cirque performance, Sans Objet.” KUKA isn’t an effect or scenery: it’s an actual performer, “a mysterious bulk who grows very tall, spreads himself wide and is strong enough to pick up people effortlessly and turn their bodies in the air, the way Hamlet would inspect a skull.”
Category: theatre
Sandy Costs Broadway Roughly $8.5 Million
“All told, Broadway shows lost roughly $8.5 million in ticket sales as a result of canceled performances, a calculation based on comparing box office grosses during Sandy and the equivalent period last year.”
Canada’s Richest Theatre Prize ($100K), In Its Final Year, Goes To Lighting Designer
“Montreal-based lighting designer Robert Thomson has won the 2012 Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, the largest theatre award in Canada. It is the 12th and final year for the prize, which asks winners to choose a protégé to share a prize pot of $100,000.”
Why Ibsen’s Enemy Of The People Is Relevant To American Politics
Boyd Gaines, co-star of the current Broadway staging: “There’s a line in Ibsen’s fifth act, when my character says to my father-in-law, you can’t – I can’t change the fact, and he goes yes you can, anyone can change facts.”
Madison Square Garden Disses Broadway In New Ad
In a new campaign, MSG’s advertisement reads “It’s Friday night. You can either see a Broadway harness malfunction, or you can watch real men fly.”
Peter Hall Heckles – Or ‘Heckles’ – West End Uncle Vanya
“Let’s get one thing clear. It wasn’t a ‘heckle’, which is the word the Telegraph used to headline its story about Peter Hall’s curious response to the starry Uncle Vanya, … But it was extremely loud, and it came in the play’s closing moments.”
Staging An Annie For Grown-Ups
“Director James Lapine and his cast and creative team have tried to dig the musical out from the high-gloss varnish that has been applied in thicker and thicker coats since the show premiered on Broadway 35 years ago.” Annie has ditched her bright red wig, and Miss Hannigan “comes across as more of a Eugene O’Neill washout than an outrageous lush.”
Harvey Weinstein makes A Bigger Bet On Broadway
Over the last 12 years Mr. Weinstein, one of film’s most hands-on producers, has been a largely passive investor in some 35 Broadway plays and musicals including Tony Award-winning hits like “Billy Elliot” and “The Producers.” But now he has gone all in for the first time as lead producer of a big-budget musical.
Off-Broadway Woos Back Customers With Post-Sandy Discounts
With adjusted performance schedules – and hoping to woo back exhausted or dispirited New Yorkers and tourists after Hurricane Sandy – many Off-Broadway theatres are offering discounts to those who know the code.
An African-American Theatre, Deeply Important And In Deep Trouble
“Any diminishment of Penumbra would be a tragedy, given the loss of black companies elsewhere in the country over the past few years.”