Category: theatre

“Figures vary across the board, with some shows suffering and others reporting a slight boost thanks to the games, but overall takings are estimated to be slightly down on previous summers, claims the Society of London Theatre.”

A suspect targeted Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth at the Longacre Theatre with such messages as “I’m serious, people are gonna die like Aurora”, “I know they leave their exit doors unlocked”, and “I got 600 people on my hit list and that’s gonna be a mass murder for real.” Twitter refused to release the user’s identity to the NYPD until served with a subpoena.

“Andrew Lloyd Webber has admitted he was wrong to predict a West End ‘bloodbath’ during the Olympics after figures showed takings for his theatres have risen by 25 per cent since the Games began.”

Putting on the cycle of 14th-century biblical dramas, the only set of its kind to have survived complete, had been a high point of the community’s summer since the 1950s. But until this year, the people of York hadn’t performed the plays since a big millennium production in 2000.

Annie Dorsen’s Hello Hi There “is, among other things, an attempt to ‘take the mystique out of language’ by removing the human element” and replacing it with a pair of chatbots generating dialogue. “Because each line of dialogue can be followed by numerous possible responses, there are more than 84 million ways the production can unfold, Dorsen says, referring to the new art form as ‘algorithmic theatre’.”

“Leicester’s elected mayor has described the city’s Curve theatre as ‘the most expensive and most disastrous project this city has ever seen in its history’.”

The two companies, whose styles couldn’t be more different, are playing the warring Trojans and Greeks in an upcoming Troilus and Cressida. Longtime Wooster actress Kate Valk: “It took us two weeks to read it through once. We were looking everything up and watching movie versions to remind ourselves of the characters, because we’d get so lost in it.”

“The musical Blood Brothers, which has been running in London’s West End since 1988, is to close in October after 10,000 performances – making it the third longest running West End musical.”

“While I was so proud and thrilled for him, I could also indulge in some grand moments of self-pity. Why did I choose this, of all professions, to go into when Horton Foote was my father? It never lasted very long; it couldn’t, as he was always the one I would call, and he’d remind me that over the years he’d wasted too much time comparing himself to other playwrights. Then he’d tell me: ‘Just keep writing. Keep writing.'”

“The theatre industry should take a closer look at understanding the bigger picture. Black audiences should feel included rather than targeted: Increasing the appearance of all-black casts, reevaluating the notion that black casts are only limited to traditional casting, and dismissing the mindset that Black audiences are less reluctant to go to the theatre, are all great starting points. Otherwise, the attempts at attracting Black audiences will remain at the surface.”