Category: theatre

“Some fear that if Baltimore were to go for too long without performances of an international flavor, such as regular visits from Dutch avant-garde dance theaters and Singaporean performance artists, it would become a duller, less cosmopolitan city.”

“Gina Young, the author of the play, said that the company told her they had problems with the title of the piece” – Tales of a Fourth-Grade Lesbo. “Performances that would have taken place at the Carrie Hamilton Theatre – the company’s approximately 90-seat space – have been called off.”

“Juxtaposing Britain’s past with its present was a recurring theme, and at times it felt like the ceremony had just dumped out an eccentric relative’s junk drawer, piling up references in a manner determined not to omit anything that would communicate ‘Britishness’ to the world.”

“Most actors would hesitate before broadcasting negative opinions about shows they see to the world at large (not least because they might be employed tomorrow by the people they’re slagging off today) but is it hypocritical to pretend that a show’s hunky-dory when it isn’t? Is it time everyone in theatre was more straightforward with each other? Or should actors and directors keep honest feedback for the rehearsal room?”

“‘Why believe me? I’m a noted fabulist,’ says Mike Daisey, his honeyed voice all but dripping with sarcasm, eyes glinting with challenge. The audience at the Woolly Mammoth Theater … chuckles in sympathy.”

Andrew Hadfield: “Until the end of the 17th century, Jonson was generally regarded as the greatest dramatist in English, but since then he has not received his due. A heavy man, he did not wear his learning lightly, and suffered as a result, being seen as a pedantic, over-stuffed author. But he is a delight to see on stage or to read. He is clever, lucid, rude and very funny – much funnier than Shakespeare, in fact.”

The stadium show How to Train Your Dragon “is a big, brassy live version of the popular 2010 film based on Cressida Cowell’s books. Backed by DreamWorks with what must have been enough money to buy a small country, it features 23 lifelike dragons that stomp around, blow smoke and fly, all quite convincingly.”

Following the first preview performance of Sondheim’s Into the Woods in Central Park, actress Morgan James (of the recently-closed Boradway revival of Godspell) tweeted, “HOW can you **** up Into the Woods?? I fear musicianship is dead in musical theatre. And acting, for that matter. #horrified.” Big mistake.

Playwright Simon Stephens and author Mark Haddon talk about the challenges of adapting The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

“Ideally, art should reflect a demographic inclusiveness. But artists must be allowed to pursue their own visions free of political pressures. If the chief goal of creativity is to correct societal disparities, the work will be parochial at best, propagandist at worst.”