Category: theatre

Was The Bridge Project Worth It?

Charles Isherwood finds the three-year collaboration between the Brooklyn Academy of Music, director Sam Mendes’s Neal Street Productions, and Kevin Spacey’s Old Vic to be a praiseworthy idea. But did the results as seen on stage merit the expense and logistical trouble of getting actors from New York and London together?

Carrie‘s Creators Always Knew They Had A Good Musical In There Somewhere

Michael Gore, composer of Broadway’s most notorious flop, now re-worked and resurrected: “Had we seen a version of the show that we liked, and perhaps people didn’t like it or the critics didn’t like it, that’s one thing. But, you know, the reason we went back to this was hopefully for us to sit through this show from beginning to end and go, ‘This is what we had in mind.'”

Frank Gehry’s New Signature Theatre – A “Quietly Potent New Kind Of Space”

“For years, the Signature bounced around, renting space from the Public Theater downtown or holing up in a black box on Bond Street and then on far, far West 42nd Street. In 2004, the company was selected to be part of a revitalizing cultural mecca promised for Ground Zero. Mr. Gehry would be the architect of a new $700 million performing arts center, and the Signature would share marquee space with the Joyce Theater. But by 2007, with the whole site mired in controversy, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. decided to cut costs and disinvite the Signature, a blessing in disguise.”

L.A.’s Elephant Theatre Company, Short of Money, Goes On Hiatus

“The Elephant Theatre Company – one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood’s Theatre Row district – has suspended operations for the 2012 season due largely to financial difficulties and will undergo an internal reorganization, … Founded in the mid-’90s, the Elephant specializes in new American plays, often with edgy themes.”

Playing The Buddha Onstage

Reaching 40 with too much money and too much booze, Evan Brenner went through a midlife crisis not unlike that of Siddhartha Gautama himself. After poring through the Buddhist sutras and finding a “whirlwind” story of the prince’s life buried under all the religious teaching, Brenner decided to incarnate (as it were) Siddhartha in a solo theater piece.

Drama Critics Should Not Write Plays, Says Drama Critic

Lyn Gardner: “I tend to think that, while 30 years of sitting in the dark watching other people’s plays has taught me a great deal, one of the things it hasn’t taught me is how to write a good play. Writing reviews and recognising [sic] a great (or even promising) play are entirely different things, and I think it’s best to leave the latter to the professionals.”