Category: theatre

“The highly anticipated revival of Funny Girl that was set to open in early 2012 at the Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. before transferring to Broadway in April has been put on indefinite hold … The culprit, it appears, is the weak economic climate that has made it difficult to raise money for the show.”

Taymor, who was fired – after a famously troubled and expensive tenure – from the director’s chair at the musical she co-created, “has received a show of support from the organizers of the Tony Awards.” She, and not her replacement, “is eligible for consideration in the best director for a musical category.”

“They’re churches. They’re places where you come along and you evoke anxieties and you deal with them together. That’s what they’re for.”

“The world premiere of Edward Albee’s new play has been indefinitely postponed, it has emerged. Laying an Egg had been due to open in February at the new Signature Centre in New York, but will now feature in a later season instead.” No reason for the delay was given.

“Rod Tinson, whose Hallowe’en play was due to be staged at Pendennis Castle in Falmouth, Cornwall, … said English Heritage asked him to tone down parts of the script, including a young Jewish character expressing fears about his family in occupied Poland, over concerns that visitors would be ‘offended’ by the material.”

“For the last few decades it looked – with a handful of exceptions, such as Dundee Rep – as if the old rep system was pretty much on the way out. But with the introduction of ‘mini-rep’, things seem to be changing.”

“[U]nless something goes terribly wrong (or unless what you’re watching is a lions v Christians gladiatorial spectacle), performers don’t generally die when their characters do. What usually happens is an actor’s attempt to feign death disrupts the theatrical illusion, reminding us that what we’re seeing is only fiction.”

A badly miscast actor sinks an otherwise excellent production. Should a critic criticize the performer or the misguided director who cast him?

“The theatre profession are a hugely superstitious bunch, especially where employment is concerned. Old traditions involve actors never cleaning out their makeup box (in case they never need it again), and, if they find a thread, winding it around a finger in hope of securing a lengthy contract.” And that’s just the start …

The comedy-improv group, which has earned a reputation as a training ground for future Saturday Night Live stars, has opened a new stage in New York’s East Village. UCB already has a Los Angeles outpost as well as its flagship house on West 26th Street in Manhattan.