Category: theatre

“Like so much else about Spider-Man, there is no historical precedent for a Broadway show that runs for months without opening and then closes temporarily to excise much of the original director’s concept.”

“Just as the Odéon is basks in critical acclaim and its most impressive box office figures in decades, its flamboyant young head, the writer-director Olivier Py, has been unexpectedly sacked by the government” and replaced by veteran director Luc Bondy.

Charles Isherwood: “Are we entering an age when being able to sing to a high standard is no longer a requirement for making appearances in even first-class musical theater productions? The unhappy answer is probably yes” – especially because of the perceived need to cast movie or TV stars with wide name recognition.

By some measures, Jean-Luc Choplin’s gamble at the Chatelet Theatre has succeeded. He has increased both the annual number of productions, and the audience. Ticket sales have gone to almost 300,000 in the 2009/2010 season from about 180,000 a year before he arrived. Still, the criticism has on occasion been scathing.

Theresa Rebeck’s O Beautiful, about to premiere in Delaware, is “a satirical look at the politics of the Tea Party, Glenn Beck and the failed Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, as dramatized through [an] abortion story.” The plot also deals with “suicide, date rape, gun rights, the founding fathers and … Jesus Christ,” who appears onstage.

“The festival’s founding artistic director, Ken Pinto, said this week the Halifax-based event will resume in 2013 after he completes his stint as executive director for activities commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in April 2012.”

“A theatre in north-west London which has spent the past two years stirring critics with challenging productions could be forced to close – not because of a lack of funding or meagre audiences, but because the height of the steps on its Victorian staircases do not match strict council regulations.”

Jonny Lee Miller: “To be able to stand back during rehearsals … and watch another actor do the work you’ve just been working on … it’s fascinating, because you get to see things that you think are working, and things that aren’t working.” Benedict Cumberbatch: “It just keeps everything fresh, it keeps people on their toes.”

“During the winter of 2006, Alecky Blythe was in a brothel in Bournemouth, interviewing prostitutes for a new play she was creating called The Girlfriend Experience, when a horrifying story began to unfold on the news. Police in Ipswich were searching for a serial killer after discovering the bodies of five murdered women.”

“The Montreal theatre company where he was to perform in 2012 announced Friday that Mr. Cantat, who was paroled in 2007 after serving four years for the fatal beating of his girlfriend in 2003, has withdrawn from all Canadian performances of an adaptation of Sophocles’s plays about women.”