“A performance of Jean Racine’s 1677 play Phaedra at Vienna’s prestigious Burgtheater was upstaged by real-life drama late Friday, when a theatre-goer gave birth in the foyer.”
Category: theatre
Winners Of London Evening Standard Theatre Awards
“The new stars of British stage were recognised in a sweep of awards for youth led by teenage playwright Anya Reiss and former Skins actor Daniel Kaluuya.”
Facing Declining Audiences, Colorado Shakespeare Festival Reinvents
“The 54th summer season will be leaner and longer, with fewer plays with fewer actors over a more extended period of time. It will include a major collaboration with the largest theater in eastern Russia. And the biggest news of all: It will be heard. The fest is finally conceding to the times, and the will of the majority of audiences, by putting body mics on all actors on its outdoor amphitheatre stage.”
Canada’s Stratford Festival Saw Big Bump In Attendance In 2010
“The Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s box-office sales rose in three per cent 2010, with 15,000 more tickets sold than in 2009.”
Stephen Sondheim Disses His Forbears
In an excerpt from his new book Finishing the Hat, Sondheim discusses his “quibbles” with Irving Berlin, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Noël Coward, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II and even poor old W.S. Gilbert.
Why Sondheim Is Wrong to Diss His Forbears
“Nellie Forbush [in South Pacific] … is not Susan Sontag. The daffy nature of the lyric seems in keeping with the mood of the song, the girl singing it and the nonsensical guff people come up with when they’re deranged and in love.” And it’s “true that Coward is brittle and bloodless, … [but] if you can understand his accent, when he sings something not in this vein, it has more depth than a straightforward love song.”
Steppenwolf Finally Gets Albee’s Permission to Stage Virginia Woolf
“We approached Mr. Albee about this play many times,” said Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey. “Believe me, a lot of our ensemble members were very interested in doing this play.” Observed the playwright, “I can only hold a grudge for no more than 25 years.”
Why Is Musical Theatre So Hard?
“Musical theatre — a resource-heavy, expensive, collaborative venture with a demanding and complex interplay between music, lyrics and book — is a tricky beast to pull off and expensive flops are seen from even the most experienced and well-financed producers.”
Three Broadway Shows Closing Early
A play about two recently released mental patients in Norway is the latest Broadway show ending its run early, joining a David Mamet valentine to the theater and a revival staring David Hyde Pierce.
Can You Hear The New Royal Shakespeare Company Stage?
“The new, more intimate house addresses that problem brilliantly. The big test is whether it aids audibility. During the RSC’s occupation of the temporary courtyard, with a thrust stage that offers a rough prototype for the new theatre, I have received a number of readers’ letters complaining about actors not making themselves heard.”