Category: theatre

“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, an Iraq War play by Rajiv Joseph that had an acclaimed production in Los Angeles, may come to Broadway in the spring with Robin Williams in the title role.”

“Now turned 128, the Cambridge Greek Play has set root in the British stage as a quirky but hardy triennial,” and this year’s staging of Aeschylus sold out. “If you don’t speak the lingo, it’s the soundworld of ancient Greek – awash with strange noises and rhythmic tides – that strikes you.”

“Wagging his finger at me, he said– exact words– ‘No review from you.’ Then he spent five minutes berating both of us about our past reviews of his company. Waving his arm toward the now-empty stage, he wailed, ‘Why would you want to harm them?’ “

“The premature exit is a blow to Broadway in Chicago’s long-running campaign to establish Chicago as a city that can support extended runs.”

“Each episode features industry guests–working actors, directors, writers, casting directors, producers, and agents–who talk about their experiences. The lineup so far includes director Mark Waters, actor Anna Vocino, agent Louise Ward, and actor-producer Mark Gantt.”

“Has there ever been a new Broadway musical facing a more daunting checklist of challenges than The Scottsboro Boys, which dares to set an infamous 1930s Alabama rape trial to music?” And enacts the story as a minstrel show. Yet songwriters Kander & Ebb and director Susan Stroman insist that the show isn’t a downer.

Says the director of Cheek by Jowl, “we put absolutely nothing in front of [the actors] … [They] sort of invent things, and then I ask them to do things in very different ways … and bit by bit, how we do it emerges … We work in such a way that we tailor the play to the actors we have.”

“Mary McColl has been named the new executive director of Actors’ Equity Association. McColl comes to the stage actors’ union from the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis, where she was executive director.”

“The Theaters at 45 Bleecker Street, one of New York’s diminishing number of commercial Off Broadway spaces, has closed indefinitely due to litigation between the theater producers and their landlord,” and the shows running in the house have been cancelled.

Passengers on “The Ride” – a tour bus with floor-to-ceiling windows and nightclub-style audio – tool through Manhattan, encountering such (pre-arranged) sights as a businessman breaking into tap dance, a juggler tossing hot dogs, and a ballerina in a glowing tutu dancing around Columbus Circle.