Category: theatre

“So let me get this straight: In Colorado, where we’re now dispensing legal medical marijuana on just about every street corner, it remains a criminal offense to light up a fake cigarette on a stage.”

Without playing even a single performance, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” is already the stuff of Broadway infamy. It’s poised — should it ever open — to be the most expensive flop in theater history.

“My view has always been that we need more critical voices, and that the web offers the space for those voices to be heard and to develop. It has already helped open up theatre criticism considerably, and for the better; perhaps it won’t be long before we have the equivalent of Matt Trueman, Alison Croggon or the West End Whingers in every city and region, alongside professional reviewers.”

The Public Theater and the Dramatists Guild have reached a new agreement on subsidiary rights, which will allow playwrights to keep a larger portion of the royalties generated by their work.

Modern Japanese cinema, literature and dance (notably butoh) are familiar to culture lovers the world over. “But contemporary Japanese theater remains by and large terra incognita. … That is beginning to change with the translation into English and other languages of recent works by … the playwright and director Shu Matsui.”

The Bavarian town’s “current production might seem jarring to the originators of [the 400-year-old tradition], let alone those whose knowledge comes only from Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. With a revised text and new direction, the play has shifted from emphasizing Jesus’ suffering – and those responsible for it – toward focusing on his life and deeds.”

“The founding director of Santa Monica College’s new Public Policy Institute wants to get people engaged and educated about government decisions that affect their lives – a subject many find eye-glazing. So [Sheila] Kuehl has decided to enliven things by using show tunes to help get the message across.”

“The American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents dancers and singers at companies including New York City Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera, is attempting to wrest jurisdiction over performers in many Broadway musicals from Actors’ Equity Association.” AGMA wants “jurisdiction over any musical in which two-thirds of the performers sing and dance, but do not speak lines.”

“The sets of four new [Off-Broadway] shows – That Face; This Wide Night; The Metal Children; and Oliver Parker! – look like something out of an episode of TV’s Hoarders. … The set designers of all four shows recently spoke about their inspirations and the meticulous work it takes to get a set to look perfectly grubby.”

“Leaving is about the leader of an unspecified country who steps down after many years in power, but Havel insists it’s not autobiographical. He began writing the play in the 1980s, long before the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. … A neighbor saved an early draft.”