Category: theatre

“Broadway productions grossed a total of $1.02 billion during the 2009-10 season, which officially ended on Sunday, with premium-price tickets for star-driven shows like A Steady Rain, Hamlet and A Little Night Music increasing box office sales in spite of a 3 percent decline in attendance compared to the 2008-09 season.”

“Over the last decade, Singaporean audiences have been treated to regular revivals of Broadway or West End musicals, like Phantom of the Opera and Mamma Mia, and as their appetite for the Western art form grew, it encouraged a few local theater troupes to produce their own” original musicals. Until recently, these shows were in English, but Chinese-language musicals are now attracting enthusiastic viewers.

Matt Trueman: “[It] has become a hotbed of half-hearted approximation – a culture in which making do, will do. Time and again, I find myself watching a production that is a shadow of the show it wants to be. Props and furnishings stand in not for their fictional counterparts, but rather for the props and furnishings that would have been bought had the funds been available.” (Same for actors.)

“Liza Minnelli and Edward Albee also issued statements. Minnelli remembered [longtime AP theatre critic Michael] Kuchwara as an artistic and thoughtful man who took pride in his work. Albee called the loss of such ‘an intelligent and perceptive critic … an especially sad note.'”

Sparked by an e-mail from Theresa Rebeck, the Lillian Hellman Awards for Outstanding Achievement by Women in the Theater — a.k.a. the Lilly Awards — came into existence this month after “not only the Tonys but several of the other season-end awards orgs honoring Broadway and Off Broadway had once again cited very few female theater artists … for their contributions.”

Well on its way to building “a new open stage auditorium for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, better facilities for performers and audiences, a rooftop restaurant and a riverside café and walkway,” the Royal Shakespeare Company finds itself a little short of cash. So cast members are hitting up audiences.

“Two years ago, before the last presidential election, I interviewed people living and working in Phoenix and at the Arizona-Mexico border, and much of what I heard then echoes strongly in the debate over the Arizona law. Even then, as I sat at office desks, or in living rooms, or outside at picnic tables, the words were dramatic.”

“Clearly, Broadway ticket-buyers are ignoring the Tonys and crix. For example, the Tony-nommed “Next Fall” is the lowest-grossing show on Broadway, despite what are arguably the best reviews for a new play. And it’s possible that all the publicity over Sean Hayes’ perf benefited “Promises” more than if it had received a Tony nom for best musical revival.”

“The total attendance of 142,606 was down more than 25,000 from 2008-09. But the theater company produced two fewer shows than the year before. Artistic director Kent Thompson is just glad it wasn’t worse.”

“If you take a look at this past season on Broadway, it may look as though the musical is waning. Only two shows opened with original scores; the rest were so-called “jukebox” musicals, with music taken from other sources. But you need only look to smaller theaters, off-Broadway, for proof that the original musical is still going strong.”