Category: theatre

Audrey Tautou, star of Amélie, is making her stage debut as Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; Isabelle Huppert is acting up a storm as Blanche in a controversial adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire; Leslie Caron is featured in a brief run of A Little Night Music; even soccer-star-turned-movie-actor Eric Cantona has turned up in a play.

A musical theater adaptation of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the 1988 comedy that made filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar world-famous, will be a centerpiece of Lincoln Center Theater’s 2010-11 season. Director Bartlett Sher and Almodóvar have been developing the piece in workshops for over a year.

“In addition to its traditional season subscriptions and individual ticket sales, ACT launched a membership program. For $25 a month, members can see anything at ACT, as often as they like.”

South Coast Rep “associate artistic director John Glore became intrigued with the story of a pair of children who travel through time to save their father, after his then-9-year-old daughter made a shoe box diorama of a scene in which Meg finds her father imprisoned in a cell by the dreaded ‘it.'”

Brantley: “What I’m wondering is if it’s possible for the theater to be truly topical in a culture of instant satire, when this morning’s headlines have by midday been digested and regurgitated all over the Web.” Isherwood: “By the time a ‘topical’ play has been developed and workshopped and tried out in a regional theater, say, the point it addresses may have gone stale.”

Michael Billington goes over the qualities one needs to do the job properly. “First, the ability to write. It sounds banal, but it’s no use having a knowledge of drama from Aeschylus to Zuckmayer unless you can string a sentence together and propel the reader forwards. I’d even hazard that readability matters more than reliability.” (There’s more, of course.)

“The feud, which could end up in court, is over control of the rights to Fisher’s autobiographical one-woman show, which recently ended a critically acclaimed run at Studio 54. Because it was a hit in New York, ‘Wishful Drinking’ is in demand around the world, potentially bringing in a few million dollars.”

“South of 42nd Street in Manhattan, the bright lights of Broadway start to fade and give way to the trimmings shops, fabric stores and designers’ ateliers of the garment district. But in recent years, much of the clothing trade has moved overseas, leaving vacant factory spaces that have lured growing numbers of theater and arts groups to the area.”

“Peaches’ ‘stripped-down’ performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar has been ‘crucified before opening night’, the electro-rapper declared yesterday. The concert, which was to take place at Berlin’s Hebbel theatre, was cancelled after German rights-holders allegedly refused to license the songs.”

“Broadway box offices rebounded robustly last week after three weeks of modest ticket sales during the traditional mid-winter chill for plays and musicals. Over all, Broadway productions grossed $15.8 million last week, up from $12.9 million the previous week and the highest total since mid-January.”