Category: theatre

When 59-year-old Bennett Bradley “didn’t show up to lead a 5 p.m. rehearsal of the Fountain [Theatre]’s West Coast premiere of ‘The Ballad of Emmett Till,’ the show’s stage manager went to his home and found his body, said Stephen Sachs, the company’s co-artistic director.”

Last year, the San Francisco theatre “cut its budget by approximately $1.5 million … and eliminated three high-level positions, including its associate artistic director.” But “ACT said today that it has established its first-ever endowment — the result of a five-year effort,” which “has raised close to $31 million.”

“The Jewish Theater of New York announced Monday that anyone on food stamps or Medicaid can see its upcoming production for just $5. Full price tickets are $50.”

“You eventually come to a truth about the nature of what Broadway has become: a venue not merely for solid nights of theater, but one-of-a-kind entertainment “events” — some more deserving of that distinction than others. In that sense, “Ragtime” was behind the times. New York did not deem it to be an event.”

“Last year, Cirque du Soleil’s founder, Guy Laliberté, was flying high – literally – making headlines around the world for his trip into space. But as the calendar flips over, the stilt-walking entertainment executive is coming back down to earth, and hard.”

“It seems curmudgeonly — and too easy — to dismiss celebrity-driven productions on Broadway. They inspire people to keep buying increasingly expensive tickets, even in a recession, and they allow an institution too often perceived as culturally marginal these days to bask in an international spotlight from time to time.”

Karl Malden, Natasha Richardson, Dom DeLuise, Larry Gelbart and Bea Arthur in their own words.

The 2009 Stage 100 list in full.

“Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire, joint chief executives of Ambassador Theatre Group, have topped this year’s Stage 100, beating competition from both Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber.” Their rise in ranking “follows ATG’s acquisition, earlier this year, of Live Nation’s UK theatres, which they purchased for £90 million.”

“Such tales may be old hat for audiences in New York, but they are still new in Ireland. These scenes, based on the true stories of older Irish men willing to flout tradition by frankly discussing their homosexuality, form the spine of Silver Stars,” which runs briefly at the Public Theater in New York next month.