Category: theatre

“While the newest generation of female playwrights is not following a well-beaten path, at least it’s not a journey without maps. Women have led the way for some time in fusing the political with the personal, falling neither into the “art for art’s sake” fallacy nor the “agitprop” fallacy, so succinctly outlined by Ferdinand Mount in the Guardian a few weeks ago.”

“In dumping the press, the Tony brains have eliminated the only voting group with no axe to grind beyond personal quirks and taste. The 700 other voters are the producers themselves and members of the various Broadway unions — people who can generally be counted on to vote for their own shows (or ones their friends are in).”

“Many critics have managed to write well about the arts while keeping their creative maidenheads intact. But most of the best ones — including [Kenneth] Tynan himself — have had at least some professional experience in at least one of the art forms about which they write.”

This past season, UK actors cleaned up on Broadway. “Now British theater is readying a new attempt to conquer Broadway–with an arsenal that includes Jude Law, Stephen Sondheim and a crew of animal puppets.”

“Live Nation has officially signalled its intention to offload its portfolio of UK theatres. That portfolio includes two major West End musical houses (the Lyceum and Apollo Victoria), a one-third stake in the Dominion, and some 14 regional houses, including major theatres in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Oxford.” Whoever buys them will buy — or, likely, expand — a power base as well.

Some critics interpreted the decision “as a slap in the face that further marginalizes their standing in the Gotham theater community” and scoffed at the notion that they had “a greater conflict of interest than the producers, presenters and promoters who have vested financial and personal interests in the shows on which they work.”

“Producers are bracing themselves to face a ‘catastrophic’ series of school theatre trip cancellations, due to government guidelines that will make it significantly more expensive for colleges to organise days out for pupils.”

“What is it that makes people queue overnight for a cultural event? I suspect it’s a performer rather than a production. … But I refuse to engage in tut-tutting disapproval. Sure, young people are drawn in their cohorts to see stars made famous by film or TV. But what’s wrong with that?”

“[T]he Tony Management Committee announced Tuesday evening that about 100 theater critics and journalists – about one-eighth of all Tony voters – will no longer be eligible to vote in the competition for Broadway’s most prestigious honor.”

“In an unusual move for a Broadway show, the producers of the musical ‘Hair’ announced on Monday that they were canceling the Sunday matinee on Oct. 11 so that the cast could join the National Equality March that day in Washington in support of gay-marriage rights. Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, a producer of ‘Hair,’ said that the decision reflected the spirit of the musical.”