Category: theatre

“Brevity has become an increasingly compelling selling point in today’s legit landscape, but a number of this season’s incoming productions — following the Tony-winning revival of play trilogy ‘The Norman Conquests’ — are bucking the trend and hoping auds still have an appetite for the epic.” Among the outsize events on the horizon in New York: “‘The Orphans’ Home Cycle,’ nine Horton Foote plays condensed into a three-part marathon running, yes, nine hours.”

“The Old Globe Theatre has hired the distinguished British director Adrian Noble to lead its 2010 Summer Shakespeare Festival, taking the place of Darko Tresnjak, who is leaving the theater. Noble, who was artistic director of England’s renowned Royal Shakespeare Company for nearly 13 years, will initially be on a one-year contract to direct the festival, whose 2010 edition coincides with the Globe’s 75th anniversary.”

“Early this year, the theater said it was canceling the 2009 season unless it raised $5 million. They have not raised the required money and canceled the season. They said they are not refunding season ticket deposits.”

“Playwrights and theater observers say both Obama’s election and more open theaters and audiences have helped bring more stories of black culture to the New York stage this year. Both on Broadway and off-Broadway, plays and musicals about black culture or issues of race are being praised and more productions are in the works.”

Martha’s Vineyard theatre Vineyard Playhouse is “a year-round professional stage that gives new, serious meaning to the idea of community theater. The Vineyard being the Vineyard, its community includes Tony- and Oscar-winning artists and as-yet-undiscovered talents, and the 120-seat black-box playhouse has emerged as a bustling gathering place for all of them to work.”

“What if Tony and Maria had met on Facebook? If Anita Twittered, would she feel tweety? Those are some of the questions posed by “Web Site Story,” a video parody of “West Side Story” that’s making the virtual rounds.”

“Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor Alan Cumming is bringing his one-man show I Bought a Blue Car Today to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre this September. Cumming, who has already taken the show to the Lincoln Center in New York and the Sydney Opera House, will perform in London for eight performances only from September 1-6.”

“A slew of award-winning and critically acclaimed plays with their roots in that continent is shaking up Britain’s theatre stages with vibrant tales of death, rebellion and escaped moose.”

“Why should Governor Palin concern herself with the travails of Mary Poppins or Roxie Hart, when her own life is so rich in material? So I present a two-act treatment for a new musical based on her extraordinary rise. Entitled simply Palin! the Musical, I will be faxing it to her advisers as soon as Alaskan office hours begin.”

At Livent founder turned convict Garth Drabinsky’s sentencing hearing this week, “his lawyers produced letters of support from E.L. Doctorow, Christopher Plummer and Hal Prince, among others. … It’s appalling but not surprising that all these artistic types are still under Drabinsky’s spell. Although he cheated investors out of millions, the flashy ‘impresario of the old school’ sure knew how to treat talent.”