Category: theatre

“They came close to the abyss yet somehow survived. It’s not that such groups as North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass.; the Magic Theatre in San Francisco; and About Face Theatre in Chicago have returned to rock-solid ground. But each has entered into a process that could enable its survival.”

“[The] innovative theater that has been a major cultural player in Brooklyn for nearly 30 years must find a new home now that its 14,000-square-foot space in Dumbo is scheduled to be turned into an apartment complex and school.” Fortunately, the developers are longtime friends of the theater and “are committed to helping St. Ann’s find a new space.”

Ben Brantley has high praise for an Arabic-language adaptation of Shakespeare’s ferocious history play now appearing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Playwright-director Sulayman Al-Bassam has moved the royal power struggles to a modern-day Persian Gulf state – with an American Henry Tudor and with Richard’s opening soliloquy replaced with a furious introduction by Queen Margaret.

Bill T. Jones’s widely praised musical about Nigerian singer-activist Fela Kuti moves to the Eugene O’Neill Theater this October. The show had a very successful Off-Broadway run in 2008 and won Lucille Lortel Awards for outstanding musical, choreography and costume design.

“The Milwaukee Repertory Theater has chosen Dawn J. Helsing, most recently the executive director of Chicago’s Court Theatre, to be its managing director. She replaces Timothy J. Shields, who left in December after 10 years in the position.” Helsing “was executive director of the Court Theatre for nearly four years before resigning in January to work as a consultant with Chicago’s smaller theaters.”

“With last Sunday’s Tony Awards unlikely to provide a serious boost at Broadway box offices because the big winners are already hits, producers are counting on word of mouth and discounts to prevent closings and dark theaters this summer.” Until the fall season begins, “Broadway’s financial health will depend largely on the Tony winners and losers’ finding ways to build audiences at a time when New York tourism — a backbone of summer attendance — is projected to decrease slightly.”

“Late Toronto philanthropist Mona L. Campbell has left $2.5 million [Can] to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the theatre festival announced Tuesday. … Campbell was chairwoman and chief of Dover Industries, which was Canada’s largest flour-milling company in 2008.”

“Plans are afoot for a Broadway revival of 1937 Rodgers and Hart tuner Babes in Arms to star Rosie O’Donnell. Randy Skinner, recently Tony-nommed as choreographer of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, is attached to helm and choreograph the production, which has a new book by Joe DiPietro (Memphis).”

“Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater has made a name for itself as a presenter of dark, edgy, groundbreaking theater.” This season, after losing half a million dollars last year and slashing its budget, the company’s offerings look different — which is to say, frothier and more mainstream. “But in moving from dark drama toward light farce, from the fringe toward the center, WHAT is hardly alone this year among New England’s summer theaters.”

“‘Reasons to Be Pretty’ became the first post-Tony Awards casualty on Broadway, with the struggling play — which came away empty-handed from the kudocast — announcing its final perf would be Sunday. The well-reviewed Neil LaBute play was the season’s most notable illustration of the difficulty of attracting auds in an unusually crowded Broadway slate.”