Category: theatre

“The Broadway League will consolidate the reporting of Main Stem box office figures, with members of the org filing weekly receipts directly to the league, which will then distribute the information. Sales figures will represent ‘gross gross’ sales as opposed to net gross, which subtracts credit card transaction fees from the total. Attendance will be reported as total attendance rather than paid attendance, which does not count comped ducats.”

That’s the title of a show to play L.A. and NYC this fall. It “will consist of short musical numbers and skits from past Python productions that were originally created by [Eric] Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.” No Python vets are in the cast, though Idle will direct.

“I’m always banging on about the dearth of single plays on television. So I suppose it has to be two cheers for Sky Arts, who plan to show a season of six half-hour plays live,” all written by non-dramatists. “I’m all for widening the pool of dramatic talent, but writing a 30-minute play is a special skill that even hardened practitioners find difficult.”

“Broadway musicals and plays grossed approximately $943.3 million during the 2008-9 theater season, a slight increase over the previous season and enough to set a new record for total grosses, according to data released this evening by the Broadway League.”

“Impresarios behind some of the West End’s best-known musicals have been criticised for putting on plays in filthy conditions that include claims of rat infestations and floods of raw sewage. While theatregoers have become accustomed to enjoying shows in comfort, actors at the capital’s leading venues claim they are forced to endure ‘awful’ backstage conditions.”

“Whether on stage or screen, actors depend on casting directors (and, indeed, audiences) being willing to see them play characters of a wide variety of ages. If it becomes too widely known that Actor X is, say, 40 years old, Actor X is going to worry that he’s not going to be taken seriously when the next part for a 25-year-old ingenue is up for grabs.”

“Sky Arts is to screen six newly commissioned theatre plays live to air for what is believed to be the first time on British television in a quarter of a century. The project, Sky Arts Theatre Live!, will see six authors make their debuts as playwrights collaborating with directors and actors to create original half-hour plays.”

“Theater director Neil Armfield is preparing to ankle the helm of Sydney’s Company B troupe housed at Belvoir St. Theater, where the Broadway production of ‘Exit the King’ at Barrymore Theater was hatched and where he has been artistic director since 1994.”

“Broadway doesn’t have summer sales in the bag just yet. … [I]t’s out-of-towners who fuel summer sales — and with recessionary worries and the recent outbreak of swine flu prompting predictions of a decline in tourism, it’s not yet certain that the usual B.O. boom will ring in as robustly as it has in the past.” Then again, a healthy spring defied gloomy expectations.

“With social networks such as Facebook and MySpace seemingly well past the pop-culture tipping point, Broadway producers and marketers — like anyone else with a product to advertise — are getting in on the game.”