Category: theatre

“A full slate of performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is back on at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, thanks to a $3-million cash infusion from the federal government’s Marquee Tourism Events Program, announced Monday. … Antoni Cimolino, Stratford’s general director, said the government has ‘listened and acted’ and that he expects the added funds to ‘turn this year around’ for Stratford.”

Oafish behavior in theaters seems to be on the rise. And it’s not just that cellphones are ringing. It’s that people are answering them — and conducting vital conversations. Apparently, “What are you doing?” is the kind of universal question that just can’t wait until intermission for an answer.

“The aim is to make the building more open and inviting, as well as accessible for the disabled, and to give it a greater street presence. On any given night some 1,000 people come through the Public’s lobby — a space designed to hold 250 — on their way to one of its five theaters. The redesign will expand the lobby to hold up to 690.”

“Gradually, gay productions have taken a stronghold over ticket sales to an unprecedented level. Nicholas de Jongh, theatre critic and writer of Plague over England, believes theatre producers may have at last realised gay plays do bring in audiences.”

“The contrast between the vitality of the stage and the inert theatrical afterlife haunts the V&A’s big scale galleries that cover live performance in Britain over the last 350 years. They replace the old Theatre Museum in London’s West End, which controversially closed in 2007, and despite the obvious curatorial care, you wonder if this museum of live performance isn’t an oxymoron.”

“If it sounds strange that a piece by the biggest stage composer in the world is premiering in the Slurpee capital of the world, don’t worry. It is.”

“Is a lit candelabrum atop a grand piano still compliant with New York fire prevention and building codes? Someone had better find out,” because a new show titled Liberace: The Man, The Music & The Memories has been announced for Broadway this fall. The musical will “recreate the experience of a Liberace concert in a Las Vegas show room. The musician and comedian Wayland Pickard has been cast [in the title role].”

A business partner of Britain’s reality TV megastar – who died of cervical cancer last month at 27 (having sold the rights to televise her final days) – announced the project at a book party for her just-published diaries. Naturally, the musical’s lead role will be cast via a television talent show.

“A Kansas-based church known for celebrating at the funerals of American soldiers killed in war plans to protest the staging of the musical ‘Rent’ at an Orange County high school Friday. The Westboro Baptist Church intends to picket at Corona del Mar High as classes let out and as audience members arrive for the play. Counter-protesters also plan to attend.”

“It’s hard to know just how many fewer jobs there will be for stage actors this year,” but of the 200 nonprofit theaters that responded to a Theatre Communications Group survey several months ago, “20 percent said they planned to shorten their seasons; 30 percent said they planned to produce plays with smaller casts. One big drawback: Actors need to work a minimum number of weeks to qualify for health insurance through their union, Actors’ Equity Association.”