Category: theatre

“Equity has entered negotiations with theatre managers and producers in a bid to secure an improved minimum weekly wage of £400 for all performers and stage managers working outside the West End.”

Los Angeles Shakespeare Company founder Geoffrey Forward went public Friday with an announcement that he has filed an $11.9-million negligence and inverse condemnation claim against Los Angeles County, claiming that 80 “outrageous acts” on the part of various county departments over the course of several years caused construction delays that led to the foreclosure sale of the company theater, the Globe, in Topanga.

“Ron Martin, the drama teacher at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, says he will fight for ‘Rent: School Edition,’ the show he contends was arbitrarily pulled by a principal concerned about depictions of prostitution and homosexuality. … He said hundreds of e-mails and phone calls led him to try to make the case for ‘Rent,’ which in the school edition omits bad language and depictions of sexual behavior.”

“In a new production, Jolson & Co – the Musical, to open at the King’s theatre in Edinburgh, the pantomime star Allan Stewart will play Al Jolson. Controversy has erupted as the producers have decided that in a seminal scene he will not black up.” This is a cowardly misstep, as “contemplating Al Jolson without blacking up is like considering Marvin Gaye without sex; if the producers wanted to avoid controversy, they shouldn’t be doing a musical about Al Jolson.”

“Even having a major Hollywood name in a Broadway play does not guarantee that investors will rush to put money into it in these recessionary days, theater producers are learning. Case in point: Jane Fonda’s star turn in ’33 Variations,’ the new play written and directed by Moisés Kaufman now in previews at the Eugene O’Neill Theater and opening on March 9.”

“‘Rent: School Edition,’ a modified version of the hit Broadway musical,” is still “[t]oo provocative, in the view of some high school officials and parents. At least three of the planned high school productions, in California, Texas and West Virginia, have been canceled after administrators or parents raised objections about the show’s morality, its portrayals of homosexuality and theft, and its frank discussions of drug use and H.I.V., according to administrators, teachers and parents involved in those cases.”

The Minneapolis-based Children’s Theatre Company got three Tony nominations for “A Year With Frog and Toad.” The show’s 2003 Broadway run also “drew the attention of the makers of ‘Sesame Street,'” who asked the company “if there was any interest in putting together a musical from their popular children’s show.” The resulting adaptation, “Bert & Ernie, Goodnight!,” starts previews at CTC in September.

“Some critics have charged that the 10-minute play, ‘Seven Jewish Children,’ by British playwright Caryl Churchill, is anti-Semitic. Ms. Churchill’s play is currently being performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre as a benefit for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. The Royal Court’s Web site allows readers to download the full text of the play and read it for themselves.”

“Spider-Man will have to wait a little longer for his Broadway debut because of production delays that have plagued the $31.3 million musical featuring songs by U2. Rehearsals for the most expensive show ever produced on the Great White Way have been put off from this spring, according to senior members of the production team, who declined to be named because an opening date has not been announced.”

“[A]fter months of speculation, [Matthew] Jocelyn has taken the perennially controversial artistic reins at the Canadian Stage Company, the biggest of Toronto’s not-for-profit theatres. He replaces Marty Bragg, who had been with the company for 17 years in total, 11 in the now-defunct role of artistic producer; Jocelyn holds the new title of artistic and general director.” A Toronto native, Jocelyn “has spent almost the entirety of his career working outside the country.”