Category: theatre

“One after another, high-profile Broadway productions have been announcing that come January, they will breathe their last… Factoring in holiday shows and star-driven limited runs of straight plays that already had been programmed to end, about a dozen Broadway houses are to go dark — an exodus of several million dollars in weekly ticket revenues, and one of the largest mass exits in one fell swoop in memory.”

In New York this year, a full raft of plays and productions from Ireland has been upending any and every preconception Yank audiences might have about theatre from the Emerald Isle in the new century.

When Jeremy Piven pulled out of the current Broadway revival of Mamet’s Speed-The-Plow this week, his excuse – “a high mercury count” – was greeted with some skepticism. Now Piven’s doctor has spoken publicly, saying that the actor’s considerable consumption of sushi (twice a day) has indeed led to mercury poisoning.

“After months of backstage turbulence, capped by the loss of its leading actor and the ascent of an understudy into the title role, the Broadway revival of Pal Joey opens on Thursday night… Several people involved with [the production] said in interviews that this Pal Joey seemed destined to enter theater lore as one of the more artistically troubled experiences of Broadway in recent years.”

Minneapolis-based In The Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre, one of America’s leading puppet theatres, has announced a seven-week layoff to begin the day after Chistmas. “In addition, the troupe will cut the wages of contract artists by 17 percent through the end of the fiscal year, Aug. 31, a move intended to shave 20 percent from the troupe’s $1 million annual budget.”

The Burgtheater in Vienna “has denied reports that an actor suffered a life-threatening cut to his throat after a prop knife was reportedly replaced by one with a real blade. Daniel Hoevels, 30, was said to have had blood ‘pouring from his neck’ after he stabbed himself with the knife in a suicide scene. … The company admitted that a female prop manager had bought a knife for use on stage and forgotten to blunt it.”

“The ripple effects of the recession and Wall Street’s slide have now fully engulfed the New York theater: highly successful shows are closing early, Off Broadway hits can’t find money to move into empty houses, audience attendance is down (and during the holidays, no less)…. [E]ven the best Broadway press agent cannot spin the fact that New York theater appears to be entering one of its darkest periods….”

“The financial bail-out for the Edinburgh Fringe in the wake of last year’s box-office disaster is likely to be more than £500,000, The Scotsman has learned. Sources say the £250,000 rescue package revealed last week will almost certainly have to be doubled to stave off meltdown over the next few months. … Meanwhile, the Fringe is facing claims that theatre groups will shun the festival this year, because of delays by performers receiving payments for shows.”

“Nonprofit theaters experienced robust growth and ‘general financial stability’ from 1990 to 2005, even as audiences for nonmusical productions were declining, according to a report from the National Endowment for the Arts. However, the study, which is being released today, does not reflect the current economic downturn, which has resulted in staff cuts and closed doors for some theater companies.”