Category: theatre

Straight plays made a comeback, and despite a strike, attendance was strong too…

More and more we seem to be consuming art one on one. “You would think that the theatre, that most public of acts, would resist this transformation into private experience. Yet, increasingly, directors, actors and writers seem to be seeking out smaller and smaller spaces for their work.”

“Ever since 2003 when New York City banned smoking in enclosed public spaces, theater directors have been walking a thin line between artistic freedom and legal necessity.”

“Colorado has 97 theater companies that have produced at least one play in the past 12 months, a statistic that usually engenders such disbelief from outsiders. Only about half present full seasons, but, all told, our theaters produce about 400 works per year, drawing more than 1.5 million patrons and $50 million in revenue.”

“Legiters can blame the shortfall on the stagehands strike, which darkened more than 25 productions over a 19-day stretch in November that included the ultra-profitable Thanksgiving frame. The strike and its repercussions provide the grains of salt to be taken with many of the observations gleaned from the 2007-08 season — from how much money was made to how many straight plays Broadway can sustain.”

“The limited run on Broadway wasn’t a preordained hit. About 20,000 people saw the show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music before the transfer. Laced with video imagery, Soviet-style military costumes and blood, it originated at the Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex, south of London. The cast was almost entirely British, and the move to Broadway required a waiver from Actors’ Equity.”

“The thesis in hiring me has to be that we can make a stable organization that is just as risky and cutting edge artistically as it’s always been. You don’t need a chaotic organization in order to produce cutting-edge, experimental, daring, dangerous work.”

“Like CEOs in the troubled airline industry, Young Frankenstein creator Mel Brooks and producer Robert F. X. Sillerman have embarked on a cost-cutting rampage in a desperate effort to keep their Spruce Goose of a show aloft. Their most dramatic move: slashing the lead actors’ salaries by 50 percent.”

“Salzburg officials say a museum containing memorabilia from the film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer could draw 140,000 visitors a year. But not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea.”

“A West End playhouse is to be turned into a “hangout” for actors and audiences with hi-tech seating that disappears after each performance to create an open-plan entertainment area.”