Category: theatre

Different owners take different responsibility. “Most of the theatres haven’t had much cash put into them since they were built. They’re all 100 years old, and you know that if you left your own home for 100 years, you’d soon be cold, miserable and wet, so why should it be any different for them?”

Critics debate over the best in show of this season’s Scottish theatre.

The Chicago production of “Wicked” will close after its 1,500th performance next January. “By the time they fly away, the witches Glinda and Elphaba will have enacted their musical spells on more than 3 million people in Chicago over a 3 1/2-year run. And a production with start-up costs of about $10 million will likely have taken in a whopping $210 million at the Chicago box office.”

“Actors have called on Equity to reject any offers by London theatre producers to increase the minimum wage for West End casts in return for additional performances. They warn employers might try and raise the number of shows staged on a weekly basis to 12 – an increase of four on the existing deal – as a way of conceding to the 44% salary hike that the union is campaigning for.”

“For nearly a decade, New York’s musical theater has seemed to be frozen in an eerie holding pattern. This year, the ice broke. And suddenly, it’s spring.”

“The recent attacks on the Drama Desk began with a former member of the Nominating Committee complaining to the New York Post about having been removed from the Committee. That member resigned from the organization.”

“Storyline will mix historical events with anecdotes from a forthcoming memoir by Zindzi Mandela about growing up in the apartheid era as the daughter of Nelson Mandela, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whose efforts played a major role in ending the South African policy of racial segregation.”

Despite “the appointment of Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton as co-artistic directors, and Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s large cash donation, the Sydney Theatre Company yesterday announced a loss of $253,007 — its third consecutive deficit.”

“For Emanuel Moran, artistic director of Teatro Sea in Manhattan, Latino theatres face a twofold disadvantage when gaining media coverage: being a low-budget minority theatre, and featuring bilingual and Spanish language productions.”

“If you look at it from the outside, these guys were in a fast situation, moved a show that wasn’t ready, it flopped and they’re a failure; I could see how you would think that would not be worth anyone’s time. But from our perspective, we got a chance to learn everything about what it takes to put on a Broadway show.”