Category: theatre

“English theatre producer Howard Panter has arrived in Australia with seismic force. While few people even among show business professionals knew his name at the start of the year, he has since unveiled plans likely to change the face of the industry.”

BBC archives reveal that the UK government and shipping companies tried to block broadcast of a 1947 play about the sinking of the Titanic. “The liner’s builders and shipping line were concerned it would damage the image of the industry as it tried to recover after the Second World War.”

“It’s one of the many Murphy’s Laws of theatregoing that as soon you finally get to the front of the concessions line at intermission and purchase your drink, the lights begin to flash. Inevitably, you are left with a sad choice: Put the drink down, or be déclassé and down it.” Why shouldn’t audiences be able to bring their drinks into the theatre?

“It might be argued that the relationship between careful planning and pure chance is the very essence of theatre; weeks of rehearsal offered up on the alter of the live performance, with only a whispered prayer for everything to be all right on the night. What I want is a more iPod-like relationship between careful planning and chance.”

Relationships between actors and directors can get frosty at times, and the relationship tends to be fraught with tension at the best of times. So what’s it like when they’re married to each other? The word “dramatic” springs to mind…

What Off-Broadway spends on productions, what it earns, and what the challenges are…

“Broadway would have to shutter many of its houses if it couldn’t turn to the movies for a steady supply of material. The practice has been around for decades, albeit at relatively modest levels. What was once a Hollywood-to-Broadway trickle became a torrent as the millennium approached. Two distinct events marked the change.”

Kansas City suddenly has a lot more theatre than a medium size city ought to expect? “It’s tempting to chalk it up to a long-awaited alignment of the planets, but the reality may be that seeds planted 40 years ago are finally bearing fruit.”

“I often think that I would have been at home in Elizabethan London, when performances took place in the afternoon. … Performance start times are only convention but, like Woman’s Hour, they are hard to shift without protest and don’t always seem to be designed for the convenience of audiences – or reflect the fact that theatre is a service industry.”

“A university student’s satirical musical about Princess Diana has been banned from opening to the public over fears of causing offence. The University of Brighton has decided the controversial performance should be open to invited guests only.”