“Sweeney Todd suggests that even now, the last word has still to be said about the Hollywood musical. Whether or not it succeeds commercially, and despite certain flaws, it is easily the most innovative movie of its kind to be made since Bob Fosse’s 1972 Cabaret. It is also one in which many of the underlying problems of the genre have been not only re-thought but solved.”
Category: theatre
Getting Straight On Site-Specific Theatre
“Site-specific theatre” has come to mean any theatre that breaks with the conventions of the auditorium. But it’s such a broad label these days, it’s become meaningless. “By labelling them thus, they become merely another new-fangled and eminently bracketable novelty act, cast in opposition (or as a diverting supplement) to ‘straight’ theatre.”
Audiences Stunned To Find Sweeney Todd A Musical
“Nowhere does the [movie trailer] mention the fact that Sweeney Todd is a musical. In fact, it goes out of its way to conceal the fact that the movie is entirely sung, save for a few snippets of dialogue… Stung at paying to see a collection of tortuously constructed Stephen Sondheim tunes when they were expecting a gory Gothic thriller, a fair proportion of cinema audiences has been walking out of Sweeney Todd.”
Playwright Protests Lack Of Nudity In Production Of His Play
“Apparently, after Carter Beane saw the show at the Center on Halsted (at About Face Theatre’s invitation) he asked for the requisite naked flesh to be put back. Per the script. But when you’re half way through a run of a union show, it’s not that simple.”
Anne Frank, The Musical
“Spanish producers have turned the life of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who wrote a diary while hiding from Nazis, into a musical, tearing up the genre’s widely held convention of light-hearted, sugar-coated tale.”
Actors Who Can’t See Or Hear
“Billed as the world’s first professional deaf-blind theatre company, only three of Nalaga’at’s actors can speak. One hears a little if you shout directly into her ear and a few still have some vision. But they all communicate primarily through touch.”
What The Screenwriters’ Strike Is Doing To Theatre
“From anecdotal evidence, many big-screen and television actors who have the chops for live theater are clamoring for stage parts they’d normally shun at this time of year. Meanwhile, some striking screenwriters with plays in their heads report that the words are coming harder, or not at all, because of anxiety over their day jobs’ future.”
Setting Stanislavski Right
Stanislavski’s acting methods have been distorted and misunderstood. A new translation of the Master’s books should maybe clarify things…
Hemingway’s Only Play Gets An Off-Broadway Try
The story of why “The Fifth Column” has been neglected is a complicated one, involving several mishaps, an inept Hollywood screenwriter, and a 1940 Broadway production of a bastardized version of the play.
Interactive Theatre (Whether You Want It To Be Or Not)
“Interactive theater places theater-goers in the middle of things, at times making them performers. The imaginary wall is broken down in this type of work, and the audience has a different experience of what is happening.” But what if the audience doesn’t agree to being part of the procedings?