Category: theatre

“Theatergoers spoiled by Julie Taymor’s boundary-breaking brilliance in “The Lion King” are not served by this doggedly conventional, well-performed, middling bore of a show.”

“The Little Mermaid” is one profound family story, rich in metaphor and passion and wisdom. It should have made a great Broadway show. It really didn’t.”

“This is the first musical that has ever transferred successfully to the screen.” Before you attempt a contradiction, remember that Sondheim speaks as one who knows. He was Oscar Hammerstein’s semi-adopted son, accompanying his trail of triumph from Oklahoma to The Sound of Music, and Leonard Bernstein’s lyricist on West Side Story.”

The implication usually is that, while “theatre” is a vacuous, commercial or essentially trivial enterprise, Drama transcends theatre’s vulgar origins and leaps into Art.

A third-year drama student at Juilliard who also happens to be a Marine lance corporal “is hoping to prove to reluctant officials that serious theater [would] be excellent for troops in war zones.” The military has been a tough sell, convinced that their troops only want lowbrow entertainment. But at a trial performance at Camp Pendleton, there were promising signs.

“Arts Council England has been delivered a ‘vote of no confidence’ at an emergency meeting organised by Equity and attended by leading figures from the UK theatre industry including Ian McKellen, Peter Hall and Kevin Spacey.”

West End ticket levies will not be enough to save the deteriorating state of London’s historic theatres, Society of London Theatre president Rosemary Squire has warned.

A former star of the Broadway production of Beauty & The Beast admitted in court last week to groping and having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl in his dressing room back in 2001. He faces two months in jail, but apparently, his conviction isn’t enough to dissuade producers from engaging him to star in a new Broadway musical set to hit New York in 2009.

“The 900-seat £11 million Rose, modelled on the Elizabethan original where Shakespeare played, has been 23 years in the birthing. Next Wednesday, after four years as the project’s directorial figurehead, Sir Peter Hall will open the Rose’s first season.”

Frank’s diary is the basis for a new musical in Madrid. “The Anne Frank Foundation, which jealously guards the rights to the diary – it once turned down Steven Spielberg when he wanted to make a film – has given its support.”