Category: theatre

“The downgrading of acting is a modern phenomenon, and in part may be due to the rise of celebrity, and the idea that acting isn’t hard and anyone can do it without any training at all. Those who sat through Madonna in Up for Grabs or some of the recent casts of Chicago know that this is a lie.”

Why are black British actors leaving the UK for work? “The overwhelming majority of black actors of my generation have found that their only hope of a career lies in America (an old maxim states that ‘in Britain, white actors have careers and black actors have jobs’).

Two quirky Toronto theatre companies are turning 40 this year, and in those four decades, they’ve seen the city’s theatre scene become something far different than what it was when they first opened their doors. Over those four decades, though, the missions of Théâtre français de Toronto and Theatre Passe Muraille haven’t changed much, even if their audiences have.

“It’s a huge success on Broadway and has been turned back into a movie, but how will British audiences respond to Hairspray the musical? …Hairspray arrives in London burdened with hype, which can break as much as make a show, and facing a fight for attention.”

It hasn’t exactly been a breakout fall for the new crop of Broadway musicals, and observers are starting to wonder whether any of the new shows could truly be considered a Tony frontrunner. “Once upon a time, Young Frankenstein looked unbeatable. But with two weeks of previews under its belt, the show is hardly shaking up Shubert Alley,” and several other high-profile shows are considered iffy as well. So is it conceivable that the new stage adaptation of John Waters’s cult film, Cry-Baby, starring none other than Johnny Depp, could sneak into a frontrunner role?

Generally, it’s American actors who are known for mangling British accents on stage. But lately, the stages of London have seen a parade of British actors playing American roles, apparently under the impression that “everyone in America sounds as if they’ve stepped off the set of Goodfellas.” And the fact is that plenty of good actors aren’t good with dialects. So why do we continue to ask them to try them on?

London theatre critic Michael Billington, who has just published a 50-year history of the art form, believes that actors and playwrights serve as aids to societal change. “Theatre rarely topples governments or incites direct action. Margaret Thatcher survived the barbs of British dramatists, and Rupert Murdoch was not shamed into shedding his monopolistic powers by the success of David Hare and Howard Brenton’s Pravda. What theatre can do is shift attitudes, articulate discontent, and reflect, often with microscopic accuracy, the mood of the nation.”

With major West End musicals now routinely costing untold millions to bring to the stage, it’s become more crucial than ever to have an idea of what is likely to result in success before one begins. Thus, the rules: “If you can’t sum up your £10 million spectacular in a breath, forget about it… Exude a winner’s confidence before you even open.” And if you want a long run, “people have got to come more than once.”

Typically, English theatre critics write about Scotland once a year, at Edinburgh Festival time. Michael Billingsley says that they’re missing out. “Scotland’s current political and economic buoyancy is reflected in its theatre… Where England grows ever more introspective, Scotland looks outward.”

The Philadelphia Theatre Company moves into a new home this week. “The architecture of the new theater – the first major arts venue to open on South Broad Street since the Kimmel Center in 2001 – was a conscious act of preserving what everyone liked about the old space, the Plays and Players Theatre, built in 1912.”