Category: theatre

“The announcement that another Off Broadway theater is closing has become almost routine over the past few years… A reasonable assumption might be that the closing of all these theaters — six in the last two years alone — is ushering in the decline of commercial Off Broadway. But it turns out the situation is more complicated than that.”

The Minnesota Fringe Festival is the largest event of its kind in the US, but the fest’s new chief had her hands full this summer. Opening day coincided with the aftermath of the catastrophic collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis, an event which mesmerized the nation (or at least the national media.) But the festival is plowing ahead, and sticking to a unique system of show selection under which even proven success stories from past years must subject themselves to a random drawing to determine who will get the chance to perform.

Theatre writer and Broadway scourge Michael Riedel has been catching some flak from Grey Gardens insiders ever since he penned a column ridiculing the unusual (some would say incompetent) behavior of the show’s billionaire patrons, Kelly and Lou Gonda. “Their experience with Grey Gardens has not been a happy one and that they’re shocked at how treacherous and nasty Broadway can be.” Riedel, of course, is happy to share some more juicy Gonda tidbits in response to the backlash.

An experimental play running at the Edinburgh Fringe probes the question of whether you can have theatre without actors. “Only two people at a time can participate in this work (there is no other audience; so much for the producer’s fantasy). It requires the audience-members-turned-actors to follow a recorded script and essentially perform for one another. The show, which makes the point quite creatively that every conversation is a performance, opened in London in February and has been performed in Portugal, Argentina, Germany, Norway, Italy and Minneapolis.”

“Having already lost a place it had been promised at ground zero, the Signature Theater Company now finds its downtown plans scuttled again: It will not relocate, as planned, to Fiterman Hall on West Broadway. This Off Broadway company, whose current lease on West 42nd Street expires in 2011, was encouraged by the city last spring to set its sights on Fiterman Hall… But the project has proved too complicated and costly, people involved say, so the city is helping the theater look for other sites.”

The political life of Tony Blair is fodder for not one, but two musicals currently playing at the Edinburgh Fringe. “The shows – called, perhaps a touch confusingly, Tony Blair – the Musical, and Tony! The Blair Musical – have a surprisingly similar take on the Blair years, portraying a fresh-faced, optimistic figure gradually tarnished by time, experience, and war with Iraq.”

“The producer’s quandary at the Edinburgh Fringe: you have a meagre budget, a cast with little discernible talent and a show to promote at the largest arts festival in world. What do you do?” Herewith, five cheeky tips for breaking out of the pack.

“There needs to be a course correction at the Citi Performing Arts Center. The nonprofit center has suffered from financial troubles and made tin-eared decisions that have cut programming and raised questions about its operations. Center president Josiah Spaulding is at least part of the problem. Now it falls to the center’s board of directors to figure out how to move the organization toward greater transparency as well as prosperity.”

After a severe epileptic seizure that erased some of his memory, playwright Mark Ravenhill was surprised to learn that he’d agreed to write a new play for each day of the Edinburgh Fringe. “Surely I should be pulling out of this insane undertaking? But then my doctor advised me it would take me several months before I could expect to be fully physically active. What was I going to do with my time? Watch Richard and Judy and eat lots of cakes? Or be a prolific dramatist?”