Category: theatre

“Rock music has made intermittent and sometimes dubious forays onto Broadway since Elvis and the Beatles met Ed Sullivan. And yet it has never become a staple sound — or even a frequent one — of musical theater, which has for the most part continued to descend from the early pioneers like Jerome Kern and George Gershwin, through Rodgers and Hammerstein and Hammerstein’s protégé Stephen Sondheim, to Mr. Sondheim’s many imitators or homage payers.”

“No aspect of the culture is as badly served by its critics as the theatre is. Many of the national press reviewers who haunt the lobbies of the West End, picking up their complimentary programmes and free glasses of screwtop wine, are a moribund, joyless, detached bunch. Where are the voices that ring out as being aesthetically intelligent, passionate, current and, most important, entertaining?”

It cost a record £12.5m to bring Lord of the Rings to the London stage. Was it worth it? Susannah Clapp thinks not, and she’s not just blaming the people in charge of the production. “Take away the narrative drive, and Tolkien’s limitations become glaring. There’s the faux archaic language… There’s the sentimental ruralism and the worship of hierarchy: lots of little people with comical names being awed by silvery-tongued great ones. There’s the unadulterated blokesiness of it all… And alongside the macho swagger, there are all those elves. Tolkien really knew how to put the twee into tweedy.”

Anyone who’s ever seen the theatrical blockbuster Phantom of the Opera was likely dazzled by the spectactular thirty foot plunge of the massive chandelier that dominates the set. Of course, someone had to figure out how to pull that stunt off, night after night, without killing anyone or damaging the set…

“San Francisco’s arts community has launched a broad effort to save the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, the city’s oldest African American theater company, which has been told it will lose its 19-year-old home on Sutter Street.”

The Color Purple is flying high on Broadway, thanks in no small part to group pilgrimages being made by congregations at black churches around the country. “The groups have become a marketing phenomenon, turning the $10 million musical, which received mixed notices when it first opened, into a very profitable show for its backers, who include Oprah Winfrey.”

“Plays about science and mathematics have multiplied recently, from the courtroom biology of Inherit the Wind (now in a major revival on Broadway) to obscure but very witty musicals like Fermat’s Last Tango and Schrodinger’s Girlfriend… Such shows make interesting demands on audiences: What is more flattering than being asked to rise to an occasion?”

“It is the oldest working theatre in [the UK], but yesterday, the Bristol Old Vic admitted it was under threat of closing for good as it launched a last-ditch appeal to secure £2m for its survival… The now-dilapidated venue is depending on the goodwill of individual benefactors – and has even launched a telephone hotline for public donations – to save it from permanent closure by Christmas.”

“Over the last decade, scores of circus artists have wound up their ropes, circus bands packed away their trombones, and big tops folded. The decline of popular live entertainment and the growing voice of the animal-rights lobby has meant there are few thriving travelling circuses.” But small, old-school circuses are making something of a comeback, even as their big-money counterparts are hemorrhaging cash.

Kevin Spacey may be a favorite target for theatre critics on both sides of the Atlantic, but you can’t argue with his drawing power. Spacey’s star turn in the critically derided Broadway play, A Moon For The Misbegotten, was enough to allow the show to recoup its entire investment and turn a profit in a limited run. That’s more than can be said for most Broadway shows, including this year’s critical darling, Spring Awakening.