Category: theatre

Attendance is up at both of Southern Ontario’s major summer theatre festivals. “The crowds are happy and the ever-strengthening loonie doesn’t seem to be keeping Americans away. This comes as a particular relief to the Shaw Festival, which was facing a bleak outlook at the season’s start.”

“The Menier Chocolate Factory, a plucky 3 ½-year-old theater company that has become the critic’s darling of the Off West End scene in London, has signed a three-year deal with the producer, Bob Boyett, giving him first rights to transfer shows to Broadway.” Boyett already has a similar deal in place with London’s National Theatre.

“With a budget of around £25m, The Lord of the Rings is the most expensive musical ever produced in the West End… The production sports some 500 pieces of armour, 150 weapons and a mind-boggling topiary of hair extensions.” But it isn’t the logistics that make Rings such a daunting production. It’s the reduction of a thousand pages of literature that everyone’s read to a credible few hours in an auditorium.

If a performance is going well, those in the audience rarely think about all that must go right backstage in order to put on a major theatrical work. But stand in the shoes of the cast and crew for a night, and you’ll gain a whole new respect for the organized chaos that is theatre. “For every apparent breach in decorum, there is an underlying plan, and in many cases a backup plan as well.”

“In a blatant endeavor to break away from the stereotypical theatre crowd and capture an alternative audience, the National has created its very own YouTube channel to showcase trailers and vox pops. To my mind, the concept of e-trailers for plays is genius. How brilliant not to be entirely reliant on reviews, which are essentially comprised of one person’s opinion (one very informed person, granted) or a programme. The decision to invest in a theatre ticket is often a difficult one and I feel sure that a short trailer for the production would definitely help a lot of people.”

Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre will offer tickets to all its performances for $20 a seat. “Relying on corporate support from Time Warner and American Express, along with contributions from Margot Adams, the widow of actor Mason Adams, Signature wants to expand theatre to sections of society that do not necessarily constitute its core audience, including young people, the working class, and minorities.”

Last week the revivalk of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” was named to a Best Musical Revival Tony. This week the show has put up closing notices. “The critically acclaimed production, in which 14 performers each play two or three instruments, has struggled at the box office. It ran at 48 percent capacity last week, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers.”

The Tony Awards are Broadway’s best-coordinated marketing effort, but this year some of the most celebrated product is already past its sell-by date. “Of the winners of the four top awards, two — ‘Journey’s End,’ winner of the best play revival, and ‘The Coast of Utopia,’ a record breaker for most awards won by a play, with seven — have already closed and have no current plans to tour. Another — ‘Company,’ winner of best musical revival — has been in critical condition at the box office for weeks.”

The message after Sunday’s Tony Awards: “Fluff might sell, but seriousness (sorry, “Legally Blonde”) is what the theater community stands by. Now if only art and commerce could join hands and turn out a show that’s simultaneously — and unqualifiedly — a critical and popular hit. Then we’d all be smiling at revenue numbers that, despite their steady climb toward the billion-dollar mark, can’t conceal such darker realities as a slew of multimillion-dollar flops (including “High Fidelity,” “Coram Boy” and the soon-to-be shuttered “The Pirate Queen”) and exorbitant ticket prices that have rendered Broadway a luxury item for the Zagat set.”

Broadway’s Hilton Theatre is ten years old. It has a dismal record of terrible flops. “Although many theaters can claim a distinguished history of failed shows — such is the slim rate of commercial success for Broadway productions — an astute producer would be wise to ponder the unhappy correlation between flopdom and tenancy in this particular house. Given its size, it theoretically has the potential to be among the industry’s most profitable; somehow it hasn’t worked out that way. I am not sure that is pure coincidence.”