Category: theatre

Nicholas Hytner says men dominate London’s theatre criticism. But, writes Lyn Gardner, “I think something else is going on here and I think it is to do with the way in which critics are appointed and stay in our jobs until we finally keel over in the aisle seats like budgies falling off a perch. That shouldn’t be a problem as long as energy and enthusiasm are in tact, but it can be if curiosity is lost and those aisle seats are the same ones in the same theatres for more than 30 years.”

Nicholas Hytner, director of London’s National Theatre says that London’s theatre critics are a “dead white male” club and that they don’t give female directors a chance. “He said that many of the daily newspaper critics were in their jobs when he was at university. ‘I won’t stay in my job for as long as they stay in theirs. When I become a dead white male I will only be hired to do dead white male theatre.’ Some critics could not help but notice that a play was directed by a woman, he said.”

“Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia trilogy won six awards, the most of any show of the season. Among its honors are Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play (Jack O’Brien), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Martha Plimpton), Outstanding Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz), Outstanding Set Design (Bob Crowley and Scott Pask) and Outstanding Costume Design (Catherine Zuber).”

Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted over the centuries to suit various audiences and societal changes. Peter Aspden says that over the last 100 years, American productions of Shakespeare have become ever more comfortable with a focus on the dark and supernatual side of the Bard. “All of which leads to the question: is Shakespeare’s homeland the best place to see Shakespeare? Can the English stage tradition, with its emphasis on verbal dexterity and intellectual rigour, actually cope with the dark side of its leading playwright?”

The Tony nominations haven’t been announced yet, but the competition behind the scenes is hot and heavy. “The three sure bets for Best Musical are Spring Awakening, Curtains and Grey Gardens. Every nominator I spoke to says so. The fourth slot is up for grabs, the contenders being Mary Poppins, LoveMusik and Legally Blonde… The most hotly contested acting category is for Leading Actor in a Play.”

When Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater opened its dramatic new home on the Mississippi riverfront last summer, critics lauded both the building itself, and the new residential and commercial district growing up around it. But historic preservation standards and lack of effort have left the new neighborhood decidedly incomplete. “It’s been well-planned, probably as well as any city district. But no one’s in charge of the little things that, in a city, mean so much.”

The Tony Awards Administration Committee has ruled on the eligibility of 13 Broadway productions. Among the edicts is one concerning a straight play in a musical category: “The music for Coram Boy — penned by Adrian Sutton — will be eligible for nomination in the Best Original Score category. Only Sutton’s original music is eligible; the Handel selections heard in the production are ineligible.”

“Bad news this evening from Bristol Old Vic – the oldest continuously running theatre in the country – which is to close its doors at the end of July. About 60 jobs are to go and artistic director Simon Reade is to depart. The question is this: will the doors ever open again on one of the most beautiful theatres in the country?”

In Jeremy McCarter’s opinion, “now may be a good time to offer a few words of gratitude to the most underappreciated patron of New York theatre: you, the British taxpayer. … Thanks to plays such as [The Coast of Utopia and Stuff Happens] from the National, and Frost/Nixon from the Donmar Warehouse (which doesn’t get as much support as the NT, but would still be the envy of many an American producer), a direct line runs from your wallet to award podiums all over Manhattan.”

David Mamet is turning to politics for his next play, slated to open on Broadway this fall. Mamet’s last overtly political work was the screenplay for the popular 1997 movie Wag the Dog. The new play “is a contemporary comedy about a president named Charles Smith and is set a few days before the election, in which he is running as an incumbent. The action unfolds over one day and involves, according to a synopsis provided by the producers, ‘civil marriage, gambling casinos, lesbians, American Indians, presidential libraries, questionable pardons and campaign contributions.'”