Category: theatre

Twenty-one-year-old Laura Osnes has won the “reality show competition to play Sandy in a new Broadway revival of ‘Grease.” “She attended ‘Grease Academy’ and lived with a dozen other hopeful Sandys and Dannys in the same house. And Sunday, on a live broadcast of ‘Grease: You’re The One That I Want,’ she was chosen over Ashley Spencer, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress from Ohio, to win her dream: a chance to perform on Broadway.”

Want to tour a play? You need famous actors, preferably famous actors from TV. “It’s the nature of the business — especially if you are going to tour a play. You want to have recognizable people, because plays don’t tour much anymore; it’s all musicals now. There used to be plays on the road all the time, and not just light plays — serious stuff.”

New computers are increasingly replacing many of the live musicians in pit orchestras”These products are cheaper and more compact than human musicians. They do not get sick or have bad nights. And after years of gradual improvements, their sound is now good enough to fool many nonexperts, especially since they are almost always used, as recommended, alongside traditional instruments.”

It’s really not a fair question. “The conspicuous presence of British actors at the Academy Awards a few weeks ago marks the latest episode in a long history of adulation for U.K. performers at the expense of their American counterparts. Yet seemingly oblivious to the serious shortcomings of the Oscars as a barometer of thespian talent, the media have been trumpeting claims about the superiority of British actors.” But really, there are as many ways to becoming an actor as there are actors.

It looks like a solution has been found to save South London’s Battersea Arts Center, one of London’s most important centers for emerging artists. “So how has this change of heart on the part of the politicians come about? The answer is a great deal of hard behind-the-scenes negotiation, a grown-up refusal to bad mouth, and a recognition that there were points where the interests of BAC and the council were aligned.”

“Offering theatergoers a chance to be close to the action — and producers a way to sell a few more tickets — onstage seating turns up on Broadway about as often as a Sondheim revival.”

What do you get when you combine a TV legend with a taste for verbosity with an indie band whose popularity is at its peak? Um, a stage musical, apparently. “The musical, based on the Flaming Lips’ psychedelic 2002 album, [Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot], will feature songs by the band and a book by [Aaron] Sorkin.”

“Boring an audience is the one true sin in theatre. We’ve been boring audiences for decades now, and they’ve responded by slowly withdrawing their patronage. I don’t care that the recent production of The Seagull at the Royal Court was sold out. To 95% of the population, the theatre (musicals aside for now) is an irrelevance. Of that 95%, we have managed to lure in maybe 10% at some point in their lives, and we’ve so swiftly and thoroughly bored them that they’ve never returned.”

“Like any proud parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie eagerly anticipate the local debut of a play about their daughter. But the Corries are also bracing for backlash. … No one is shouting yet at Seattle Repertory Theatre, where the West Coast debut of ‘My Name is Rachel Corrie’ is now in previews and opens Wednesday. But quietly, offstage, the debate re-emerges with the production of the solo play based on Corrie’s e-mails and diary entries, some of which express her political concerns.”

“It’s often the case that Shakespeare seems fresher and more inventive when performed in a language other than English. In fact Shakespeare performed in a language other than English often has a liberating effect on both audiences and directors. Yes, of course you lose the poetry, but Shakespeare was a playwright first and foremost: the text is only one part of the experience, and one that sometimes seems overfamiliar.”