Category: theatre

How do the two nationalities’ actors compare? “Theatrical training is the standard answer for what distinguishes our acting cousins from across the pond. And it’s hard not to marvel at the virtuosic command of speech and diction, the way veterans such as Dench, Mirren and O’Toole make music out of spoken thought.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s considering a sequel to hi hit. “I can confirm what I told the studio audience whilst on the set of You’re The One That I Want last week in the US, that I am considering writing a sequel to Phantom of the Opera based on an idea presented to me over a decade ago.”

“The Encores! concert version of ‘Follies’ that ran over the weekend has jolted Broadway out of its midwinter slump. Not since “Chicago” came roaring out of City Center 10 years ago has an Encores! production generated this much excitement.”

“Their extraordinary success in cinema would never have been possible, they say, without the training ground and support of publicly subsidised theatre, which could be under threat if arts funding is frozen or reduced this summer, as feared.”

The director-actor relationship relies on trust: you’re doing something, the other person is observing, and you’ve got to feel that what they say is trustworthy.

“Andrew’s Lane, which is located in the heart of the city between Trinity College and the Central Bank, has been purchased by property developers. Owner Pat Moylan said she made the ‘very difficult decision’ to sell the intimate venue because she couldn’t afford a modern revamp.”

John Kimbell is leaving the North Shore Music Theatre. He “is the third artistic director of a Boston-area theater to announce plans to step down in recent months, following Nicholas Martin at the Huntington Theatre Company and Robert Woodruff at the American Repertory Theatre. Kimbell has been with the company for nearly half of its 52 years.”

The Jujamcyn cash award comes at a good time: IRT is currently undertaking a six million dollar capital campaign to purchase its theatre, rehearsal studio and administrative offices.

Theatre for the deaf isn’t a new concept, but it’s never been considered much of a growth industry, either. Still, Paris’s International Visual Theatre, catering to hearing-impaired audiences, has been around for three decades now, and this year, it found a permanent home for the first time. The theatre’s aim is “to build a bridge between deaf and hearing people by demonstrating that they can communicate perfectly with one another onstage as well as with an audience also made up of the deaf and hearing.”

“Think of all those sets scrapped at the end of a run. Think of the hotel nights and minibus miles generated by companies on tour. Consider the audiences travelling into town. What of the paper for the flyers, posters, programmes and scripts? Then there are the stars – Don Johnson, Jessica Lange – who jet in from the US to see their names in high-wattage West End lights. Should we wonder at the scarcity of green-themed plays, when the theatre business itself has such a voracious appetite for resources?”