“Everyone was afraid of the telephone, everyone was afraid of television,” Harrison said. “It’s just going to march on. And we’ll acclimate.” - The New York Times
Each year, theater producers and publicists work to make opening night more and more meaningless. Given that this is the night that reviews come out, the result is the continuing, deliberate devaluing of professional theater criticism. - New York Theatre
“Moscow-installed authorities marked the rebuilding of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater (in Mariupol) with a gala concert on the building’s new main stage Sunday night. … The original theater was destroyed when it was targeted by a Russian airstrike on March 16, 2022,” killing around 600 people sheltering inside. - AP
Even four years after his decades-long, widely-gossiped-about abuse of his employees was publicly exposed and he was cancelled, few observers were expecting him to start producing shows on Broadway again. Many of those observers are not happy to see him back. - TheaterMania
“Some Bay Area artists have found a way to ply their trades inside AI companies, to both parties' benefit. The catch: the techies have to take the artists' skills seriously, and the artists have to define their moral boundaries within a much-maligned, constantly evolving industry.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Nataki Garrett Myers, former artistic director of Oregon Shakes: “Neutrality is an illusion. What the article actually offers is a case study in how comfort becomes policy — aesthetic, institutional, and ideological. That comfort has a look. It has a voice. And it has a conspicuous absence.” - Be A Ladder Leader
It’s called the two-block rule, as in, if you need to trash the show, wait until you’re two blocks away. “You wouldn’t go to someone’s house and trash their cooking, so why would you do that in a theatre?” - Washington Post (MSN)
The last hurrah of these bygone performers was the Broadway season of 1957–58, arguably the greatest season on Broadway of the last 75 years. It was the last time that all of the “hall of famers” of yore (save John Gielgud) appeared “on the boards” in the same New York theater season. - The American Scholar
Young’uns under 40 may not realize just how sleazy the heart of Broadway’s entertainment district had become by the 1980s. Now it has The Lion King, Harry Potter, office towers, and a former porn cinema remade into a flagship for children’s theater. We can thank an organization called New 42. - The New York Times
The 17,000 costume pieces are the least extravagant feature of The Gift of Christmas, the annual spectacular presented by Prestonwood Baptist Church near Dallas. On the 300-foot stage are LED screens, lasers, fireworks, trapezing elves, flying angels, and 21 animals. (And yes, shepherds, three kings, and the Holy Family. And Santa.) - Texas Monthly
“The Queen of Versailles, the biggest-budget production to open on Broadway this fall and the only large-scale new musical, aspired to be a cautionary tale about consumption and greed. Instead, it wound up as a cautionary tale about Broadway.” - The New York Times
This is not a “best of” list. What we asked hundreds of theatre folks to do was send us 10 titles they felt had been the most influential on the theatre in the past 25 years. - American Theatre
The theater festival involves collegiate theater students from across the United States, and includes eight regional competitions that have long culminated in a week-long national festival, including the awarding of scholarships and other honors, at the Kennedy Center. - Deadline
In the Abbey’s century-long history as a public institution lies a persuasive story about what a national theater could have done—or still might do—for the United States. Through the decades, the Abbey’s output has regularly showed how effectively theater can process national trauma at times when the public desperately needs an outlet. - The Atlantic
“A decade after Hamilton opened on Broadway and the Public Theater began reaping roughly $100 million for helping to develop the blockbuster musical, the legendary downtown nonprofit company is undergoing its third round of layoffs in four years.” - Broadway Journal
