"They must become expert drummers. They’ll also learn to spit paint onto a spinning canvas, catch a dozen rapid-fire marshmallows in their mouths and then be prepared for absolutely anything the audience might throw at them. Hundreds audition every year across the globe. Only a handful ultimately get hired." - WBEZ (Chicago)
"Now, this revival of that show is proving, with gusto, that American Idiot can be yet another thing: a near-scientific study of the innumerable ways to give somebody the finger." - The New York Times
The show has struggled to sell enough tickets to defray its running costs, and on Friday night the producers announced that it would close on Jan. 5. At the time of its closing, it will have had 24 previews and 301 regular performances. The show announced plans for a national tour in September 2025. - NY Times
This new incarnation of Book-It will not be a producing company. They are not hiring a staff or planning a full season. You cannot buy a subscription. They’re starting with one show, a co-production running Oct. 10-20 at Vashon Repertory Theatre. After that? They’re not sure yet. - Seattle Times
“The lights-dimming ritual, which goes back decades, has been an increasingly fraught one for the nine entities that own and operate Broadway theaters.” - The New York Times
"The complaint alleges that Stereophonic is an 'unauthorized adaptation' of Kenneth Caillat’s 2012 memoir, Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album (which he co-wrote with Steven Stiefel) about his time as a sound engineer (later promoted to co-producer) of one of the most popular albums in history." - TheaterMania
One of the largest nonprofit theaters in the Bay Area, the California Shakespeare Theater for 50 years offered high-quality outdoor productions and theater education programs. The company has had financial troubles for several years; an emergency campaign last summer raised $350,000 to complete this season's one production. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Koteba, a traditional form of theater by Mali’s largest ethnic group, the Bambara, mixes acting, singing and dancing to work through villagers' problems and offer satire. At one of Bamako's largest hospitals, koteba is being used to help psychiatric patients in a country desperately short of mental health professionals. - AP
The Sherman High School's production became a subject of nationwide controversy after a transgender boy was removed from the cast, his fellow students protested, and the district called it all off. An independent report says that the now-former superintendent was upset about "same-sex kissing" onstage. - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
"There was a received narrative that proper playhouses start off round and then just get bigger, with the pinnacle of that evolution being the Globe. And all of a sudden we’ve got this early, yet long-lived, rectangular structure. ... This has changed our understanding of theatre development." - The Guardian
The Alley put out a press statement that included a long list of financial achievements during the years Dean Gladden has been managing director. When he came to the Alley the Houston theater was facing an $800,000 deficit. "The Alley now boasts financial reserves exceeding $5 million." - Houston Press
"A number of companies that cater to smaller audiences with niche or experimental productions are struggling to find or keep their spaces in the city. And now the Source Theatre, an intimate 120-seat stage … that has served audiences for nearly 50 years, is up for sale." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"'Part and parcel of running a theater in Los Angeles is waking up two to four times a year and not knowing if you're going to be in business the next week,' John Perrin Flynn reflected after announcing his retirement as producing artistic director of Rogue Machine Theatre." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Scholar Darren Freebury-Jones used a text database called Collocations and N-grams to spot parallel phrases and passages in Shakespeare's plays and those of his contemporaries. Oxford Shakespeare scholar Emma Smith writes that Freebury-Jones's computerized approach is less compelling than his own literary analysis. - The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
Who needs to see a play in which inflammatory positions and arguments aren’t dangerous? Hatred and intolerance won’t disappear because pious new puritans stop them being aired in theatre for fear of causing offence. - The Stage
