No matter if it's a local stage show or a major Broadway production — or if it's a comedy, musical, or drama — these long-held theater traditions and superstitions are still going strong. - Interesting Facts
And for worse. “The world of the McKittrick, we believed (or let ourselves pretend to believe), was an enchanted one; not just by the witches who herald Macbeth’s downfall, but by a stranger and more widely suffused magic.” - Slate
“‘To be a stand-up comedian in today’s world, you have to be a content machine,’ said Gianmarco Soresi, a New York-based comic with about 700,000 TikTok followers.” - The New York Times
Can funding struggling theatre help solve our disconnect? Sarah Ruhl: "We are facing a public health emergency—and we need funding from the National Institutes of Health immediately. Let’s treat theatre as a proven method to stem the tide of debilitating isolation in this country.” - American Theatre
For Hello, I’m Dolly (some of us would get tickets simply based on the title), “the star is writing new songs to go along with some of her past hits and co-writing a stage story inspired by her life.” - The Guardian (UK) (AP)
For over 20 years, co-founders Bob and Anita Farley successfully ran the company in an inner suburb of Atlanta, and they made plans to pass the reins and retire 18 months apart. But Bob suddenly died, and his successor as artistic director left town before starting the job. Then came the pandemic. - ArtsATL
Striving for a high-level experience also means embedding accuracy into the menu itself. For The Great Murder Mystery, the team at the Lost Estate spent hours researching the cuisine and cooking styles of the 1800s, with the big inspiration coming in the form of the “Gordon Ramsay of the day”, the French chef Alexis Soyer. - The Stage
Seattle’s ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Company — two of the city’s most enduring theater companies — may soon become one entity, the companies announced Wednesday. - Seattle Times
"'Every year our expenses go up at least five percent, if not more, because we so outpace inflation,' says Ken Davenport, producer of the Neil Diamond musical A Beautiful Noise. 'So flat is terrible.'" - The Hollywood Reporter
Are subscriptions in free fall, and if so, what does that mean for the continuing health of theatres? Are subscriptions still a viable model, for either audiences or companies? - American Theatre
"(Hallie) Flanagan and her colleagues made theater an important expression of the American democratic experiment through force of will, passion, and ingenuity. And although that experiment was destroyed through a mix of reactionary perfidy and liberal wimpiness, the meaning of its story is not solely contained in its ending." - The Atlantic (MSN)
For every rave like Entertainment Weekly's ("jaw-droppingly gorgeous from start to finish"), there's a critique like this from The New York Times ("too often a misguided attempt to resuscitate the show breaks its ribs"). Director Rebecca Frecknall and stars Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin consider why. - The Washington Post (MSN)
One nonbinary Black actor who played Belle says, “I was really encouraged to do my own interpretation, ... and I got to have a say in my costumes—like, I wasn’t in a blue dress, I was in a blue jumpsuit, and wore red Doc Martens boots.” - American Theatre
The three "have offered one another couches to sleep on and airfare for auditions. They write and produce music and musicals together. They hype up one another before callback auditions, promote the others’ gigs on social media and cheer wildly from the mezzanine during performances.” - The New York Times
The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, originally planned for 2020, is back - and “longtime collaborators playwright Alani Apio and artistic director Harry Wong III saw an opportunity to realize a shared dream 30 years in the making: to simultaneously stage all three plays in Apio’s The Kāmau Trilogy.” - American Theatre
