"The decision, one of many such wholesale changes as the Chicago theater slowly emerges from the COVID-19 crisis of closures, is not unexpected by close observers: Shapiro long ago signaled her intention to leave at the end of her current contract and the ensemble and board of directors has been engaged in succession planning." - Yahoo! (Chicago Tribune)
"In my official capacity as theater critic, I’m prepared to make a cultural diagnosis. As the pandemic shows signs of coming under control in the U.S., an epidemic of stage fright is exploding." - Los Angeles Times
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that one capacity restriction that will remain in place, with limits still being mandated on the number of people who can attend events at large outdoor stadiums. Those will remain at 33% capacity. Even though the rules have been loosened, Broadway isn’t expected to welcome guests back for several weeks, even months. - Variety
But for an Asian American director during the pandemic, kicking off Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month via an online platform, it's a whole new (basket)ball game. - Oregon Artswatch
"The origins of blackface minstrelsy are much older than most people know, with deep roots in the English medieval and Shakespearean theatrical traditions. Understanding the often-forgotten medieval roots of blackface might help us to end old performance traditions and to create new ones." - Smithsonian Magazine
Many will grapple with an uncertain theatre landscape and uncertainty over how audiences might behave as society opens up. And this is at a time when cities have been devastated by the pandemic, and many are still reeling from the loss to life and livelihoods. - The Stage
The show, titled Buñuel and based on that filmmaker's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, had been in development with playwright David Ives (Venus In Fur) and the Public Theater for about a decade, with a workshop held in 2016. Now the Public says that the 91-year-old composer told the theater last year that he...
"Now a growing movement within French theater is reclaiming the work of forgotten female artists, and reviving a lost concept along the way: le matrimoine. Matrimoine is the feminine equivalent of patrimoine — translated as patrimony, or what is inherited from male ancestors. In French, however, patrimoine is also the catchall term to describe cultural heritage. By way of...
"I've had a terrible year trying to keep on as many people as I can, but our job is to try to put a show on that can run and be brilliant," he said. "Am I sorry? I'm sorry they're upset, but I do find it odd why musicians would want to keep doing the same thing year after...
Not everything in Anna Leonowens's memoirs about her time at the Siamese court is a lie, but quite a lot is untrue, especially about Anna's own mixed-race, plebeian origins. (For instance, she'd never even been to Britain when she went to Bangkok.) Thence come many of the problems in the musical, like the white-savior narrative. David Henry Hwang's rewrite...
Charles McNulty on the Bard in 2021: "Shakespeare’s characters keep drawing us back because we want to understand them more fully. They leave us with an impression of unfinished business. Just as no one in our lives can be fully known, so the figures in his plays reveal only so much about what they think, feel and believe." -...
"Each of the attendees submits a screening form in advance and undergoes a COVID rapid test on-site, in an ivory-walled corridor that suggests a 1940s hospital on a Ryan Murphy set. Face masks are mandatory; wearable “passports” reflect row assignments, and the “Social Distance Ground Crew” lights the way with tarmac-style batons. To me—effectively a pandemic-era shut-in, having spent...
"If you live and die at the box office, as does Broadway, you are not rewarded for indulgence or self-involvement. More importantly, you often are better able to reach non-elites. Broadway attracts more lower-middle class theatergoers than many pretentious nonprofit institutions; it pulls more young people to shows like “Mean Girls” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and it is...
"Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group, which emerged from Chapter 15 protection after a sale in November, announced on Wednesday that it is restarting four of its unique offerings, including O and Mystère. Most Cirque du Soleil shows have been dark in the U.S. since March 15, 2020." - Deadline
“The answer is not more diverse critics because what the fuck does that mean? More diverse critics and then they go where? More diverse critics writing for £25 an article. Is that going to change anything?” - The Stage
