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THEATRE

Open To Change: A Critic Goes Back To A Show And Has An Entirely Different Reaction

In 2014, I couldn’t tolerate a play that mixed hilarity and monstrousness so shamelessly. But time and history have altered that in me.  - The New York Times

In Dallas-Fort Worth, You’re Not Really A Serious Theater Company Until You Have Your Own Theater

"There’s a legitimacy that comes with having a space in Dallas," says the managing director of one company currently remodeling an old warehouse into its home, "If you don’t, you’re not a theater. You’re just some group who does shows on the side for fun." - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

Exit Interview: Peter Marks On Leaving The Washington Post

Daily criticism, which is the heart of what we do, was a print invention. It was a form really made for print—almost uniquely for print. It was a voice, it was a standard, it was a wait-for-that-morning kind of news. I don’t think that journalism has adapted well, in terms of criticism, to the internet age. - American Theatre

Mongolia’s Dilapidated Circus School Is Training Star Acrobats For The World (But Not For Home)

"'We are wanted all over the world, but we can’t even properly train in our own country,' said Gerelbaatar Yunden, a former acrobat and circus director who estimates there are currently about 1,300 Mongolian performers working in North America and Europe." - The New York Times

Why Christmas Panto Is Big Business

For many Brits, panto is their first experience in the theater. For some, it’s their only experience. It’s woven into the fabric of the holidays, and love it or hate it, you’re probably going. In fact, you’ve probably bought enough tickets to bring multiple generations of your family. - Gordon Cox

What’s The Average Income Of Broadway Theatergoers?

Far higher than that of Americans as a whole, according to the Broadway League's demographic report on the 2022-23 season. Now we know why they can pay for those $200-and-up tickets. - TheaterMania

The New Yorker’s Choice Of Best Theatre Of 2023

Over all, dark, meditative productions prevailed, often with their sets literally sunk in shadow. The shows that drew us took place in primordial woods, or an ink-black night, or London in the smog—we spent a lot of 2023 peering. - The New Yorker

What Theatre Ticket Prices Look Like Across The UK

The average top-end ticket outside of London comes in at £49.19, compared with £141.37 for West End shows, while the average cheapest ticket in theatres outside of London was £21.27 – 16% less than in the West End in 2023. - The Stage

The Tricky Business Of Translating A Play About Stanislavsky’s Company Into Russian (And Then French)

Our Life In Art, by playwright Richard Nelson (the "Rhinebeck Panorama" cycle), is about the 1923 U.S. tour by Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theater. The director of today's Moscow Art Theater was set to stage the piece — until Russia invaded Ukraine. - The New York Times

National Theatre Wales Dismayed By 100 Percent Funding Cut

Arts Council of Wales (ACW) previously announced that the theatre charity's £1.6m support was to be cut down to nothing following an investment review. But after NTW recently said it had won an appeal against the cuts, ACW "agreed unanimously" the cuts should still go ahead. - BBC

UK Trend: More Standing Ovations In The Theatre

"Like all exuberant behaviour, it takes you off the scale, so if you are really overwhelmed you have nowhere to go aside from making your standing ovation last even longer." - BBC

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Is Seeing His Play “Appropriate” Go Up On Broadway. Over A Decade After Its Premiere

"It’s been kind of an amazing experience. It’s so rare to have something that you’ve done get a glow-up. … (Broadway is) an important cultural marker. My mom and aunt knows what Broadway is." - The Guardian

Washington Post Theatre Critic Peter Marks Retires. And Theatre Suffers Another Blow

The discourse about critics in the theatre has been so mindlessly hostile for so long that most of the time, the sensible thing for people in the press to do is ignore it. The lack of respect for criticism is deeply embedded in too many theatres that were built in part on press attention. - American Theatre

The Man Who Made ‘Seven Brides For Seven Brothers’ 100 Percent Less Rapey Would Like To Stage It

"David Landay, the only one of the 1982 show’s four writers who is alive, added a prologue and revised the plot so that the women foil the kidnapping attempt" - but the heirs of the other 1982 writers aren't on board. - The New York Times

They Say The Lights Are Bright Off-Broadway

"Progress is neither inevitable nor consistent. The theatrical climate has become as unpredictable as our ailing planet’s weather. The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the artistic gains that were made. No one knows where any of this is heading." - MSN (Los Angeles Times)

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