As I’ve argued before, the habit of reducing the complexities of identity and culture to a matter of ownership is an artifact of our own property-rights-obsessed culture. We’ll do better to talk about “disrespect,” and disrespect isn’t the issue here. - The New York Times
The auditorium, carved out of a hillside in Syracuse on Sicily's southeastern coast, "seats 5,000. The stage is 27 metres wide and 44 deep; acting, direction and design are correspondingly epic. Yet ... psychological detail is still achievable even in this vast arena." - The Guardian
"Organizers 'are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the WGA, and therefore the WGA will not be picketing the show.' What is being altered was not clear, but it may be to allow a non-scripted version of the Tonys to go on." - AP
This isn't great for theatre: "The Tonys have long been a prestigious event for CBS, but the show itself is more important to Broadway producers, who rely on the exposure on the national network to market their productions." And they're struggling, post-COVID-19. - Los Angeles Times
The strike’s possible impact on this year’s Tonys, set to air and stream Sunday, June 11 on CBS and Paramount+ from the United Palace in New York City’s Washington Heights, could be huge. - Deadline
“When you recognize the potential for something to shift, and you can see the path, then the question becomes, how do you implement a strategy where that is possible in an environment that sees any shift as radical change?" - Ashland News
A new play based on Annie Proulx's story (not the 2005 film adaptation), starring Lucas Hedges as Ennis and Mike Faist as Jack, is in previews in London. Playwright Ashley Robinson has framed the story as a memory play set 30 years after the relationship ends. - The New York Times
"Cinderella" was greeted on Broadway by hostile reviews, garnered zero Tony nominations and struggled at the box office. Last week it played to houses that were only 54 percent full and grossed just $326,303, which made it the lowest-grossing musical on Broadway. - The New York Times
"Investigators opened a case this week against Yevgenia (Zhenya) Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, alleging that Petriychuk's Finist, the Brave Falcon, which premiered in 2020 under Berkovich's direction, had broken the law. … (The play) won two Golden Mask national theatre awards last year." - Reuters
"Where modern theatre takes bold, controversial steps in some directions, on the matter of the monarchy, dissenting voices rarely make their way to a mainstream stage. Instead, recent dramatisations of royal life are almost universally positive and rarely, if ever, directly political." - Whynow (UK)
"Sanaz Toossi’s English has won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Set in an English language class in Karaj, Iran, the drama quietly unpacks the aspirations and disappointments of Iranians living under the Islamic Republic in the months leading up to the 2009 Green Movement." - TheaterMania
But the years melted away in a very special Sweeney Todd and Hamilton mashup on Friday: "The entire cast of the current Sondheim revival joined Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Broadway's Hamilton to perform a special mash-up of songs from the two shows' scores." - Playbill
One of the most intriguing aspects of the celebrated show is the live video recording, with close-ups of the actors and occasional puppetry interludes presented on an attendant screen, which also allows room for subtitles for the invented language spoken by the performers. - ArtsHub
What led to Nataki Garrett’s resignation after just four years in the post, in which she spent as much or more time handling crises and fielding criticism as programming and making theatre? And what led OSF to the point where they had to put out their hand for help? - American Theatre
These unmissable logos seem designed to engage audiences with the stage quite actively, creating an Instagrammable moment in a space where cameras are mostly frowned upon. - The Stage
