"In 2023, McAnuff argues, Tommy’s transformation from catatonic schoolboy to a charismatic cult leader resonates more strongly when considering modern-day celebrity worship. And the show’s exploration of trauma — including post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual abuse and bullying — is something that audiences now have a deeper understanding of." - The New York Times
We’d all known the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been broken for a while now, with prices running out of control. But it’s been difficult to focus on that in the past few years. With the pandemic lockdowns receding, though, the truth now feels obvious: there’s no help coming and nobody has any ideas. - The Stage
"Hanoch Levin's Queen of a Bathtub, … a musical that used satire to attack perceived militarism, self-righteousness and racism in the aftermath of Israel's victory in the 1967 war, … (is) being revived in Jaffa amid a sense among its Palestinian performers it is more relevant than ever." - The Guardian
"To watch a show the customer has to insert their phone into the VR device. Once the phone is place, the users strap the box, effectively a pair of cardboard goggles, around their head and plug in their own headphones. The app then streams a recorded performance." - BBC
The set designer for the production at the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival: "It just immediately added a layer that I don't think we would have achieved if we had to fake it out of totally brand new bolts of fabric from the store." - CBC
Just what we need: More joyless, foolish bureaucrats quashing theatrical productions. "The interactive show is set at an Italian-American wedding, with a three-course meal, live music and dancing." - BBC
"In the early 1960s, the Jewish American soul was tied in knots. On the one hand, Jews knew they were outsiders. ... On the other hand, Jews were finally starting to get what their immigrant grandparents had worked so hard in sweatshops to achieve." Then came Fiddler. - Salon
He realised that in this case technology had triggered deeper emotions than a stage performance. "VR is a very personal experience as opposed to theatre, which is communal." - BBC
For immigrants, it's seeing their own history on a Broadway stage; for their children, it's a major lesson. ("Growing up, the only thing I really knew about Imelda was her shoe collection.") For the all-Filipino cast, it's revisiting "a past that's hardly in the rearview mirror." - The New York Times
"Here's what to know about Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos, the People Power Revolution of 1986 and the controversies the show" — Here Lies Love, now on Broadway after runs Off-Broadway and elsewhere — "has faced." - The New York Times
As of Sept. 1, Tim Bond, who was the festival's associate artistic director from 1996-2007 and is currently AD at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, succeeds Nataki Garrett, who departed in May after an extremely challenging four-year tenure which included COVID closures, wildfires, and financial crises. - Ashland.news
"When I watch the shows each year, I feel like I'm at a church pageant for a religion I don't belong to. It's as if it's not supposed to be good theater; it's supposed to be moral instruction that even a child could understand." - MSN (San Francisco Chronicle)
"The crisis is a perfect storm of bad economic and demographic trends, exacerbated by a change in cultural habits during the pandemic. … The confluence has theater business professionals issuing dire warnings. 'By this time next year, I think the industry will shrink by half,'" said one consultant. - MSN (The Washington Post)
“How does expect writers to continue to find the will to write when there is not only little chance of production but also little chance of engaging a theatre in any meaningful discussion about work in which has already expressed an interest? - The Guardian
"Around the country, in blue states as well as red, theater teachers say it has become increasingly difficult to find plays and musicals that will escape the kind of criticism that, they fear, could cost them their jobs or result in a cutback in funding." - The New York Times
