This revival’s story is the real-life version of Smash, NBC’s own campy drama about casting the perfect lead; from previews to present day, Funny Girl has been Broadway drama made for TV, played out by TV actors with Broadway voices. - The Ringer
Anything, including revolution, can be repurposed as comfort right now. Nostalgia isn’t just for conservatives—we are in the time of the derriere-garde, experimental hygge, the avant-cozy. - The New Yorker
"Preserving the rhythm, the sound, and the sensibility of the original musical while translating its dense libretto into a language characterized by multisyllabic compound nouns and sentences that often end with verbs, and all in a society that has minimal familiarity with the show's subject matter." - The New York Times
For instance, Alexander Hamilton in "The World Was Wide Enough" —
English: "America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me."
German: "America, durch deine Brust pumpt Sklavenblut, Moral und Wut."
("America, through your breast is pounding the blood of slaves, morality and rage.")
- The New York Times
"If anyone could figure out how to synergize the creativity of a city dominated by film and television yet overflowing with theatrical ingenuity, ... it would be Shakman. But the demands of theater aren't easily contained, and an artistic director needs to be on hand." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
The movie, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (or DDLJ), is about two Indian expats in London: she more traditional, he a Westernized playboy. The musical (directed by the film's director) makes them Harvard students and him WASP. Is that a whitewash? Or a more telling clash of cultures? - The New York Times
Calling the company "the world leader in improv-based education and entertainment," Ed Wells, formerly a senior executive at Sesame Street, said "I want to continue scaling the business and see how we can honor the brand," meaning expanding to more cities and establishing "strategic partnerships in the media marketplace." - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
"During his brief six-week rehearsal periods, van Hove introduces sets, costumes, music and lighting as early in the process as possible. ... He wanted a set that felt cramped, dingy and claustrophobic, a house where multiple televisions play over each other and privacy is impossible." - T — The New York Times Style Magazine
After a turbulent summer that saw the artistic director fired, most of the rest of management resign, and the remaining staffers in open rebellion, the theater's board of directors voted to change the company's operating model and lay off remaining employees due to "operational realities." - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
No one (associated with the play) knows. "In early 2021, a few months into the production’s run, Instagram started cutting off these live streams, citing 'nudity or sexual acts.' Then the account tied to the play disappeared from the platform’s search results." (There was no nudity.) - The New York Times
"As the climate becomes more unpredictable, and extreme heat, violent storms and bushfire smoke more common, Australian producers are being forced to grapple with their effects on their casts, crews, audiences and financial bottom line." - ArtsHub (Australia)
"It is a feeling of being in a minefield where some things are permitted and some not, but you don’t know which, or that certain lines are ‘meant to be funny’, but you don’t find them so – that Shakespeare’s intentions are in some mysterious sense to be honoured, even though no one truly knows what they were." -...
"After a decades-long, controversy-filled history of desperately wanting to play Fanny Brice, Lea Michele was finally in the role on Broadway. At the first performance, the audience was there to cheer on the greatest star, though you could put any part of that fervent sentiment in air quotes." - Vulture
Co-director Diane Paulus: "I want the audience to hold that dual reality, of what the founders were, but also a company of actors in 2022 who never would have been allowed inside Independence Hall. ... (It's) to hold history as a predicament, rather than an affirming myth." - The New York Times
The port city is as famous for its particular sense of humor as New Orleans is for jazz. Says one local comic, "The war has caused many Ukrainians to rediscover the importance of humor, but it has also given stand-up comics a new purpose." - The Christian Science Monitor
