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THEATRE

Digesting The Tonys: The Surprises And The Overlooked

The nominators spread out their admiration quite widely: Of the 34 shows eligible for nominations, 29 got at least one nod, including the critically scorned “Diana.” But five new plays were completely overlooked. - The New York Times

A Strange Loop Leads The 2022 Tony Awards Nominees

For best play, The Lehman Trilogy has the most nominations, and Company is in the mix for best musical revival. The ceremony was delayed until June 12. - The New York Times

A Constellation Of Unlikely Events Leads To A Real Breakout Off-Broadway Season

Marjan Neshat, a 45-year-old Iranian American actor, is having a real one, with three critically acclaimed performances in one season. Says playwright Sanaz Toossi, "She’s a very Chekhovian actor. ... She’s so interested in the tiny ways we can destroy each other." - The New York Times

What To Do With Theatre’s Classic Canon

Director Awoye Timpo and dramaturg Arminda Thomas: "We were thinking about this notion of what what does it mean to expand the canon? .. Now what we think of is exploding the castle of classical canon." (Note: The transcript of this podcast is here.) - Slate

As Cases Rise Again In New York, Much Of Broadway Ends Vaccine Checks

Masks are still required, mostly, but "while some patrons welcomed the change, others said they felt uneasy about going into crowded theaters without the assurance that their seatmates were vaccinated." - The New York Times

What Ukrainian Theatres Are Doing During The War

Two theatres have converted their stages for people to sleep and for storage of food and medicine. It echoes a narrative happening across Ukraine cultural spaces, which have been transformed to meet people’s current needs. - The Stage

Actors’ Equity Launches Fight To Unionize All National Tours Of Broadway Shows

The union has ended or expanded (depending on how you look at it) its proceeding against a nonunion tour of Waitress to petition the Broadway League (the association for theater owners and producers) to end the arrangement where a show may have union and nonunion tours simultaneously. - The Hollywood Reporter

I Was In A Broadway Show. I Found Out I Was Fired On Social Media

My agent didn’t know anything about it either, until he checked his email and saw he’d received a message less than half an hour before – just after 6pm on the Sunday of a bank holiday weekend – to say the show was closing and I no longer had a contract. - The Guardian

More People Died In Mariupol Theater Bombed By Russians Than Previously Thought

Testimony of nearly two dozen survivors and examination of the now-destroyed theater's plans indicate that at least 600 of the people who had taken shelter in the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater during days of aerial bombing were killed — twice the number previously reported. - AP

The Workers Who Checked COVID Status For Broadway Theatres

“Our team is largely made up of lots of actors, stage managers, company managers, all of whom work in the theater. Nobody has cared about bringing Broadway back like they have.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Why Did Everything Fall Apart At One Of New York’s Most Beloved Play Development Centers? Not For Lack Of Money

When The Lark's board announced the company's closure last October, they said there was no way to keep the company financially sustainable.  Former staffers say the problem was really the departure of some unusually dynamic executives and a well-intentioned experiment in shared management that didn't work out. - American Theatre

The Guardian’s Chief Theatre Critic On Changing Her Mind About A Play

Arifa Akbar: "If a critic changes their mind, do they discredit themselves? No, because theatre reviewing is by its nature only ever an overnight response. ... It is a very different proposition to book reviewing, for instance, where critics are given days, if not weeks, to formulate their views." - The Guardian

Are Big Stars Still A Draw On Broadway?

You bet. The relationship an audience has to a Broadway star is all the more intense for being in-person. Knowing a body in space, the parabolas of certain gestures, the side angles of expressions, the timbre of a wisecrack, the mood of a certain strut lend an illusion of kinship. - Los Angeles Times

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cinderella” Posts Closing Notice, And Some Cast Members Found Out Only Through Social Media

The West End run of ALW's latest musical will conclude on June 12. But the company was told after the Sunday matinee on a holiday weekend in Britain, and many who weren't on that day — including star Carrie Hope Fletcher — got the news the wrong way. - BBC

The Goal: Something Broadway’s Never Seen Before

After the play Strange Loop, "I told I’d purchased a refrigerator magnet from the merch table, so that every time I walk by it, I can remind myself to question the narratives that run through my mind." - The New York Times

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