Music - Isn't That Why They Call It "Live" Theatre? Broadway is having a debate about musicians. Can they be replaced with a "virtual" orchestra? "I believe 90% of the producers want live theatre. "I don't worry about them. I worry about the 10% that say, 'I look at the bottom line. Look at how much I can save.' I understand the bottom line. It's a commercial venture. But theatre is based on certain compacts with the audience. But what happens if you change that contract with the audience? I think if you ask anybody that comes to the theatre, 'Would you like to see a show with music on tape or supplied by a virtual orchestra, and pay the same price'- I guarantee that producers won't lower the musical's price - most people would say, 'I'd rather have a live orchestra.' " Backstage 01/31/03

Guthrie Still In The Hunt For New Theatre Minneapolis' Guthrie Theatre has revised plans for the $125 million new home it is trying to build. Whether it will be built is still in question. The Guthrie has only raised $63 million for the project so far, and has been unsuccessful prying money out of the state government. Governor Jesse Ventura vetoed a $24 million appropriation for the project last year. St. Paul Pioneer-Press 01/30/03

Hytner Explains How To Run A Theatre Nicholas Hytner on his qualifications for running London's National Theatre: "Of course I've never run a theatre, but I've always felt a bit of an impresario. I'm a director who's whored around, kicked around for the right offer - and I'm not talking money. If an affair has looked exciting, I've leapt in. Some of my best times have been at the National, going back to the days when I worked here when Richard [Eyre] was director. It's a good stage of life to be working hard. I'm hungry enough and confident enough to take it on."
London Evening Standard 01/30/03

Would Frequent-Goer Discounts Bring More People Into the Theatre? How about this for a plan? It works for airline tickets - People who buy their theatre tickets well in advance get big discounts. The founder of EasyJet, the discount airline, says: "I am sure that going to the theatre is as price-elastic as going to the movies. If you reduce the price, more people will go. Someone should try it with the theatre some day."
The Scotsman 01/29/03

Star Power Is casting Hollywood celebrities in plays a good thing beyond goosing up the box office? "On the whole, I think the impact of these star performances on London theatre has been overwhelmingly positive. It creates a buzz, it attracts new audiences, it gets theatre talked about. Of course, you do have to make a distinction between what I would call celebrity casting - where you just take some minor celeb and try to use the name to sell tickets - and real star casting, where you’re featuring people whose fame has to do with their quality as actors." So maybe it would help revive Scottish theatre? The Scotsman 01/29/03

Shakespeare In Tehran Director Dominic Hill was invited to Iran with his production of Shakespeare. It's been 25 years since the Bard was performed in Tehran. "This reverent attitude towards our national playwright was to crop up again and again during the many interviews I had with journalists and critics. The Persians, as they call themselves, are a cultured, strongly opinioned, passionate people - one mention that I had a degree in English literature and I was treated to a 30-minute lecture on the great Persian poets. Shakespeare is up there with them, and therefore to produce him in modern dress seemed, to the intellectuals and directors I spoke to, incomprehensible, insulting and doomed to failure." The Guardian (UK) 01/29/03

Broadway Feeling The Chill Last week's grosses for several high-profile Broadway shows weren't just disappointing, they were abysmal. The extended cold snap blanketing the Northeast isn't helping what was already shaping up as a dismal season on the Great White Way, and buzz around the industry now has several big-money productions ready to fold in the coming weeks and months. New York Post 01/29/03

The National's Big Bold New Direction Nicholas Hytner's ambitious plans for London's National Theatre, anounced last week, are a big hit. "Doing stripped-down productions, 'with big, bold, simple strokes' and a minimum of costumes and scenery, is a way not just of bringing down prices and attracting new audiences, but ensuring that great plays are freshly considered in one of the world's most exciting theatrical spaces. Nor is he merely after the elusive 'yoof' to which our arts commisars are so enslaved." The Telegraph (UK) 01/29/03

New London Car Tax May Impact Theatres? After February 17th, cars entering downtown London on weekdays will have to pay a £5 "congestion" charge designed to help alleviate serious car gridlock in the capital. But this is likely to have an impact on theatre goers in the West End. Will the charge discourage lower-income theatre-goers from coming in for a show? The Telegraph (UK) 01/29/03

Scaling Down To Keep Children's Theatre On Track Minneapolis' Children's Theatre Company announced it was expanding last year. But financial help approved by the state legislature was vetoed by Governor Jesse Ventura. And the theatre has only raised $11.5 million of the $24 million needed. On top of it all, costs for the project as designed last year went up. So the company has scaled back the building by 25 percent to keep it on track. St. Paul Pioneer-Press 01/28/03

Broadway's Fight Over Music "In what are expected to be the most bitter contract talks on the Great White Way in recent history, show producers are pushing to eliminate a longstanding union rule that compels Broadway theaters to hire a minimum number of musicians, currently 3 to 26, depending on the size of the venue. And vowing that the shows must go on in the event of a strike, producers are turning to a high-tech offshoot of taped music known as virtual orchestras, capable of simulating the subtle variations of tempo and tone in live music." New York Daily News 01/27/03

• Previously:

  Will Broadway Continue To Employ Live Musicians? Broadway musicians are getting ready to negotiate for a new contract. The musicians' union says the negotiation will be about whether theatres continue to use live musicians. "They have made direct statements to me that they are or will be prepared to replace us with mechanical devices. They're going to walk in with a proposal to eliminate minimums, and behind it will be the threat to replace us should we go on strike." Backstage 01/23/03

The Sam Mendes Formula Diretor Sam Mendes has earned cachet for the plays he directed at Donmar Warehouse, the "flashy and successful London theatre" he co-founded a decade ago. He "knows, in his post-Peter Brook way, that the play is not the thing; the star is, no matter how ill-equipped he or she may be for the exigencies of the stage. He knows, too, that the theatre nowadays is to movies what jazz is to pop music: it has a certain cachet, but few prefer it to the populist-minded alternative." The New Yorker 01/27/03

Reinventing The National Theatre Nicholas Hytner appears to be reinventing London's National Theatre. And doing it quickly. Along with cutting ticket prices, he's trying to expand the National's tastes. His "particular hope is that by exploring 'the gaps between what we now call 'dance', 'plays' and 'operas',' the National can redefine musical drama. 'Somewhere along the line, "musical" became a dirty word - I want to clean it up'." The Observer (UK) 01/26/03

Moscow Theatre Reopens After Last Year's Siege The Moscow theatre that was captured by Chechen rebels last year has reopened for business. "Moscow's city government provided $2.5 million to renovate the theatre, which now has a new security system and orchestra pit, and will be ready for the first show on 8 February." BBC 01/26/03

Will Broadway Continue To Employ Live Musicians? Broadway musicians are getting ready to negotiate for a new contract. The musicians' union says the negotiation will be about whether theatres continue to use live musicians. "They have made direct statements to me that they are or will be prepared to replace us with mechanical devices. They're going to walk in with a proposal to eliminate minimums, and behind it will be the threat to replace us should we go on strike." Backstage 01/23/03

National Theatre Slashes Ticket Prices Nicholas Hytner, incoming director of London's National Theatre has plans to slash ticket prices - to £10 tickets for many of the large productions. "What I want to do is find a way of getting people in to try what we have got to offer, the same way you feel able to try a movie at the weekend even if you do not know much about it." BBC 01/23/03

• A Bold Start "Hytner's first season is full of bold thinking. The news that in the biggest of the NT's three auditoria, the Olivier, two thirds of the ticket prices will be slashed to £10 for six months couldn't be more welcome. It should attract new audiences, and also let people who already attend do so more often. The theatre will be stripped back to basics, and offer "accessible", no-frills productions in this epic ampitheatre space." The Telegraph (UK) 01/24/03

The Theatre Fanatic Sisters The Dalton Sisters are dedicated theatre-goers. They go over and over to the same shows, and even cut back on lunch so they can afford tickets. "Their favourite show by far is 'Les Miserables'. The Dalton sisters have seen Les Mis more than 500 times. They've travelled overseas and interstate to see it, paying $60,000 for the pleasure, watch every performance intently, know all the lines, and notice if they're delivered differently. Joanne still cries at every session." A fascinated documentary-maker has made a film of their obsession... The Age (Melbourne) 01/24/03

Renewal And Renovation In Ottawa The National Arts Centre in Ottawa today will kick off a major renovation project for its 900-seat theatre, which plays host to a variety of dance and theatrical productions. The venue has often been overlooked in the NAC's larger plans, because the centerpiece of the complex, the NAC Orchestra, performs in the larger Southam Hall. The renovation is expected to cost CAN$3 million, $2 million of which must still be raised from patrons and donors, and the project will be completed by 2006. Ottawa Citizen 01/23/03

Invisible Plays - The Names You Can't Advertise What happens when you're producing a play with a controversial or offensive title? How do you advertise it? How do you get newspapers to accept ads for it? "Boston is the toughest market for controversial titles. Considering that we're called the Athens of the East, it's a very conservative, stodgy and puritanical market." Townonline.com 01/22/03

House Hunting With The Royal Shakespeare As everyone knows, the Royal Shakespeare Company is looking for a new London home. "Top of its wish list are the Old Vic at Waterloo - a theatre thick with ghosts of RSC glories past - and Andrew Lloyd Webber's slightly less gilded New London on Drury Lane, home for most of the past 20 years to the composer's musical cash cow Cats, based on TS Eliot's poems." The Guardian (UK) 01/21/03

Shakespeare Goes To Iran Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" took a bow in Tehran this week as the Dundee Repertory Theatre Company played as "part of an initiative by the British Council to open hearts and minds in the Muslim world." The play was "performed to a sold-out theatre packed with university students, academics and artists hungry for more cultural contact with the west. 'Opportunities like this come so rarely. We only see foreign theatre productions once a year and to get the chance to see Shakespeare performed by a British cast is just incredible'."
The Guardian (UK) 01/22/03

Stealing Reinvention? Are Others Stealing Jonathan Larson's Ideas? A writer goes through the boxes of papers left by "Rent" author Jonathan Larson. "The cynic in me knows that Larson's tragic death on the day before his long-labored-over Rent was about to go into previews fueled the hype that made the show 'the breakthrough musical for the '90s,' as Newsweek wrote. But having been an eyewitness to the paper trail left by Larson's perspiration and inspiration, I also know he deserved the Pulitzer and the Tonys. And the long career he never got." Did Larson "reinvent" musical theatre? And these new musicals on Broadway merely rip-offs of Larson's ideas? Miami Herald 01/19/03

A New Generation of Russian Playwrights Since Chekhov died almost a century ago, "the West has heard almost nothing from Russian stage writers. Their fame lies buried beneath the cultural glaciers of the 20th century’s big totalitarian chill. Now, though, a new wave of Russian writers is emerging..." The Times (UK) 01/20/03

Seattle's ACT Theatre Cuts Back Faced with a $500,000 deficit, Seattle's A Contemporary Theatre reduces staff, shifts its schedule out of the summer, and cuts its budget from $5.9 million to $4.9 million. "Our revenues are being outpaced by expenses. We decided to take really decisive action. We want to make ACT a center for new plays, and the next five months will be a really important time for us to solidify this mission." Seattle Times 01/17/03

• Deficit Surprised Artistic Director Three months ago Robert Egan moved to Seattle to be artistic director at ACT. "In what he calls 'a shocking disclosure,' Egan says he learned two weeks ago that ACT's big fall fund-raising push had fizzled amid a flagging economy in the Pacific Northwest.
  Annual donations totaled $1.8 million instead of the budgeted $2.4 million. Had he known then what he knows now, would Egan have taken the job? 'That's a very good question,' he says. 'I don't know'." Los Angeles Times 01/20/03

Theatre Share How can small theatres afford to mount shows that are beyond their financial resources? Joint productions. "The deal works like this: Great Lakes and St. Louis Rep split the upfront costs of the show, about $330,000. That covers the designers' fees, the cost of sets and costumes, the director's salary and wages for the cast and stage managers to rehearse four weeks. Then each theater pays for the run of the show at its own theater." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 01/19/03

Broadway In Moscow? Will big Broadway American musicals find an audience in Moscow? Results so far have been mixed. "These shows represent the risky yet enticing prospect of introducing blockbuster American musicals to the land of Stanislavski and Meyerhold. But the results have been so different that no one can really say whether it has been a good idea or not." The New York Times 01/19/03

In Boston - So Many Theatres, Too Few Plays Boston has plenty of small theatres. But fewer tenants to fill them in a down economy. "The economics of producing plays means theater companies have to be creative, not only in their choice of work, but in their venues and the way they attract an audience. How this ripples down to the works audiences will see in the future remains to be seen." Boston Herald 01/19/03

Pop Art And Broadway The big names on Broadway this season aren't Stephen Sondheim and Neil Simon, but Baz Luhrmann and Billy Joel and Russell Simmons. Musicals and dramas are out; poperas, dance-icals, and poetrash are in. This is neither nothing new nor the end of Western civilization." It is "a grand convergence of pop art and high art. After all, even in the best of Broadway times, when was the last time the Great White Way played host to poetry, opera, and ballet simultaneously? For that matter, when was the last time the Great White Way was so welcoming to other skin and hair colors? Such concerns, though, are more archeological than critical." Boston Globe 01/19/03

Theatre Cancels Show When Critic Decides To Attend Preview When the George Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey found out that the New York Times was sending a critic to review a preview performance for its new show, the director decided to cancel the performance. The theater's staff contacted all 166 ticket holders for the performance to tell them of the cancellation. Says the director: "When it became clear to me that the artistic process was going to be violated and that trust between the press and the theater was going to be violated, I had to put a stop to it. I had no recourse. I could not turn this individual critic away from the performance; that would be discrimination. But I could stop the performance." Home News Tribune (New Jersey) 01/17/03

Formerly Illegal Theatre Takes The International Stage "Back in 1987, when Evgeny Kozlov founded his experimental Do-Theatre, the company was illegal and ran around Soviet Leningrad performing clandestine, movement-based theatre wherever they could, which was mainly outdoors. Now the internationally celebrated troupe is running around the globe presenting shows with two separate touring companies." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/17/03

What's What In Tony Race Do you count "La Boheme" a musical? Original musical? What about the all-dance "Movin' Out," Twyla Tharp's dance celebration of Billy Joel songs? For Tony nomination purposes, the committee has ruled, "Boheme" is a "musical revival" and "Movin' Out" a musical... Hartford Courant 01/16/03

National Picks Up 20 Olivier Nominations London's National Theatre was "showered with 20 nominations" for Olivier Awards. It's a tribute to departing director Trevor Nunn, who's reign at5 the National has been controversial. Still, "Nunn himself has very oddly been overlooked for best director despite pulling the strings on Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia, A Streetcar Named Desire with Glenn Close and the ecstatically received musical Anything Goes." The Guardian (UK) 01/17/03

Bourne Pulls Out Of Disney "Mermaid" Star choreographer Matthew Bourne has pulled out of choreographing Disney's stage version of "The Little Mermaid." A disney spokesman: "There was the time it would take to do [Bourne's] vision vs. the timeline we're on, and I don't think they matched up. . . . I want to work with Matt; I adore him and think he's really smart. [But] it's just not going to be on Mermaid." TheatreNow 01/16/03

Tough Times For Off-Broadway While business on Broadway has been brisk this season, commercial off-Broadway "remains mired in gloom". Some of Off-Broadway's best theatres are dark after shows failed. "The troubles have persisted for several seasons, aggravated by the Sept. 11 attacks, rising ticket prices, thin profit margins and a string of expensive financial failures." Nando Times (AP) 01/16/03

Getting Around The Idea Of Chekhov "Unavailable to account for himself, Anton Chekhov has become the invention of his admirers, who may variously prefer him tentative or exuberant, skittish or implacable, walking as delicately as a girl or tough as old boots. Some get excited about the new Chekhov, now that those old-maidish Soviets have got their hands off him to reveal new warts on the familiar face; all this does to others is to prompt a smile. For what, I think, could be more natural for a man with delicate physical difficulties in a barbarous age than to complain daily to his sister about water closets? What more obvious for a consumptive whose euphoria turned erotic at inconvenient times than occasionally to turn down some discreet alley in a Siberian town? Thank God for the loss of sanctity." The Guardian (UK) 01/15/03

Costly Bite - "Vampires" Closing On Broadway "Dance of the Vampires" opened on Dec. 9 to "lukewarm reviews and mediocre daily sales. The producers had hoped to fight the show's poor critical reception with new television advertising, but the last two weeks proved particularly difficult, as the weekly box office take dipped below $500,000. (The show's weekly running costs are about $600,000.) At $12 million, 'Vampires' ranks among the most expensive losers in Broadway history, taking its place alongside famous flops like 'Capeman' and 'Carrie'." The New York Times 01/15/03

Americans Buy West End Theatre Two American brothers - Ted and Norman Tulchin - have bought London's Playhouse Theatre. "The sale comes as London theatreland battles with a drop in audiences, with fewer US tourists coming to the capital." BBC 01/15/03

Plan To Subsidize West End Theatre Tickets A plan by the mayor of London to spend £350,000 on subsidizing theatre tickets for Londoners, is being welcomed by the theatres. "Just one third of the 12 million people who pay to see plays, musicals, dance and operas in London's theatreland actually live in London. The tickets, which can cost up to £40, are being offered at reduced prices of £10, £15 and £20 between 15 January and 29 March." BBC 01/15/03

Grandage Takes Over Donmar Michael Grandage is succeeding Sam Mendes running the Donmar Theatre. A scary prospect following a legend? No. "There’s a myth that it’s better for a director to inherit a theatre on its knees and build it up so that, when you leave, you can say ‘Look what I’ve done!’. But to inherit a theatre with an international brand name and a legacy of excellence means that the sky’s your limit. We already have an audience and actors wanting to come. I could never put on Camus in the first season in an unsuccessful theatre, but here I can, and that’s brilliant.” The Times (UK) 01/11/03

Mackintosh To Invest £20 million In London Theatres Producer Cameron Mackintosh says he'll invest £20 million in fixing up West End theatres in London. "We have a unique treasury of Edwardian and Victorian theatres designed by great architects and we are committed to improving the UK and overseas public's experience of visiting our theatres and the West End. These are important buildings." The Telegraph (UK) 01/10/03

• Previously: London's Sick Theatre District Who wants to go to London's West End theatre district anymore? "Whether you travel by car or train, it is a nightmare to get there, and when you arrive the place is squalid. The streets are filthy and poorly lit, there are horribly persistent beggars everywhere, and the place is overrun by groups of marauding yoof, out on the booze and aggressive and foul-mouthed with it. Drug-dealing takes place more or less openly, and the atmosphere is deeply depressing when it isn't downright threatening. Of a policeman on the beat there is hardly ever a sign." The Telegraph (UK) 01/07/03

The New Movie Musical - No Julie Andrews Here... Does the success of "Chicago" and "Moulin Rouge" mean movie musicals are making a comeback? "It wouldn't be the strangest trend to ever sweep through pop culture, but it wasn't that long ago when talking about a revival of movie musicals would have been akin to speculating on the horse-and-buggy craze that was just around the corner. In fact, today's 18-34 crowd has been watching musicals since they were kids, in the form of all the Disney movies that got popped into the VCR whenever mom and dad needed a break." Dallas Morning News 01/12/03

Broadway Bottoms-Out - Shows Close, Theatres Empty, Deep Ticket Discounts In Post-Holiday Slump Happens every year. But this year somehow it seems more dramatic. The post-holiday January drop in Broadway ticket sales is dramatic - 75 percent in at least one theatre. "Broadway producers said they weren't panicking — it was a good fall and very strong holiday season, after all — but they were rolling out all manner of marketing to combat the cold." The New York Times (2nd item) 01/10/03

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Tie 'Em Up And Yell At 'Em A small Vancouver theatre company was tired of staging plays that didn't get reviewed or else received poor notices, and needed a fresh idea to promote their latest production. So they kidnapped four local theatre critics, tied them to chairs in front of their theatre, and yelled insults at them. (Okay, okay, the critics were willing participants. But it's still a pretty cool image...) The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 01/08/03

The Fringe - Where Adventure Lives The West End is fine for what it is. But the real risks, the real experiments, are to be found in the fringe. "Freedom, spontaneity, risk, imaginative challenge: all these things were central to the experience of the fringe. They are all notably elusive in the other available theatrical environments, where those considerations drearily familiar from Arts Council feasibility studies - audience expectation of spectacle, long-term planning, product recognisability - reign." The Guardian (UK) 01/08/03

Painter Of Light Lighting for one of every eight shows that have opened on Broadway in the past two years has been the work of one man - Brian MacDevitt. Why is he so special? New York Sun 01/07/03

Another Scottish Theatre Bites The Dust - (What, Is This Government Policy?) Scotland's Cutting Edge Theatre, which pioneered giving outdoor performances of classic plays in some of Scotland’s most historic castles and palaces, has had to cancel plans for a new season because of lack of funding. "In the wake of a series of complaints at the end of last year over the level of Scottish Executive support for theatre in Scotland, Cutting Edge’s fate will seem almost predictable to critics of arts funding." The Scotsman 01/08/03

Broadway's Mid-Season Report Card "At the midpoint of the 2002-03 season, it looks to be in many respects lively, productive and financially healthy. Halfway through the season - which begins and ends in early May - there's a certain comfort level. And if this spring starts to heat up, as it traditionally does, then it could mean a record-breaking season." Hartford Courant 01/05/03

Trio Of Hits Shakes Up Broadway If last year was the year of the revival on Broadway, this year three shows have shaken up the cynic's view of how business is conducted. "Chances are being taken, rules are being broken and — as a result — attention is being paid." Toronto Star 01/07/03

After 20 Years - 'Midnight's Children' Comes To The Stage Some 20 years ago, Salman Rushdie's sweeping novel "Midnight's Children" was an international bestseller. Decades later, "after abortive adaptations by the BBC and a leading West End producer, it has taken the combined efforts of Rushdie, the Royal Shakespeare Company and two American universities to end the wait, with a stage version of 'Midnight’s Children' that previews in London next week." The Times (UK) 01/07/03

London's Sick Theatre District Who wants to go to London's West End theatre district anymore? "Whether you travel by car or train, it is a nightmare to get there, and when you arrive the place is squalid. The streets are filthy and poorly lit, there are horribly persistent beggars everywhere, and the place is overrun by groups of marauding yoof, out on the booze and aggressive and foul-mouthed with it. Drug-dealing takes place more or less openly, and the atmosphere is deeply depressing when it isn't downright threatening. Of a policeman on the beat there is hardly ever a sign." The Telegraph (UK) 01/07/03

Movies By Day, Stage By Night "The transition from theatre to film and TV is an art that stage actors in Canada, and particularly Toronto, are becoming more adept at handling. As film and TV production work increases and the economic forecast for creating theatre gets less promising, seeking work opportunities outside theatre is no longer thought of as selling out. Actors dropping out of a play to do a film is becoming the unwritten law of the Toronto theatre jungle." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/06/03

Broadway Comes To Disney "Disney wants to replicate in the theme parks a formula that has paid dividends for another division: Disney Theatricals, which produces the company's Broadway shows. Take a beloved Disney property ("The Lion King"), turn it over to an accomplished avant-garde stage artist with a distinctive visual flair (director Julie Taymor), and reap critical kudos and huge profits." Los Angeles Times 01/05/03

• Previously: More Adventures With Disney - "Destination" Theatre Admissions at Disney's theme parks are down 25 percent since 2001. What to do? How about theatre? Disney has hired some A-list creators to come up with "a new era in theme-park entertainment." It's theatre presented continuously in 40-minute loops. First up: "a 40-minute version of the 'Aladdin' story, using the score from Disney's animated film. It will run continuously in the brand new 'Broadway-style' Hyperion theater in Disney's ailing California Adventure Park. 'We've coined a new phrase - destination entertainment'." Christian Science Monitor 01/03/03

What's A Young Theatre Artist To Do? When the UK's repertory theatre system collapsed in the 1970s "visionary artists ran to the fringe and reinvented their art form from scratch." But how did those artists support themselves? They went on the dole. And some of today's best-known artists got their starts that way. Today the dole has been replaced by a system that requires full-time availability for paid work. "To bend the rules and do creative work while 'signing on', as we all did in the mad years of early Thatcherism, is no longer possible." The Guardian (UK) 01/05/03

The Royal Shakespeare's London Misadventures Part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's plan to reinvent includes being a major player in London's West End. But that plan is faltering after the company's last five plays there have taken in only 20 percent of what they needed to at the box office. "The plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries have been rapturously received by critics, and sold out when they were premiered at Stratford-upon-Avon, but London audiences have been staying away." The Guardian (UK) 01/05/03

Curiously Refreshing - A Small Theatre's Fight For Rights In 1999 Denver's fledgling Curious Theatre tried to get rights to a Paula Vogel play it wanted. But the big Denver Center had first-refusal rights. So as consolation the rights-administrator granted Curious rights to another Vogel play - "How I Learned to Drive," which the DCTC had passed on, and which then won a Pulitzer Prize. Now Vogel is working with Curious again: "To me, that's why we are doing theater, to disturb the air; to offend people. There is such a need for these smaller companies that will take risks, that will read new plays."
Denver Post 01/05/03

More Adventures With Disney - "Destination" Theatre Admissions at Disney's theme parks are down 25 percent since 2001. What to do? How about theatre? Disney has hired some A-list creators to come up with "a new era in theme-park entertainment." It's theatre presented continuously in 40-minute loops. First up: "a 40-minute version of the 'Aladdin' story, using the score from Disney's animated film. It will run continuously in the brand new 'Broadway-style' Hyperion theater in Disney's ailing California Adventure Park. 'We've coined a new phrase - destination entertainment'." Christian Science Monitor 01/03/03

Building Shakespeare's Dream A group of Americans is hoping to build the theatre Shakespeare imagined his plays being performed in. "If all goes well, western Massachusetts will become home to the world's first historically accurate reconstruction of the Rose Playhouse. But if all goes well, western Massachusetts will become home to the world's first historically accurate reconstruction of the Rose Playhouse." Christian Science Monitor 01/03/03

Broadway's Newfound Success Historically, Broadway's success as a national theatre district has come from the tremendous number of tourists it draws to its glitzy, glittering shows. But new figures show that Broadway has rebounded from its post-9/11 largely by targeting New York audiences - in fact, New Yorkers accounted for a majority of tickets sold for the first time in recent years. BBC 01/02/03

Crystal Ball gazing On Broadway Which hit show will fold this year without returning its investment? Who's the next big star on Broadway? Michael Riedel makes his predictions about the bright lights of Broadway... New York Post 01/01/03

Practice Makes Perfect? (Or Is It A Myth?) How long does it take to produce good work in the theatre? "Cash-strapped Canadian theatres have often complained that they can't afford enough time to do their best work, but this long-held grievance got a particularly vigorous airing in 2002 as directors hotly debated whether they were facing a crisis - or a myth." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/01/03