Antonio Banderas is reportedly planning to return to Broadway. “Angels in America” will be revived for the first time in New York, as will (here’s contrast for you) “Defending The Caveman.” Shrek will morph into a sex columnist in the Spring. Most that was newsworthy in New York Theater was happening in the future this past week, a period in January traditionally so fallow that chief New York Times theater critic spent it in London. Both “Finian’s Rainbow” and “Wishful Thinking” closed this week, bringing the number of Broadway shows that closed in January to 10, and the number that are currently on the boards to 23. “That’s a lot for January, theater publicist Adrian Bryan-Brown tweeted.”
Monday, January 11, 2010
Preview of the 2010 Off-Broadway season
Three-year contract reached between Broadway League and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees IATSE
Mark Shenton’s look at the Broadway discount economy from a few weeks back – in which he makes the point that all the discounts available might be driving prices up — is worth looking at now, for comments
e.g. Ticket price has gone up about 75% in 50 years, & the cost of producing the show has gone up 1000%. Therein the dilemma of Broadway.
Village Voice article on the State of NYC Experimental Theater Reaction from Tlaloc Rivas (@TlalocNYC, director and dramaturg): useful survey, not nasty enough.
Want your play/musical produced? Submit to festivals:
* The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF)
* The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT)
* The New York International Fringe Festival
* The Midtown International Theatre Festival
Deadlines are approaching
Christopher Sieber (Lord Farquaad in “Shrek”) plays sex columnist Dan Savage in “The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant.” The play, to be presented by the New Group in the Spring, is based on Savage’s book about trying to adopt a child with his life partner.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
“Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark”, with music by Bono and The Edge, will now refund tickets sold for preview performances, confirming delay. NYTimes
Demographic Study Of Off-Off Broadway Practitioners (pdf file), a survey of some 4,000 people by the Innovative Theater Foundation, found that the majority are young, white and female; they have moved to New York from all 50 states and 81 countries. “Only ten percent reported making their living exclusively from their work in the theater.”
“A Little Night Music” fights trend, doing well at the Broadway box office while other shows feel post-holiday freeze. Variety
On tour with Hairspray, an Australian ‘Corny Collins’ finds refuge in Jersey City (as do many theater people). Jersey Journal.
Denzel Washington soon to be in “Fences”: “The first thing I want to do is more theater.” The second is to direct movies. “Acting in movies is now No. 3.” NYPost
Elaine Stritch will be celebrating her 85th birthday on February 2, singing Sondheim at the Cafe Carlyle (What will you be doing on YOUR 85th?)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tony-winning “Billy Elliot: the Musical” has recouped its $18 million investment in 14 months (492 performances)
Charles L. Mee’s Fêtes de la Nuit, a valentine to Paris featuring 3 deaf actors, at Ohio Theatre (66 Wooster St) February 8 to February 27th
In an article in the New York Times about a book called “Outrageous Fortune,” a study by the Theater Development Fund quantifying complaints of playwrights, there was this startling statistic:
New plays on Broadway yearly between 1940 & 1960: 130
New plays on Broadway yearly between 1960 and 1980: 29
New plays on Broadway between 1980 and 2000: 14
Santino Fontana, who was to play the love interest in the revival of Arthur Miller’s play “A View from the Bridge,” leaves the show permanently due to injury.
Is Fontana the unluckiest actor in New York? He gets great reviews in Bright Beach Memoirs, which closes after a week. Then he is incapacitated during the rehearsal for his next big Broadway break (no pun intended).
Fontana first appeared on Broadway in the 2008 revival of “Sunday in the Park With George” and then co-starred in “Billy Elliot: The Musical.”
‘Silence of the Lambs’ Meets ‘Crimes of the Heart’ in ‘Family Week,” a play by Beth Henley (who wrote “Crimes of the Heart”) directed by Jonathan Demme (who directed “Silence of the Lambs”). “Family Week,” which will be present April 7-May 23 by MCC Theater Company at the Lucille Lortel Theater, is set in a recovery center in the desert in which three generations of women confront each other and their shared history.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Whoopi Goldberg Joins THE LION KING cast for one night only.
First revival in New York of ‘Angels in America’ by Tony Kushner is planned to begin September 14th at Signature Theater –Angels in America, originally directed by George C. Wolfe, will now be directed by Michael Greif (Rent, Grey Gardens, Next to Normal)
“Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” ran on Broadway May 4, 1993 to Dec 4, 1994. “Angels in America: Perestroika” ran in repertory with Millennium on Broadway from October 23, 1993 to December 4, 1994. They both won Tony Awards for best play and Millennium won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Tickets for the initial run of the Signature production will be only $20.
‘Decade at a Glance,’ Depression-era epic inspired by Dust Bowl photos of Walker Evans etc, will be at the Stella Adler Studio starting February 11
Performance Space 122 announces its Spring 2010 season – 11 shows, including Maxwell’s ‘Ads’, Olson’s ‘Whew Age’
Walter Bobbie directs a new play by David Ives, “Venus in Fur”, inspired by an erotic novel of the same man, at CSC, the Classic Stage Company. Playbill
Defending the Caveman, longest running solo show in Broadway history, to be revived at The Downstairs Theatre at Sofia, 46th St, 2/23-4/18
The full cast was announced for “Come Fly Away” the Twyla Tharp musical using songs of Sinatra. No recognizable stars
In ‘Fat Bitch!’ Erica Watson explores society’s obsession with weight, race and class Feb. 11-25 West Bank Café. Playbill
Friday, January 15, 2010
Antonio Banderas, who starred in “Nine” on Broadway in 2003, reportedly plans to return with a revival of the Kander and Ebb musical “Zorba” next season, in a production that will be directed by Gary Griffin (“The Color Purple”) and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo (“Jersey Boys”, “Memphis,” the forthcoming “Addams Family”). This will be the second revival of the 1968 musical. Anthony Quinn, who starred in the original 1964 movie, also appeared in the musical adaptation on Broadway in 1983.
Cherry Lane Mentor Project starting again. The first public reading next Tuesday, Jan 19, Paternity by Winter Miller
Today in Broadway history: Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore opened, 1879. It’s been revived on Broadway 28 times, mostly for short runs
Here’s a unique approach: “You’re Welcome: A cycle of bad plays by The Debate Society” Brick Theater, 2/4-2/27
Today is the birthday of one of the most successful playwrights on Broadway, with 40 productions of his work: Moliere (Jan 15, 1622). The first Broadway production of a Moliere play was in 1879, the most recent in 2003.
Once And For All…Shut Up And Listen — my review of 13 teenagers acting out adolescence, as part of the Under the Radar Festival.
This day in Broadway history: “Hello Dolly” starring Carol Channing, opened, 1964, and ran for nearly seven years.”Hello, Dolly” was revived three times on Broadway, once with Pearl Bailey, twice with the return of Carol Channing.
Today in 1908 or 1909 or 1912, Ethel Zimmermann was born in Astoria N.Y. She became Ethel Merman, Broadway belter, 18 Broadway shows over 50 years.
The Broadway community joins forces to assist in Haitian relief efforts. BroadwayWorld.com
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Finian’s Rainbow and “Wishful Drinking” play their final performances today. There are now 23 shows playing on Broadway. Adrian Bryan-Brown (@Bubbles2828, theater publicist): Not bad for January.
A Black Box Theater?
Can someone tell me what a “black box theater” is. I went to the Duke on 42nd Street, and the program said it was a black box theater.
Susan Grace (@GraceNotesStage, theater journalist): Started in the 60′s, it’s usually for low tech, experimental, “pure” theatre with minimal cost. NY = “showcase”/LA= “waiver”
Esther (@GratuitousV, theater blogger, who keeps her last name a secret): I thought “black box” meant there was no built-in stage so you could set it up any way you wanted.
Susan Grace: Started as a definiton of physical space, but soon expanded to be more of a style. Hard to describe here. Try Google.
Jonathan Mandell (@newyorktheater, that’s me): The definition from blackboxtheatre.com: Black box theater: An infinitely flexible performance space named for its black, box-like appearance.
The problem is, the Duke doesn’t look infinitely flexible, nor did I notice a box-like appearance.
Susan Grace: It’s often a literal black box, but that definition soon became a style, not only the physical space. Wide interpretations.
Erica R. (@NYeriCa, another theater blogger: The Duke is actually a very flexible space. Every time I see a show there the seating/stage is arranged differently.
ARTSalamode (@Artsalamode, theater blog based in Charlotte, North Carolina): The size of a black box matters. They are usually small, around 40-90 seats, aren’t they; painted black to cover other sins.
Jonathan Mandell: But the Duke has 199 seats.
(@GoToOffBroadway): A black box is a room where seating is not fixed and there is no proscenium, thereby making it totally flexible.
As is, apparently, the definition of a black box theater.
John Lithgow, who a Golden Globe for “creeping out the entire country” in Dexter, will star in Mr. and Mrs. Fitch in Second Stage; opens 2/22
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Jonathan Mandell
Jonathan Mandell, who tweets as New York Theater, is a native New Yorker and third-generation journalist with diverse experience on newspapers, magazines and websites.He has ...
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