AmericanTheaterWeb
Digest – Hair opens on B’way – read the reviews
* Review: Audiences Will Love This American Tribal Love-Rock Revival
MID AFTERNOON ADDITIONS (part 2)
Associated Press
After 72 Years, TV’s ‘Guiding Light’ Switching Off
The soap opera ”Guiding Light” is switching off after a 72-year run that predates television.
Playbill
* THE LEADING MEN: Oliver Platt, Gavin Creel and Jason Robert Brown
TheaterMania
MID-AFTERNOON ADDITIONS
Star Ledger Entertainment
Former Gov. Tom Kean criticizes Corzine administration for cutting arts funds
Former Gov. Tom Kean The lastest skirmish in this year’s arts funding war stars former Gov. Tom Kean, who criticized Gov. Jon Corzine’s plan to slash arts funding and said he may file a lawsuit himself if the 2010 budget…
Playbill
* Thorell, Rossmer and Ghebremichael Join Czar of Rock and Roll Concert
* Death Takes a Holiday, the Musical, to Get NYC Reading With Pasquale, Paice, Lazar and More
TheaterMania
* Peabody Award Winners Are Announced
* Kathy Danzer and Alice M. Gatling to Star in Florida Studio Theatre’s Black Pearl Sings
* Merrimack Rep Announces Cast for Moon for the Misbegotten
The Halcyon Blog
On Runaway Boards
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot about runaway boards: how they take companies, buildings and decision making ability away from the poor artists who created it. The recent break up at ATC and the selling off of the Greenhouse are two recent examples, but it is a far reaching problem. Usually this is blamed on the 501c3 model, the corporatization of the arts, How Theatre Failed America, or whatever the latest target of blame is.
‘kül
What Sounds Cool: April 2009
Live Design Online
Bright Lights, Big City For Guys And Dolls
Guys and Dolls is currently enjoying a revival at the newly renovated Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, with sets by Robert Brill, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Howell Binkley, sound by Steve Kennedy, and video by Dustin O’Neill
Theatre is Territory
What can theatre learn from the Harvard Business blogs?
Is it wrong for theatre artists to love the Harvard Business blogs? You decide. Check out a few recent posts:
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MID-DAY ADDITIONS
AmericanTheaterWeb
Sony & ArkivMusic Partner to Bring Julia’s ‘Threepenny’, ‘disinHAIRited’ and More to Disc
Village Voice La Daily Musto Blog
Guess How To Shock Broadway?
Have you ever seen Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?, the 1967 film with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as well to-do parents of a girl who brings home kindly Negro Sidney Poitier? The premise was reversed for a 2005 comedy called Guess Who, with Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac, but now it’s been un-reversed and made into a Broadway play for a supposed run sometime in the near future.
Playbill
* Leavel to Work Magic in Pittsburgh CLO’s Into the Woods; Initial Summer Casting Revealed
TheaterMania
* Dominick Dunne to Provide Voice-Over for Being Audrey
* Peter Michael Goetz and Helen Carey to Star in Guthrie’s When We Are Married
Broadway.com
* Sondheim and Groundhog Day: A Match Made in Musical Heaven?
Creative Loafing Culture Surfing Blog
Jack Bauer: The Musical stages world premiere
An Atlanta playhouse presents the Broadway-bound musical version of the popular Fox series “24.”
The Producer’s Perspective
From Google: Ticketing tactics in a tough economy.
One of the benefits of giving Google gaggles of cash each month is that you get access to a team of googlites that have access to more data than you could ever dream about.
The Guardian
Experimental theatre to spill into the mainstream
Lyn Gardner on why this challenging, hard-hitting – and booming – genre is finally coming in from the cold
The Stage UK
Ayckbourn’s 70th birthday marked with series of BBC broadcasts
Alan Ayckbourn’s 70th birthday is to be marked by the BBC with a series of broadcasts across its radio stations.
The Stage UK Blogs
Mark Shenton: Tooby ooby wala, nooby aba naba…
Hair is finally back on Broadway – the show that, over 40 years ago, famously brought both youth and the new sounds (both of music and of protest) that some of them were making to Broadway. That production premiered…
Londonist
The Phantom Menace: Phantom Of The Opera Sequel Announced
So, while London burns, Andrew Lloyd Webber continues to fiddle with his musicals, and we learn that his sequel to The Phantom of the Opera will come to hideous, disfigured life in October or November this year. Lucky us, to have the soothing balm of Love Never Dies opening in our G20 ravaged city, the first city in Sir Andrew’s ambitious string of international openings (Toronto, New York then Shanghai will follow).
London Theatre Guide
The Big Interview: Frances Barber
Last on the West End stage as part of the RSC’s King Lear/The Seagull ensemble, Frances Barber returns to London in a piece she describes to Matthew Amer as “an event”.
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LATE MORNING ADDITIONS
Back Stage
Twittering Actors, Directors Give On-Set Insights
When Ashton Kutcher encountered one of those unexpected glitches that regularly pop up on any movie set, his first reaction was to turn to Twitter, the 3-year-old micro-blogging service.
Gothamist
Oliver Platt, Actor
The flashy new Broadway revival of the 1950 musical Guys and Dolls stars Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls), Craig Bierko (The Music Man), and—a personal favorite of ours—Oliver Platt (Frost/Nixon, The West Wing) as Nathan Detroit, a role previously filled by such big shots as Nathan Lane and Frank Sinatra. But despite the agony of influence, Platt puts his own stamp on the iconic character, bringing a touching element of tortured anxiety to the part of the floating craps game orchestrator. We spoke with him this week about his return to the stage after some busy years spent doing movies and television.
Hartford Courant Behind the Curtain Blog
Ruggiero and His Shows Gets Klined.
Rob Ruggiero, associate artist at TheaterWorks in Hartford, had a very good night Monday in St. Louis.
New York Magazine Vulture Blog
Josh Schwartz Hits the Big City
Antebellum Laughs: Two more fine actors have joined Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, and Megan Fox in Civil War bounty-hunter flick Jonah Hex: Will Arnett, as a Union soldier who enlists Hex, and Michael Shannon, as the bizarre ringleader of a brutal gladiator circus event. Hollywood Reporter notes Arnett’s role is “not inherently comic.” But if anyone can wring some laughs out of insane-sounding Civil War movies, it’s Will! [HR]
Playbill
* In Observance of Passover, Feldshuh Will Skip April 8 Performance of Irena’s Vow
* D’Abruzzo, Pazakis, Redd and Graham to Join Lance Horne, Or What You Will at Ars Nova
TheaterMania
* The Toxic Avenger CD Will Be Available on April 6
BroadwayWorld.com
Toxic Avenger Blog: PREVIEW WEEK 3: THE CRITICS COMETH
some April foolin from BBB:
BBB-Blogger
* SHREK THE MUSICAL PETITIONS TONY FOR SPECIAL ELIGIBILITY
About Last Night
COME BACK, WILLIAM INGE
“A half-century ago, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were universally reckoned the finest American dramatists of the postwar era. They still are. In 1959, however, the short list also included William Inge, and there were those who ranked Inge higher than either of his contemporaries. He was certainly more successful than Miller or Williams, both of whom already had notably uneven track records on Broadway…”
The Artful Manager
The iLibrary of iCongress
As essential printed content is increasingly available on-line through Google Books, Open Library, and other digitization projects, the Library of Congress has announced initiatives to upload more of other forms of media as well. Macworld and others report on the library’s plans to post film, video, image, and audio materials on iTunes, Flickr, and YouTube, among other sites. Says Macworld:
Culturebot
Wooster Collective’s new database
The latest entry in some interesting branded culture offerings we’ve been looking at recently comes from Marc and Sara Schiller of the Wooster Collective – the sprawling online catalog the Schillers have run since 2001 that captures ephemeral street art around the globe. (And yes, Wooster Group lovers, they live on the same street.)
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THE MORNING’S FIRST TOP STORIES
Village Voice La Daily Musto
More Life For The Boys in the Band
… the subject of a documentary called Making The Boys, and I’m in it! The doc is playing the Tribeca Film Festival on Monday April 27 at 430 PM,….
Time Out New York
Monster Mash
Beowulf as rock opera
Stage frights
With the Toxic Avenger musical opening, TONY hecks the body count of horror-themed tuners.
Associated Press
Richard Chamberlain Celebrates His 75th on Stage
More than 3,000 theatergoers have helped actor Richard Chamberlain ring in his 75th birthday.
TheaterMania
Peter Filichia’s Diary: Glory Hallelu, You Fin’lly Came Through!
Nice enough line-up for Encores in 2009-2010, don’t you think? It’s much more in tune with the original mission of doing works that would have a hard time getting a legitimate Broadway revival.
the nytheatre i
Sandra Nordgren is 13th Street Rep’s New Producing Artistic Director
I am excited and happy to share this particular Good News: 13th Street Repertory Company, which is one of the oldest indie/off-off-Broadway theatre companies in New York, has named Sandra Nordgren as their new Producing Artistic Director. Sandra is a great and longtime friend and supporter of NYTE, and it’s terrific to see her hard work at 13th Street Rep recognized with this new appointment.
off-stage right
Who should get funding in times like these?
Controversy in the funding community…see Wall Street Journal article below
On Theatre and Politics
Hostility
Lately, I’ve read a fair amount and seen a fair amount about how theaters and artists need to explain their economic impact, be in conversation with their community, and express with statistical precision what it is that they do.
Chicago Tribune
Oscar nominee Shannon to be in new show by Red Orchid
Time Out Chicago
Abraham Levitan
The Baby Teeth frontman scores a Dog & Pony show.
Los Angeles Times Culture Monster Blog
South Coast Repertory to scale it down but keep it new in 2009-10 season
Charting a 2009-10 season in the face of economic headwinds unprecedented in its 45 years, South Coast Repertory has made some concessions to the unforgiving climate but has chosen to stay mostly on course. Next season’s play list for the Costa Mesa company, which made its name on the national scene as a launching pad for new work, features four world premieres out of nine main stage selections — plus two new shows in the theater’s three-play Theatre for Young Audiences series.
Congress’ dismal NEA budget record
Over at Time, Richard Lacayo has snagged the best stats I’ve seen in years about the magnitude of the collapse of federal commitment to arts support since the kulturkampf led by Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich and the rest of the Wahoo Chorus in Congress 20 years ago. It comes from the D.C. advocacy group, Americans for the Arts, whose president was testifying at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday. The reference is to the National Endowment for the Arts’ budget:
LA Weekly Theater Awards: ‘Song of Extinction’ named production of the year
Back Stage – Blog Stage
You’ve Got to Have Your Standards
“There are hits…and then there are standards,” Broadway star and recording artist Billy Porter tells the audience from the stage at Mark’s Restaurant. Affecting a silly stance, he mimics a line from hip-hop artist Kelis’ 2003 hit: “My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, and they’re like, it’s better than yours,” he sings in a whiny tone, stopping abruptly. “Sure it’s a hit…but probably not a standard.”
Chad Jones Theater Dogs Blog
Reuters
* Chicago Sun-Times parent files for bankruptcy
* USA Today Publisher to retire amid industry woes
The Stage UK
Exclusive: Avenue Q’s Atherton heads musical season at Duchess
Avenue Q actress Julie Atherton is to star in a new two-week season of contemporary musicals at the Duchess Theatre next month.
Whatsonstage.com
Legally Blonde Sets UK Premiere for Savoy, 5 Dec
The long-expected West End premiere of Broadway screen-to-stage musical Legally Blonde is now confirmed, the London production is scheduled to start preview performances on 5 December 2009 at the Savoy Thea…
De Jongh’s England Posts Closing Notices, 2 May
Plague Over England – the debut play by drama critic Nicholas de Jongh, who announced this week that he’s stepping down after 18 years at the Evening Standard – has posted closing notices at the Wes…
Gossip: Islam’s Moonshadow Heads Straight to West End???
Moonshadow, the new Cat Stevens musical which was showcased at the Whatsonstage.com Awards Concert in February, is aiming to open straight into the West End later this year. It was originally due to have a tr…
The Guardian
Histories actors return to RSC
Some of the punishment-gluttons who performed in the eight-play Histories cycle are back for more
England People Very Nice writer courts fresh controversy with Afghanistan play
Playwright Richard Bean talks about his next outing at the Tricycle theatre in London
Moxie the Maven
Rabbit Hole to be the next Hedwig???
I’m hearing that John Cameron Mitchell is directing the Rabbit Hole film. No lie. Because when I think of Rabbit Hole, the tragedy, the grief, the dark humor and quiet introspection, what really springs to mind is Hedwig and Shortbus, the two features Mitchell has directed. I do love that Hedwig! This will be GREAT!
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Original post blogged on b2evolution.
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