6/30/09 [updated 7:55PM EST]
By Andy Propst on Jun 30, 2009 | In Days Top News | Send feedback »
EARLY EVENING ADDITIONS
New York Times
Theater for a New Audience Announces Season, With Room for More Shakespeare
The leaders of Theater for a New Audience said they were hoping to remount their recent acclaimed productions of “Othello” and “Hamlet” in the 2009-10 season.
On the London Stage: New York Theater Under the Knife
Gerard Alessandrini's 'Forbidden Broadway,' which spoofs shows playing on both sides of the pond, opens for the third time in London.
New York Times ArtsBeat Blog
'Little Mermaid' to Close
The musical adaptation of the 1989 Disney animated feature will close after its Aug. 30 performance.
Time Out New York Upstaged Blog
Illyria overload: Stop the Twelfth Night madness!
Can we have a moratorium of productions of Twelfth Night?
Variety
Tucci to direct 'Lend Me a Tenor'
Actor to make Broadway helming bow with revival -- Stanley Tucci is expected to make his Broadway directing bow on a revival of Ken Ludwig's farce, "Lend Me a Tenor," to star "Grey's Anatomy" alum T.R. Knight.
Dukakis, Fricker set for 'Cloudburst'
Duo will star in forthcoming road-trip comedy -- Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker will star in road-trip comedy "Cloudburst" for Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.
BackStage
NYC's Diamond District Sparkles in New Musical
"Diamonds at 22 West," a musical comedy set in New York City's famed Diamond District, will take center stage next month at a New Jersey playhouse.
TheaterMania
* John Herrera, Christine Pedi, Faith Prince, et al. Set for York's Luck Reading
* Leslie Hall to Emcee and Perform in About Face's The Homo Show
Orlando Sentinel
* Jobs available for NY Musical Theatre Festival in September
Miami Herald Drama Queen Blog
It's the Toners, bro
I felt like a spy from Babyboomerland when I went to the Toners in Time show in Coral Gables on Sunday. The creation of playwrights Marco Ramirez, Lucas Leyva and Alex Fumero (the guys behind the new Foryoucansee Theater company), Toners in Time was a brash creative attempt to get the club crowd to try theater. It worked, and not just because the tickets were only $10 each.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Culture Club Blog
St. Louis actress Tennessee-waltzes off
One of St. Louis’s most versatile young actresses, Magan Wiles, is leaving town to continue her education. Later this…
Seattlest
NYCeattleite: Louis Hobson, Starring in His First Broadway Show
Tacoma native and former Seattle theater stalwart Louis Hobson scored his first Broadway role this year, and it's a great one. Not just a great role, with turns comedic and dramatic, but one that's in a terrific and affecting show. Hobson plays Dr. Madden in the musical Next to Normal, ...
BBB-Blogger
* KRISTINA in Concert Website Now Live
The Halcyon Blog
Question for Y'all
What are you willing to do/change to attract audiences? What are you unwilling to do/change?
Parabasis
Interesting Interview with David Adjmi
Can be found at Tablet, a new website about modern Jewish identity.
The Stage UK
John Malkovich brings serial killer Jack Unterweger back to life on Vienna stage
Actor to star in The Infernal Comedy, an operatic depiction of the Austrian celebrity writer and murderer
LATE AFTERNOON ADDITIONS
New York Times
Big City: Lost, and Found, in the Tideland of Times Square
The makeshift pedestrian mall is viewed by some as shoddy, sedentary and unworthy of New York, but tourists see it as an oasis of calm.
New York Times ArtsBeat Blog
Kennedy Center to Spread the Knowledge
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday is to announce a national tour for a program it started in February to help struggling nonprofit arts organizations around the country.
Laura Linney to Star in 'Time Stands Still' on Broadway
The last time Laura Linney appeared in a play by Donald Margulies, in the 2004 Broadway production of "Sight Unseen," she picked up her second Tony Award nomination. Now Ms. Linney (of "John Adams" and "The Savages") is to work with Mr. Margulies ("Dinner With Friends") again in Manhattan Theater Club's coming Broadway production [...]
Time Out New York Upstaged Blog
Air-guitar orgy at Rock of Ages
Air guitar over Broadway
The Valley Advocate
Bard Blanket Bingo
Break out your blankets; it's time for some theatre in the great outdoors. To ...
BackStage - BlogStage
* Lincoln Center Screening Classic Movie Musicals this Weekend
TDF Backstage
Laugh Like a Queen
Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter Learn How Americans Like Their "Mary Stuart"
TheaterMania
* Nicholas Rodriguez to Spell Demond Green in Off-Broadway's Toxic Avenger
* Horton Foote, Beth Henley, Joe Pantaliano, et al. to Be Part of Hartford Stage Season
* TFANA and Irondale Unite for Prospero's Island Benefit
Playbill
* DC Capital Fringe Has Krapp's Last Power Point, House of Usher, Big Angry Booty and More
DC Theatre Scene
Source: Project 24/7
Project 24/7 is to the Source Festival 2009 as Iron Chef is to cooking. In Iron Chef, culinary masters are assigned an ingredient (squid!) at random and told to construct an entire meal (Squid Salad! Lemon Drop Squid Soup! Roast Squid with Béarnaise Sauce! Squid Ice Cream!) around it - all in one hour. In [...]
The Producers’ Ben Dibble
With less than an hour before curtain for Mel Brooks’ musical The Producers, actor Ben Dibble sat down with Joel Markowitz backstage at Walnut Street Theatre. Ben is wowing Philadelphia audiences with his gorgeous voice and comedic talents playing the nebishy, blue blanket snuggling accountant and “wannabe producer” Leo Bloom. “It’s [...]
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Culture Club Blog
Stray Dog has a puppy
Stray Dog Theatre has taken a smaller, younger, and even more weirdly-named company, [insert name here] Theatre Project, into its. . .kennel.
Dallas Morning News Arts Blog
Wilkerson to join Artisan Center Theater
It's a real mark of how serious that mid-cities community institution, Artisan Center Theater, is about upping the ante that it has hired John Davidson as artistic director, effective Aug. 1. Wilkerson just directed a successful My Fair Lady for the company -- and that was surprise enough, since Wilkerson is hardly a community theater sort of guy.
Huffington Post
Brad Balfour: Q&A: Singer/Actress Stephanie J. Block Steps Out With 9 to 5: The Musical
With her powerhouse voice and incredible range, Stephanie J. Block is the most substantial singer of the trio that makes up the stars of 9 to 5: The Musical, a timely re-working of the classic 1980s movie. In both film and stage version, three women working in an office who ...
On Theatre and Politics
NY Innovative Theater Awards
I've got a very interesting meeting with the New York Innovative Theater Awards crew tomorrow. I'll keep you posted about the details. Suffice to say, I'm excited.
The Producer's Perspective
Advice from an Expert: Vol. 9. A Damn Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
I got a bunch o' emails after my blog about my experience in the UK a few weeks ago. One of them was from an actual expat American living and working in London. Since he has such a unique perspective on what and why things are different in the land of fish and chips, I thought we might all learn from letting him have a post. So here's Jason Ferguson . . .
EARLY AFTERNOON ADDITIONS
New York Times ArtsBeat Blog
Pina Bausch: A Worldly Choreographer
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times. Rainer Behr and Shantala Shivalingappa in "Bamboo Blues" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December. Pina Bausch, who died today at 68, created many pieces throughout her career inspired by her travels to Turkey ("Nefés"), Portugal ("Masurca Fogo"), the United States ("Nur Du (Only You)") and several other countries. During [...]
Pina Bausch Dies
Pina Bausch, the choreographer and exponent of the neo-expressionist form of German dance known as Tanztheater, has died. She was 68.
Postcard From London: Talk About the Weather. Lots of Weather.
There's a heat wave in London, but in theaters there's a lot of rain, snow and sky falling.
Hartford Courant Behind the Curtain Blog
Cirque du Bridgeport
Cirque du Soleil is returning to Connecticut -- with an arena show in Bridgeport.
Village Voice La Daily Musto Blog
Could Farrah Fawcett Act?
I know I can act. Every time someone quips "Farrah picked the wrong day to die"--meaning that she unexpectedly ended up losing headline space to Wacko Jacko--I squeal with laughter as if it were the...
TheaterMania
* Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles to Star in Broadway Oleanna
* Jude Law to Star in Broadway Hamlet
* Jersey Boys' Des McAnuff and Jeff Madden Among 2009 Dora Award Winners
* Pina Bausch Dies at 68
* Jeff Daniels' Escanaba to Debut at Purple Rose Theatre Company
Playbill
* Kunze, Green, Aduba, Kantor, Krombach, Mendoza and More Cast in Muny's Godspell
* Ackerman, Allen and Crosby Cast in Gentleman's Wish for Midtown Festival
* MI's Meadow Brook Will Stage Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Sleepy Hollow, Mindgame and More
* Halston and Sweetie to Be Part of Pic-Up at Abrons Arts Center
* CHART TOPPERS, Fourth Week of June
Live Arts & Fringe Festival Blog
Gombrowicz in America
Witold Gombrowicz's plays present unique challenges to both producers and viewers. Yesterday I talked to Allen Kuharski, the chair of Swarthmore College's theater department, an expert on Polish theater, and one of the first teachers of Michal Zadara, the Swarthmore ...
north shore art-throb
NSMT - A Contract Broken?
There’s much buzz about the recent demise of the North Shore Music Theatre - which I have been following with a mixture of fascination and rue. In the 1990s, my wife and I created marketing materials for NSMT and I worked as a theatrical photographer for a number of shows. It [...]
Orlando Sentinel Atention Must Be Paid Blog
* UCF finally appoints theater chair
The Stage UK
Law to play Hamlet on Broadway
Michael Grandage's production of Hamlet, starring Jude Law, is set to transfer to Broadway this autumn.
RSC opens education centre in Stratford-upon-Avon
The Royal Shakespeare Company has opened its first dedicated site for education and community work in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Whatsonstage.com
Gossip: Iranian Twitterers Inspire New Drama???
In a late change to its schedule, the Royal Court is hosting a scratch performance of From the Tweets of Tehran in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs tomorrow evening (1 July 2009), as part of its Rough Cuts programme. Created by Royal Court associate ...
Gossip: Leicester Hosts Urinetown's UK Premiere???
We’re not taking the piss. The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Urinetown looks set to finally receive its UK premiere, albeit in Leicester rather than London. Inspired by author Greg Kotis’ experiences as a budget-conscious student encount...
Gossip: Michael Jackson Might Have Been Phantom???
Could you imagine the late Michael Jackson as theatre’s most famous masked man? Apparently he could. Since the singer’s sudden death last Thursday (25 June 2009), composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed that Jackson approached him about starring...
THE DAY'S FIRST TOP STORIES
New York Times
Theater: Passion and Rage, in Tight Focus
A recent screening of “Phèdre,” starring Helen Mirren, was the first “live” broadcast of a stage production from the National Theater in London.
Christian Science Monitor
Immigrant actors tell their story
Day laborers in Los Angeles offer impromptu street theater between jobs.
USA Today
Stars head to the park for a 'Night' of Shakespeare
... A gala honoring Nichols and entertainment executive and former Public Theater boardmember Susan Lyne was the prelude for opening night of the Public's first ...
Variety
Broadway bang for closing shows
Box office gets boost from exiting productions
BackStage - BlogStage
Tatar on the Top
Actor-singer Daniel Tatar, a native of suburban Chicago, has made impressive career strides in multiple mediums and is clearly on a fast-track to greater things. Among his notable stage accomplishments since he settled in Los Angeles have been stellar performances in leading roles in high-profile musicals such as Ray Charles Live!, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and The Last Five Years, produced by some of the Southland's finest companies.
TheaterMania
* Christine Lahti to Join Law & Order: SVU
* Derek Keeling to Star in Connect/Disconnect
* New Victory Theater Announces 2009-2010 Season
* Beebo Brinker Chronicles, D'Lo's Ramble-Ations, et al. Set for Brava! for Women in the Arts' 2009-2010 Season
* Patrick Andrews, Zarah Mahler, Jim Weitzer, et al. Set for Cabaret at Oakbrook Terrace
* Stef Tovar to Star in High Fidelity...The Musical at Route 66 Theatre Company
Playbill
* "It's In Your Hands Now": Sondheim's Road Show Cast Recording Released June 30
* Will Stanley Tucci Direct T.R. Knight in Broadway Lend Me a Tenor Revival?
* Broadway Grosses: June 22-28
* A Week More to Rage: DC King Lear, Starring Keach, Extends to July 19
Culturebot
Is the Curtain Closing on Live Theater in America?
The more I think about it, the more cheesed off I get that the 2009 Aspen Ideas festival is going to host a roundtable called “Is the Curtain Closing on Live Theater in America?”
Flux Theatre Ensemble
On Quality, Value and Criticism
We have returned from The National Summit For Ensemble Theatres, sponsored by NET for five days in San Francisco, and there is MUCH to unpack. Each day had enough material for several blog posts, and while I don't expect to have time to get it all down, I will try and focus on the bigger questions and idea that emerged for us from the conference.
Live Design Online
Catch Me If You Can in Tech… The Live Blog… Chapter 1
I’ve been fortunate enough to be asked to collaborate with David Rockwell in the creation of the scenic video for Catch Me If You Can. The show is a musical version of the excellent Steven Spielberg film, documenting the unbelievable life and adventures of Frank Abegnale Jr. The creative staff includes Jack O’Brian in the Director’s chair; Jerry Mitchell Choreographing; Ken Posner Lighting; and Mark Shaiman and Terence...
Boston Globe
Old-fashioned passion
Julianne Boyd loves old musicals, and she stages them with such freshness and verve that she makes audiences fall in love with them all over again, too.
Edge Providence
By the sea with Miss Sabrina Blaze
One of the Ocean State’s favorite performers goes seaside for a summer of cabaret EDGE spoke to Miss Sabrina Blaze about how she will spend her summer and her (fabulous) career.
Chicago Tribune
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Skylight's future might depend on the guy it dumped
The Skylight Opera Theatre continues to stagger under the weight of the public relations disaster in the wake of the firing of artistic director Bill Theisen on June 16. The social media, letter writing and e-mail campaigns to reverse that decision have maintained momentum.
Dallas Morning News Arts Blog
That's Broadway: where to eat around Broadway
It's finally summertime. Summer means vacations and vacations mean tourism.
The Boxer: One night only before it goes to New York
Matt and Kim Lyle moved to Chicago nearly a year ago, but they've stayed active with two new shows from Matt's hand at area theaters. Now they are reprising their hit The Boxer for one ...
A little strip center with heart.
...My special strip center, my familiar, is that section on Mockingbird Lane near the Palomar Hotel.......the strip center occupied by Premiere Video and Pocket Sandwich Theater.
Denver Post
Arvada Center dominates with 12 Henry Awards
The Colorado Theatre Guild's fourth annual celebration of the best in Denver-area theater turned into mostly a coronation of the Arvada Center's record-obliterating "Les Miserables" on Monday night at the Space Theatre in the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
Los Angeles Times Culture Monster Blog
Stephen Eich named executive director of Pasadena Playhouse
Stephen Eich, the former managing director of the Geffen Playhouse, has been named executive director of the Pasadena Playhouse in partnership with Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps. He will assume the new position on Wednesday.
A 'West Side Story' for the Twitter set
When the much-anticipated revival of “West Side Story” opened on Broadway earlier this year, one of the most-talked about aspects of the show was the translation of songs and scenes into Spanish. The change was designed to give more of a dramatic edge to the Latino characters 52 years after the Stephen Sondheim-Leonard Bernstein-Arthur Laurents musical first opened.
Contra Costa Times
Curtain Calls: Local playwright casting one, presenting another
Local playwright Kathy McCarty certainly isn't taking it easy this summer. She has been casting her latest edition of "Rivets" and opening her newest work, "Maid & Matrons.
5th Avenue Theatre Blog
Memphis is heading to Broadway!
We have been so busy here that until today I have not had time to blog about some very exciting 5th Avenue news.
The Guardian
Hanif Kureishi: turning The Black Album into a stage play
The Black Album is a sprawling book about late 80s London, taking in radical Islam, ecstasy – and Prince. It wasn't easy to adapt for theatre
Violinist Robert Pool on Duet for One
Violinist Robert Pool on Juliet Stevenson's attempt to tug our heart strings
Obituary: John Franklyn-Robbins
Actor known for his Shakespearean roles and sonorous voice
The Stage UK
Obituary: Irene Richmond
The daughter of pioneering cinema owners, Irene Richmond was to appear in some of the most important British films of the sixties and establish a popular profile in television and theatre.
Obituary: Charles Russell
The theatre impresario, costumier, actor and pioneer of Noel Coward's career in the States, Charles Russell, has died at the age of 93.
Obituary: Doris Barry
Like her sister, Dame Alicia Markova, Doris Barry began her working life as a child film star, when she was dubbed 'England's Baby Mary Pickford' by the Daily Express.
Obituary: Babs Adams
It was whilst writing her autobiography, Parade of Clowns, that Babs Adams discovered that her showbusiness ancestry went back as far as 1767 to a family called Tabrars. Her maternal grandmother Lizzie Tabrar was one of 11 children and whose brother Joseph was a prolific songwriter (Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow, was one of his songs).
Whatsonstage.com
Hampstead's Clark Departs After 50th Anniversary
Hampstead Theatre artistic director Anthony Clark today (30 June 2009) announced that he will be stepping down at the end of this 50th anniversary year, after seven years in the job at the new writing centre. Clark took over at Hampstead in 2003, j...
Gossip: Peter Pan Flies Back for Christmas Run???
It looks like Peter Pan won't be returning to Neverland for too long after the current run of JM Barrie's classic play, in a specially constructed tent in Kensington Gardens, closes on 30 August. Speaking to Whatsonstage.com recently, one of the s...
London Theatre Guide
Exclusive: Michael Attenborough on programming the Almeida Festival
The Almeida Summer Festival 2009 brings an eclectic and innovative group of theatre-makers to the Islington venue for a three week period. Talking exclusively to Official London Theatre, the Almeida's Artistic Director Michael Attenborough, explains how he programmes this exciting event.
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