Category: theatre

We are besotted by the celebrity of actors, but do we care anything about actual acting? Not the Bruce-Willis-playing-Bruce-Willis for the 187th time kind, but actual get-into-the-character acting. The new David Hare diary chronicling the struggles of trying to be a serious actor shows how trying it is. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

The QE2 plans to start offering new full-length musical theater aboard ship. Those that do well may move on to Broadway. – New York Times

And just why is everyone so eager to ask the question? But maybe to ask it is to ensure its revitalization. – Village Voice

Oregon’s Ashland Shakespeare Festival is one of the biggest regional theater operations in the US – 762 performances of 11 plays at three theaters from February to November. This year’s season was its most successful, with attendance of 374,246 and box office revenues of $9.9 million. Now a judge has ordered the company to open its books to a critic who has characterized the theater as “a medieval kingdom generating record revenues on the backs of nonunion workers.” (AP) Seattle Times

For the first time in memory there are no recently written dramas or comedies playing on Broadway. What does this say about the health of the city’s theater biz? New York Times

Christmas week compared to last year as some shows raise ticket prices. Variety

Inside the New York theater world. CurtainUp

A 27-year dispute over George Bernard Shaw’s estate is settled over who gets royalties generated from “My Fair Lady,” based on the playwright’s “Pygmalion.” CBC

The lessons of Boston’s up-and-down century of theater. Boston Herald

Economic role model and inspiration for the 21st Century. New York Observer