Ticket sales are up, Thanksgiving broke box office records, and Broadway is booming as the season hits midpoint. Backstage
Category: theatre
HALF A MILLION PEOPLE IN TIMES SQUARE AND THE THEATERS ARE
Closed. New Year’s Eve is traditionally a swank theater evening on Broadway, but this year the theaters and their unions have decided to stay dark. Backstage
ENDANGERED SPECIES
New report says that regional theater in the UK is in trouble. Access has been encouraged over quality with the result that in a few years there could be “a crop of new lottery-funded theatres with nothing to put in them because local authorities cannot afford to run them.” BBC
EXTENDING SHAKESPEARE
Jonathan Moscone, SF ex-mayor’s son, is appointed director of the California Shakespeare Festival. Comes from DallasTheatre Center. San Francisco Examiner
MUSICAL TRUST
One of this fall’s biggest hits on Broadway, the remake of “Kiss Me Kate” is a classic. Lois and Arthur Elias were entrusted with rights to the show by their close friend Bella Spewack, who wrote the musical’s book with her husband, Sam, in 1948. The Eliases have been fiercely protective of their charge. New York Times
I’m not supposed to like it, right?
AIDA ODYSSEY
Tryout reviews were nasty and the album crashed and burned. Disney’s betting again on the Elton John/Tim Rice remake of “Aida” before show heads to Broadway. BBC
And: A long way from Verdi. Los Angeles Times 12/5/99
WHERE ARE ALL THE LAFFS?
When was the last romantic comedy on Broadway? Once a staple of American theater, comedy of all sorts seems to have gone out of fashion. “Everybody thinks this period is a glum, sarcastic, edgy, dark time. Producers don’t feel there are stars in the right alignment to produce comedies,” says one producer. Variety
JOB DESCRIPTION
Artist or manager? Try “mother, father, priest, confessor, psychologist, judge, jury, and executioner.” Six theater artistic directors meet in New York to talk about their roles. Backstage
C’EST LE GUERRE
Still very much a work in progress. Washington Post 12/30/99
Previously: THAT MISSING FIVE PERCENT: When the musical “Martin Guerre” opened in London in 1996, reviews were mixed, and its creators acknowledged it wasn’t working and went back to their studios. Headed to Broadway next year, the show is about to open in Washington DC, and looking, composer Claude Michel Schonberg says, for that last five percent to make it sing. Washington Post 12/29/99