Theatre

The critics aren’t wrong: We really do want that crisp, new snap. But Broadway has deep roots in vaudeville — no story, just acts — so audiences are right: We’ll always crave performances that revel in that singing, dancing beat. – Washington Post

“A half-mile apart on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, two buildings claim to be putting on theater for the PUBLIC, using boldfaced font to advertise their mission. … The Public Theater, which opened its first show in the 1960s, claims that the Public hotel [which has a performance space] is essentially siphoning off its business by riding on its theatrical coattails.” – The New York Times

“Set in an alternate universe during the 2008 primaries, as she fights for survival against a charismatic upstart … [and] unfolding around a pivotal moment in the contest, it examined how the strictures of her gender and the baggage of her marriage affected her ability to navigate the men’s world of politics. … Hillary and Clinton arrives [on Broadway] in March amid a raucous cultural debate about gender politics and the double standard that women face.” – The New York Times

In a new production at ACT in Seattle, Juliet will speak English while Romeo will sign. (Interpreters will translate other roles’ lines into ASL.) In a process involving several steps, Shakespeare’s text has been converted into ASL poetry, “a distinct, dramatic form of sign-language storytelling … [that] uses gestures and facial expressions to evoke such poetic conventions as repetition, rhyme, alliteration, rhythm and meter.” – The Seattle Times

The sleeper-hit musical’s composer and lyricist, Joe Iconis, has kept around him a group of performers (who call themselves the Family) who’ve all been waiting for their big breaks together — and now that Iconis’s show is taking off, he’s keeping Family members on board, resisting every request to replace one of them with, say, a TV star. – The New York Times

Lynn Nottage: “I’ve become so known for my tragedies, these very heavy, social realist plays, and I think people forget that I’m a satirist as well and that I can be very, very funny. I thought in this particular moment that we need some humor, and I thought, I don’t want to sit in rehearsal and feel like I’m being punched in the stomach.” – Slate

Think that’s a ghastly idea for a Broadway show? So did audiences in 1971, when try-out audiences in Philadelphia and Boston hated Lolita, My Love so much that the Broadway run was called off. But the producers of an upcoming staged reading in New York, with a revised book and a new framing device, aim to find out if audiences are finally ready for the show (with the changes, at least). – The New York Times

Not unique enough for a visa for the Canadian artists, that is. EXIT Theatre’s founder had consulted a lawyer and submitted reams of information about why the play Crippled, by playwright Paul David Power, was indeed “culturally unique.” But a week before it was set to open, the visa was denied. – KQED

Sian Alexander, executive director of the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in London, writes about how, as part of the organization’s Green Strategy, three hives were installed on top of the building (with a substantial harvest of honey as a result). – Arts Professional

University College London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, now back in action after a 3½-year renovation, aims to re-examine “traditional ideas about the role of theatre in a research-intensive university.” UCL’s new Performance Lab “will explore how live performance and research can inspire each other, bringing artists and organisations into the theatre to work with researchers from fields including science, technology, art and design.” – The Stage

“Modern thinking around disability looks to a social model: people are disabled by society’s structures, the stairs they can’t climb and the doors a wheelchair can’t fit though are simple examples. It’s the job we can’t get, because having a disability is viewed as an inherent weakness rather than living with it being a demonstration of strength.” – The Guardian

Richard Crafus, aka “King Dick”, was shipped off to a prison in southwestern England as an enemy combatant during the War of 1812. The biggest and strongest man in a segregated wing of the jail, he ran everything there — including a prisoners’ theatre, where he staged Romeo and Juliet and Othello. – The Stage

“Much as Hamilton gave America’s founding a progressive cool factor and became the quintessential Obama-era musical, [Heidi Schreck’s] What the Constitution Means to Me captures the mood of a time when institutional protections feel shockingly vulnerable and the country is getting an unwelcome crash course in constitutional arcana. (How many Americans knew about the emoluments clause before November, 2016?)” – The New Yorker

The deal, reached between Actors’ Equity, a union representing 51,000 performers and stage managers, and the Broadway League, a trade organization for producers, is a milestone, marking the first time that the industry’s financiers have tacitly agreed to acknowledge that performers are contributing ideas, not just labor, to shaping new musicals and plays. – The New York Times

Looks like it. Of course, there’s always (been) Agatha Christie and The Mousetrap, but looking beyond Dame Agatha, “Changes do appear to be happening. And activism … is helping.” – The Stage (UK)

The strike was against the Broadway League; Actors Equity said that actors and stage managers involved with readings, labs, and developmental shows hadn’t seen a raise since 2007. “The new agreement will include profit sharing, higher wagers, and additional stage manager contracts.” – American Theatre

Ten years ago, theatre about neuro conditions or neuroscience was rare. Now it’s everywhere, and sparking all sorts of innovation. There is a new emphasis on neuroscience as opposed to specific neurological conditions.  – Howlround

“This joyful staging is the first by Theater 55, a new Twin Cities company that celebrates elders as artists. And it requires more than an average suspension of disbelief. The 26-member cast singing about the Age of Aquarius is distinct for its abundance of unapologetic wrinkles, dad bods and artificial joints. … And that, they might tell you, is the point.” — The New York Times

The real-time telecast of the classic counterculture musical had been scheduled for May 19. In a statement, NBC executives emphasized that “live musicals are a part of this network’s DNA and we are committed to continuing that tradition with the right show at the right time. Since these shows are such enormous undertakings, we need titles that have a wide appeal” — meaning that they’re safe for the kids. — Deadline

“Essentially, Bennett is creating a contemporary Theatre of Cruelty, giving the visceral and ritualistic techniques that Antonin Artaud advocated 80 years earlier a pyro, DayGlo twist. … He delights in designs that ‘bombard the audience with information, whether that’s sonic or physical or visual’. This is a director who abhors theatre ‘that doesn’t go beyond the cerebral’ … and for whom theatre has to make itself felt.” — The Guardian

“James Haskins, managing director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, will take the same title at the Guthrie,” and new development director Mollie Alexander Hogan comes from Kansas City Rep. “Both the development and managing director positions have been vacant since Danielle St. Germain-Gordon left the former job in May and Jennifer Bielstein left the latter position in June. Another member of the Guthrie leadership team, production director David Stewart, also resigned last summer. Rebecca Cribbin was hired to replace him in December.” — The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)