Anti-Trust Concerns Delay Ambassador-Live Nation Merger "Ambassador Theatre Group's £90 million purchase of Live Nation's UK theatres is being investigated by the [government's] Office of Fair Trading, in a move that will prevent the two businesses being fully integrated until early 2010." The Stage (UK) 11/19/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@10:25PM

NY Times Recognizes Seattle As 'A Proud And Meaningful Theater Town' Brian Colburn, managing director of the Intiman Theatre, tells the paper: "There's probably as much theater here as in the city of Los Angeles, but the population is one-sixth the size. You can walk from theater to theater here, meet friends or colleagues at a cafe." New York Times 11/20/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@10:18PM

Shakespeare's Star-Crossed Lovers In An Old-Age Home Director Tom Morris's Juliet and Her Romeo, planned for next spring at the Bristol Old Vic, "uses Shakespeare's text, but casts the lovers in their 80s, with their anxious children, not their parents, seeking to prevent an imprudent and costly match." What's On Stage (UK) 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@09:59PM

Deal With Shuberts Guarantees Producers A B'way House In an uncommon agreement with the producers of "A Steady Rain," the Shubert Organization will invest in their projects and guarantee them a Shubert house. The deal gives the producers "a strong advantage on the Main Stem, where real estate is a hot commodity and numerous incoming productions vie for a limited number of available theaters." Variety 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/19/09@05:13AM

Britain's National Theatre Plans £50M Renovation "The National Theatre has confirmed the initial details of its £50 million plan to modernise its Grade II-listed London home. The scheme, designed by architects Haworth Tompkins, will aim to improve the 'transparency' of the building." The Stage (UK) 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@10:12PM

Losing Govt., Corporate Funds Could Be Good For Theatre "While hardship will not necessarily produce better art, standing outside official patronage might at least encourage artists to kick against the establishment rather than adorn it. The art we have enjoyed over the last 12 years has been wealthy, and wealthy art is supine." The Guardian (UK) 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@07:39AM

Financial Troubles Sink DC's Catalyst Theater Company "The company's move last season from the tiny 50-seat Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (a.k.a. CHAW) to the much larger Sprenger Theater in the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE proved more than its budget could handle." Washington Post 11/18/09

email this story | Posted 11/18/09@05:12AM

28-Year-Old Playwright Wins $25K Wendy Wasserstein Prize "Chicago-based dramatist Marisa Wegrzyn has won the 2009 Wasserstein Prize for her new play, Hickorydickory." The award, which also includes a reading at New York's Second Stage Theater, is given "for an outstanding script by a young woman who has not yet received national attention." Los Angeles Times 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@10:18PM

Atlanta Troupe Synchronicity Cancels Remainder of Season Synchronicity Performance Group planned an extremely tight budget for 2009-10, and the company couldn't sustain the loss it took on its children's play Bunnicula, about a vampire rabbit. "As a result, Synchronicity has cancelled the last two shows of its season: Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone and The Brand New Kid, a family show." artscriticATL 11/15/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@10:08PM

Owner Of Charred Pocono Playhouse Has History Of Claims "With a $1.25 million policy in force and just an $85,000 mortgage on the building," the owner of the Pocono Playhouse, which burned down last month, "could be in line for a million-dollar payout." It wouldn't be the first time Ralph Miller cashed a big check after a fire at one of his theaters. Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@07:34AM

Blaming State Cuts, Philly's Devon Theater Cancels Season "The theater's creators and overseers, the Mayfair Community Development Corporation, announced over the weekend in letters to about 700 subscribers that a state budget cut left the agency with no money to create productions from scratch." It will go dark after its current production closes next month. Philadelphia Inquirer 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/17/09@06:26AM

Let's Hear It For Wildly Uncomfortable West End Theatres! "The only thing that could keep me alert through three hours of Brecht - however good the production - on a Monday evening is the fact that I could topple 20 feet if I nodded off. Theatre demands effort from the audience, and by God, the West End makes us work." But will audiences keep putting up with the toil the venues exact? The Guardian (UK) 11/16/09

email this story | Posted 11/16/09@08:19PM

Glee's Musical Geekdom Is Catnip To Drama Nerds "'Glee,' which chronicles the lives of members of a high school glee club, is attracting between 7 and 8 million viewers every week, and doing well among the valued 18- to 49-year-old market segment. But it is something of an obsession among theater denizens, teenage and otherwise." The New York Times 11/17/09

email this story | Posted 11/16/09@06:55PM

For Commercial Theatre In Britain, These Are Good Times "Britain may remain in a recession that could still deepen, yet the mood in and out of the commercial theatre sector seems refreshingly upbeat." Of course, "there are also problems and worries, especially in a subsidised sector that accounts for almost all our new and cutting-edge drama." The Times (UK) 11/11/09

email this story | Posted 11/16/09@06:37PM

Britain's Regional Theatres See New Creativity The story of regional theatre in recent years has been bleak, with some of Britain's oldest venues facing closure. But a new crop of creative directors are making local heroes of themselves. The Observer (UK) 11/15/09

email this story | Posted 11/16/09@12:49AM

Director Pulls Out Of First Wives Club Musical Helmer Francesca Zambello has withdrawn from the tuner version of The First Wives Club … Zambello (The Little Mermaid), who directed the world preem of First Wives at San Diego's Old Globe over the summer, is attached to an upcoming production of musical Rebecca, and also regularly directs opera." Variety 11/11/09

email this story | Posted 11/15/09@09:00AM

Credit Where Credit's Due - But Can You Tell? "It might seem like a stupid question, but when you watch a piece of theatre, do you ever wonder who has done what? There's no real reason why you should. You liked so-and-so's performance, the set looked nice, theatre is a collaborative effort and you enjoyed the show. End of story." The Guardian (UK) 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@05:59AM

A Portrait Of Joseph Papp (30 Years Later) "Papp mostly appears as a kind of theatrical superhero, arriving to give a crucial green light, to fire a director, to change a second act, to shake a cast up or to raise impossibly large sums of money in a single bound." The New York Times 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@05:02AM

A Need To Reinvent Theatre "Theaters need to understand that they are the pulse of society. But for theater to have the important place in society that it deserves, it needs to be almost a town hall -- a place where people come for ideas, to converse, to be angry and sometimes to be comforted." Detroit Free Press 11/13/09

email this story | Posted 11/13/09@04:16AM