THEATRE

Next-Gen Music Software Threatens To Replace Musicians In Theatres

A next-generation orchestral software from the German company KeyComp threatens to inflict the deepest cuts yet on what has traditionally been a steady gig for professional musicians. - The Guardian

Why Are New Musicals On Broadway So Scarce This Year?

“How did the new musical — long Broadway’s fundamental building block — become so scarce that the New York Drama Critics’ Circle opted to forgo an award this year for best musical, and two of the five Tony nominations for best score went to music composed for plays?” Well, several reasons. - The New York Times

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s First Full Musical Since “Hamilton” Will Arrive On Broadway Next Spring

The show is Warriors, an adaptation of the 2024 concept album by Miranda and Elsa Davis. The source material is Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel The Warriors, which was adapted into the now-classic 1979 film. The Miranda-Davis musical, which makes the titular gang female, will start previews next March and open in April. - AP

Next-Generation Tech Lets Producers Of Musicals Shrink Pit Bands Even More

“Orchestral software from the German company KeyComp threatens to inflict the deepest cuts yet on what has traditionally been a steady gig for professional musicians. … Thanks to successful union campaigning, the software is banned in New York, Washington DC and in Hamburg, where the software company is based.” - The Guardian

A New Center For Playwrights On Cape Cod Bay

“Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel has teamed up with former Huntington Theatre Managing Director Michael Maso and philanthropist Grace Nordhoff on a new center for playwrights and theatrical composers that will open in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, in 2028. Bards on the Bay will be housed in The Nancy Nordhoff Theatre Center.” - Playbill

“The Seduction Of Certainty”: Playwright Moisés Kaufman On The Roald Dahl Bio-Play “Giant”

“Most plays about prejudice comfort the audience with clarity. They reassure us that we would have recognized it immediately. Giant offers no such reassurance.” - Observer

Theatre In London’s West End To Be Renamed For Judi Dench

“The Shaftesbury Theatre will be known as the Judi Dench Theatre from February 2027. … Dench has a long association with the Shaftesbury, which is one of the largest independent theatres in London.” - The Guardian

As It Struggles Financially, San Francisco’s Magic Theatre Tries A Three-Leader Management Structure

“Actor and former Magic Theatre board member Sarah Nina Hayon, who also founded New York's 24SevenLab, is artistic director; actor Daniel Duque-Estrada is producing director; and video designer Joan Osato … is director of sustainability and growth.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

Alan Cumming’s Theatre In The Scottish Highlands Will Present Its Own Mini-Version Of Edinburgh Fringe

Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s five-day event — called “Edinlochry” — won’t be as chaotic as the actual Edinburgh Fringe can be, mainly because it will be curated rather than open-access. - The Edinburgh Reporter

Could You Memorize All Of Shakespeare’s 154 Sonnets?

This actor did, though he adds, “When I first had the idea, oh, yeah, I'm going to learn them all. I … I did not realize how much work it actually was.” - NPR

Let’s Talk About How Sondheim Made Order Out Of Chaos In Sunday In The Park With George

Or more specifically, in one song: “Sunday.” - The New York Times

There Are Now Plans For A New Black Box Theatre In Seattle

The plan - after extensive renovations of the now unprepossessing building - is for ExoArts to “offer six six-week blocks a year at subsidized sliding-scale rates that can be rented by outside theater companies to perform full-scale production” and to have its own programming as well. - Seattle Times

A Musical About The 1984 Miners-And-Gays Coalition (Wait, What?)

Pride: the Musical, now at the National Theatre in London, is the stage adaptation of a 2014 film about the London-based activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners and the members of a Welsh colliery community whom they supported financially during the 1984-1985 miners’ strike. - The Guardian

Atlanta Has A New Classical Theater Company

Georgia Classic Theatre is being founded by former artists with Georgia Shakespeare, which operated from 1985 to 2014. GCT held its first fundraiser last month and will present its first production, of Macbeth, this fall. - ArtsATL

Director Milo Rau’s Staged Moral Tribunals Have Been A Big Success. His Latest Choice Of Subject Has People Judging Him.

Rau’s trials — with real witnesses and arguments, followed by symbolic judgments — have put Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists, mining companies in the Congo, and the Russian jurists who prosecuted Pussy Riot in the dock. But when Rau invited controversial billionaire Peter Thiel for a tribunal, stakeholders rebelled. - The Guardian

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