The Lucille Lortel Awards will honor outstanding lead performer and outstanding supporting performer in a musical and in a play, thus cutting the number of acting awards almost in half (a single category is being added for outstanding ensemble). - The Hollywood Reporter
Joshua Jay: "In my craft, unlike filmmaking, I have to find the intersection of suspense and surprise, and that's difficult. In a two-hour movie, you get to alternate. You can have some surprises and lots of suspense, but in a magic show you have to have them together." - Salon
Really, it's the same things as with any other theater: good actors with good material matter more than special effects. As Halloween approaches, Alexis Soloski talks with actors at two notable attractions about what works. - The New York Times
In Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, Lily Janiak finds some lines that shed bright, painful light on why some people would refuse a vaccine that demonstrably saves lives. - San Francisco Chronicle
"Come Fall in Love — The DDLJ Musical, based on the Indian filmmaker Aditya Chopra's 1995 hit Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which has become a cultural touchstone of contemporary Bollywood, will open during the 2022-23 season." - The New York Times
So much celebration ensued - and, well, perhaps for good reason. "The show, which opened on Broadway in 1988 and has never closed, takes its first post-pandemic bow not just as a monied buttress for the industry, but as a symbol for Broadway’s own endurance." - Variety
One of Come from Away's former leads, Chad Kimball, "claimed he was terminated 'wholly or partly' because of his religious beliefs." - The New York Times
Many changes came about because actors requested some rethinking of words, lyrics, or choreography. Sally Hemings, for instance, no longer flirt-dances with Jefferson in Hamilton's "What Did I Miss?" - The New York Times
The reaction to Center Theatre Group's 2021-2022 lineup came quickly. "CTG had received a torrent of calls, emails, and criticism on social media ... and was in the midst of crafting an official response. And then the other shoe dropped." - American Theatre
Little Amal, whose name means hope in Arabic, was created by Handspring, the company that made the equine puppets in War Horse. She stands 3.5 metres (11ft 5in) tall and is operated by a team of eight puppeteers working shifts to control her legs, arms and facial features. - The Guardian
The schedule is famously wearing, especially for leads in demanding roles. (Come the holidays, they sometimes do ten shows a week.) As Broadway returns from the pandemic shutdown, some performers are asking that their standbys go on more frequently, and some producers are obliging. - TheaterMania
Broadway shows stopped dead in their tracks in March 2020. The production teams simply had to hurriedly depart their stages with scenery still in place, costumes hanging on racks and dressing rooms abandoned — leaving behind a kind of theatrical Pompeii. - Washington Post
The show 12 Last Songs at Leeds Playhouse consists solely of dozens of people talking about, or actually doing, what they do for a living: a midwife lecturing about the birth process, an astrophysicist talking about stars, a chef making dinner, a decorator hanging wallpaper. - The Guardian
Shakespeare North Playhouse is on course to open next summer, joining only a handful of historically accurate, wooden-framed theatre auditoriums in England. - The Stage
"How are theater fans feeling about this new normal? Has the pandemic changed what they're seeing, and how they're seeing it? We spoke to theater enthusiasts to find out." - The New York Times
