ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

THEATRE

Australia’s Busy Alt-Circus Scene Tries To Bounce Back (Ahem) From The Pandemic

It's an inventive — and animal-free — bunch of troupes with names like A Good Catch and Gravity and Other Myths.  But they're not big or rich, and the combination of local lockdowns and the inability to tour overseas hit them hard. Now they're hard at work on a revival. - ArtsHub (Australia)

London West End Theatre Ticket Prices Rise 20 Percent Over Pre-Pandemic

In 2022, the average cost of the most expensive tickets available for West End productions is £140.85, up 21.3% on 2019. The increase has been driven by new productions, with the average top price for long-runners falling over the same period. - The Stage

What’s Behind The Closing Notices For Long-Running Broadway Musicals?

Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, and Tina did solid business before the pandemic.  Yet with tourism to New York City still down, they've struggled since reopening, when they found themselves in competition with not only hot new shows (The Music Man) but also institutions like Wicked. - The Hollywood Reporter

The Bind Facing Black American Playwrights: How Do You Offer Deliverance, Or Even Hope, While Still Reflecting Reality?

"How can these stories end? What does deliverance look like in a world in which the odds are stacked against these Black characters, and at a time when, post-Black Lives Matter and post-George Floyd, artists are being held newly accountable for portraying Blackness responsibly?" - The New York Times

The Purpose Of Comedy?

Comedy is a social corrective exposing the gap between what is (injustice, poverty, environmental disaster) and what some think it ought to be (fairness, equal opportunity, gentle breezes). This gap, which may be history’s largest mass case of cognitive dissonance, remains our omnipresent duality. - The Conversation

As Of July, At Broadway Theatres, Masks Will Be Optional

"In a statement, Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, said audience members were still encouraged to wear masks, but would not be required to beginning July 1. The policy will be re-evaluated on a monthly basis going forward." - Gothamist

Cut Our Funding In Favor Of The Regions, Says UK’s National Theatre, And We Won’t Be Able To Tour The Regions Anymore

"Cutting us back because of where our postcode is will have a direct and negative effect on the nationwide work that this move is designed to address," said NT director Rufus Norris. "It will have the exact opposite effect of their stated intention." - The Guardian

Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre Is Being Renamed. But First We Should Remember Atkinson

For close to 62 years, the Brooks Atkinson Theatre has stood on West 47th Street, so it did 34 years previously as the Mansfield. On June 9, 2022, its current owner, the Nederlander Organization announced that this fall it will be renamed in honor of the distinguished performer Lena Horne. - Theatre Scene

Amphitheatres Are Popping Up — Er, Down — All Over Great Britain

From Pitlochry in Scotland to the Cotswolds to Sutton Hoo to Cornwall (well, that one's been there for 92 years) to north London, old Greco-Roman-style outdoor theatres are opening — and the few that have survived from the Roman era are being excavated. - The Observer (UK)

The Royal Shakespeare Company Finally Casts A Disabled Actor To Play Richard III

"The days of 'cripping up' - a term disabled actors regularly use to describe those with no physical impairment playing disabled characters - appear numbered now." - BBC

Royal Shakespeare Co. Casts Its First Disabled Richard III

Arthur Hughes, who opens in the role at Stratford-upon-Avon later this month, lives with radial dysplasia and describes himself as "limb-different." "I've always wanted to play him," says Hughes, "I think a lot of disabled actors will think playing Richard is their birthright." - BBC

Checking In At La MaMa, A Cradle Of Off-Off Broadway, A Decade After Its Founder’s Passing

Mia Yoo took over La MaMa after the death of the formidable Ellen Stewart.  (Yoo's father is Stewart's adopted son.) While Yoo has kept going what Stewart left behind (and is overseeing a major building renovation), her leadership style is "polar opposite." - The New York Times

There’s Going To Be A Big Immersive Theatre Under Waterloo Station In London

The venue, called Labyrinth, was conceived by the creative directors of the immersive theatre company Les Enfants Terribles and will open in November with a revival of their hit adaptation of Alice's Adventures Underground (Lewis Carroll’s manuscript title for Alice in Wonderland). - WhatsOnStage (UK)

One Of America’s Hottest Young Playwrights Is Putting Down Syndrome Onstage

Corsicana, the latest script by Will Arbery (Heroes of the Fourth Turning), is "the rare play to feature both a lead character — and a lead actor — with Down syndrome." (Arbery himself has a sister with Down syndrome.) - The New York Times

Talking About “The Book Of Mormon” With Three Guys Who’ve Been In Its Cast For All 4,000 Broadway Performances

Graham Bowen (dance captain and swing), Lewis Cleale ("all the old white guys"), and John Eric Parker (Mutumbo) "joined a reporter at the theater one afternoon last week to discuss the musical's staying power, and how it's changed with the times." - The New York Times

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