While the actors are high-profile, the production costs are kept down: small casts, minimal sets, simple tech, smaller Off-Broadway venue. A quarter of the tickets are free, distributed to community groups; another quarter are sold on show day for $35. Also, equal pay for actors, no star billing, no designated press nights. - The Guardian
Sunset Boulevard has seen its weekly gross up more than $400,000 to $1.7 million. Purpose and Oh Mary! had grosses rise by well over $100,000, a large sum for spoken-word plays; Maybe Happy Ending got a smaller boost. Real Women Have Curves, on the other hand, is now closing early. - The Hollywood Reporter
In this case — the Montreal-based troupe The 7 Fingers, rehearsing in New York for a show opening in two days — the injury didn’t happen to the aerialist making a daring drop from a trapeze to the ground. It happened to one of the guys on the ground catching her. - The New York Times
But federal funding cuts are threatening national history: "A scramble for stopgap funding from donors and bake sales allowed all qualifying teams to attend the national finals this year. But what happens next is unclear.” - The New York Times
Sydney Theatre Company has recorded a $10m boost to revenue after its Dorian Gray production became a West End hit, and is poised to reap millions more when it receives a cut from this year’s even more lucrative Broadway run. - The Guardian
Sonia Friedman, the producer behind, among many others, last season’s game-changing revival of Merrily We Roll Along, the revival of Sondheim’s Company with a female Bobbie, and this season’s Dead Outlaw, discusses why New York’s model is dysfunctional and how box-office reporting makes things worse. - TheaterMania
“How are New York City’s theatres really doing in the wake of pandemic disruption, economic instability, and social upheaval? (This report) dives deep into this question using three years of comparative data (2019, 2022, and 2023) from more than one hundred nonprofit theatre companies across the city.” - SMU DataArts
Venezuelans suffering through the worst of Maduro saw themselves in the show, but so did committed Chavistas. Same for anti-Lukashenko protesters in Belarus, Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring demonstrators, Jan.6 insurrectionists, anti-Beijing Hong Kongers, and Mormons. Zachary Pincus-Roth considers what they all see in the show. - The Washington Post (MSN)
Tracy Young: “I’ve seen nothing to counter the notion that Shakespeare was a populist. All about the people, and the audience’s kind of theater guy. … That to me was the real affirmation of why Play on Shakespeare is worthy. I have no complicated feelings about the rightness or wrongness of it.” - TheaterMania
On Sunday, the Tony Awards paid homage to the astonishing array of acting talent that drew audiences back to the theater. But it wasn’t star power that determined the evening’s prizes. It was boldness — unadulterated theatrical fearlessness — that carried the day. - Los Angeles Times
At the preshow, “Buena Vista Social Club, a musical about a Cuban band, picked up awards for choreography, sound design and orchestrations, while Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel to the Netflix series, won for sound, lighting and scenic design.” - The New York Times
“Singing robots. Undead frenemies. A dead train robber, and a dying cave explorer. A fumbling group of spies, and a bumbling group of pirates. Also: Hamilton.” - The New York Times
"The pressures that deformed the news in Murrow’s day have only grown more intense, and its defenses weaker. The last line of protection is those people sitting in the dark, watching George Clooney remind them what they have to do.” - Slate
