Theatre // Current

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1 day ago

Theatregoers pay to get locked inside a freight container

A 40ft freight container, the sort you see trundling around on the backs of lorries, will be plonked outside the Young Vic theatre... more

slagface
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iPhoneSuit MiLi Pro Video Projector

Turning iPhones into on-the-go movie theaters and presentation tools, PhoneSuit's MiLi Pro combines the power of their MiLi... more

RepressThis
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John Malkovich brings serial killer Jack Unterweger back to life

"The very first time John Malkovich set eyes on Jack Unterweger, it was in the early 1990s and the celebrity model of rehabilitation was being interviewed on a television chat show.

"I have a memory of his creamy-ish white suit, a black and white polka-dot polyester stretch shirt, loafers and gold chains – convict paraphernalia," the actor recalled.

Unterweger was talking about his prison past – he had been convicted of murdering a woman in 1976 – and his subsequent rehabilitation into Austrian society by the Viennese cafe intellectuals who campaigned for his early release, leading to a pardon from the president at the time, Kurt Waldheim.

"At the time I didn't get it, I wondered why people believed in someone who was so obviously fake, so obviously lying," said Malkovich in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. "Only years later did the real story come out."

The real story, which Malkovich will bring to a Vienna stage in an opera-chamber theatre production which premieres tonight, was that Unterweger, the reformed prisoner turned celebrated poet and journalist, had begun a brutal killing spree within six months of his release.

"When I saw him he was well into the planning stages. He committed three murders in the first year he was out," said Malkovich.

Between 1990 and 1993 Unterweger murdered 11 prostitutes in Vienna, Prague and Los Angeles, strangling them with a self-styled ligature constructed from his victims' bra straps.

At the same time his books – including his celebrated autobiography Purgatory – were being taught in schools, his children's stories were performed on the radio and as a journalist for the state broadcaster, he was reporting on the very crime wave for which he was responsible. He was even sent by an Austrian magazine to Los Angeles to write a comparable reportage piece on the situation there.

"He came to write about the terrible conditions American prostitutes have because they don't have a union at all," said Malkovich, who plays Unterweger in The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer. "But of course, he didn't necessarily improve their conditions because, you know, he killed them all after he'd interviewed them.

"But he got what he wanted – a free trip to California to kill some hookers and make himself a little more famous and known and thoughtful."

[Unterweger] took his life the night after he was convicted of nine murders by a Graz court.

Malkovich, who is used to playing film characters that are menacing and alluring, said he found Unterweger "haunting and tragic. I can find him so touching that I can't even talk when I get on stage," he said.

Describing The Infernal Comedy as a "lesson in being careful about what you wish for", Malkovich added: "It is a cautionary tale about where our projected fantasies of redemption hurl themselves, out into the night, not knowing if the ground is 10 inches below or 200 storeys. I'd be shocked if those who supported him haven't shown some remorse."""The very first time John Malkovich set eyes on Jack Unterweger, it was in the early 1990s and the celebrity model of... more

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8 days ago

Rethinking Gender Bias in Theater

"When more than 160 playwrights and producers, most of them female, filed into a Midtown Manhattan theater Monday night, they... more

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8 days ago

Arts in Crisis (And Not Just From the Economy)

"American arts organizations are threatened, but it is not the economy that poses the largest threat.

It is the decision-making of boards and staffs in response to economic challenges that has much greater long-term implications for the health of our arts ecology.

While arts funding only fell 6% last year, many arts organizations are making drastic cuts to their programming. Many have canceled performances, eliminated educational programming, shortened seasons, or closed altogether. Others are "dumbing down" their product; there is a widespread call to make programming more accessible (read boring). Still more are cutting their marketing dramatically; after all, they argue, who will notice if we spend less on communicating our (reduced) programming?

These approaches to dealing with the current recession all assume that cost is the underlying problem of the arts; conventional wisdom suggests that an arts organization can "save its way to health."

But this is wrong, dangerously wrong.

Arts organizations across the world have a revenue problem, not a cost problem. We are a remarkably efficient industry, doing more with less. But we do not yet know how to create the revenue streams we need to do our work in a consistent manner.

And what creates revenue for an arts organization? Good art supported by strong marketing. Arts organizations that consistently do good work and are aggressive about their marketing are the ones which succeed, both programmatically and financially.

Cutting programming and marketing, the current favored strategy, therefore, ensures that future revenue will fall. This initiates a viscous cycle; less art and marketing yielding less revenue leading to more cuts in programming and marketing, less revenue, etc. etc.

Taken to its conclusion, an arts organization simply gets too small to matter.

This is why our arts are in crisis today. We can survive the current economic downturn if we keep our programming vital and work harder than ever to convey our message. Those arts organizations who compete well will survive and recover when the economy recovers. Those that continue to cut away at their programming are likely to become irrelevant.""American arts organizations are threatened, but it is not the economy that poses the largest threat. It is the... more

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8 days ago

Donmar Warehouse’s ‘Hamlet’ Coming to Broadway With Jude Law

"That collective “oooh” you just heard from Broadway is the sound of theatergoers whose solid (or sullied) flesh... more

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8 days ago

Acting Schools Go Head to Head in LA

"Stella Adler, the high priestess of the American theater, was known for her boundless generosity toward young actors. At the... more

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8 days ago

Women Directors Take Broadway

"This has been something of a banner year for female directors in New York, a development that wouldn’t be worth noting if it weren’t so rare. In July alone three new Off Broadway shows directed by women (including Ms. Ivey) are beginning previews. On Broadway eight shows last season — a record — had a woman in charge, with most of them garnering outsize praise for their work. “Hair,” directed by Diane Paulus, won the Tony for best musical revival this month, for example, while Phyllida Lloyd is one of the few directors — male or female — to have two shows running simultaneously (“Mamma Mia!,” which has raked in a fortune over the last eight years, and the new entrant, “Mary Stuart,” which earned Ms. Lloyd a Tony nomination).

“It’s getting better and better,” said Ms. Ivey, 57, during a break between rehearsals. The fourth-floor studio is air-conditioned to ice-cream store temperatures, so she wears a lime-green scarf wrapped around her neck. On her feet are colorful tapestry slippers. How often, she asked, do middle-aged women without an Olympic-type record get a crack at directing a show? “I feel that’s what Second Stage is doing for me,” Ms. Ivey said. She has directed a few plays in recent years but no musicals before this new version of Jack Heifner’s 1976 show. “They are giving me a chance.”

That chance, however, is something that does not come as easily or as frequently for female directors as it does for their male counterparts, many people in the theater contend.

Leigh Silverman, 35, who directed “Well” on Broadway in 2006 and the musical version of Neil Gaiman’s children’s tale “Coraline,” which is running Off Broadway, is optimistic about the uptick in directing jobs for women. “I think it is really exciting,” she said. “There were multiple women nominated for Tonys this year. In the short range it’s incredibly encouraging.” Still, she maintains: “It’s not a level playing field. There is no parity.”

Pretty much everyone in the business is quick to acknowledge that with so much money at stake, it’s understandable that producers want to work with people they know, and with people who have already had box-office success. Such established directors are generally men.

“It’s a self-perpetuating circle,” Ms. Paulus, 42, said after slipping into a recent matinee of “Hair.” “That’s why I’m so grateful to Oskar Eustis,” the artistic director of the nonprofit Public Theater, who hired her to direct the initial production that ran in Central Park last summer. “He has opened the Public up to the next generation of artists. He said, ‘Who are the young directors, the up-and-coming directors I need to meet?’"""This has been something of a banner year for female directors in New York, a development that wouldn’t be worth noting... more

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8 days ago

'Avenue Q' Reaches End of the Road

"Broadway tuner "Avenue Q" will shutter in the fall after a run of six years.

Comedy, in which a cast of humans and puppets play twentysomethings struggling to find their way in New York City, was one of the first of a new generation of small-scale offerings that carved out a stable foothold on a Rialto landscape more often associated with splashier fare.

Broadway production has grossed almost $120 million so far, and, according to reps for the show, returned $23.5 million to its investors.

The last several months of its Main Stem run have seen sales diminish, with weekly box office sometimes dipping below the $200,000 mark. Both the production's low running costs and its berth at one of Broadway's smaller venues, the John Golden Theater, helped extend its longevity.

The show became the epitome of an underdog legit success when the musical beat out big-budget competitor "Wicked" for the top tuner Tony in 2004.

Also picking up trophies for score (for composer-lyricists Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx) and book (for Jeff Whitty), "Avenue Q" was notable as well for a tongue-in-cheek, unusually aggressive awards campaign seemingly modeled after the high-profile pushes of Oscar contenders. (A year later, the administrators of the Tony Awards issued regulations limiting such campaigns.)

The show went on to stir up controversy just after the Tonys, when a seemingly imminent road incarnation was nixed in favor of a short-lived 2005 stint in Vegas. (A tour eventually went out, recently wrapping up two years on the road.)

In Gotham, the tuner became one of the more successful Broadway transfers of a show that originated at an Off Broadway nonprofit. "Avenue Q" preemed in a co-production by the Vineyard Theater and the New Group, playing at the Vineyard in Spring 2003. The show opened at the Golden that July.

Similarly quirky or edgy musicals from Gotham nonprofits -- including "Spring Awakening" and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"-- have subsequently gone on to successful Rialto runs, although none have outlasted "Avenue Q."""Broadway tuner "Avenue Q" will shutter in the fall after a run of six years. Comedy, in which a cast of humans... more

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8 days ago

After 17 Years, Mamet's Oleanna Will Finally Play Broadway

"At long last, "Oleanna" is going to Broadway. The revival of David Mamet’s 1992 play, starring Julia... more

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8 days ago

Goodman cancellation infuriates head of Austrian festival

"The Goodman Theatre's decision to cancel its planned fall production of "Joan D'Arc" has sparked an international flap.

Cutting the show from the Goodman's schedule has provoked a furious response from Airan Berg, the artistic director of the performing arts component of the Linz09 cultural festival, held in the Austrian city of Linz.

The Linz festival was the Goodman's partner on the project. As written and directed by Aida Karic, "Joan D'Arc" premiered in Linz, following several weeks of workshops at the Goodman Theatre. A Goodman spokesman had told the Tribune that the show was deemed "not ready" for Chicago audiences.

"We are appalled by the Goodman Theatre’s actions and wording as it represents an insult to the artistic integrity of the project and the work of all involved artists," Berg wrote in an e-mailed response. "We also see the statement made by the Goodman Theatre [as] damaging to our reputation and to the reputation of all the artists involved."

Berg, who cited some positive statements in European papers to support his argument, further charged that the decision to cancel the Chicago leg of the run was made "without any consultation with us and comes as a complete surprise."

"We do not believe that the cancellation has anything to do with the production being ready or not," Berg went on, "as 'Joan Dark' [a previous title of the project] proved itself to be successful to a highly diverse international theater audience in a competitive theatrical environment. We can only speculate about the true reasons of this unbearable form of censorship of a highly political theatrical performance that deals with the topics of power, religion, and race."

In a phone interview, Goodman executive director Roche Schulfer rejected Berg's charges and said that the cancellation was a result of "ongoing problems with the development of the script, of which Mr. Berg had been made aware during the workshops at the Goodman."

Berg said that only one Goodman staffer had seen the show in Austria. Schulfer said that, in fact, several Goodman people had seen the show, including Steve Scott from the artistic office.

"We have a responsibility to our audiences in Chicago," Schulfer said. "At the Goodman, that comes first."""The Goodman Theatre's decision to cancel its planned fall production of "Joan D'Arc" has sparked an... more

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10 days ago

United Kingdom Talk Video Tuesday 30th June 2009

Tuesday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch or listen to the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs &... more

ChrisReardon
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14 days ago

Anne Hathaway Opens in "Twelfth Night" in Central Park

Photographs from opening night for "Twelfth Night" at Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park... more

ebindelglass
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21 days ago

Fire Destroys Georgia Theatre

A Fire damaged the historic Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA. AthFest, annual music festival to be held next weekend, is making plans... more

hayden_augustus
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21 days ago

'Gordon Brown' dismembered

I was splashed down the back with Gordon Brown's blood. It was a clean shirt, and a new one or else I wouldn't have... more

petermarshall
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23 days ago

Female playwrights set to take the West End by storm

The realisation, last year, that Rebecca Lenkiewicz's Her Naked Skin was the first play by a living female playwright ever to... more

slagface
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24 days ago

San Diego, Capital Of Theatre

"At Moxie Theatre, Delicia Turner Sonnenberg has the lofty title of artistic director. But she’s not above getting her... more

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24 days ago

Theatre Offers Money Back Guarantee

"Last summer, before the bottom really fell out of the economy and everybody and their dog started brooding about risk, author Richard Cahan says he got to thinking about it in a creative context: how avoiding risk narrowed his own choices as a writer and the choices of artists and arts organizations in general. Their caution is understandable. For many small theater companies, Cahan notes, a single risky decision that doesn’t pay off “can spell doom.”

Arts patrons, too, are “worried about their time and worried about their money” and may hesitate to take a flyer on something they’ve never heard of before, he says.

Cahan was wondering why somebody wasn’t stepping up to encourage risk taking on both sides of the equation when it occurred to him that he might know somebody who would.

Cahan’s other gig, as a part-time program officer with the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, gives him the ear of the folks who control the purse strings there. So, voila: the Driehaus Foundation Money Back Guarantee for theatergoers, which will make its debut with the joint Collaboraction/Teatro Vista production of Migdalia Cruz’s El Grito del Bronx, running at the Goodman Theatre July 15 through August 2. “We can’t do anything about [audience members’] time,” Cahan says, “but we can do something about their money.”

Of course, money-back guarantees have been around at least as long as the Sears catalog, though not in the theater. They’re a surefire marketing tool, much less about returning cash to a few dissatisfied customers than about giving an exponentially larger number of them the gold-plated confidence to buy the product in the first place. In Cahan’s vision, there’d be no obstacles between customer and payback—no cumbersome mail-in, no waiting for a check that might take months to arrive. Just a rep stationed in the lobby or at the box office after each performance, foundation cash in hand. Disgruntled customers would fill out the shortest of forms, explaining why they were dissatisfied, and get their money back on the spot. If they’d paid with a credit card, Cahan notes, they’d leave with more green in their pockets than they had when they arrived.""Last summer, before the bottom really fell out of the economy and everybody and their dog started brooding about risk,... more

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24 days ago

A Play Unfolds Over Twitter

"Jeremy Gable’s Twitter play, “140: A Twitter Performance,” is now in its second day, and so far nothing... more

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24 days ago

Tony Kushner's Next Stage

"A few minutes before the fifth preview of Tony Kushner’s new play, a three-and-a-half-hour family drama of operatic heft with a matching title — “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures” — Mr. Kushner, looking like a slightly unnerved graduate student, addressed the audience from the stage. Some actors, he said, would be holding pages of new dialogue. “Yesterday was my day off,” he told the audience, “and I did a lot of rewriting.”

“At the end,” he added, “there will be a talk back. You’ll give me your opinions, and afterward we’ll all go out and have breakfast.”

The joke seemed to sum up the state that Mr. Kushner, 52, has found himself in here at the Guthrie Theater, where since April 18 (proclaimed Tony Kushner Day by the mayor of Minneapolis) he has been at the drumbeating heart of a festival occupying the Guthrie’s three theaters and various ancillary sites, celebrating him and his work. That includes the 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning epic “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes”; the 2001 meditation on Afghanistan “Homebody/Kabul”; and the 2003 musical (with Jeanine Tesori) “Caroline, or Change,” which is being given its first Guthrie production as part of the event.

Sixteen years after “Angels” established him as a major force in the theater, Mr. Kushner continues his surgery on the American body politic in his new play, uncovering with a prophet’s zeal the myths that no longer sustain and the corruption at their heart. Perhaps alone among American playwrights of his generation he uses history as a character, letting its power fall on his protagonists as they stumble through their own and others’ lives. And like a prophet, he wants his listeners to think hard about the world and their place in it.

“The Intelligent Homosexual,” with a cast of 11, including the Kushner veterans Kathleen Chalfant, Linda Emond and Stephen Spinella, is directed by Michael Greif, who in 1991 directed Mr. Kushner’s early play “A Bright Room Called Day” at the Public Theater in New York.""A few minutes before the fifth preview of Tony Kushner’s new play, a three-and-a-half-hour family drama of operatic... more