Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s one-act drama, Pass Over, Broadway’s first play in 18 months, is a bleak yet funny and poignant mash-up of Waiting for Godot and the Book of Exodus. Two poor young black men, mired in a hell-scape of deep-seated racism and gratuitous violence, dream of a better future. So many in their neighborhood have been killed that they can’t remember all of their names.Continue Reading
BROADWAY LEAGUE SAYS AUDIENCES MUST BE VACCINATED
Because the night belongs to the vaccinated.
Following the lead of Springsteen on Broadway, which is halfway through its summer run at the Walter Kerr, the Broadway League said it’s requiring audiences to show proof of vaccination at the district’s 41 theaters.Continue Reading
ACTORS’ EQUITY, BROADWAY LEAGUE REQUIRE VACCINATIONS FOR EMPLOYEES, NOT AUDIENCES
Actors’ Equity Association and the Broadway League mandated that actors and other employees at Broadway theaters be fully vaccinated — with a few exceptions — while unvaccinated audience members will be admitted and asked to wear a mask.Continue Reading
LUPONE-LED ‘COMPANY’ TO OPEN ON JAN. 9, 2022; ‘DOUBTFIRE,’ ‘COME FROM AWAY’ ALSO ANNOUNCE RETURN DATES
In comes Company — again. Marianne Elliott’s revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s revered 1970 musical will resume previews on Dec. 20 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre ahead of a Jan. 9, 2022 opening night, its producers announced today. Continue Reading
SHUTTERED-VENUE PROGRAM IS FLUSH AFTER WEEK ONE (EXCLUSIVE)
In a hopeful sign for performing arts organizations, music venues and theater producers seeking help to resume live, in-person programming, the federal government’s shuttered-venue subsidy program had $6 billion remaining after its first week accepting applications.Continue Reading
‘CHICAGO,’ ‘SIX,’ ‘PHANTOM’ LIMIT PERFORMANCES ON REOPENING
Some of the first Broadway shows to return in the fall will restart gradually.
Six , the pop concert musical that was poised to open when Broadway shut down in March 2020, is offering tickets for six performances a week after it returns on Sept. 17. Exceptions are its first full week of previews — when it’s scheduled for seven performances — and holiday weeks, when it will play seven or eight shows. Its limited performance schedule is through March, according to Ticketmaster, its primary ticket outlet.Continue Reading
PRODUCERS WEIGH REDUCING PERFORMANCE WEEK FOR RESTART
As Broadway faces the unprecedented challenge of reopening after at least 18 dark months, producers have proposed cutting back the standard eight-performance week while demand for tickets ramps up.
“One of the ideas that’s being thrown around is instead of doing eight performances a week, doing four performances a week for a while as things get started again — and prorating everything,” said Carl Pasbjerg, the general manager of the musical Come From Away and the upcoming Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.Continue Reading
‘BOOK OF MORMON’S BLACK ACTORS PUSH TO CHANGE PORTRAYAL OF AFRICANS (EXCLUSIVE)
If and when The Book of Mormon resumes performances on Broadway, the take-no-prisoners musical will reconsider its mission.
In a video call last summer organized by lead producer Anne Garefino, co-writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone assured Black cast members that they were eager to take a fresh look at the 10-year-old blockbuster and were open to making changes, a person familiar with the conversation said. The call came in response to a letter from the actors — both original and current cast members — outlining their concerns regarding the musical, which is about inept Mormon missionaries in a Ugandan village ravaged by AIDS and civil war. Among other issues, the letter addresses the challenges of differentiating between racial stereotyping and satirical storytelling, especially in moments of the show when African characters are treated as “props and punchlines.”Continue Reading
INSURANCE KEEPS ‘COMPANY,’ ‘COME FROM AWAY’ ALIVE AS JUJAMCYN FIGHTS CHUBB SNUB
EXCLUSIVE: No one put more money into the highly anticipated Broadway revival of Company than the insurance giant Chubb.
The Ladies Who Lunch LLC, which transferred the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth musical from the West End only to suspend it during previews because of Covid-19, received $8.85 million from Chubb, according to an email that lead producer Chris Harper sent to investors. Continue Reading
PRODUCERS WANT UNION CONCESSIONS BEFORE REOPENING
Broadway seeks givebacks from the industry’s unions before performances resume, the head of the trade group that represents commercial producers and theater owners told an online industry conference Monday.
“There have been general conversations [with unions] about what the contracts might look like, what might be changed,” Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin said during the final day of The TheaterMakers Summit. “We’ll have to get to the changes, if any, toward wages and work rules and all of that to get open, because the producers will have to figure out if they can reopen. If you reopen at 50 percent of your previous attendance, nobody even comes close to recouping at 50 percent of the theater being open. So we’ll have to talk about things.”Continue Reading
