All stories by Douglas McLennan on BroadwayStars

Friday, September 4, 2015

Rules Of Engagement: The Line Between Audience Participation And Abuse by Douglas McLennan

“The rules of engagement in theatre have changed, and now audience participation is everywhere. But artists have a responsibility to take care of those they pick on.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:25PM
Thursday, September 3, 2015

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival Has Been Focused On Diversity. Here’s How It’s Going… by Douglas McLennan

“Once settled in your seat, I suspect the first thing you’d notice would be the unusual ethnic and racial diversity onstage.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:56AM
Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Edinburgh Festivals Post (Yet Another) Record Year At The Box Office by Douglas McLennan

“The fringe broke the 2 million barrier for the second year in a row, recording a rise of 5.24% on last year’s figures to 2,298,080, on an increase in productions of 3.79% to 3,3…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:01PM
Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Is Broadway Due For A Big Market Correction Of Its Own? by Douglas McLennan

“I’m not trying to tell you the sky is falling . . . I’m here to say that what goes up, must come down (or in our case, go flat), and the more we know and understand when these thi…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:45PM
Friday, August 28, 2015

Director Accuses Theatre Of “Setting A Dangerous Precedent” By Cancelling ISIS Play by Douglas McLennan

“If a single company gets scared and it is willing to pull work that it has invested time and money and love into… that is a very dangerous precedent.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:13PM
Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Ten Agatha Christie Plays Discovered by Douglas McLennan

The ten plays – five full-length and five one-act works – were discovered by producer Julius Green while researching a book about the author’s work in theatre. He heralded the find as …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:57PM
Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Reporter Wants More Impact For His Blockbuster Story, So He Turns To Theatre by Douglas McLennan

“Assassination Theater, now in a run at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, is a provocative multimedia history lesson dressed up as a docudrama. An engrossing, rapid-fire exposé …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:13PM
Friday, August 21, 2015

Manhattan Theatre Club Attacked For Lack Of Diversity by Douglas McLennan

The season, announced piecemeal since December, includes Sam Shepard’s “Fool for Love,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Ripcord,” Richard Greenberg’s “Our Mother’s Brief Affair,”…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:23PM

Bill Rauch: What It Takes To Be A Leader In The Theatre by Douglas McLennan

“I think leadership is lonely and leadership is frightening, and just the nature of the nonprofit structure is hard, so there is going to be a lot of struggle. And I think that does ma…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:26PM
Thursday, August 20, 2015

Former National Theatre Bosses Nicholas Hytner And Nick Starr To Open London’s First New Theatre In 20 Years by Douglas McLennan

“While there are 17 other theatres of comparable size (800-1,099 seats) in greater London, with 15 of those in inner London, the new building would be the first large-scale theatre in …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:15PM

America’s Theatres Are Looking At Leadership Changes by Douglas McLennan

“Leadership turnover is coming to America’s regional theaters. When Theater Communications Group — a service organization for the country’s nonprofit theaters — recently survey…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:05PM
Wednesday, August 19, 2015

An All-White Cast For Shakespeare? What Is Trevor Nunn Thinking? by Douglas McLennan

“Perhaps an all-white cast will one day seem as absurd as Donald Sinden blacking up to play Othello in 1979, but fidelity to 16th-century staging has long served as an excuse for a lac…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:51AM

Actors Union Condemns Major Production Of Shakespeare In London For Its All-White Cast by Douglas McLennan

“To present this benchmark of British heritage in a way that effectively locks minorities out of the cultural picture [literally] flies in the face of the huge conversation taking place in…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:50AM

Why Are Major Canadian Theatres Hiring Outsiders Over Home-Grown Talent? by Douglas McLennan

“They have reinforced a message to young Canadian directors that the best way to get ahead at home is to move abroad, and that what audiences think of you in New York matters more to b…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:30AM
Friday, August 14, 2015

Fringe Festivals Are A Lot Of Work. Are They Worth It? by Douglas McLennan

On the eve of FringeNYC, which runs Friday to Aug. 30, we asked representatives from some shows presented last year whether the overall effort — the cost, the frantic pace, the heat and th…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:49PM
Thursday, August 13, 2015

Shaw Festival (North America’s Second Largest Rep Theatre) Gets A New Artistic Director by Douglas McLennan

“A British theatre and opera director with 25 years of experience, Tim Carroll is best known for his Shakespeare productions, which have shown in theatres internationally.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:56AM
Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Throwing Off The Shackles Of Being A “Professional” In Theatre by Douglas McLennan

Weirdly, I am now making much of my income as a theatre and cultural critic in my chosen town of Louisville, Kentucky. I’m getting some small paid theatre gigs, too. I’m making m…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:09AM
Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Here’s Why It Isn’t Fair To Review Cumberbatch’s Hamlet While It’s In Previews by Douglas McLennan

“It’s not unusual for a journalist to completely redraft an article or review, so why should it be strange to do the same to a play? Theatre is a living organism. You only know if yo…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:45PM
Friday, August 7, 2015

Dramatists Guild Blasts Minnesota Theatre Fest For Disrespect Of Scripts by Douglas McLennan

“In a letter to Daved Driscoll, artistic director of Words Players Theatre, Doug Wright, president of the Dramatists Guild, took issue with guidelines that said the theatre’s dir…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:50PM

No Disrespect Intended: How A Play-reading Event Grew Into A Big Misunderstanding by Douglas McLennan

“Our intention was almost the opposite of what it has been perceived to be. It was out of our respect for playwrights that we wanted to be clear about what we were and were not underta…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:49PM
Thursday, August 6, 2015

What To Do With Your Theatre App? Take People Backstage by Douglas McLennan

“National Theatre Backstage officially launches next week and will curate media from existing outlets that the NT uses, such as YouTube and Soundcloud, alongside specially commissioned…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:20PM

How “Hamilton” Transcends Theatre To Become Great Theatre by Douglas McLennan

The show breaks every rule of Broadway success. “There are no movie stars and it’s not a revival. It’s storytelling and an original piece of theater that has inspired all this exciteme…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:20AM
Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Controversial Play About ISIS Canceled In London by Douglas McLennan

“Homegrown, a National Youth Theatre (NYT) production, was closed down last Thursday, with the creators saying they were given no prior warning. Director Nadia Latif and playwright Oma…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:55AM

Why Calling Something “Children’s Theatre” Is Self-Limiting by Douglas McLennan

“Identity-based representation practices that reinforce constructions of child/adult will generally limit the meanings of cultural codes, exploit children’s performative labors, prom…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:55AM
Tuesday, August 4, 2015

How To You Contextualize Theatre To The Audience It Wants To Serve? by Douglas McLennan

“What quickly became apparent is that the local authority officers share our ambition to find ways of increasing the perceived “usefulness” of the arts and asking: if the regular a…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:46PM

A First: Theatre Company Asks Taylor Swift For Song Rights Over Social Media And… by Douglas McLennan

Five days before opening, all conventional efforts exhausted, the company resorted to trying to reach Swift on social media and in what may be a first, she granted the rights via Twitter jus…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:43AM
Monday, August 3, 2015

There Are Plenty Of Reasons I Don’t Need The Theatre. And One Reason I Do That Trumps Them All by Douglas McLennan

“I am a reporter on The One Show on BBC One, where we get audiences of up to six million. At Edinburgh, the space I play seats 350 people. I am 67, I have six grandchildren, I have bee…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:31PM
Sunday, August 2, 2015

NEA Appoints New Director Of Theatre Program by Douglas McLennan

“Until spring, Greg Reiner was managing director of New York’s Classic Stage Company. He also served for four years as executive director of the Tectonic Theater Project and for seve…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:08PM

Broadway’s Hottest Show Is Pissing Off Tony Voters by Douglas McLennan

“I can understand the impulse — they’ll be among the top three moneymakers, and that always looks good — but a rule of thumb in this business is, don’t alienate Tony voters,” a v…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:02AM
Friday, July 31, 2015

The Problem With Cutting Theatre In Schools Is That It Cuts Audiences In Theatres by Douglas McLennan

“My own fear about drama getting smaller in regular public schools like Lakeshore is that it limits the ability of kids to stumble upon it – and that affects not just future theatre …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:46PM
Thursday, July 30, 2015

Disabled Characters And The Theatre – Some Considerations by Douglas McLennan

“Why is one considered a beacon of acting talent for playing a disabled character convincingly? Why is it a common expectation that these actors will transform into characters whose ex…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:12AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards