All stories by Douglas McLennan on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Canadian Government Okays Sale Of Cirque Du Soleil To US, Chinese Investors by Douglas McLennan

“Industry Minister James Moore said Tuesday the application to acquire the famed circus troupe was deemed an overall economic benefit for Canada. The buyers have committed to maintain …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:49PM
Thursday, June 25, 2015

How Much Should A Theatre Worry About Offending An Audience? by Douglas McLennan

“Instead of censoring or sanitizing content that “might offend,” theatres should look at such works as opportunities to engage their audiences in critical public discourse about im…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:02AM
Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Do Our Theatre Reviews Have A Racial Bias Problem? by Douglas McLennan

“Reading these reviews just after following reports from the Americans in the Arts and Theatre Communications Group conferences, which demonstrated a genuine desire on the part of arts…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:26PM
Thursday, June 18, 2015

New Theatre Launches To Feature Older Actors by Douglas McLennan

The company, Frontier Theatre, has been founded by James Roose-Evans, who set up the acclaimed Hampstead Theatre in 1959. “There is a huge bank of actors in their 60s, 70s and into their 8…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:03PM

How Do You Merge Analog Theatre With Digital Attention? Goodman Theatre Experiments by Douglas McLennan

“I want to find new ways to break down the walls of the theater and have conversations with audiences, to engage in conversations about change in Chicago.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:25AM
Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Ask An Audience To Interact With Actors Differently And You Might Get More Than You Asked For by Douglas McLennan

“What happens when you remove the typical social contract of the theatre seat? We invited the audience to walk in our oppressive world and they wanted to change it. The audience’…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:57AM
Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Los Angeles Website Asks Theatres To Buy Reviews. A Good Idea? by Douglas McLennan

“Bitter Lemons founder Colin Mitchell says he’s responding to the dwindling number of reviews by professional critics amid upheaval in the media industry. Many traditional outlets ha…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:36AM
Friday, June 12, 2015

Does Theatre Matter Any More? Should It? by Douglas McLennan

“Broadway attendance in 2014 was the highest it’s ever been, even if that is no great indicator of regional theater attendance. But it is the case that relatively few people are seei…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:46PM

Dramatists Guild Protests Treatment Of Writers At Tony Awards by Douglas McLennan

“Ironically it’s the theater that most esteems writers; we are generally recognized as the principal artistic force behind new work, and we even retain ownership and control over the mat…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:48AM
Thursday, June 11, 2015

TV’s “Smash” Musical Opens On Broadway (Biggest Theatre Kickstarter Ever) by Douglas McLennan

“Bombshell” did arrive on Broadway this week to a rapturous reception at the 1,700-seat Minskoff Theatre — but only as a one-night charity event in which members of the origina…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:14PM

Gender Breakdown Of Designers In American Regional Theatres (In One Chart) by Douglas McLennan

As a person of color, I strongly believe in self-identification. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to gather enough self-identified demographic information to be statistically repre…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:00PM
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Tony TV Ratings Slip Again by Douglas McLennan

“The ratings for the live ceremony hosted by Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth are close to the all-time low for the Tonys, which was 6 million in 2012. Final numbers will be issued T…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:08PM

The Tonys Seem To Be Afraid Of Its Own History (Fear Over Ratings?) by Douglas McLennan

“Recognizing history is something the Tonys, in recent years, have become not just indifferent to but openly fearful about. The thinking is all terror-based: Ratings have fallen from d…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:30PM

This Year’s Tonys Suggest A New Maturity Has Taken Over Broadway by Douglas McLennan

“In a year of record Broadway grosses ($1.36 billion), it’s heartening to see commercial imperatives take a back seat. But then perhaps Broadway is beginning to recognize how rel…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:54AM
Friday, June 5, 2015

Which Musical Will Win This Year’s Tony? Chris Jones Thinks… by Douglas McLennan

“It is tempting to see this contest as a battle between an arty, alternative show and a mainstream attraction with great touring potential. But what’s alt anymore? It is also wor…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:07PM

Theatre People Love To Hate On Broadway. But… by Douglas McLennan

“The truth is, there is plenty that is worthwhile on Broadway, maybe more this season that has just concluded than most. And, equally important, there are some promising developments.&…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:03PM

The Man Who’s Reinventing The American Musical by Douglas McLennan

“While fans of Kristin Chenoweth and Kelli O’Hara duke it out, let’s raise a glass to Oskar Eustis, the Public Theater’s game-changing artistic director who, since he…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:54PM
Thursday, June 4, 2015

Investing In Broadway – A Fun Way To Lose Money by Douglas McLennan

Broadway producers may use the Internet for all sorts of things, but rarely for raising money. Shows are financed pretty much the same way they were 50 years ago, face to face and on the pho…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:44PM
Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Is Live Theatre Anachronistic In Today’s Mobile Always-On World? by Douglas McLennan

“Think about it: we (mostly) ask our audiences to commute to a particular location, step into a dark building, shut off all access to the outside world, be quiet, and not disturb us as…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:28PM
Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Can A New App Bring Young People To Broadway? by Douglas McLennan

There’s certainly a market opportunity. The global theater industry generates tens of billions of dollars in revenue each year. That puts theater in comparable territory to the global film…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:51PM

Broadway Has Been Taken Over By The Brits (Again!) by Douglas McLennan

“Broadway Anglophilia is certainly not a new phenomenon. With its august tradition of theatrical excellence, Britain has long been exporting its top-tier thespians to our shores, and t…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:38AM
Thursday, May 28, 2015

Joe Dowling Leaves A Reinvented Guthrie Theatre After 20 Years by Douglas McLennan

“Not since Tyrone Guthrie founded the company that would bear his name has someone become more associated with the Guthrie Theater, one of the nation’s acclaimed regional theaters. T…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:49PM

Musical Theatre For The Deaf by Douglas McLennan

Musicals may seem like a counterintuitive choice for a deaf theater company, but they aren’t uncommon for Deaf West, one of the few theater groups in the country led by a deaf artistic dir…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:36PM

Hugely Successful Theatre With An Unusual Business Model Is Making A Mark On Broadway by Douglas McLennan

“Playful’s ability to commission and develop new plays is subsidized by an unusual business model: the producers take on the workmanlike roles of general manager on unrelated product…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:03PM

Turmoil At Actors Equity Union (So Now What?) by Douglas McLennan

“Its heavy-handed approach to the Los Angeles theater community reveals serious flaws both in Equity’s vision of the future and its ability to implement any vision at all. From t…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:53AM
Wednesday, May 27, 2015

How Doing Theatre For An Audience Of One Changes The Experience by Douglas McLennan

“Acting is often spoken of as a narcissistic pursuit, but it seemed much more humble at Theatre for One. Why crave the attention of multitudes when the most we can ask for is to be see…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 06:27PM
Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Numbers Are In: Broadway Had A Great Year At The Box Office by Douglas McLennan

“The Broadway League said Tuesday that box offices reported a record total gross of $1.36 billion — up from $1.27 billion from the previous season. The trade association for theater …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 07:43PM

Ahhhh. So Macbeth Had PTSD? by Douglas McLennan

“We know from soldiers today coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan that they have these hallucinations,” Michael Fassbender said. “You could be walking down the Croisette here and then …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:04AM

Australia’s Backward Progress In Indigenous Theatre by Douglas McLennan

“The use of on-stage tropes to represent colonial oppression has been written about extensively by many scholars in my field of Theatre Studies. The over-arching theme is that non-Indi…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:01AM
Friday, May 22, 2015

Chicago Theaters Want Your Help When You Die by Douglas McLennan

“The subject is sensitive, awkward and uncomfortable but also, a growing priority for even the most established theater companies in Chicago, many of which are still relatively new at …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:40PM
Thursday, May 21, 2015

PJ Paparelli, 40-Year-Old Director Of Chicago’s American Theater Co. Dies On Vacation by Douglas McLennan

“Both Paparelli and his theater company — the two were inseparable — were at their creative peak. During Paparelli’s seven-year tenure, ATC produced a slew of highly regarded…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:55PM

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