All stories by Matthew Westphal on BroadwayStars

Friday, March 20, 2015

‘Washeteria’ – Off-Off-Broadway Royalty Take Children’s Theater Through The Spin Cycle by Matthew Westphal

This “theatrical installation” at a laundromat in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, “is the first for families ever produced by Soho Rep, the venerable downtown institution tha…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:46AM
Thursday, March 19, 2015

Plays That Should Be Seen And Not Read by Matthew Westphal

“The bare dialogue and stage directions give no sense of the unsettling and innovative spectacle that the work becomes in the theatre. Someone … who read the text without seeing …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:40AM

Three Women’s Lives Become One Of Iran’s Most Celebrated Stage Dramas by Matthew Westphal

“None has a name, but their [well-known] identities emerge from the tales they tell. Each narrates a monologue, never acknowledging the others. But they have common memories – of…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:39AM
Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Where Are The Great New Musicals With Great Music? by Matthew Westphal

Rupert Christiansen: “The glut of hugely successful shows – Mamma Mia!, Let It Be, Thriller, Jersey Boys, The Commitments – which effectively trade on nostalgia is rather d…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:34AM

Why Nicholas Hytner Is A Playwright’s Dream Director by Matthew Westphal

Alan Bennett (The Madness of George III, Talking Heads, The History Boys): “To a playwright, what immediately commends him is the amount of work he puts in. Directing can be quite a la…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:21AM
Tuesday, March 17, 2015

How “Newsies” Was Transformed From A Flop Movie Into A Hit Stage Musical by Matthew Westphal

Composer Alan Menken: “We never thought of the movie as something meant for the stage. But there was such a hunger for that to happen for a generation of kids because they loved it so …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:55AM

Older Americans Are Flocking To The Stage by Matthew Westphal

“The 50-plus crowd is stage-struck. Across the country, growing numbers of older adults are joining theater companies and signing up for classes in acting, directing and playwriting. M…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:15AM
Friday, March 13, 2015

Rupert Goold Says The American Model Of Creating New Musicals Is Better Than The British One by Matthew Westphal

The English director, “whose production of Made in Dagenham is currently running in the West End, said that, unlike the US, the UK’s musical theatre scene is ‘led by a prod…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:05AM

Here’s What’s Getting Audra McDonald Back On Broadway (Since “‘Night, Mother” Didn’t Work Out) by Matthew Westphal

She’ll be starring in a new musical, directed by George C. Wolfe and choreographed by Savion Glover, about the making of the 1921 all-black musical that launched Josephine Baker’…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:04AM
Thursday, March 12, 2015

Juilliard’s Drama Director Steps Down From Theater He Founded And Ran For 25 Years by Matthew Westphal

“James Houghton, the founding artistic director of Off Broadway’s Signature Theater, will step down from the organization after a 25-year tenure that has seen the organization…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:55AM

Shakespeare’s Globe Gets Seven-Day Strike Warning by Matthew Westphal

“Shakespeare’s Globe has been given seven days to avert strike action following a dispute over tour guides’ pay at the venue. Backstage union BECTU has been calling for a p…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:47AM
Wednesday, March 11, 2015

He Changed The Face Of The Art Form In Britain: The Verdict On Nicholas Hytner At The National Theatre by Matthew Westphal

Michael Billington: “I’d say Hytner has done more than anyone since Peter Brook and Peter Hall in the 1960s and 70s to change the face of British theatre. His advocacy of cheap s…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:40AM

In Unprecedented Move, UK Equity Expels Member by Matthew Westphal

“The union has expelled Craig Joseph, a member of Motown tribute band the Gillettes, after he lied in court during a case in which he was being supported by Equity, resulting in a cost…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:35AM

Chicago-Style Improv Comedy Comes To Brooklyn by Matthew Westphal

Jason Zinoman: “My two-week binge at the Annoyance Theater, the first comedy theater in Brooklyn, ended in a pool of sewage.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:16AM
Tuesday, March 10, 2015

How Britain’s Theatre Reinvented Itself In The Face Of Funding Woes by Matthew Westphal

Lyn Gardner: “What do we mean by ‘the nation’s theatre’? Think back just 30 or so years and the answer was probably fairly straightforward. It was Shakespeare on our …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:01AM
Friday, March 6, 2015

Theatre Folk – Performers And Audiences – Should Stop Being So Uptight About Viewers Making Noise Or Moving Around by Matthew Westphal

Maddy Costa: “For an art form so dedicated to thinking about human behaviour and interactions, theatre is remarkably bad at allowing its audiences to be human beings once they take the…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:40AM

Can Theatre Really Work As Treatment For Mental Illness? by Matthew Westphal

“Theatre provides a rare stimulus for psychotic, schizophrenic and depressed patients, giving them an opportunity to communicate and interact constructively with others.” Beth Mc…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:35AM
Thursday, March 5, 2015

UK Finally Overhauls Child Labor Laws For Performers by Matthew Westphal

“A 10-year campaign to overhaul child licensing and performance regulations is celebrating success after the introduction of a new act marked the biggest change in legislation in more …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:22AM

It Had To Happen Eventually: Lorna Luft To Play Mom (Judy Garland) In Jukebox Musical by Matthew Westphal

“Judy Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft is to step into her mother’s ruby slippers for a career-spanning new show, Judy: The Life and Music of a Hollywood Legend. With Arlene P…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:19AM

Should We Really Censor The Anti-Semitism In “The Merchant Of Venice”? by Matthew Westphal

No less a Shakespearean than Mark Rylance recently said yes. Director Rupert Goold thinks shining a light on that prejudice is important. Booker Prize-winning novelist Howard Jacobson says r…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:20AM
Wednesday, March 4, 2015

There Will Be No Oprah “‘Night, Mother” On Broadway (“Too Depressing”) by Matthew Westphal

“Last February, The New York Times reported that talk show queen Oprah Winfrey was in talks to make her long-awaited Broadway debut in a revival of Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:04AM

Man’s Law or God’s Law? Sophocles’s Antigone: Heroine Or Criminal? by Matthew Westphal

“It is this tension that is at the heart of the play: which law trumps all others? For Creon, obeying the law of the land is the single most important thing we must do, as citizens. &#…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:35AM
Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The Show That’s Turning Islamophobia Into A Laugh Riot by Matthew Westphal

“What do you do if your inbox is clogged up with anti-Muslim hate mail? Turn it into a cabaret show. Daryl Lindsey reports from Berlin on a strangely joyful evening of horrendous abuse…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:21AM

The Economics Of Arthur Miller’s Plays by Matthew Westphal

“But it was really his view of the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression: even more than an economic crash, it was a national emotional collapse, ‘like all the winds had stopped…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:53AM

Another Friday-Afternoon-News-Dump Departure: CEO Of L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse Steps Down by Matthew Westphal

“Kenneth Novice has departed the Geffen Playhouse after serving as its managing director for more than five years, the company has announced.” Both parties refused to comment fur…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:39AM
Friday, February 27, 2015

Tonya Pinkins Remembers “Jelly’s Last Jam,” The Show That Won Her Her First Tony by Matthew Westphal

“Jelly’s Last Jam was the first musical written and directed by an African American that was not simply a toe-tapping entertainment with happy, singing people of color. … […

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:32AM
Thursday, February 26, 2015

Unknown Harold Pinter Script To Premiere, 33 Years After It Was Written by Matthew Westphal

“The work, discarded by Pinter when plans to make it into a film fell through, has been adapted for radio by the film and stage director Sir Richard Eyre.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:15AM

Thai Actors Jailed For Insulting Monarchy With Student Play by Matthew Westphal

“Student Patiwat Saraiyaem, 23, and activist Porntip Mankong, 26, had pleaded guilty to defamation” under Thailand’s lèse-majesté law, the world’s strictest, “…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:59AM
Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Yes, Sometimes You Do Have To Censor Shakespeare, Says Mark Rylance by Matthew Westphal

“I don’t think there’s pressure [to remove] the bawdy jokes. He’s bawdier a lot more times than people realise. The pressures I feel are more for times where he will …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:14AM

Robert De Niro To Direct Stage Musical by Matthew Westphal

Along with theater veteran Jerry Zaks, the Oscar-winning actor will direct a musical adaptation of Chazz Palmintieri’s play A Bronx Tale, a film version of which De Niro directed in 19…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:44AM
Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Suzan-Lori Parks Wins $100K Playwriting Prize by Matthew Westphal

“The critically acclaimed epic play Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks has won the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for a theatrical work inspired by Ame…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 04:01AM