What if Into The Woods had been directed by Vincente Minnelli for MGM around, say, 1949.

“The theater is one of the few places left in the bright and noisy world where we sit in the quiet dark together, to be awake,” playwright Sarah Ruhl writes in 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time To Write…”, one of Ruhl’s many Tweetable sayings about theater.

Ruhl tells us she wrote her book because, having just given birth to twins, she didn’t have time for a full-length play. And, as one year transitions into the next, time is much on our minds. It surely helps to look back before we leap ahead. That’s why below you’ll find lists of the top 10 shows of 2014 most often found on critics’ top 10 lists; the top theater stories of 2014, and some of the weirdest; the top 10 Broadway debuts in 2014; the best movies about Broadway and some of the worst; the theater that passes the Bechdel Test. These last lists are not definitive — indeed they sparked some argument.

The Week in New York Theater, December 22 – 28

22

Opera soprano Renee Fleming makes her Broadway debut in Living on Love, about a diva battling with her maestro husband, using a boytoy as a weapon. Opens April 20th at the Longacre. (Pictured is a scene from the production at the Williamstown Theater Festival)

Artistic Directors from throughout the country protest the dismissal of Ari Roth from Theater J

Great concert I saw @AbronsArtsCtr w/@MrJasonRBrown & @AnikaNoniRose will be broadcast 1/2/15 @ThirteenNY pic.twitter.com/a6U5YcEuh4

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 22, 2014

@AnikaNoniRose What's wrong with that pic?

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 22, 2014

@AnikaNoniRose You were pausing, dramatically, in character, between refrains.

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 22, 2014

After Pippin closes, current Leading Player Carly Hughes becomes Velma in Chicago, Feb 2-March 29

Sting joins 10 others in “54 Sings James Taylor” Dec 29th at 54 Below

23

Usman Ally in NTYW's THE INVISIBLE HAND - Photo by Joan Marcus

Our Lady of Kibeho

The Oldest Boy

Grand Concourse

Does God Exist on Stage? Theater and Religion.

There are 10,000 religions in the world right now, although half the world’s population is “Abrahamic” (“either Jewish or Christian or Islamic”), Baba Brinkman tells us in The Rap Guide to Religion. His solo show at the SoHo Playhouse is one of a number of current works of theater in New York that touch upon religion, although with very different approaches: Some ridicule organized religion; others reflect specific doctrines, or try to reproduce the awe felt by believers; still others focus on characters engaged in some kind of internal struggle.

…how religion plays out publicly on New York stages.

complete article of “Does God Exist on Stage?”.

Supplement: Religion on Broadway: Video excerpt from a dozen plays and musicals.

#BroadwayWeek returns January 20 to February 5, 2015: 2-for-1 tickets go on sale January 9th.

Director Lavina Jadhwani doesn’t think color-blind casting exists. But color- #conscious casting can work

24

Does theater pass the Bechdel Test?

Playwright Sean Douglass brought up the question. The Bechdel Test is named after Alison Bechdel, the cartoonist and author whose book Fun Home has been made into a musical that will open on Broadway in the Spring. The Bechdel Test requires that a show includes two women characters talking to one another about something other than a man.

As it turns out, Fun Home does pass the Bechdel Test — the mother and the daughter talk to one another (although it’s often about the husband/father), but the daughter and her female classmate (later her lover) don’t only talk about men.

Karen Pittman, cast member of Disgraced, (second from right in picture above), joined the conversation, pointing out Ayad Akhtar’s play passed with flying colors. The two female characters “talk about wine, banana pudding, crack, books, Islam, the veil, Constitution, cooking, art and cheating. Never about men.”

Many shows on Broadway seem to pass the test

@NewYorkTheater @TheIntervalNY @_SeanDouglass_ Last spring, 57% of Broadway shows running passed the #Bechdeltest #pathetic

— Amy (@inspiredzone) December 24, 2014

@NewYorkTheater @AlisonBechdel I subject all books, theatre, films (and even some conversations) to the Bechdel Test. Most fail 😕

— Jane (@JaneMargulies) December 24, 2014

@JaneMargulies Maybe you're going too far. I mean, every conversation I have would fail the #Bechdeltest, including this one

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 24, 2014

I started to regret getting this started.

@NewYorkTheater @_SeanDouglass_ of it's a 3-person play & 2 of the characters are men- fail. Lion King- named females only speak about Simba

— Amy (@inspiredzone) December 24, 2014

@inspiredzone @_SeanDouglass_ I'm guessing Pumbaa is male, but what about all the giraffes and gazelles and hyenas?

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 24, 2014

@inspiredzone @_SeanDouglass_ How about if it's a solo show, and the single actor reenacts a conversation between two women?

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 24, 2014

@NewYorkTheater @_SeanDouglass_ you're arguing semantics to avoid the issue. Try to name 5 all-female shows in the history of Broadway

— Amy (@inspiredzone) December 24, 2014

@inspiredzone @_SeanDouglass_ The Women, Golda's Balcony, At Liberty, Whoopi, Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in Universe

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 24, 2014

The Women by Clare Booth Luce debuted on Broadway in 1936, and has been revived twice. The 1939 movie starred (pictured) Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, Rosalind Russell and Norma Shearer.

@NewYorkTheater @_SeanDouglass_ it's not a single number. There have been 2 women in 68 years to win Best Play. 1 to win a solo best score

— Amy (@inspiredzone) December 24, 2014

There is a problem in trying to measure diversity, writes Michael Rushton.

“My instinct is always to take a risk…And so I hope to have the courage to keep doing that.” – Sting to Charlie Rose.

25

My review of the film Into The Woods

ITW16b The long-awaited, visually sumptuous film version of “Into The Woods” is likely to please theatergoers who are already fans of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s clever 1987 musical mashup of our culture’s best-known fairy tales, even if they have some quibbles; it will surely thrill the fans of the many stars that populate the film, a cast so uniformly first rate that Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp don’t especially stand out. We’ll have to see whether the average moviegoers, fairy tale enthusiasts, and parents looking for family entertainment will just scratch their heads.
It wouldn’t be the first time “Into The Woods” has elicited that reaction….

It would be hard to go wrong once you’ve cast Tracey Ullman as Jack’s mother, Christine Baranski as Cinderella’s stepmother and Meryl Streep as the witch, and they are just as funny and good as we expect them to be. But both Chris Pine (best known for Star Trek roles) as Cinderella’s Prince Charming and Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel’s Prince come as comic revelations

Full review plus two dozen photographs and three videos

25 books that changed history (King James Bible,Torah,Qur’an, Anne Frank Diary,1984, etc)

Did any plays change history?

Jeff L. Walker ‏Ibsen’s A DOLL’S HOUSE made a ripple. The surviving Greek tragedies were\are huge.

Kyle A. Thomas ‏ I’d say Ubi Roi, at the least, drove culture creators beyond 19th century

Ken Dukes ‏ RUR

Ilana Brownstein: Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais, widely thought to have helped spark French Revolution

26

Sean Patrick Doyle: Just back from the musical theater equivalent of Midnight Mass – a late showing of Into The Woods

Into The Woods grossed an impressive $15.1 million Christmas Day, from 2,440 theaters ($3 million less than Les Miserables Christmas 2012)

Movies & TV shows most frequently on "Best of 2014" lists, as compiled by @FiveThirtyEight. pic.twitter.com/Md63qunShq

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) December 26, 2014