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Sondheim, Lloyd Webber, and Other Theatrical Birthdays! Monk Giving Millions to Theater. Week in NY Theater

   Published Date: March 22, 2015  Leave a Comment on Sondheim, Lloyd Webber, and Other Theatrical Birthdays! Monk Giving Millions to Theater. Week in NY Theater

It’s March Madness for theatrical birthdays.

The Week in Theater News

Broadway ticketbuyers, says The Broadway League:

68% female

80% white

5% of theatergoers buy 35% of tickets

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Penn and Teller return to Broadway July 7 – August 16, Marquis Theater.

The Obie Awards, the Off/Off-Off Broadway awards , now co-run by the American Theatre Wing, set for May 18th at Webster Hall

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Russell Simmons  developing The Scenario, a musical for Broadway using greatest hits from two decades of hip-hop

HudesandKron

Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful) and Lisa Kron (Fun Home)  have joined the “Residency Five” program of Signature Theater, which means three new plays from each!

Chilina Kennedy as Carole King
Chilina Kennedy as Carole King

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will be made into a movie, with Tom Hanks as one of the producers. The timing has yet to be determined.

The Week in Reviews

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My review of The Heidi Chronicles

Wasserstein’s play was embraced as an insightful portrait of a generation of women facing old pressures and new challenges… watching “The Heidi Chronicles” feels too often like being trapped in a trend piece in New York Magazine.

Full review of The Heidi Chronicles

Full Cast

My review of Posterity

It was only at the end of “Posterity,” Doug Wright’s new play that imagines the real-life encounter between Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen and a sculptor doing a bust of him, that the point of it became clear to me (although the title should have been a tip-off): How will any of us be remembered? Are even great artists ever guaranteed immortality?…It’s a moving and intriguing scene. But it’s insufficient payoff for the too-static two hours that preceded it.

Full review of Posterity

The Week in Theater-Related Developments

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Powerball winner Roy Cockrum, a monk, plans to give bulk of his $115 million to theater. “Society is in trouble when culture is ignored.”

Twenty-six states, including New York, require arts credits for high school graduates

Week of Theater Wisdom

Michael Feingold’s essay on ethnicity and casting in the theater.

What Audience Engagement Means…and What It Shouldn’t Mean (Ageism)

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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