Just about a month before the election, one can hardly expect every theater blogger — or podcaster or substacker – to ignore politics: So this roundup begins with three examples, then goes in some different directions.

The Project 2025 song written, animated and performed by actor Jason Kravits, comes courtesy of Brian Eugenio Herrera’s TheaterClique, who writes: “The next month or so promises to be as wildly discombobulating a political ride as we’ve ever experienced which is precisely why smart, incisive, and informative cultural criticism like this video….is so worth engaging…”

Ken Davenport on 5 Things The Debate Reminded Me About Broadway — the beginning and the ending are important, good marketing requires repetition, endorsements help, “Having an audience creates more excitement and energy”

Broadway & Me’s Jan Simpson on Power Plays: Shows About U.S. Politics — 49 shows she listed during the last dramatic presidential campaign season, in 2020.

George Hunka on Richard Foreman

 Hunka reprints his extensive, and impressive,collection of his writings about founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, hooked to New York University’s “Archives on Stage” series focusing this semester on Foreman’s work, and on Foreman’s new play , Suppose Beautiful Madeleine Harvey, scheduled for La MaMa in December.  

Hunka begins: “I stopped writing about theatre a decade ago, around the same time that Richard Foreman retired from the stage. I’ve been back to the theatre a few times since then, but I haven’t yet come across theatrical experiences quite as liberating as Foreman’s plays. I can’t remember walking out of one of Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric productions at St. Mark’s Church without having a newfound awareness of the world and my place in it.:. His work was something of an acquired taste, perhaps, but I had no problem acquiring it.”

Don Shewey, in his Another Eye Opens, includes an account of the first panel discussion in that NYU “Archives on Stage” series about Foreman, as part of a ,roundup of his recent eclectic cultural peregrinations which he headlines: Culture Vulture: Gabriel Kahane, Jez Butterworth, Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman, Adam Moss. He writes a preface to his pan of “The Hills of California” that feels worth quoting:

“I don’t like to diss theater that I see. Putting on a show requires many talented, hard-working artists to bust their asses for long hours with no guarantee of success, and I’d much rather champion work that excites or at least stimulates me. (That’s why I haven’t written about Job or Oh, Mary!) For the sake of credibility, though, I will admit that that I did not love “The Hills of California”….”

Shewey is an arts writer I used to follow avidly. He seemed to disappear; I now read that he took many years off to become a therapist. I’m happy to have discovered his substack, which he began late last year.

In “Everybody’s A Critic. Literally,” the Bad Boy of Theatre’s Scott Miller decries the decay of theater criticism, although he also gives examples of how he’s publicly called out terrible reviews of his shows over the 32 years of his New Line Theater’s existence. 

“Sometimes, local actors and directors are horrified that I dare review the reviewer. But why shouldn’t we?”

Most usefully, he offers a link to books he recommends about criticism:

How to Write About Theatre: A Manual for Critics, Students, and Bloggers

The Critics Say: 57 Theatre Reviewers in New York and Beyond Discuss Their Craft and Its Future

The Art of Writing for the Theatre: An Introduction to Script Analysis, Criticism, and Playwriting

The Critics Canon: Standard of Theatrical Reviewing in America

I’ll tease you with a podcast from Marks and Vincentelli “Time Out’s Adam Feldman says theater critics can’t afford to be grumpy anymore. Here’s why that’s a good thing….Elisabeth, Peter and Adam discuss how criticism, writing, development and the entire theater landscape have changed over the last two decades in New York”(“tease” because it’s only for paid subscribers) To compensate, here’s a free podcast episode of theirs: Kara Young can’t stop winning. We wanted to know what keeps this gifted actress on a hot streak.

Broadway Journal’s Philip Boroff on Jujamcyn profits
“Broadway investors stand to lose about $200 million on the 2023-24 season’s flops. For Jujamcyn Theaters, the Broadway landlord, it was a different story. Jujamcyn earned a profit of $34 million on revenue of $116 million in the year ending March 30, 2024. “

On Stage Blog’s Chris Peterson on The Perils of Artificial Intelligence in Theatre Production Design, based on reports that the Feast Theater company in Seattle had utilized “generative artificial intelligence” in the creation of their design.