Theater criticism, news and views at Sketchy Details
There’s an odd twist in yesterday’s story about The Metropolitan Opera banning Opera News from reviewing its productions. Met creative director Peter Gelb has reversed his decision. Opera News is free to review productions at The Met because, “the public would miss Opera News not being able to review the Met, and we are...
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The Metropolitan Opera Guild has officially requested the nation’s largest classical music magazine, Opera News, stop publishing criticism of their productions. Why? The writing is too negative for a publication connected to The Met. According to the New York Times, features editor Brian Kellow wrote an essay about the artistic direction of The Met for...
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Good news for theater fans in California. The Scottsboro Boys is currently engaged in its West Coast premiere. This is Kander & Ebb’s musical that subverts the conventions of the minstrel show to tell the story of nine black teenagers who were falsely accused and convicted of raping two white teenagers in 1930s Alabama....
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The 66th Annual Tony Award Nominations were announced a few minutes ago and they’re filled with surprises. It seems that shows that closed were remembered fondly and shows that are still running but not so good were mostly ignored. Even within that understanding, there are surprises. The biggest shock has to be Leap of...
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Two really strange but believable theater news stories popped up over the weekend as jokes on Internet theater and geek culture fans. The problem? Unlike the pranks at a site like XKCD or Film School Rejects, there really weren’t any obvious clues that maybe these were jokes. On the one hand, you can commend...
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I don’t know when I’m going to see Once, the new Broadway musical adapted from the popular indie film musical of the same name. It opens on 18 March, the last day of performances for the show I’m music directing, and I’m in tech/performance mode until then. I can only hope soon, as this...
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Disney Theatricals have announced their professional theatrical production in the US. Is it a big push for the long-gestating Aladdin? The recently announced Dumbo? That Hunchback of Notre Dame musical that is completely written and only requires an English language translation? Nope. It’s The Jungle Book. The 1967 musical film about a lost boy...
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Ruth Leon wrote a great piece about Andrew Lloyd Webber for Playbill. It really does feel like the right time to look back at his career in the context of Broadway. Phantom of the Opera played its 10000th performance. Both Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar are returning to Broadway in new revivals. The threat...
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Time Out New York took on a monumental task that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. They decided to rank the top 25 divas to ever step foot on Broadway. The first problem? There have been many more than 25 divas–in this usage; fewer if you stick to the true operatic origins–on Broadway....
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I don’t think there’s a musical fan alive who is ashamed of finding a copy of the soundboard bootleg from one of the only performances of Carrie: The Musical. The show is infamous. From Debbie Allen’s pop video choreography to the large white box set to Carrie suddenly having pyrokinetic powers to a song...
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