All stories by Douglas McLennan on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Wondering If The Show You're Seeing Uses Union Actors? Here's How To Find Out by Douglas McLennan

Actors' Equity has been aiming to educate the consumer and protect its members with an "Ask If It's Equity" campaign that today expanded to Washington and eight other cities. (It tested earl…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:55AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Canada's Largest Non-Profit Theatre Balances Its Books As Audiences Shrink by Douglas McLennan

“The Stratford Festival ended its 2014 season in the black " but the latest news on the Ontario theatre festival's attendance is less black and white.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:17AM[SHARE]
Friday, March 27, 2015

Carey Perloff: The Big Challenges For American Theatre by Douglas McLennan

She’s disturbed by the way “many large-scale institutional theaters today have become roadhouses to incubate commercial productions headed for Broadway,” alarmed at the …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:57PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 26, 2015

Cirque du Soleil To Be Sold? by Douglas McLennan

Renée-Claude Ménard, senior director of public relations for the circus, told CBC News the company is searching for a “strategic partner. This is a very long process and [founder and…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:25PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Amazon.com To Be London's Theatre Ticket-Seller by Douglas McLennan

A spokesman for Amazon said that, up until this week, the retailer’s theatre ticket offering had been based around “deals” and discounted tickets. “Although that will…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:52PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 20, 2015

Why Are European Theatres Broadcasting But American Theatres Aren't? by Douglas McLennan

“Yeah, this is embarrassing. And the Broadway ego takes a shellacking every time a list like this gets published. How are we supposed to uphold our reputation as being the biggest and …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:56AM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 19, 2015

So Let's Compare The National Tour Audience For Theatre With The Broadway Audience by Douglas McLennan

In the 2013-2014 season, Broadway shows touring across North America drew 13.8 million attendances. Broadway saw only 8.52 million attendees. The Road Audience is almost 2x the size of the B…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:40PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 12, 2015

Broadway Theatres Sell Air Rights, Buy Banks by Douglas McLennan

“When the Shubert Organization sold the oxygen above its landmarked house for $17.1 million in May, Broadway's biggest and richest landlord sheltered the proceeds from taxes in part by…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:52AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Warning: Theatre Is Losing An Entire Generation by Douglas McLennan

"Now, there are fewer young companies and there has been an incredible drop in the number of drama teachers working. And that seems to me to be a fairly urgent thing that theatres need to be…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 01:18PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 6, 2015

Performers And The Art Of "Physical Leakage" by Douglas McLennan

“We all carry a physical signature in our bodies. When we're under any kind of stress, our bodies behave in their usual habits " it's called "physical leakage". Your real personality s…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:29AM[SHARE]

Inside The Theatre " Immersive Experience Taking Hold Of Audiences by Douglas McLennan

“Immersive theater takes place without a stage of any kind, in deserted industrial spaces, nightclubs, hospitals, hotels and more. It invites audience members to explore the action at …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:20AM[SHARE]
Friday, February 27, 2015

How Women Playwrights Are Marginalized by Douglas McLennan

“Of course the heightened visibility of plays written by women is welcome. But all over the country, even at venues which are attempting to make female playwrights' voices heard, there…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:40AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Theatre Cancels All-Asian "Showboat" After Concluding It Couldn't Be Done by Douglas McLennan

“We spoke with, and listened purposefully to members of racially diverse communities and particularly with our most direct constituents, Asian-Americans, regarding how tackling this wo…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:33AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Here's Why American Musical Theatre Has Slipped From The Mainstream by Douglas McLennan

“Now that Broadway-minded songwriters no longer have a universal musical language on which to draw, it isn't possible to write a show with genuine broad-gauge audience appeal. It says …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:05AM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 12, 2015

Life Is Getting Harder For Actors With Learning Disabilities by Douglas McLennan

"Work seems to be being supported and assisted at a community level. So there's a perception that people with learning disabilities can enjoy participatory activity but " on the other side o…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 08:47AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Massive Change Coming To North America's Second Largest Repertory Theatre by Douglas McLennan

By the end of 2015 The Shaw Festival “will announce Jackie Maxwell's successor as artistic director, Elaine Calder's replacement as executive director and, if the new leaders are up to…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:42AM[SHARE]
Friday, February 6, 2015

A Bill To Give Tax Breaks For Producing Broadway Shows by Douglas McLennan

“The Support Theaters in America Growth and Expansion Act would mean that shows and live theatrical productions would enjoy an incentive given to film and TV productions for certain co…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:45AM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 5, 2015

Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value? by Douglas McLennan

Scott Timberg’s book Culture Crash makes a case that the transformation of our culture right now is killing artists’ ability to make a living making art. He cites a number of rea…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:21PM[SHARE]

Study: Going To The Theatre Is Scotland's Favorite Live Arts Activity by Douglas McLennan

“Theatregoing is the second most popular cultural activity in Scotland after the cinema, according to a survey that shows that 32% of Scots went to the theatre in 2013.”

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:47AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The (Improbably) Hottest Show In New York by Douglas McLennan

“The mobile-ticket site, Today Tix, has between 1,500 and 2,000 entries daily for a lottery to two tickets offered for $10 each. Sporadic tickets are available on StubHub for exorbitan…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 10:39AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Report: More New Work Than Revivals In UK Theatre In 2014 by Douglas McLennan

“It found that new work " including original plays, musicals, pantomime and opera " made up 59% of all productions, 66% of all performances, 63% of all seats sold and 66% of box office…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:22PM[SHARE]

This Is Progress? Toronto Has Too Many International Theatre Festivals by Douglas McLennan

Audience outreach will ultimately determine if Progress succeeds, because as it stands, Toronto likely has too few regular showgoers to sustain this boom in international theatre.

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 12:05PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 16, 2015

Culture-crashing " Is The Internet Killing Our Creative Class? by Douglas McLennan

Scott Timberg, an arts journalist and author of the CultureCrash blog on ArtsJournal, has a new book out called… Culture Crash. It’s Scott’s attempt to look at how the digi…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 05:55PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Live Versus The Machine (Let's Not Take The Live Experience For Granted) by Douglas McLennan

The promise of virtual reality has intrigued science fiction writers for years. But the technology for VR has been rather disappointing. Until now, writes Wired. A headset called the Oculus …

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:13AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 27, 2014

British Orchestras " Bigger Audiences For Less Money by Douglas McLennan

British orchestras report an increase in attendees – a 16 percent increase no less – over an earlier three-year period: A survey by the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) ha…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:14PM[SHARE]

Welcoming A New AJ Blogger: Art of the audience by Douglas McLennan

I’m very pleased to welcome a new blogger to ArtsJournal today. Lynne Conner will be writing the blog We the Audience, a blog about the relationships between artists and audiences. Lyn…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:01AM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 26, 2014

Morbid Curiosity " Culture Is Dead (Move Along…) by Douglas McLennan

What a week. First there was the Slate piece that declared classical music dead. Then spiked decided that pop music was over. Why is it that people keep wanting to kill off great swaths o…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 11:20PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 10, 2013

A New ArtsJournal is coming. by Douglas McLennan

.It’s been a while since we redesigned ArtsJournal. AJ is now 14 years old, and this will be the fifth redesign. And a new content platform as well, as the site moves to WordPress. Thi…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:27PM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 10, 2013

Are Arts Leaders "Cultural" Leaders? by Douglas McLennan

# The two terms sometimes get mixed up. They’re not interchangeable. For the most part, the big cultural debates of our time take place without participation of our artists and arts le…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 03:54PM[SHARE]
Sunday, March 24, 2013

What if an Arts Organization was a MOOC? by Douglas McLennan

That’s “Massive Open Online Course” and they’re everywhere right now. Some of the most prestigious universities are creating courses online and attracting tens of tho…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 09:30PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 20, 2012

How Do You Promote Arts Blogs? (A Competition And A Rationale) by Douglas McLennan

How does somebody who wants to write about the arts get an audience? In the old days you found a small local publication to write for while you learned your craft, and graduated to bigger pu…

SOURCE: ArtsJournal at 02:59PM[SHARE]

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