Don't Dress for Dinner — and don't see this show either. I went because I read somewhere it was really funny. It is, for about ten minutes.
End of the Rainbow tells the story of the last weeks of Judy Garland's life. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, and debt ridden, she's spiraling downward — but her personality, on and off-stage, is as charismatic as ever. In London for a concert series, she's staying in a lavish suite in a high end hotel (great set) with two men in tow: the young lover, Mickey, she's taken on as her manager because he's good looking — not the best reason to hire a business manager — and who's in it for what he can get out the fading star, and Anthony, her long-time piano accompanist, who's gay, loyal, and truly loves her.
Based on Michael Morpurge's Novel, from the National Theatre of Great Britain.
Seeing War Horse in its current production is a powerful experience — the kind one has to be glad one had and feel concerned for everyone who hasn't had the chance. "You must see it" I have said in the three days since I did, to all my friends.
It's well known that it's a story about a boy and a horse and that the horses in the play are represented by wonderful puppets — "puppets" sounds small — think horse size.
In the 2010-2011 season, approximately 62% of all Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists.
65% of the the audiences were female.
The average age of the Broadway theatergoer was 44 years.
83% of all tickets were purchased by Caucasian theatergoers.
Broadway theatergoers were also quite affluent compared to the general United States population, reporting an average annual household income of $244,100.
Broadway theatergoers were a very well-educated group. Of theatergoers over 25 years old, 78% had complete college and 39% had earned a graduate degree.
The average Broadway theatergoer reported attending 5 shows in the previous 12 months. The group of devoted fans who attended 15 or more performances comprised only 6% of the audience but accounted for 33% of all tickets (4.1 mission admissions).
Playgoers tended to be more frequent theatergoers than musical attendees. The typical straight play attendee saw eight shows in the past year; the musical attendee, five.
The use of the Internet to purchase tickets has been steadily increasing. In this season, 44% of respondents said they bought their tickets online.
35% of respondents reported having purchased their tickets more than one month prior to the show.
The most popular sources for theatre information were Broadway.com, The New York Times and word-of-mouth.
Word-of-mouth was by far the most influential factor in show selection.
In general, advertisements were not reported to have been influential in making the purchasing decision.
74% of the Broadway audience said that some kind of incentive (discounts, freebies, add-ons) would encourage them to attend shows more often.
Throwing convention to the winds, a girl from a well-to-do San Francisco Jewish family joins a traveling theater troupe to get herself to the wild west, where she meets and marries, well, common law, Wyatt Earp — what a promising idea for a musical!
I saw The Habit of Art "live" in a cinema well outside London, as did thousands across North America, though not on Broadway, under the new NTLive initiative, using high-definition satellite relay. This is a new technological compromise between live theatre and cinema (long-focus lenses and ingeniously unobtrusive camera technique ensure a better view than from the stalls). It's worth a debate in its own right (does one clap and laugh aloud ?) However, the play's the thing.