A Recommendation

Michael Riedel (pronounced reed-el) writes a column for the New York Post about theatre that is not just the usual stuff. Sometimes he shares juicy gossip; other times, he writes about turning points in the business of bringing a show to the commercial theatre. Some examples from just the last 4 weeks:

• An account of a backers' audition for the Alan Menken musical Leap of Faith. The musical is based on the 1992 Steve Martin film.
• Garth Drabinsky, awaiting sentencing in Canada for investor fraud connected with his theatre producing company Livent, was trying by phone to save the run of the Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow. The revival, produced by David Richenthal, Jack Viertel, and Alan D. Marks, received strong reviews but built little box office, closing January 17th after 15 weeks and grossing $7.8 million. (We saw it. The material is old-fashioned but this staging, developed out of an Encores! performance, was charming. Jim Norton (Finian), Kate Baldwin (Sharon), and Christopher Fitzgerald (Og) were excellent. As Woody, Cheyenne Jackson is phenomenal: good looking, masculine, a superb singer, and absolutely relaxed on stage.) Drabinsky can't enter the US without being arrested for the Livent debacle.
• Riedel has written about the financial problems of Spider-Man, Turn off the Dark a few times. In a piece published January 11, he reports that the show, directed by Julie Taymor with music by Bono and the Edge, is back on, opening sometime in the fall. It's still estimated to cost $50 million, by far the most expensive show in Broadway history.
• With the show in trouble in its Chicago try-out, Riedel reported on December 28th that several principals for The Addams Family musical left the windy city for vacations in warm climates.
  

Reidel's columns are available on the internet at http://www.nypost.com/columnists/michaelriedel. He also appears on a Channel 13 interview show, Theater Talk, which is now in syndication and may play in your market. Highlights are on http://www.youtube.com/theatertalk. He's worth following if you care about the theatre.

More Progress on the Book

Returned page proofs for Stage Money today. Bravo!

Good News

This blog is about the business and finances of the professional theatre, so this post is off-topic. But I had a small epiphany last week I want to share.

I was in NYC to see some theatre, go to museums, eat some good meals. As I entered the hotel elevator with the New York Times, a gentleman asked, "Any news?" I glanced at the front page, dominated by a photo of the destruction in Haiti. "As they say," I replied, "No news is good news."

As the elevator rose, I turned first to the the Arts section as I always do. Suddenly it occurred to me that the arts are the closest thing we can readily find to good news. Even a theatrical tragedy makes the heart well up at the thought of human creativity crafting a moment of completeness, a story that unlike real life has a wholeness. For those of us who love any of the arts--my favorite is theatre--the experience of the arts is usually the only good news readily available.