Gaetan Charlbois (a biggish wheel in Canadian theatre crit) has an interesting blog post about (essentially)
how dull regional theatre has become:
Now out of Atlanta, last week, this headline: "Financially strapped Theater [sic] of the Stars cancels season." It's a headline that begs a read. The company couldn't raise money for Little Mermaid and Cats after having already cancelled Anything Goes and Dream Girls. As I read those titles my tears dried fairly quickly. Am I to weep for a lost season that boils down to pandering?; that is nothing but: we-can-usually-sell-tickets-to-most-of-this-crap-so-we-can-produce-more-crap! People - even the most mainstream audience - get tired of same old same old, sometimes.
There's a lot of that in the theatre world. Companies having trouble and try to save the day with a Les Mis or a Cats or whatever hackneyed road-show that is passing through town. And BIGGER IS BETTER. Yes, well...until it's not.
It's an interesting argument, and one I find compelling.
"Why are we doing all this Broadway dreck?"
"Because people buy tickets to that dreck."
"BUT THEY AREN'T!"
A lot of this feels like gloating, and I'm not totally comfortable with the tone--I might not have
liked this season, but that's at least a few dozen people getting laid off, and that's not in any way good or deserved--but I do sympathize with the message.