Author Topic: "Not Another Dream, Ugh!"  (Read 1791 times)

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On_Headset

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"Not Another Dream, Ugh!"
« on: Aug 13, 2013, 01:46 pm »
Gaetan Charlbois (a biggish wheel in Canadian theatre crit) has an interesting blog post about (essentially) how dull regional theatre has become:
Quote
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.
« Last Edit: Aug 13, 2013, 04:14 pm by On_Headset »