Profile for TheatreMonkey

HogansHero said: "jkcohen626 said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Drew Barrymore has just withdrawn from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards in solidarity with the strike, which is something that I could 100% see DeBose doing. That show will now be hostless and will not have a red carpet or interviews beforehand either.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/drew-barrymore-mtv-movie-tv-awards-writers-strike-1235603357/"

I still think that there is a distinct difference in something celebrating the fruits of WGA members' labor and celebrating a non movie or TV medium.

The WGA and everyone who participated in 2008 Grammys knew this at the time and I think the WGA, Ariana, and others potentially participating in the Tonys all will again."

This materially misapprehends the essence of a strike (and this strike). The strike is not about what is being celebrated but that the writers are being asked to write for television. It is 2023 and the stakes are very high. There will be no casual agreements. If the Tonys are to go forward, a carefully crafted format will have to be established and agreed to. As I have said elsewhere, the risk is that people start bailing at the last minute because they see that games are being played with the setup."

As usual, thank you Hogan -- this was what I was trying to get at as well. Additionally, no amount of "good will", or not wanting to see a related industry fail, or argument that it "isn't the same" is meaningless. If you take a moment to look at the credits that flash by at the tail end of any awards ceremony, you'll see a *ton* of writers involved...all of which are WGA. And if "good will" comes into play at all, it'll be the reverse -- SAG-AFTRA or similar not crossing the picket line. 

Rob said: "Yes, we're rolling out a slightly darker background on here as requested, and thanks for all the helpful emails so far which we've been jumping on w/ the team. More to come. "

Congrats on 20 years, truly an achievement! I primarily access BWW on my mobile, and must say the new layout and/or any optimization has really made the site much snappier and responsive on mobile. Thanks for that!

bdn223 said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "This is a very early prediction, but those reading the tea leaves think a strike is almost guaranteed because the streamers/networks will not budge on some of this stuff.Strike would happen around May 1, and the Tonys are June 11. So a ceremony is just not going to be feasible if a strike lasts longer than 3/4 weeks, and that will probably be a late call by the League and White Cherry (which produces the Tonys).

The last writers strike happened in 2007-2008 and lasted 3 months. The Golden Globes got cancelled that year and it really shook up the TV landscape. The winners were read off in a press conference that year; or we could geta non-televised ceremony, or yet another delayed ceremony. I'm sure the League is already bracing for impact.

Wages and residuals are on the line, in a TV landscape that has changed significantly due to streaming. The WGA will not go down without a fight –– nor should they.

Let the games begin!"

I would assume the WGA would be more willing to make and keep a special agreement the Tony's, which they attempted to do with the Golden Globes in 2007 before it fell apart, since the unlike the Tony's celebrate live entertainment and thus outside of the broadcast do not fall under the WGA's purview or anything they are striking for. Also as Broadway arguably needs the Tony's as an advertisement each year the American Theater Wing will be pressured by producers to give into the WGA's demands in order to have a proper broadcast."

The American Theater Wing can't "give into the WGA's demands" -- it's not an issue of one single event/show/film/contract, the "demands" have to do with the entire union. In a dispute like this, you don't have one-offs because one (relatively minor) party "gives in" -- we're taking about the whole of Hollywood and TV writers of, frankly, any and everything on a screen. To paraphrase Lord of the Rings, the Wing has no power here.

ggersten said: "On Friday 7 April (Good Friday) a performance of The Bodyguard in Manchester, England was stopped 10 minutes before the end as unruly audience members were removed by police. The audience members were singing along - loudly (and poorly). The production had a "no sing-along" policy/rule.

To make matters worse, a local television program presenters had complained about the "no sing along" rules saying (paraphrasing) "what's the point of going to the show if you can't sing along?" After the Bodyguard incident, the presenters faced criticism and one has apologized.

There's lots in the UK press and Twitter about the incident including audio.
Discussion and some links over on Theatreboard starting at page 217:Bad Behaviour at a Show | TheatreBoard

And Variety:'Bodyguard' Musical Halted After 'Mini-Riot' Over Audience Sing-along - Variety"

So here is the actual video (via Reddit article) of the shocking behavior of the audience members as they are being removed from the house -- it's quite something, and the escalation during their REMOVAL just shows how far gone some people have lost their damn minds.

TaffyDavenport said: "Brand new social media ad:

https://twitter.com/badcinderella/status/1640482003580596225"

Wow...talk about trying too hard. Not to mention, from what it sounds like, had they actually wanted to have a "bad b***h" leading character, the creators would have taken a hard, second look at everything and ...well, made her a badass. 

RippedMan said: "It's not about what's fun or not, it's about what will people pay a premium ticket for?

For example: Look at any awards show. It always leans towards heavy dramatic roles and not fun Comedy. Same here. It might be a fun time, but is anyone paying for that? It's still a business. That's why I asked when was the last time a musical comedy was a giant hit?"

Based on the top grossing musicals of all time (via Wikipedia, link here), I think Wicked (which is a musical comedy, even with its serious elements) in 2nd place, The Book of Mormon in 5th place, Chicago (it's a satire, which is considered a form of comedy) in 6th place, and Mamma Mia! in 7th place, might beg to disagree.

RippedMan said: "I think a performer winning a Tony for a musical doesn't mean much when they go to do a straight play, as evident by Audra McDonald.

That does seem high, cost wise, but I'm always amazed at how much stuff costs to produce in this day and age."

Except Audra has won Tony awards in ALL categories -- including for straight plays. Point taken, but not a good example.

MidnightUrl said: "https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/the-secret-life-of-bees/#cast-creatives

https://www.westendtheatre.com/159023/news/the-secret-life-of-bees-final-casting-revealed/

Pretty epic cast. The original music is going to blow you away.

"

Wow! Mark Meadows is in this?! Didn't know he could sing! Was wondering what he was doing after his White House days...

iykyk!

MattieIce2018 said: "Since earlier today I've been seeing what looks like a database query being printed above the main feed on the board homepage:

select topics.topicname,boardtitle,topicid,wbtable.id,topic,replies,lastcomment,lastcommentbyfirst,topicstartedbyfirst,views,lockthread,sticky FROM bway_bww.wbtable left join bway_bww.topics on wbtable.topicid = topics.id where boardid = 1 and lastcomment > '2020-01-01' ORDER BY sticky desc, lastcomment desc LIMIT 50,50"

I have also noticed this in the last few days.

On a slightly related topic, any CD review, or similar review article by "Bobby Patrick" (NYC and Cabaret beat) *never* load properly when accessed via the link on the homepage; the posted hyperlink *always* is lacking the domain. Instead of "https://www.broadywayworld.com/article/ARTICLE-TITLE-HERE", without fail you receive a Page Not Found error, because the referring link is literally "article/ARTICLE-TITLE-HERE", completely lacking the domain. If you manually add the domain, it works fine. But please, check Mr. Patrick's upload/directory settings -- this is a constantly occuring problem.

Broadway Flash said: "It’s not just the set and Jordan. It’s the overall direction people are eh about. Guess the ball is in Camelot’s court. "

Some days I really wish there was a "Thumbs Down" option on here ...

Tag said: "Yes the theatre where Ragtime started which used to look like this:



Now looks like thi"I'm sorry...WHAT?! They changed a beautiful theatre into an auditorium that looks like it belongs in a Disney Park, presenting "TRON: The Musical"?!  My apologies for being an ill-formed American in respect to the Toronto theatre scene but...$@&# ! That's quite a shame.