National Theatre

There were a few people on the Tony Awards that once again brought up the question of "Why doesn't the U.S. have a National Theatre?" I think we've discussed this in the past, but why not bring it up again.

The last attempt was by Tony Randall. I think why his failed was because he used major stars and didn't seem to have a plan to tour the U.S. with his shows.

Should a National Theatre do a repertory season (meaning that each day is a different play) or should they do one play at a time? Should they have a regular company of actors or hire on a production basis?

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Updated On: 6/11/07 at 09:45 AM

"Because America's too divided."

I don't accept that as the reason. We have PBS which is sort of a National Television station in that the government kicks in part of the operating cost.

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I'm from the midwest and I think a national theatre would be amazing. Would I be able to go to it very often? No. Do I care if it is plays or musicals? No. I don't think you generalization of the people of middle America is fair. Until you come and see the growing theatre scene in the midwest don't generalize. Obviously if we had a national theatre, it would have a board of people through out the country so everyone could have a say. It would be easy in my opinion for a national theatre to tour as well.

I'll give you that the the midwest is more conservative, but I don't think most of the calls would have came from midwetern people. I think there are many other places that would have called in as well. I think it was a choice that was made as a publicity decision. The tony awards in my oppinion is the best place for Broadway shows to advertise country wide. So in my opinion, the way SA censored themselves last night, was partly a publicity move. It let's people know what to expect, but will likely bring other people in because they want to know more about a show that censored itself. I think it was a great publicity move.

I can agree with you on the point that if they wanted people to know it was censored they should have done something else. Back to the original topic of the thread now. I think it would be amazing to have a national theatre. I think that many people in the country would get behind it. I believe that it would sell very well and would be a huge success.

We should have a National Theatre, but it should not tour the country. This is not meant to offend the people that don't live outside of New York though. Come visit us! If you want to see the best of the nation's theatre, come to New York to a National Theatre.
I think Lincoln Center should think about building one and I think there is no man more qualified for the job of director than Mr. Jack O'Brien.

What about the people in England that can't get to London?

I stand corrected. I was unaware of that. We should tour. I just wanted to copy London.

Like I said before. I think this an amazing idea. I hope that it works out.

I think it depends on what space they use. I think a variety would be great. They could run a show for a while. Then they could do a reperetoire.