Experiential entertainment is having a gold rush but commercial success is far from certain

Business | The Guardian: When the first ever stage adaptation of the global book and film franchise The Hunger Games opens its doors in London next week, fans paying up to £200 have been promised an “electrifying” and “immersive” experience.

Review Roundup: SATURDAY CHURCH Opens At New York Theatre Workshop

www.broadwayworld.com: New York Theatre Workshop is presenting the world premiere of the new musical Saturday Church. Critics are sharing their reactions to this anticipated production. See what they’re saying below.

Natalie Portman Apple TV Show “Threat” Details Updated by Police

The Hollywood Reporter: When the story first broke Saturday, The Baltimore Banner, quoting police sources, reported that production sources had claimed the show’s “cast and crew” were threatened by a group of Baltimore “drug dealers” on Friday afternoon who brandished a firearm and demanded $50,000 to allow the production to continue filming or that somebody would be shot. The “producers” on set refused to pay.

Why Is This Couple Dressing Up and Sword Fighting?

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: There are adults who meet for poker; some play chess; others host book clubs. But the protagonists of Liba Vaynberg's new romantic comedy Round Table at 59E59 Theaters indulge in LARPing. That's an acronym for live-action role-playing, with participants masquerading as knights, fairies, elves, warlocks, witches and other fantastical characters in an imaginary kingdom.

'Wow, that's what's in me': Suzan-Lori Parks on the contemporary slavery of 'White Noise'

Datebook: Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks has two epigraphs at the top of her script for “White Noise,” both from James Baldwin: “Not everything can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”

It can be difficult just to read the play, in which a contemporary young black man, roiled by a violent police encounter, asks his white friend to enslave him as a form of protection. Each friend is in an interracial relationship.

Lou D’Angeli on Evolving the Brand and Promoting a New Show

www.cirquefascination.com: It’s an incredibly busy time for Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal-based live entertainment giant that has redefined Las Vegas shows over the past 25 years. It maintains seven of the most popular and successful productions on the Strip and is currently gearing up to expand the performance schedule for “O” at Bellagio to seven nights per week.

Race, Rihanna And Box Office Drama: ‘Slave Play’ Is Heating Up Broadway

www.forbes.com: When a goddess is running late, you wait for her.

That’s the ethos at Slave Play, one of the most buzzed-about shows on Broadway. The play, which dissects the legacy of slavery in interracial relationships, has drawn legions of famous fans, from Zendaya to Madonna. Many of them are connected directly to firecracker playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who has become a celebrity in his own right, joining the glitterati at the Met Gala and NYFW.

How Cirque Turned to the Genius of Messi for Inspiration

www.cirquefascination.com: A red-and-white ball was the gift that Lionel Messi received on his fourth birthday, on June 24, 1991. A legend was born at that precise moment, as he reportedly proceeded to execute a series of mind-blowing moves with his present. “We froze when we saw all the things he knew how to do, because he had never played soccer before,” says his father, Jorge, in Luca Caioli’s biography, Messi.

What You, Theatremaker, Can Learn from Theatre for the Very Young

HowlRound Theatre Commons: “Where’s the TV?” a five-year-old sitting on a chair with pretzeled legs asked. “There is no TV,” the mother answered, “this is a live show.”

That conversation happened next to me in early May during a production at the Alliance Theatre’s Toddler Takeover in Atlanta, Georgia—an annual festival of international performances designed for audiences aged zero to five and their guardians. The Alliance’s trailblazing commitment to theatre for the very young has been shepherded by their director of theatre for youth and families, Rosemary Newcott, who is retiring at the end of this season.

Yiddish 'Fiddler On The Roof' Is A 'Dream Come True' For Lead Actor

NPR: A new, Yiddish language production of the musical is currently running off-Broadway. Steven Skybell, who plays Tevye, and Joel Grey, who directs the show, explain why the play still resonates.

Review Roundup: What Do The Critics Think of Mike Birbiglia's THE NEW ONE? - All The Reviews!

www.broadwayworld.com: The Broadway engagement of Mike Birbiglia's The New One, directed by Seth Barrish, officially opens tonight, November 11 at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street).

Written by Mike Birbiglia, with additional writing by Jennifer Hope Stein, The New One is a new play directed by Seth Barrish (The Barrow Group) with set design for Broadway by Beowulf Boritt(Bernhardt/Hamlet, Come From Away), lighting design by Aaron Copp (Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center), and sound design by Leon Rothenberg (The Waverly Gallery).

How the Entertainment Biz is Rising to Meet Demand for Adaptations

Variety: With around 520 original series set to premiere on television in 2019, a 69% increase in the past five years, the demand for source material and existing intellectual property in Hollywood is greater than ever.

Pipeline

Pittsburgh in the Round: The hopes and fears of parents multiply exponentially when your child is a young black man. Likewise statistics shared in City Theatre’s program support that black students (male and female) are more likely to be suspended from school at any age. Dominique Morisseau’s 2018 Obie-winning Pipeline at City tackles the challenges of black youth in varied educational settings.

The Haunting of Row House – a review of HOLLOW MOON, Vigilance Theater Group

'Burgh Vivant: Strangers gather in a venerable and stately house on a hill (at an undisclosed location in hipster Lawrenceville). The enigmatic Jack Warrington (John Feightner) has called together this motley crew to play a deadly, little parlor game in Sean Collier’s immersive theater experience, “Hollow Moon”

In the church of Pipeline, testifying is allowed

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: It's OK to laugh at Pipeline. It's OK to make noise. Playwright Dominique Morisseau laid down the permissions in the program like this:

"My work welcomes a few 'um hmmms' and 'uhn uhnnns' should you feel the need to use them. Just maybe in moderation... This can be a church for some of us, and testifying is allowed."

Review Roundup: What Do The Critics Think of AMERICAN SON? - All the Reviews!

www.broadwayworld.com: American Son stars Steven Pasquale and Kerry Washingtonalongside Eugene Lee and Jeremy Jordan. Washington returns to Broadway in this new drama after making her debut in David Mamet's Race (2009) and starring, for seven acclaimed seasons, on the hit television ABC series "Scandal." Pasquale returns to Broadway following his starring roles in Junk (LCT) and Bridges of Madison County. On television Pasquale is known for his performances in "The People Vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story" and seven seasons on "Rescue Me."

Rage against the machine – a review of “Pipeline”

'Burgh Vivant: When an iPhone captures Omari (Carter Redwood) lashing out against a teacher at his private school, his mother, Nya (Nambi E. Klley), must figure out how to save him from being expelled in Dominique Morisseau’s “Pipeline.”

Sound Designer Sebastian Frost on his Creative Journey with the Last Ship

Stage Directions: The Last Ship made its returning debut at Northern Stage in Newcastle, UK, in March 2018. This musical, written by Sting and Lorne Campbell is a drama with some fine songs bound together across two strong interwoven narratives.

Little Lake's 'Sherlock Holmes and the West End Horror' is a bit of a nightmare

Pittsburgh Current: A theater critic has been murdered! And it’s going to take all of Sherlock Holmes’ super sleuthing skills to locate someone who feels bad about it.

Just kidding! Holmes takes up the case and must traffic in the most evil, degraded and degrading world he’s ever visited— Victorian London’s theater district.

Theater Reviews: The Joys and Troubles of the Teaching Play

www.vulture.com: Plot Points in Our Sexual Development and India Pale Ale are teaching plays. They’d like us to leave the theater broader-minded than when we entered it, our ears and hearts more open to stories and storytellers that we perhaps haven’t fully or frequently listened to.