Bay Area’s PianoFight to Close After 15 Years

AMERICAN THEATRE: SAN FRANCISCO and OAKLAND, CALIF.: PianoFight has announced that its two venues will close in March. The Bay Area institution will host scheduled events, including SF SketchFest, through March 18.

Disney is Bringing Coco to the Stage

Playbill: Stop the presses! At a January 24 Disney on Broadway concert at Disney World's EPCOT, performers Mandy Gonzalez and L. Steven Taylor announced that Coco, Pixar's 2017 animated film that explores identity and legacy through Dia de los Muertos, will be coming to the stage.

NY’s January Festivals: Reunited, and It Feels So Different

AMERICAN THEATRE: After years of pandemic interruptions that led to postponements, cancellations, or exclusively virtual offerings, New York’s experimental January came roaring back: Under the Radar, Prototype, and Exponential festivals returned in full force, and in person.

Bread and Puppet savages Israel with flair but not balance

The Forward: Issues come and go at the 250-acre Bread and Puppet Theater farm in Glover, Vermont. But for the past 20 years, the plight of Palestinians has been a continuing focus for the decidedly anti-war, anti-capitalist troupe, which has performed shows about atrocities in Vietnam, Central America, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to being Bread and Puppet’s founder and director, 88 year-old Peter Schumann, widely considered a genius in the theater world, is also a prolific painter who reportedly finishes a painting or two a day on old, donated motel bed sheets. Some of his paintings confront the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Area15 expansion adds 20 acres of immersive entertainment

attractionsmagazine.com: The recently-announced Area15 expansion will add 20 acres to the immersive art and entertainment district near the Las Vegas Strip, including Universal Parks & Resorts’ year-round experience inspired by Halloween Horror Nights.

Interview: Rachel Lancaster, Artistic Director of CIRQUE DU SOLEIL'S KURIOS, on Pushing Ideas to Their Limit and Surviving the Pandemic

www.broadwayworld.com: Since 1996, it's become something of an annual tradition to see Cirque du Soleil pop up at the Royal Albert Hall. This year, making its European bow, the company returns to the Royal Albert Hall this month with Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities, a steampunk-inspired story.

TheatreSquared Honored With Architecture Awards

AMERICAN THEATRE: TheatreSquared has been awarded the 2023 American Institute of Architects (AIA) NY Design Merit Award. The annual juried competition considers all architectural designs recently built in New York City or by New York-based architects. Photographs of TheatreSquared will be featured in a four-month exhibition at the Center for Architecture.

Ticketmaster/Live Nation Slammed in Extraordinary Senate Hearing

www.ticketnews.com: Ticketmaster and its parent Live Nation were under heavy fire on Tuesday, as its president and CFO Joe Berchtold was forced to answer withering questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee at its hearing examining the ticketing and live events industry in Washington, D.C. The hearing, which was scheduled in the wake of widespread outrage directed at the entertainment giant in the wake of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour ticket sales process in November, featured numerous references to lyrics from the singer.

Claude Jackson Jr.’s ‘Cashed Out’ Bets On Native Stories

AMERICAN THEATRE: Claude Jackson Jr. has been surrounded by strong women his entire life. Their strength encompassed him even as a child, when he was guided by his Mexican grandmother and especially his mother, who supported her three sons, including young Claude, while caring for his alcoholic father. Despite those trying circumstances, her strength did not waver. She mustered the brute force required to hold her family together, despite the demons that threatened to tear them apart.

Could AI-Written Musicals Ever Come To Broadway?

www.broadwayworld.com: Imagine a Broadway where computer-generated musicals, powered by cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, take center stage. No more waiting for years for a new hit musical to be written and produced, no more limitations on special effects, and no more casting restrictions. This may sound like science fiction, but the reality is that AI is rapidly advancing and has the potential to completely revolutionize the way Broadway musicals are created, produced and experienced. From AI-generated original scores to virtual reality sets, the future of Broadway could be unlike anything we've ever seen before.

All the (open) world’s a stage: how the video game Fallout became a backdrop for live Shakespeare shows

Culture | The Guardian: One crisp spring evening, the Wasteland Theatre Company gathered to rehearse Romeo and Juliet. Jonathan “Bram” Thomas was playing Romeo. A self-confessed Shakespeare geek, he’d graduated with a BA in theatre, and this wasn’t his first time playing one half of the star-crossed lovers. But it was the first time a mutant scorpion the size of a Jeep had rampaged on to his stage.

PianoFight to shutter S.F. and Oakland venues in latest blow to Bay Area theater

Datebook: In late December, PianoFight Artistic Director Rob Ready told The Chronicle he wasn’t sure how much longer his Tenderloin venue could afford to stay open.

The Piano Lesson's Star Instrument to Take Up Residency at The Smithsonian

Playbill: The titular prop at the heart of the current Broadway revival of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson will have a second life after the stage. Following the completion of the play's run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre January 29, the piano will take up permanent residency in its new home, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

British opera singer creates work to reveal humanity of enslaved ancestors

Opera | The Guardian: A leading British opera singer is developing a work based on the music of his enslaved ancestors in Barbados as a way of examining complex historical events and highlighting forms of resistance.

Lower Hill development approved despite community opposition

nextpittsburgh.com: People’s ability to objectively assess a situation is limited by their perspective, concluded LaShawn Burton-Faulk, as the City Planning Commission voted to approve development plans for the Lower Hill District despite ongoing community opposition.

Broadway Grosses Analysis: The January Slump Has Arrived, But People Are Still Flocking to Phantom

Playbill: What goes up must come down. After a holiday high, the January slump has officially arrived. Thanks mostly to a number of production closings (just 23 shows were performing last week), cumulative grosses on Broadway fell to $25.8 million.

BROADWAY BACKWARDS to Return in March at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre

www.broadwayworld.com: Broadway Backwards, the annual Broadway extravaganza celebrating the LGBTQ+ community through the great songs of musical theater, will return to Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre on Monday, March 13, 2023. The beloved evening and its star-studded cast will embrace love and self-expression in true Broadway fashion.

Everything in This Grocery Store Is Made of Plastic Trash

gizmodo.com: Alarmed by all the plastic packaging you see when you go shopping? You’re not alone. An interactive art exhibit called The Plastic Bag Store showcases what an entire grocery store may look like if everything—including the food itself—was made of plastic.

Chicago Puppet Theater Fest: Ice marionette and a whale of a "Moby Dick"

www.chicagotribune.com: A terrifying whale, a delicate marionette made of ice and a collection of intricate figurines that travel across the terrain of human bodies were several of the sights on offer during the first week of the 12-day Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. The fifth edition of the festival — the largest of its kind in North America — presents performances by artists from 10 countries, as well as workshops, symposia and exhibitions at venues across Chicago through Jan. 29.

Kids' Night on Broadway to Return in March, Featuring In-Theatre Activities & More

www.broadwayworld.com: Kids' Night on Broadway will return to New York City on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Kids' Night on Broadway is an annual event where kids 18 and under can attend participating Broadway shows for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult. Participating shows will be announced and tickets will be available for purchase at a later date.