TDF

By LAUREN KAY Now in its second year on Broadway, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is becoming a holiday tradition in New York City. The show’s popularity is based partly on its feel-good plot, which includes two love stories and a musical-within-a-musical, and partly on its score, which features Irving Berlin standards like “Blue Skies” and […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP How does your career change when other people take it as seriously as you do? Now that she’s been dubbed an “emerging playwright,” meaning an early-career writer whose plays are regularly workshopped or produced, Marisa Wegrzyn is finding out. If nothing else, her notoriety will give her more time to write. Tonight, […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP Welcome to Part II of TDF’s two-part feature on where theatre directors are and where they’re going. Today, we’ll hear from two prominent directors about how technology affects their work (and how it doesn’t.) (For Part I, about the changing role of the director’s union, go here.) ___________________________ At this point, there […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP What does it take to be a theatre director? The answer changes all the time. There’s always some new artistic trend or economic concern that requires directors to adjust their approach to their craft. With that in mind, TDF presents a two-part series on where directors are and where they’re going. Today, […]

This TDF Exclusive Video answers your burning questions about Mamma Mia!, the long-running Broadway musical featuring the songs of ABBA.  How long did it take the cast to feel comfortable together? Do they have any backstage rituals? And what happens when an actor accidentally spits on her co-stars? To find out, we take you backstage […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP Pop quiz:What connects Ordinary Days, the new musical playing in the Roundabout’s Underground Series, and Or, the inventive new comedy from Women’s Project (pictured above)? The answer is Wingspace, an ambitious collective of theatre artists that’s trying to change the way we think about design. The group includes designers of all stripes—costume, […]

By Mark Blankenship Lowe Taylor has been to so many senior proms, you’d think she went to every high school on earth. But really, she’s just the biggest trouper in The Marvelous Wonderettes, the long-running musical about a girl group that performs at their high school prom in 1958 and then reunites for their ten-year […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP If you listen to the Public Theater’s production of The Brother/Sister Plays in the right way, then you’ll hear several conversations at once. First, the plays talk to each other. Tarell Alvin McCraney has written a trilogy, currently running in two sections at the Public, that depicts several generations in modern-day Louisiana. […]

By Mark Blankenship A few weeks ago, director Rachel Chavkin paused rehearsal for The Lily’s Revenge and pondered: When a giant tick drags a wounded daisy into the hallway, how many screams does it take to make the exit funny? For The Lily’s Revenge, that’s a standard question. Now in its world premiere at HERE […]