the week of august 30 - september 5, 2024
behind every season brochure are less than seven marketing staffers trying to sell single tickets
You’re reading Nothing for the Group, a newsletter where one dramaturg rounds up one week in theatre news, reviews, and takes. If you like this sort of thing:
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follow-up
Last week, I shared a Playbill article about Atlantic Theater Company’s postponement of Nsangou Njikam's A Freeky Introduction. The theatre cited “significant unknown production revenues and expenses”; Playbill noted the backstage crew’s recent unionization would “provide workers with higher pay and various protections, but is also likely to force a change in the Off-Broadway business model, or at least higher ticket prices.”
A reader responded that they were disappointed that I didn’t explicitly challenge Playbill’s framing of the unionization as the primary reason for the Atlantic’s budget crisis, as it exacerbates harmful anti-labor rhetoric.
To be honest, I didn’t offer any contextualization of my own because I made so many small, dumb communication fumbles last week in my personal and work lives that by Friday I could barely write coherent sentences. (Mercury Retrograde is real. This newsletter is probably riddled with errors too!)
But to be clear and to reiterate what I’ve said/written in the past: if increasing compensation fully derails an institutional budgeting process, then the problem is the business model, not the workers advocating for fair wages.
Amelia Merrill wrote about the Off-Broadway unionization push in American Theatre earlier this year, which includes the detail that the Atlantic hired the same employment law firm as Starbucks and Amazon (two notorious union busters) to represent them following the Atlantic crew’s filing with the National Labor Relations Board in November 2023.
world premieres
Ayad Akhtar’s MCNEAL starts Broadway previews September 5th at Lincoln Center Theater. Bartlett Sher directs and Robert Downey Jr. stars in the “startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity — and increasing inhumanity — of the stories we tell.”
Nicholas Pilapil’s God Will Do The Rest is now running through September 29th at Artists at Play/Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles. Fran de Leon directs the “warm, loving, hilarious — and explosive — reunion of a multigenerational Filipino American family.”
productions
Jen Silverman’s The Roommate is now in previews on Broadway. Jack O’Brien directs the comedy about an “unexpected, life-changing friendship that’s both funny and deeply moving, between two very different middle-aged women as they navigate the complexities of identity, morality, and the dream of reinvention.”
Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop runs August 30 - September 22 at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. The “gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” is directed by artistic director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden.
Romeo & Juliet starts previews August 31st at A.R.T. in Cambridge, MA. Artistic director Diane Paulus directs the “heart-pounding new production of Shakespeare’s iconic love story” with choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
Enda Walsh, Glen Hansard, and Markéta Irglová’s musical Once runs September 3-22 at Kansas City Rep. The adaptation of the 2007 film “telling the story of two souls brought together by the magic of music in the heart of Dublin” is directed by artistic director Stuart Carden.
Keith Bunin’s The Coast of Starlight starts previews September 3rd at Milwaukee Rep. Artistic director Mark Clements directs the “intensely funny and resonant story” about six travelers reckoning with their lives and choices aboard the titular long-distance train.
Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Lady runs September 4 - October 6 at Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Andrew Russell directs the “trigenerational tour-de-force performance that fuses killer karaoke with laugh-out-loud comedy to tell [Porkalob’s] family’s incredible origin story.”
Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 starts performances September 5th at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL. The “electropop musical spectacle based on a scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace” is directed and choreographed by Katie Spelman with music direction by Matt Deitchman.
Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill runs September 5 - October 6 at DC’s Mosaic Theater Company in partnership with Washington Performing Arts. Artistic director Reginald L. Douglas directs the “immersive nightclub experience exploring the triumphs and traumas of Billie Holiday’s life and career while celebrating the resilience of Black women throughout history.”
festivals
The 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival runs September 5-29. The annual event features over 300 productions; this year’s curated line-up includes Elevator Repair Service’s Ulysses; Lightning Rod Special’s Nosejob; Pig Iron Theatre Company’s Poor Judge; Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s opera The Listeners; The Fist and Heel Performance Group’s Reggie Wilson: POWER; Holland Andrews; Trajal Harrell: The Köln Concert (with Zürich Dance Ensemble); Nichole Canuso Dance Company’s The Garden: River's Edge; and Helga Davis, Charlotte Brathwaite, Sunder Ganglani, and Cauleen Smith’s We Have Gone As Far As We Can Together.
digital/streaming
The Philadelphia Fringe Festival’s Digital Fringe streams September 1-30. This year’s online performances include The Highland Lakes Players’ Strike!; Taamarbuta & Prairie Kitten Productions’ Haram; Laurie Owen’s Some Other Mirror; Charlotte Holder’s Red Breast; Chronic Insanity’s Myles Away; The Theoreticals’ trivialconspiracies.com; Janine Renee Cunningham’s Beauty Tips After 40; Joanne Hartstone’s The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign; Anna, Deb and Tia’s Edward and Christine; Ruth Anne Wood/Scripting For Success LLC’s ZINGstories; Courtney Taylor’s The Night the Bar Played a Polka Cover of “I’m on Fire” by Bruce Springsteen; Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s Bharathanatyam; and JJ Tiziou & Walk Around Philadelphia’s Exploring the Edge.
a tale of two POTUSes
I’ve written before that I directly quote blurbs because 1) I don’t want to mischaracterize work I haven’t seen or read and 2) I love clocking similarities and differences in how multiple theatres market the same play.
Back in 2022, I wondered if theatres would program 2022-23 seasons in conversation with the pandemic:
An influx of dystopian revivals (Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns)? A rash of character-driven, post-disaster dramas (Zoe Kazan’s After the Blast, Lucy Kirkwood's The Children)? Or will theatres forgo explicit allusions and instead focus on broader themes of resilience, humanity, and the power of community? Are we due for another Our Town surge?
In the end, most theatres avoided direct plague references and opted for variations on “an exploration/examination/meditation on what it means to be human.” (And a new Broadway revival of Our Town starts previews on September 17th.)
Given the ongoing popularity of Selina Fillinger’s POTUS — and the extra wild nature of this year’s election cycle — I was curious to see how theatres would reference it in their messaging. These two blurbs have tonal differences (Trinity Rep coming in hot with the despair!), but the same essential pitch (aren’t politics craaaazy, come see a comedy):
Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore
September 1-29
Directed by Laura Kepley
“What could be more fitting than kicking off a season during an election year with a riotous satire? This Broadway hit about seven brazen women who must save a bumbling President and the world from falling apart (again) is filled with intelligence, wit, and a shocking amount of audacity.”Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive at Trinity Rep in Providence, RI
September 5 – 22 and October 10 – 27, 2024
Directed by Curt Columbus“Many of us are dreading the 2024 election, regardless of political beliefs. Why not look your fears dead in the eye and laugh at them with POTUS? When a presidential PR nightmare evolves into a global catastrophe, it’s up to seven women in the commander-in-chief’s inner circle to do damage control. That is if they don’t drive each other off the rails first through a chaotic cocktail of increasingly absurd antics. Delightfully raunchy and uproariously funny, POTUS is a naughty political farce that’ll have you rolling in the aisles!”
that’s not a living wage
Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area and the most recently available 990 data. (You can read more about the methodology here.)
Theatre for Change Coordinator at Imagination Stage: $44,200-$52,000 (Full-Time Exempt, with “some evenings & weekends”)
Living Wage for Montgomery County, MD: $60,281
Revenue (2023): $5.15 million / Net Income: -$738,805
Executive Compensation: $97,671 (+$31,809 in related & other comp) (Founding Artistic Director) / $71,094 (+$23,329 in related & other comp)(Managing Director)