Theatre News Roundup

-The Shuberts are taking on a bigger creative say in what goes into their 17 Broadway houses, by teaming up with the Steady Rain producers. Call it insurance?

-The Voice smartly sends their music guy to go to Fela! and tell us all we need to know about the Nigerian Afrobeat superstar and whether a Broadway musical about him has any chance.

-Willem Dafoe tries to explain Richard Foreman to the NPR set. (Via Upstaged.)

-Also via Upstaged, another interview: Alan Ayckbourn, who gives yet another endorsement to, of all things, the 59E59 theaters! (It’s the sort of theater I recognize and am happy with. I would be far less happy a few blocks down in a big Broadway theater.)

-Would you believe there's a major holiday movie release about...Orson Welles' 1937 fascist staging of Julius Caesar? I'm often suspect of Hollywood movies about the theatre (not to mention those including Zak Efron), but Richard Linklater is a good director and the trailer looks pretty alright. Worth it alone for the apparently accurate recreations of the production itself.



The natural bookend I say to Tim Robbins' film about Welles' other 1937 project, The Cradle Will Rock.

Not a bad year for a 22-year-old director, eh?