Remember Garth Drabinsky’s case against Actors’ Equity Association? It is now no more. Equity has won its motion to dismiss the complaint filed by Drabinsky.

This week, the New York City Council passed a new ticket transparency bill. The law was not opposed by any of the major ticket services--Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, etc.--but it was opposed by one major player in the city: The Broadway League. Just why the League was so opposed to the bill gets a little confusing.

Jujamcyn Theaters’ fight for Covid-related insurance coverage has suffered a mighty blow. A Court in the Southern District of New York, which is a federal court, decided against Jujamcyn in its lawsuit against Federal Insurance Company and trimmed Jujamcyn’s case against another insurer, Pacific Indemnity Company.

Broadway’s one-man A CHRISTMAS CAROL starring Jefferson Mays definitely managed magic. It is a rare show that leads even Broadway regulars to leave the theater going: “How did they do that?” BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD and some others have managed, but not many. This show did.

Other than a handful of playwrights 30 and under, all the playwrights spoken to for this piece believe their sex has impacted their careers in the theater. Women feel that they have trouble getting in the room and being taken seriously once there. But there is something more, a sense that when things get really bad -- beyond mansplaining bad -- there aren't many people to turn to in the theater.

In this, the second installment in our series on women playwrights, the playwrights speak about critical interpretation of their work and the lack of powerful female critics. Please read Part I here, which discusses the more general issues female playwrights face.

Stage dooring. Fans love it. Actors are split, and were even before the pandemic. And then the pandemic hit. When Broadway returned, stage dooring did not. It was seen as too big a risk. But when New York County had a low community level of COVID-19 transmission, it was back. Read more about stage dooring in the Industry Insight here!

In this three-part series, BroadwayWorld spoke to over 20 female playwrights who have been produced in major NY theaters about what life in the theater is really like for them -- and what can be done to make it better.

Dancer/choreographer/teacher Chet Walker - a Fosse dancer who later co-conceived FOSSE and choreographed the 2013 PIPPIN revival - died on October 21 from a glioblastoma tumor. Here, his legacy is honored by some of Broadway's most influential dancers and choreographers, including Sergio Trujillo, Andy Blankenbuehler and more.

In August, when Actors’ Equity first announced it was seeking to represent adult dancers (aka strippers) at a California night club, many members expressed displeasure on social media.

It surprised the industry this week when playwright David Adjmi went public about his own tale of developing an Oscar Levant play with Sean Hayes – and not the one that will be seen on Broadway this spring. It has become a he said/they said battle, but BroadwayWorld has the most info in the war of words thus far, including emails between Adjmi and Hayes.

In all of Broadway’s efforts to promote accessible tickets, there is little talk of “papering.” There is good reason for this – if people capable of buying full-price tickets know that others are going to see a show for free, they won’t want to pay full price for that same show. What is papering and how does it work? We've got the scoop!

We hear a lot about making Broadway accessible. Broadway ticket prices have outpaced inflation over the decades (by a lot) and cheap preview tickets were abandoned years ago, all leading to the impression that Broadway was not accessible for those with average, or below average, incomes. There have at least been attempts to combat that impression in recent years. But something that is still largely seen as an older rich people game is investing in Broadway. However, a bunch of people have been trying to change that in the last decade, with attempts heating up more recently.

Much publicity was given to the Broadway League’s decision to cease requiring vaccinations to enter a Broadway theater, but less attention was given to the behind-the-scenes changes that were implemented around that same time. They do not include changes to the vaccination requirement – Broadway union members still must show proof of vaccination. But there are some other changes that impact the lives of your favorites.

Everyone knows it is tough times for the theater industry. Broadway’s indeed thankfully back, but amid rising Covid cases wreaking havoc on casts and keeping audiences away, the return has not been smooth. And now the theater industry has entered the cold winter months, traditionally tough times at the box office. So when the producers of MRS. DOUBTFIRE announced the show was taking a “hiatus” – as the press release read – from January 10 through March 14, theater insiders could understand why. But nothing is as simple as it seems. The decision shines a spotlight on the tense relationship between Broadway producers and Broadway’s 14 unions in these difficult times.

It is 2021, but some in the Spanish speaking community still feel like they are not properly represented by Actors’ Equity Association (AEA). And they’ve been fighting for years. Strides were made at the delegate convention in late April, but there is still a distance to travel.

We investigate what the plan is for the return of Broadway, with insight from the Broadway League, Broadway producers, industry insiders, and more!

The theater shutdown has been hard on everyone in the industry. That is true even of actors. While the average naïve reader might think of acting as a lucrative profession, many theater actors, especially New York-based ensemble members, dona??t typically have a lot of extra cash. Yes, even the lowest tier Broadway contract pays fairly well, but it is not as if the work is consistent. So what do those folks do now?

As readers know by now, the 2020 Tony Awards are going ahead based on a severely abbreviated season. Many were hoping there would be elimination and/or combination of categories to make them more competitive, but that announcement did not come as of the season’s final Tony Awards Administration Committee meeting. The existence of one category in particular has puzzled many: Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre.

One thing you want in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic is health insurance. But many theater actors are in danger of losing theirs because of the theater shut down.

This week, I asked representatives from ten theatrical nonprofits in New York to speak with me. Most said yes, but many asked to speak off-the-record because the situation is changing so rapidly they didn't want to be quoted on something that would be incorrect by the time the piece ran. Unlike my usual in the weeds piece, this is purposely a more reflective one.

This fall, I began looking into the overt sale of Broadway bootlegs. There were a couple of well-known sites selling them and I contacted the owners of those sites. They both pointed me to the website of an alleged 'international acclaimed non-profit' known as Iconic Arts. They had bought their bootlegs off of this site and simply resold them.

A producer cannot just license any property s/he wants. Yes, MAME is available for licensing on the Concord Theatricals website, but if I wanted to mount it on Broadway it would be a little more complicated than shelling out cash. Hurdles for non-professional productions are not substantial, but many professional productions require levels of permission. Jerry Herman, who passed away on December 26, 2019, was a man unlikely to give permission for professional productions of his shows unless he thought they would be good.

The discussion about how to get more diverse audiences--in terms of age, race, pretty much everything--in the theater has been going on for decades. Recently, this has led to a movement toward dedicated nights for members of a certain race or ethnicity.

Years ago, when the popularity of cell phones started exploding, theaters in other countries started experimenting with the idea of using signal jammers to prevent cell phone use in the theater. It never took off. And more and more people started using cell phones in the theater. There is the photo before, the texting during, the random cell phone ring and sometimes the recording of the performance. Most of it is not supposed to occur. We've all heard stories about performers stopping the show until phones are put away. But some wonder what can be done to stop it or even if it should be stopped.