Cara Joy David

This week for the award show series, I look at two award shows that do not consider Broadway: the Lucille Lortel Awards and the Obie Awards. 

In this column, I write about the development of one of this spring’s jukebox musicals, The Heart of Rock and Roll. My old friend, Gordon Greenberg (represented off-Broadway earlier this season with Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors), is directing it, and I recently chatted with him about his decade-long involvement with the show.

Two groups of critics (or, more precisely, one group of critics and one group of mostly critics) give theater awards each season. In this continuing series on theater’s awards, I look at the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards. 

It is award season. And every year newcomers to the industry ask what most of the awards are. In this series, I’ll hopefully explain that. I'll be looking at many of the major awards other than the Tony Awards. First up today: the Drama Desk Awards and the Drama League Awards.

Every once and a while I see a performance and wonder if there is some stage magic involved. That is how I felt while watching Dead Outlaw. Andrew Durand—giving what The New York Times referred to as a “wow of a performance” —stays so still for such a large portion of the musical that I wondered if a beta blocker was utilized.

Throughout my career, I’ve tried to stay attuned to the ticket-buying experience. I walk through the process online at the major retailers. I’ll stop by rush lines or in-person lotteries to talk to folks. And, last week, I woke up early a few days to talk to people on/participate in the standing-room-only line for Hadestown.

In the summer of 2022, Canadian-based producers David Galpern and Charles Roy launched ArtsDistrict Brooklyn in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But I’ve spoken to over a dozen people—some only on background because of potential legal implications—who allege they are owed money related to work they performed for the venue.

The SDNY dismissed Kim Moore’s racial discrimination claims against Hadestown’s producer not because Moore did not allege a plausible claim for discrimination, but because the actions of the Hadestown team were protected by the First Amendment. The Court did not dismiss Moore’s claims of retaliation, so the case will continue.

In recent years, we’ve talked a lot in the theater about influencers. There is good reason for this—in terms of the broader landscape, influencer marketing has grown to an over $20 billion industry. But I’ve long wondered whether influencers are directly selling theater tickets. And, in my polling of 200 theatergoers, the answer was: “No.”

We’ve all heard about the shuttering of media outlets and the departure of entertainment journalists from publications still in business. In the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the dearth of theater coverage is changing our perception of the art form.

One thing that has been pivotal to theater’s return in New York City is the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit, which is a New York State program, despite what the name might indicate. It was expanded to apply to both Broadway and off-Broadway. I can’t tell you how many producers have told me it was pivotal in getting their shows off the ground.

Every once and a while I like to do litigation updates because one of my pet peeves is how the media sometimes reports when a case is filed and then drop it. One such case is Chad Kimball’s lawsuit related to his departure from Come From Away. Another is the one bartenders at Shubert Organization theaters brought against the theater chain and others.

It’s been almost a week, but I’m still having trouble processing the loss of Chita Rivera. I expected to see her onstage again. What always struck me about Rivera, the ultimate gypsy (a term she clung to after others eschewed it in the name of political correctness), is, even in later years, she still seemed like a dancer first, a star second.

I like to do one topic per week, but on rare occasions, so much happens that a subdivided column is necessary. This is one of those times. Appropriate is a revival. The Tonys will have a new spokesperson. Jewish leaders are fighting against antisemitism.

Last week, the Broadway League announced that Charlotte St. Martin would be “retiring” after 18 years. An email went out to League members shortly before the release. And I’m not sure I’ve ever received quite so many theater-related communications before noon.

Over the years, I’ve heard several black actors complain about how their preferred hair plan was dismissed by producers. Now one is suing producer NETworks Presentations, 1776 Touring, and several of their employees, claiming that increasing tensions led to her being terminated after she expressed a desire to submit a written racism complaint.

Many folks have read in the last couple of weeks that Broadway is suffering from a suburban theatergoer drought. That is true. Two things are important to note related to that. First, this impacts more than simply pure overall attendance numbers. Second, this isn’t totally unique to New York.

Last year, I spent a lot of time at stage doors. I wanted to write about what it was like. I wrote about my experience at the stage doors of straight plays and the installment about musicals was supposed to follow quickly thereafter but kept getting bumped. I could not let it sit too far into 2024 however, so here it is.

Almost everyone in North America has heard of Cirque du Soleil. The Canadian entertainment company that produces an odd hybrid of circus, acrobatics, and dance performance has several touring shows and resident productions in Las Vegas. But there is only one Cirque du Soliel dinner theater experience and it is in Mexico.

Late last season a musical came to Broadway from an unusual tryout city with a marketing campaign tied to a fruit. Shucked will leave Broadway in a month, though seemingly not because of either of the oddities I just mentioned.