Latest News and Updates
Welcome to The OHenry Report – our brand new theater podcast!
On the OHenry Report, we will be giving you the same in depth analysis we do on the blog, but we’ll have the added benefit of being able to invite guests on the show!
In Episode 1, Oliver Roth and Chris Schembra discuss the key takeaways from the 2016 Tony Award Nominations. Topics covered include: Hamilton, snubs, PR stunts and an analysis of the Lead Actor in a Musical category.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Last week we assessed the starting positions of the nominees in each of Tony Award categories. This week we look at of some of the biggest shifts in favor that we have seen so far.
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A lot of people avoid Broadway investing because of the conventional wisdom that only 25% of Broadway shows make money. So why am I in the business of making Broadway shows? Because if you do it right, you can make a killing. Here are my top five reasons to invest in a Broadway show.
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The 2016 Tony Awards Race has begun! Below are our 6 biggest take-aways from this morning’s announcement, as well as our analysis of where each nominee stands currently.
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We take a look at where people stand the day before nominations come out. Who is a shoe in and who is a dark horse to hear their name on Nomination day? Read to find out.
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This morning Tony and Drama Desk-nominated stage and screen stars Vanessa Williams and Matthew Morrison announced the 2016 Drama Desk Nominations. Here are your 2016 Drama Desk Nominees.
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This morning the 2016 Drama League Award Nominations were announced. Here are your nominees.
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The 2016 Outer Critics Circle Nominations were announced this morning. American Psycho and She Loves Me leads the pack in nominations, take a look at the rest of the nominees here.
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In the 9 months since the 2015 Tonys, 22 shows have opened. With only two months left before the 2016 Tony eligibility deadline, 16 additional productions are slated to open. We go through the fall season of musicals to see which productions and performers are at risk of losing their nomination slot in the next two months, and which are pretty likely to get a nod no matter what happens this spring.
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Last year, we started this blog with a post of Broadway-inspired Valentine’s Day dates. With a whole year of blogging under our belt, we decided to offer advice for 2016’s hopeful romantics – a new list of 14 theatrical twist to classic date-night activities.
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“An Upset,” a one-act play by David Auburn first seen in New York in 2008, is being revived around the city timed to the Open, including three shows at 99 Bowery beginning Sept. 12.
“It’s always hard to put a finger on why something is suddenly in the zeitgeist,” said Ruhl, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. “I don’t know why it is happening with tennis in theater right now. But for me, while researching the Bush dynasty, I realized tennis is such a big part of their lives and a wonderful metaphor for family competition and sibling rivalry.”
In “Scenes From Court Life,” Greg Keller plays George W. Bush as a more shrewd politician than his brother Jeb but an inferior tennis player.
“Athletes are almost another species to playwrights,” Keller said. “The writer’s world is so subjective, but for athletes there is always a winner and a loser.”
Tennis holds undeniable appeal for the theater. For starters, it can encompass widely different settings, including the Bush family compound, the public courts of the Lower East Side and Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Tennis, Keller said, is also “one-on-one, but you are not physically touching each other like in boxing.”
He added, “You are in your own little world.”
Bragen has written other works about tennis, including a monologue called “Game, Set, Match.” He said the sport offered intimacy and isolation — great fodder for writers.
“There’s a kind of dance that I feel as a player, but you are alone in your own head at the same time you are connected to other person,” Bragen said.
Ruhl said she liked the combat mixed with decorum, “the formality within the structure of competition.”
Ryan Sweeney, who played Division I tennis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is producing and starring in “An Upset,” said, “Tennis is a lonely sport, and Auburn’s script touches on the players’ vulnerabilities.”
