Bad week for companies performing at the Edinburgh Fringe: ticket sales lagged capacity increases. Average houses were down 10%.
Good week for Russell Kane, who won the Perrier (or whatever they call it now).
Bad week for Edinburgh comedy judges, who were widely judged to have got it wrong by not giving the award to Bo Burnham.
Good week for Simon Russell Beale, Jonathan Groff and Claire Skinner. Previews of the West End production of Deathtrap continued to garner much affection and enthusiasm from the bloggers. Critics get their say next week, ahead of its open on 7 September.
Bad week for the National Theatre’s twitter feed, which returned to more mundane topics following the excitement of last week.
Good week for Tony Kushner. A series of his short plays, entitled Tiny Kushner (geddit?) opened at the Tricycle and The Guardian reported he’s much happier with life nowadays.
Bad week for Pete Wyer. The composer was “dismayed” that his latest ballet would not be performed in China. He can’t have been all that surprised, however, seeing as how it’s dedicated to the people of Tibet which, I don’t know if you’ve heard Pete, is a bit of a hot button issue over there.
Good week for the RSC, which announced it would open its shiny new theatres in Stratford after a £113m refurbishment in November.
Bad week for the much loved Courtyard Theatre (aka the iron shed, aka the little eyesore that could), which now faces the bulldozers, despite the affection it has earned from theatregoers over its brief and always-temporary life.
Good week for The Royal Court who have a hit on their hands with Clybourne Park. They even got the Whingers on side. Of course, the world will await the Sans Taste view (aka The Official Verdict) on Tuesday before jumping to any conclusions…
Bad news for humankind as the Spice Girls musical came one step closer to reality and was given a name.
Loving the Good Week / Bad Week. A bit jealous actually.
Re: Pete Wyer, yes Tibet is a hot button issue in China, but it was a much worse week for the British Council who decided to BEHAVE like China and pre-emptively cancel Wyer’s ballet before China had made a squeak of protest (and – as I understand it – there was no reason to suppose China would ever have known about the dedication since the score was never going to travel to China and the composer hadn’t planned to make the dedication public). Why can’t British institutions uphold good old British values such as freedom of speech instead of importing China’s values? It reminds me of the diabolical behaviour of the Met Police when China’s then-President Jiang Zemin came to call ten years ago…..