Sex and Sports Hard to Stage; Theater Producers Keep Trying
Friday, January 31, 2014
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Scene from the musical Rocky, produced and co-written by actor Sylvester Stallone
(Morris Mac Matzen)
It's cold outside, but New York stages are getting sweaty. New
and upcoming plays about boxing, baseball, kung fu and multiple affairs
show that sex and sports are the hot topics this season. But don't get
too excited yet. It turns out they are both tough subjects to stage.
In this interview, theater critic Elisabeth Vincentelli from the New York Post said it's difficult to stage sports "convincingly." But she explained new plays like Intimacy,
by controversial playwright Thomas Brandshaw, keep taking up a big
challenge. "How do you theatricalize something that is so hard to
represent? I mean, there is a reason there is an annual context for the
worst sex writing."
Adam Feldman, theater critic from Time Out New York, said it's no coincidence that producers keep trying to stage sex, and sports, as in three upcoming plays: Bronx Bombers, about the Yankees in the 1970s, Rocky, which is produced and co-written by actor Sylvester Stallone, and Kung Fu, by noted Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang. Feldman explained almost 70% of the Broadway audience is now female. "For producers I think that there is still an audience out there to be tapped, of straight men who want to go to the theater, and I think that these are an attempt to get at that
audience."
Adam Feldman, theater critic from Time Out New York, said it's no coincidence that producers keep trying to stage sex, and sports, as in three upcoming plays: Bronx Bombers, about the Yankees in the 1970s, Rocky, which is produced and co-written by actor Sylvester Stallone, and Kung Fu, by noted Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang. Feldman explained almost 70% of the Broadway audience is now female. "For producers I think that there is still an audience out there to be tapped, of straight men who want to go to the theater, and I think that these are an attempt to get at that
audience."
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Gisele Regatao, Executive Producer, WNYC News
Gisele Regatao is the Executive Producer for WNYC News, where she oversees a team of producers and hosts, and the local content for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. She is also in charge of the cultural coverage coming out of the Newsroom.
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