Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

One of the highlights of the 2009 “off-off” Fringe Festival in New York
was 666, a one-hour piece created and performed in pantomime by
Madrid’s self-styled “slapstick theater company” Yllana. The wordless
play, raucously hysterical, treats four death-row inmates, the crimes
they committed, and their attitudes about the death penalty they
each face. The actors, said a New York Times reviewer, “pester the
audience, laugh themselves silly killing one another and dedicate
considerable creative resources to plumbing the comic possibilities of
urine.” This is exactly what one might expect from a performance at the
American (or Spanish) theatre’s “fringe.” © Mabel Cainzos/yllana.com
Broadway is primarily the staging ground for extravagantly
produced musicals, both new (Honeymoon in
Vegas, Beautiful, The Book of Mormon, A Gentleman’s
Guide to Love and Murder) and revived (The Heidi
Chronicles, Cabaret, On the Town, Hedwig and the
Angry Itch). Second, Broadway is the showcase for the
best—or at least most commercially promising—new
plays from America’s off-Broadway (Fun Home, David
Auburn’s Proof, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, Neil
LaBute’s Fat Pig); for new plays from abroad (from
288
France, Yasmina Reza’s Art and God of Carnage; from
Ireland, Conor McPherson’s The Weir and The Seafarer;
from England, Peter Morgan’s The Audience and
Jez Butterworth’s The River); and for new works that
premiered earlier at America’s top-ranking nonprofit
theatres—including the Pulitzer Prize winners August:
Osage County, which had premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf;
Wit, initially produced by South Coast Repertory
in California; and Clybourne Park, which had its
premiere a few blocks away at off-Broadway’s Playwrights
Horizons.
Finally, Broadway is the site of many major revivals
from the international dramatic repertory, including
recent star-heavy productions of ancient and contemporary
classics such as Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, Edward Albee’s
A Delicate Balance with John Lithgow and Glenn Close,
and Shakespeare’s Richard III with Mark Rylance, all in
2014–2015.
Rarely does a new play premiere directly on Broadway
today. The costs are usually far too high to risk on
an untested product. Despite high ticket prices, which in
2015 ascended to as much as $208 for nonmusical plays
and $299 for musicals (and over $525 for “premium”
tickets for patrons seeking front-and-center seats at the
last minute), the majority of Broadway productions
fail to recoup their expenses. Increasingly, therefore,
Broadway producers look for new plays whose worth
has been “proven” in less-expensive off-Broadway,
in the subsidized European (chiefly English) theatre,
or on a not-for-profit American regional stage. Only a
star-studded revival or a new musical with Tony Award
potential is otherwise likely to be “bankable” and offer
sufficient opportunity for commercial success. Nonetheless,
Broadway remains the primary showcase for some
of the most fully realized theatrical entertainment—and
often inspiration—that America has to offer.
Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway Not all
of New York theatre is performed in official Broadway
theatres. At least 200 New York theatres are not in the
Broadway category. Many of them are fully professional
and most of the others are semi-professional (that is,
they engage professional actors and other artists who,
by mutual agreement, are not paid minimum union salaries).
The importance of Broadway, however, is so strong
that these theatres are named not for what they are but
for what they are not: some are “off-Broadway” theatres,
and others are “off-off-Broadway.”
Off-Broadway is a term that came into theatrical parlance
during the 1950s and now includes forty to sixty