Indianapolis Opera hires Stolen to help assess future
Steven Stolen, a former managing director of the Indiana Repertory Theatre, will work as an independent contractor for 25-30 hours per week until the target Oct. 1 completion of the evaluation.
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LOU’S VIEWS: Beef & Boards banks on Disney
Disney destroyed Broadway. Disney saved Broadway. You hear both sides.
LOU’S VIEWS: Harry Potter star leads a Broadway stunner—plus more from NY stages
Reviews of “The Realistic Joneses,” “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” “Les Miserables,” and “Violet.”
LOU’S VIEWS: The Cabaret at 5
I’m not usually big on anniversary stories, but the fact that the Cabaret’s creative gamble paid off—and that its first half-decade has brought so much pleasure—warrants a birthday shout out.
LOU’S VIEWS: Two young companies brush up on Shakespeare
Reviews of Eclectic Pond’s “The Comedy of Errors” and IndyShakes/Wisdom Tooth’s “The Winter’s Tale.”
LOU’S VIEWS: IRT triple play shows gentle side of Vonnegut
Before he was a literary icon, Vonnegut was a struggling writer finding his voice through short stories. Three are woven together into the play “Who Am I This Time?”
LOU’S VIEWS: 50 years, 50 shows
Broadway’s “Ragtime,” Butler’s “Lamentations,” and two Icemen among half a century of theater-going highlights
Ball State-birthed big-top musical graduates to big time
“The Circus in Winter,” which began its theatrical life as a student project, is headed for an East Coast theater considered a stepping stone to Broadway.
LOU’S VIEWS: Life after ‘Wicked’: What to do once you’ve seen the blockbuster musical
The national tour of “Wicked” continues to draw crowds to the Murat Theatre, where it runs through Dec. 1. If you’ve already seen it this time around, you might be wondering what to do now to maintain your Elphaba fix until the show flies back into town in a few years.
LOU’S VIEWS: Indiana Repertory Theatre finds what’s crucial in ‘The Crucible’
Plus season openering reviews for “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” at the Phoenix and NoExit’s “Big Bad Wolf.”
LOU’S VIEWS: Civic Theatre’s ‘Pippin’ lacks magic
Exceptional production values stand out from rest of an unfocused production. Fun added by brief 3D sequence.
IndyFringe Festival breaks attendance record
Wrapping up Sunday, the 11-day performing arts festival downtown sold a total of 17,286 tickets for the 64 productions mounted.
LOU’S VIEWS: Chicago’s ‘Jungle Book’ goes beyond ‘bear necessities’
Disney’s latest stage show effectively captures the charm of the animated movie classic while also broadening its artistic focus, making it sumptuously theatrical.
Upstart theater companies struggle to find spaces to call their own
Some of Indianapolis’ up-and-coming theater groups are establishing their identities through recently acquired performance spaces.
Indiana Arts Commission pledges $2.9M in grants for 2014
Recipients in central Indiana will include the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, Heartland Truly Moving Pictures, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Indianapolis symphony gives away old theater seats
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is taking out some 1,700 seats dating as far back as the 1930s as part of a renovation of the Hilbert Circle Theatre, with The Strand Theatre in downtown Shelbyville taking enough to redo its 377 seats.
LOU’S VIEWS: The Once and Farcical King rules in tuneful ‘Spamalot’
The extremely silly musical, based on ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail,’ gets an extremely satisfying local production.
King, Mellencamp break rules with ‘Ghost Brothers’
“Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” which plays in Bloomington and Indianapolis in October, is a musical that’s not quite like anything out there — as you might expect from two of America’s most independent artists.
IRT’s Stolen to exit in swell of arts group departures
Managing Director Steven Stolen will leave the repertory theater for a position with Rocketship Education. Other local performing arts executives stepping down are John Pickett of the Indianapolis Opera and Kirk Trevor of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.
Critical questions follow reviewer’s departure from Indy Star
The state’s largest newspaper is mum on whether reviews will continue after the Friday resignation of its fine arts critic. Arts organizations are taking a wait-and-see attitude.