Mondays are Dark

Well, it's finally warm enough that we can feel our toes.  So find a sunny spot on the patio and enjoy your Monday reading list!

Double Header
When was the last time you saw two shows in a day?  Charles Isherwood of the New York Times tells us about his recent adventure.

The List
Terry Teachout examines TCG's list of the ten most-produced plays in the first decade of the 21st Century, and finds the results hopeful:

This suggests that, Broadway producers notwithstanding, American theatergoers are not know-nothing neanderthals but intelligent people who are prepared to spend time and money grappling with straight plays that are artful, thoughtful and well written.

But when he peruses the list of the 75 most-produced plays of the past decade, he becomes alarmed;

As for the celebrated playwrights of the past who didn't make the cut, the list is alarmingly long. No Samuel Beckett, no Bertolt Brecht, no Anton Chekhov, no Georges Feydeau, no Henrik Ibsen, no William Inge, no Eugène Ionesco, no Arthur Miller, no Clifford Odets, no Eugene O'Neill, no George Bernard Shaw, no Aristophanes or Euripides or Sophocles, no Rodgers and Hammerstein or Frank Loesser or Lerner and Loewe . . . no history, in other words.

Contrast this to David Byrne's worry that we're too mired in the past...of course, Byrne's examples were all opera and ballet.

Speaking of Popular Plays
Part of Mad Cat Theatre's First Folio is playing this Wednesday at the Colony Theatre; Sheperd's Pie is part of the South Beach Comedy Festival - The Fort Lauderdale Theater Examiner has the latest story on this production.

More Website Feedback
Theatre patrons discuss the new website for Spiderman: The Musical on All That Chat.  And they don't like it.

Mirror, Mirror...
At 1st Draft, playwright Andrew Rosendorf is feeling...unread.

Thank you internet for ensuring that I write my blog on time. The adoring public that I know is out there is thankful. And by the adoring public I mean the people that read this blog. And by the people that read this blog I mean those of us at Florida Stage. And by those of us at Florida Stage I mean myself when I click on the link after it shows up on the “Google Alerts” notification I have…on myself.

Don't feel sad, Andy. We're reading you.

"Essentially Broken"
The Playgoer talks about a book about the relationship between playwrights and theaters.

The Dude Abides
Courtesy of Moxie the Maven, we see how The Great Lebowksi might have gone had it been writen by the Bard. Run Leia Run presents Two Gentlemen of Lebowski.

Meanwhile...
..in Palm Beach, the Royal Poinciana Playhouse is still closed.