The Royal Court bristles ~ theatre notes

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The Royal Court bristles

And with good reason, if this press release posted in full by Playgoer is indeed their side of the increasingly intriguing New York Theatre Workshop scandal. Superfluities has asked the Royal Court for confirmation on its authenticity, so watch that space...aside from all other issues, Alan Rickman may be forgiven a little ire if he was arranging film commitments around the NYTW dates, since these shenanigans could have cost him real money, especially when Jim Nicola then used those same film commitments as an excuse to postpone the play.

Unconfirmed whispers are that behind-the-scenes negotiations involving prominent NYTW board members are working towards a NY season, and that, according to Jason Grote, the Royal Court is now refusing the NYTW the rights to the play.

UPDATE: Playgoer has confirmed that the press release is authentic. All the same, there is much more going on here, we ought to remember, than a spat between two theatre companies. We still don't know what pressures were brought to bear upon NYTW. Perhaps some clues might be found in the comments under this post, where composer Philip Munger tells of the extreme harrassment, resulting in his cancellation of the premiere performance, that was sparked by his cantata about - guess who? - Rachel Corrie.

2 comments:

Jason Grote said...

Just in the interests of accuracy - I reported that *NYTW* was claiming that the Royal Court was holding out. I don't vouch for that statement. Linda Chapman's exact words are that the R.C. won't return NYTW's phone calls, which after all this, I can believe.

Alison Croggon said...

Sorry for the ambiguity, Jason...it's all clear on your blog, of course...