Showing posts with label Michael Billington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Billington. Show all posts

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Thought For The Day: Tony Kushner

"A handful of works in history have had a direct impact on social policy. One or two works of Dickens, some of Zola, Uncle Tom's Cabin and, in modern drama, Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart. But if I believed that Angels in America was important simply because it raised levels of sexual tolerance or encouraged people to be nicer to gays, I'd still be sitting at my laptop wondering what to do next. In fact, my new play is a big American family drama in the Eugene O'Neill tradition. I'm not a missionary. I'm primarily addressing progressive communities in the hope that we can go forward into the darkness trying to figure things out together."

Tony Kushner interviewed by Michael Billington in The Guardian.
The strapline; "When Tony Kushner's honorary degree was vetoed over allegations that he was anti-Israel, there was an outcry. Here he talks for the first time about the controversy"
Good stuff, but it's not the first time.
Here he is talking to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! in May.

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

The Wizard of Oz: The Lion Queen

"...David Ganly notches up a first by making the Cowardly Lion explicitly gay and announcing 'I'm proud to be a friend of Dorothy.'"

From Michael Billington's Guardian three-star review of Andrew Lloyd Webber's new stage production of The Wizard Of Oz.
First the world of cricket, now stage musicals. Who new?
So brave etc etc...

Friday, 15 October 2010

Musicals: Escape to the M6

"I have an idea for a new musical. It would feature a classical ballet dancer who, weary of life at the barre and of playing swan-loving princes, yearns to escape to the real world and become a navvy. A rigid class system makes this difficult. But finally our hero, Cedric, flees the confines of the rehearsal room and finds ecstatic fulfilment in the company of butch Irish road workers on the northernmost stretch of the M6..."

Michael Billington dreams up a real role-reversal musical in The Guardian.