A Fully Interactive Show Program News Today

Actors' Equity Association and the Broadway League have come to an agreement on touring contracts. In addition, President Biden appointed a number of high-profile artists to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Furthermore, a recent ruling on Tony eligibility has raised questions about Tony nominators and nonbinary performers.

SHUCKED, a musical that debuted in Utah, has raised questions about the use of non-profit venues for regional tryouts, which allow producers to develop shows with less media attention and at lower costs.

Governmental funding shifts continue around the globe as governments reveal their latest budget proposals - often with some form of a decrease of support for the creative economy as these countries wind down the support they offered at the height of the pandemic.

With more frequency, we are starting to see alliances of theaters come together across different regions to create a stronger entity. And that isn’t a surprising development. Given the rising costs within the industry, collaboration continues to be one of the best ways to keep those costs down.

With the announced closing of Broadway’s longest running show, questions have risen about tourism (the numbers in New York actually look much stronger than a hot take on Phantom might suggest), about the resiliency of brands (also highlighted by what the future might hold for Second City), and what gets audiences excited to come out to the theater.

Our two Industry Trend stories this week take a look at a few of the different ways that people are trying to bring change to the theatre industry: reforming the work environment that has long been problematic, and the way Princeton is working on developing a new audition process to help bring more people into theatre in an educational environment.

The Tony Awards are on Sunday, and that feels really normal. Anyone who has walked through Times Square in the past week or so would also attest that the crush of tourists is also starting to feel normal. Box Offices across the country are starting to normalize, though I don’t know anyone wants to go so far as to call them normal quite yet.

As we hit the unofficial start of summer, overall the trends are looking up for Broadway and the broader theatre industry. That isn’t to say there aren’t ongoing challenges: ever-shifting health and safety protocols, continued reports of toxic work environments that need to be sorted, and a major shift in how audiences are buying tickets.

For many theatre and dance companies, now is the time for the big moneymaker - Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker in most cases, a slightly different holiday tradition in other places. We are still waiting to see what the final numbers look like as companies grapple with new variants, new restrictions, and stringent (and often costly) testing protocols for their performance company