I created the fortnightly “American Stages” column for The Stage in London in 2013 with the mandate to cover news of American theatre news that didn’t necessarily warrant a standalone story and wasn’t being widely covered in other UK media. It gave me the ongoing opportunity to mix commercial with not-for-profit, Broadway with regional, as I saw fit, all targeted primarily at a readership of theatre professionals in the UK. Beginning in October 2014, the column became a weekly feature. Given the relatively tricky formatting of the original pieces, this pages serves as an index that will take you to each column as it appears on The Stage’s website, and will be updated on a rolling (and somewhat erratic) basis.
Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon makes directing debut in New York, 6 February 2015
Proof that you don’t need a star to break even on Broadway, 30 January, 2015
Julie Taymor directing Anne Hathaway set to be this spring’s hot ticket, 23 January 2015
Ruth Wilson and Jake Gyllenhaal open Broadway premiere of Constellations, 16 January 2015
The Last Ship leads winter Broadway closures, 9 January 2015
The year ahead in US theatre, 19 December 2014
Matilda recoups its investment, 12 December 2014
Bradley Cooper opens in The Elephant Man, 5 December 2014
Sting tries to stop The Last Ship sinking, 28 November 2014
Glenn Close returns to Broadway after 20 years, 21 November 2o14
Up Here musical to premiere at La Jolla Playhouse, 14 November 2014
Holly Hunter and Martin Short return to New York theatre, 7 November 2014
Sting’s The Last Ship opens and Halloween on stage, 31 October 2014
Al Pacino to star in China Doll by David Mamet in 2015, 24 October 2014
Anna D Shapiro steps up at Steppenwolf and Doctor Zhivago musical heads for Broadway, 17 October 2014
Steve Martin’s new musical and America’s top ten plays, 26 September 2014
Broadway’s first female-penned play in two years, 12 September 2014
Is Broadway getting a new theatre?, 29 August 2014
A sneak preview of Broadway’s new season, 15 August 2014
Re-revivals and Icelandic oddities, 1 August 2014
Song catalogues continue to woo producers and bullets for Broadway shows, 18 July 2014
Les Mis reinvented, 4 July 2014
Chicago picks up the slack for Broadway’s summer lull, 20 June 2014
Californian premieres, busy Rees and Off-Off-Broadway finally hits Broadway, 6 June 2014
Blood, mud and magic of Shakespeare heads across the Atlantic, 23 May 2014
Irish revival, Lucille Lortel Awards and Abba goes Greek, 9 May 2014
Tony determinations kick off the awards season and God gets the theatre bug, 25 April 2014
Radcliffe on Broadway, King and I rumours and Carole King off stage, 11 April 2014
If/Then kicks off Tony Awards madness, 28 March 2014
Bryan Cranston plays the president, Randi Zuckerberg plays guitar, 14 March 2014
Disappearing clowns, prog-metal Sweeney Todd and The Bridges of Madison County, 28 February 2014
King Kong heads home, Hugh Jackman helms the Tonys, 14 February 2014
Bradley Cooper, Hugh Jackman and Fatboy Slim – the stars aline in New York, 31 January 2014
Ghostly appearances from Satchmo, Tupac Shakur and Patti LuPone, 17 January 2014
Hugh Jackman disappears from Houdini, Rebecca Hall makes Broadway debut, 3 January 2014
The Iceman Cometh (but not quite yet), unpaid interns and The Sound of Music, 20 December 2013
Punchdrunk’s new restaurant, Daniel Kitson and dinner with Alan Ayckbourn, 6 December 2013
Nelson’s quartet complete plus Broadway openers and closers, 22 November 2013
Bruce Norris returns, A Time To Kill dies and Idina Menzel flies back to Broadway, 8 November 2013
A costly Betrayal, Julie Taymor returns and new musical composers on Sesame Street, 25 October 2013
Orlando Bloom, Emma Thompson and the Donmar on Broadway, 11 October 2013
The House of Mouse, Shakespeare spoofs and Terminator 2 on stage, 27 September 2013
New York City Opera in trouble, Sondheim celebrated, 13 September 2013
I realize I’m writing this blog post for a very specific subset of readers, but after nine months of writing my “American Stages” column for London’s The Stage newspaper, I have a request of those cited in the title.
Now mind you, I’m prepared to stipulate that many of you still may not be aware of the column, despite my own efforts and the efforts of the folks at The Stage to promote it. So if you’re reading this and thinking, “What ‘American Stages’ column?,” allow me to direct you to the index of the columns thus far. I’ll also agree that the column is somewhat New York-centric and probably east coast-centric. But there’s a reason for that.
None of you are sending me press releases. Not even theatres I’ve called in the past and asked for material for use in this very column.
Perhaps I should have been more explicit in asking for releases. So I’m writing this instead. Now before you all deluge me with material on every single thing you do, including grants you receive, ‘best of’ lists you appear on, one night only readings and the like, let me take a page from Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout, who is quite clear about what he’s likely to be interested in and when you’re barking up the wrong tree.
So here are my rough guidelines:
1. I’m not a critic. “American Stages” is meant to highlight work that might be of interest to readers in the British theatre community, but I don’t review shows. I do like to see as much as I can, but there’s no correlation between my seeing a production and my featuring it in the column.
2. I am committed to representing interesting work around the country. Because of the curation of arts stories that is a significant part of my Twitter feed, I often surface interesting productions worth writing about on my own. But Twitter is a rush of information, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll be seeing your tweets when you happen to send them.
3. I’m looking to highlight new work or major productions that might prove interesting to UK readers. The fourteenth production of one of the most produced plays in the country isn’t likely to get in. Neither is your Christmas Carol. But even with new work, it needs a hook beyond “a new play,” so think about tipping me to something that might cause theatre pros across the pond to take an interest.
4. If there’s an English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh hook, make sure I know it – whether it’s a playwright, actor, director and so on. It is a London publication after all.
5. Because the column is online, even though I’m writing with a certain focus in mind, remember that it can be shared as widely as you and I both like. There’s no paywall and no geographic limitation to who can read it.
6. Photos are helpful (if they’re good photos) and videos are sometimes even better. While there’s typically only one main photo a week, I can embed several videos with my copy, and I’ll use everything from trailers to interviews to musical numbers to humor.
So far as I’m aware (and by all means, feel free to correct me), there’s no other UK outlet with a regular column dedicated solely to US theatre news. Sure, big stories like Kenneth Branagh in Macbeth get covered in international media as they happen, as do the Tony Awards. But new musicals in San Diego? Not so much. So use me, because I want to showcase the entirety of US theatre, within my word limit and my fortnightly schedule.
As an aside, I write a second, monthly column for The Stage’s print edition, which unfortunately I can’t share online effectively. I’m writing specifically about aspects of the business of theatre in those pieces, and I eventually post that material to my website (though I’m far from up to date). But new initiatives and thematic stories are my bailiwick there, and can showcase trends and innovations wherever I may learn of them.
As some of you may know, I used to be a publicist in not-for-profit theatre. I’m all too aware of the challenges posed by the explosion of online outlets in how you do your jobs and you can’t give one-on-one service to every writer out there. So add me to your national list using howard AT hesherman DOT com. I’ll let you know if it’s too much (or too little). Frankly, if I was still a publicist, I’d be all over me about “American Stages.”
