Best of This Week’s Theatre Blogs – 15 Jan 2010

This week it was hard to get away from one show in British Theatre Blogs: Legally Blonde. Who liked it, who didn’t like it and, in the case of the West End Whingers, who was at the Opening Night Party. Carrie Dunn, writing on the Spotlight Blog, succinctly summed up what all the fuss was about.

If it looked like Bloggers were preoccupied with audiences and critics then Steppenwolf had their focus firmly on the creation of theatre – looking backwards to how the last decade had changed them and forward to their plans for the next one.

The Almeida Theatre proved that diversity is the key to a theatre blog, writing about jokes contributed by their followers on twitter and still finding the time to have a serious discussion about the quality of music composed for stage and screen.

Finally there were insights into two very different productions:  Niamh Perry blogged about her wig fitting for Love Never Dies whilst there was a unique insight into the RSC’s Arabian Nights  from one of its more unexpected cast members…

Spotlight, Carrie Dunn – Legally Blonde Reviews Mean Nothing
“That’s why on my way out of the theatre, I texted an actor friend of mine saying: ‘Legally Blonde is AMAZING. The critics will HATE it.’ And the PR and marketing teams know that only too well.”

Steppenwolf Theatre Blog – The Public/Private Self in 2010
“At Steppenwolf, we keep making our plays. By the measure of so much around us, making plays is a slow-cook process. There’s no way to speed it up and no way that we’d want to.”

Almeida Theatre Blog – Variations on a Theme
“In an unusually high brow moment at our New Year/Twelfth Night staff party the conversation drifted round to the question of whether the great composers of our times are in fact those working in film and stage rather than the concert hall.”

Love Never Dies Cast Blog – Rehearsal Update by Niamh Perry
“I had my wig fitting yesterday with an awesome man named Cambell who covered my head in cling film, sticky-tape and red marker- I looked hot- NOT. I’ve never worn a wig before so this is a new experience all together!”

RSC Arabian Nights Blog – Adventures in the Green Room
“Puppets LOVE chocolate. It is kind of hard swinging up the fridge, shelf by shelf, when you’ve got no legs though. But what are a few shelves to an adventurer?!”