Last week, American Theatre posted our annual Top 10 Most-Produced Play list (to recap, the most-produced play was by Christopher Durang). A majority of reactions focused on the lack of women on the list. Here’s a sample from Twitter.
And, @petermarksdrama, three women on @AmericanTheatre's list of top twenty produced playwrights. That's what? 15%? #sigh
— elissa goetschius (@egoetschius) September 26, 2014
https://twitter.com/Bflood28/status/514824865782968320
https://twitter.com/terryteachout/status/515542170003341312
https://twitter.com/terryteachout/status/515542170003341312
https://twitter.com/terryteachout/status/515545962069372929
@halcyontony @petermarksdrama @AmericanTheatre @egoetschius Anecdotally, in the top level of Off Bway, it doesn't seem like 20% to me
— Jason Zinoman (@zinoman) September 26, 2014
@halcyontony @petermarksdrama @AmericanTheatre @egoetschius And it REALLY doesn't when it comes to younger writes. Which matters..
— Jason Zinoman (@zinoman) September 26, 2014
https://twitter.com/rwkozlowski/status/514855089329434624
https://twitter.com/markarmstrong4/status/515883177228124160
Among news outlets, we got shout-outs in the Associated Press and The Stage. And The Advocate took comfort in knowing that gay characters and artists were well-represented:
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike relocates Chekhovian themes of discontent and longing to a Pennsylvania farmhouse with three squabbling siblings, including Vanya, a gay aspiring playwright understandably attracted to his sister’s exhibitionist boy toy.
The comedy won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013. The Advocate named its off-Broadway engagement among the top LGBT-inclusive theater of 2012, calling it “winsomely quirky.”
The New York Times caught up with Durang about his royalty checks.
“I feel very lucky, like I’ve won the lottery,” Mr. Durang said, speaking on the telephone after teaching a theater class at Princeton. Already he can tell the difference: Thanks to the Broadway run and the advances that have come from licensing the play, he said, “the last year was the most money I have ever made.”
