December 22, 2007

Not a Merry Christmas at the Shakespeare

Having opened the lavish $89 million Sidney Harman Hall, part of their effort to cement their standing as the premiere classical theatre in America, the Shakespeare Theatre Company inaugurated their second home with an ambitious repertory of two Christopher Marlowe plays, Tamburlaine and Edward II. Company regular Avery Brooks (of ST:DS9 fame) plays Tamburlaine.

The absolute last thing they needed was
this weekend's fiasco... Brooks suffered a "holiday-related injury" that rendered him unable to perform Friday night. With the original understudy departed due to a family emergency and the replacement understudy unprepared to step in, all performances of Tamburlaine have been canceled thru the 27th. It is still unknown if Brooks will be able to return, if the understudy will go on, or if the rest of the run (scheduled to close Jan 6th) will be scrubbed. I pity the poor box office staff who have to contact thousands of subscribers to relay the bad news. STC stands to take a significant financial loss, at perhaps the worst possible time for something like this to happen.

As for reports that tell a sliiightly different story about Brooks' injury... that's what holiday party gossip was invented for...
I'm keeping my big yap shut. ;-)

No comments: