AMERICAN THEATRE: On Monday, the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players announced they would mount a production of The Mikado at the NYU Skirball Center next January with an almost all-white cast, using Japanese backdrops, props, clothing, and wigs. Following playwright Leah Nanako Winkler’s perceptive blog post about the show, the hashtag #saynotoMikado was created. It was only last year that Seattle’s Gilbert & Sullivan ...

The Guardian: Five months after standing down from her Hampstead and Kilburn constituency, Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson is acting again, featuring in a radio adaptation of the 20-volume cycle Les Rougon-Macquart by Émile Zola. But the former Labour MP’s reaquaintance with the industry has left her profoundly unimpressed with the dearth of roles for older women and an absence of lead roles for female ...

AMERICAN THEATRE: Each fall, American Theatre compiles its Top 10 Most-Produced Plays and Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights lists, providing a snapshot of the most popular names and plays planned for the coming season in the U.S. This year’s seasonal bounty encompasses more than 2,159 productions between Sept. 1, 2015 and Aug. 31, 2016.  Ayad Akhtar’s ‘Disgraced,’ a new entry, tops the list, alongside other new entries and some ...

Bitter Lemons: “…about 5 years ago, I hit a real sweet spot. I was on a TV show that was well-loved and well-payed. I played a lead role, yet could still go to Ralph’s for cat food – and in the evenings, I had my theater… Then, some very concerned folks Re-imagined LA theater for me. As a result, the stage actors’ union, Actors Equity, ...

AMERICAN THEATRE: You’ve seen (and maybe argued about) our Top 10 Most-Produced Plays list. Now let the debate begin over the most-produced playwrights in the country; goodness knows we’ve wanted to shout these names from the rooftop in the past few weeks. This year’s top playwright won a Pulitzer for his first play (and we published it). http://bit.ly/1KoT6bh

Stylist Magazine: Sienna Miller has revealed that she refused the Broadway role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret in New York when she discovered she was offered only half the wage salary of her male co-star.  The issue of gender inequality among actors has been a hot topic of late, as many have come out to whistle blow the sexism they encounter on a regular basis ...

LA Weekly:  Los Angeles has a lot going for it when it comes to theater. It’s filled with creative types, has a large and vocal 99-seat theater scene, is home to some heavyweight large theaters putting on big-budget productions and is crawling with successful TV and film actors who enjoy doing stage work.  Why, then, do so many of the country’s coolest plays — including ...

LA Times: The Elephant Theatre Co. in Hollywood has ceased operations and its members are considering their options following the recent sale of the company’s longtime home on Santa Monica Boulevard, leaders said in recent interviews.  The award-winning company, which has built a reputation for championing new American plays, is the latest casualty on Hollywood’s Theatre Row. http://lat.ms/1iaO38u

Huffington Post: The gender gap pervades every industry and measurable statistic of modern life, except maybe roundups of gynecology patients. The theater is one of our worst examples. While festivals like Fringe work to include a wider range of female voices, overall far too little progress has been made in terms of gender parity. And according to a study from the U.K., we’ve only made around one ...

LAist: The vitality and fun of Los Angeles’s theater scene should not be a well-kept secret.  L.A. is home to dozens of excellent theater organizations and companies offering great productions all the time in venues large and small. Here are some of the best of them. http://bit.ly/1JRpIKw