Are Theater Audiences Dying Off?
I’m a big fan of the monologuist Mike Daisey, but when I read statements like this, from his show “How Theater Failed America,” I must say that I have to roll my eyes:
“The numbers are grim — the audiences are dying off all over the country. I know because every night I’m onstage, I stare out into the dark and can hear the oxygen tanks hissing.”
While some of the country’s best-known institutional theaters are full of the blue hairs, there are plenty of play-friendly venues throughout the country where the tattoo-and-piercings crowd congregates nightly. Someday, I’ll compile an annotated list of these happening joints. Meanwhile, Daisey’s doom-and-gloom assessment — the live-performance version — can be seen at Joe’s Pub in New York beginning April 14th.
