From the Los Angeles Times:<P><B>Performing Arts Going Dark<BR>Theater* The monthly publication handed out before show time is folding on Sept. 1. The scramble to find a replacement is on.</B><P>By DIANE HAITHMAN, Times Staff Writer<P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>California theatergoers accustomed to receiving their program packaged inside a glossy copy of Performing Arts magazine will be in for a surprise as of Sept. 1, when the 36-year-old publication goes out of business. <BR> The closure of Performing Arts, a monthly publication that has served California theaters since 1965 with Northern and Southern California regional editions, is collateral damage from a recent East Coast publishing coup. In early June, Playbill magazine, the 118-year-old program publisher for most Broadway theaters, acquired its longtime archrival, 75-year-old Stagebill.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Theater-X!ArticleDetail-64594,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A> <P><BR>(I have to admit I really didn't know where to put this article - so please feel free to move.}

In the Ballet Forum Ksneds posted as follows:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>ksneds<BR>Member posted July 12, 2002 16:49 <P>This is not specifically ballet related, but will affect more than a few ballet companies...<BR>This is not brand new news, but apparently Playbill is/has bought Stagebill. This purchase leaves Playbill as the only major producer of theatre programs in the US. Without competition, prices will probably go up and the merger also creates a major problems for companies that had a deal to get free programs from Stagebill(in exchange for getting advertisers). Does anyone have any comments about how this may affect companies like NYCB which uses Stagebill (ABT/Met uses Playbill).<BR>In a time when funding for the arts in general is on the edge, this is not good news for the arts community.<BR>Kate<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

<B>Act II, Scene I: Stagebill Exits Limping</B> <BR>By Philip Kennicott for The Washington Post <P><BR>For decades, on any given evening in this country, tens of thousands of people have sat down and flipped through -- perhaps even read -- one of two arts magazines. By the end of this summer, it's very likely they will be reading only one. When Playbill acquired rights to the name Stagebill last month, it secured the majority of the market for publishing theater, concert, opera and dance programs. <P>After years of competition, and decidedly different profiles, the program business is now essentially a monopoly. If the Stagebill names survives, it will be merely as an imprint of the now-dominant Playbill, which will see its monthly circulation rise from 3.1 million readers to perhaps as many as 4 million.<P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32716-2002Jul19.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

Get with the programme
By Sheridan Morley for The Stage


Most British theatre programmes are little more than overpriced cast lists, argues Sheridan Morley, explaining why successive attempts to bring the handbooks up to date have never come close to emulating the success of America’s Playbill

Kenneth Tynan, much in the news of late because of last week’s BBC TV play and the current, superb Corin Redgrave solo at the Arts Theatre, should be recalled not just as a critic, first literary manager of the National and, God forbid, the man who first said a rude word on television. Nor is Oh! Calcutta! the greatest of his claims to fame. Among many more forgotten such claims, Tynan was the man who invented the modern subsidised theatre programme.

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