The Great Broadway Swindle, Nederlander China and the Williamsburg Yeti: The Clyde Fitch Report

The Brown Tweed Society is pleased to welcome new contributing partner Leonard Jacobs, Editor of The Clyde Fitch Report, who will routinely weigh in with news from the New York theater scene and ongoing arts issues.

Two announcements this past week could well shake up the known geopolitical universe.

Or at least shake up the Broadway commercial theater industry.

Or at least give it some pause.

Or perhaps give observers of the Broadway commercial scene, not to mention audiences, something to debate when not debating whether the musical Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown, which has now postponed previews twice, is actually having a nervous breakdown.

The first announcement came from Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment.

Here’s a smidgen of the press release, courtesy of publicist Brett Oberman:

…A new training program has been established between Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment and China’s Ministry of Culture under the title of “Cultural Trade & Industry Exchange Program”; the first session was launched Sept. 19–24, 2010. This delegation comes from China’s central and local cultural bureaus representing 10 Chinese provinces/municipalities including Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shenzhen, Sichuan, Hunan and Chongqing. This series of bilateral culture educational programs is designed to introduce China’s theatre professionals, policy makers and educational experts to the business process of the Broadway industry.

For those with short-term memory issues, the release reminded celebrators of the Broadway scene that Nederlander Worldwide has actually been on the China case for quite some time — and I mention that fact with admiration:

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Visit Leonard Jacobs and The Clyde Fitch Report daily for for more posts on arts, theater and politics. Follow the Clyde Fitch Report on Twitter at @clydefitch.