Dang-Blasted premieres

According to this brief item in Monday's New York Times, Sarah Kane's Blasted "will make its American debut at SoHo Rep as the first show in that theater’s 2008-9 season, the artistic director Sarah Benson has announced."

It immediately occurred to me that such a statement might come as a surprise to Chicago's A Red Orchid Theatre, which mounted Blasted in January 2007 (with Helen Sadler and Guy Van Swearingen, right).

And in fact, the most cursory research (i.e. the first page of results from a Google search for "Sarah Kane Blasted") returns evidence of a production by this California theater in 2004.

What gives, SoHo Rep? Or is this a Times blunder?

UPDATE: So it appears that Blasted has been produced in Chicago in 2007 and in both Dallas and LA in 2004, but the actual American premiere was likely by Seattle's A Theater Under the Influence in February, 2004 (this Seattle Times review refers to it as such). Blasted also just made its San Francisco debut last month (albeit in a British production).

Matt Freeman and the commenters at his blog (thanks for the link!) suggest variously that SoHo might have the "professional" (which to most licensing agents is a synonym for Equity) debut, that a production must be reviewed to be considered the premiere, and that terminology like "premiere" is simply contractual.

I can't speak for the productions in other cities, but A Red Orchid is an Equity company and their production last year was definitely reviewed (you'll notice I linked to one above). Isaac's theory, that it's a contractual thing, seems highly illogical and kind of shady—and therefore thoroughly plausible. If that's the case, Blasted has been seen in at least five cities around the country before making its "American debut." Still hoping to get this figured out for good.

UPDATE 2: Just spoke to someone at SoHo Rep's press agent's office, who said their release only calls it the New York premiere, and suggested it's a Times mistake. The press release regurgitators at Playbill make no mention of debut status. As much fun as I'm having being indignant, I suspect it's a combination of a mistake on the part of whatever intern created this page on SoHo's site, and poor fact-checking at the Times.

UPDATE 3: I'm not sure commenters here are allowed to use HTML tags (TypePad recently revamped things in ways I have yet to understand), so I should provide a link to Marisa's post that Bilal references below. Oh! Wait! As of 11pm central time Monday night, the NYT has amended a correction. SoHo Rep's production will be the New York premiere, not the American premiere. Guess that settles that.

Comments

[Ed]

Ah, but Kris, it's the first time anyone's done it *in New York*, and that's all that really matters, of course. I'm surprised they didn't call it the world premiere.

(p.s. Is it? If someone had even done it in NYC before, this becomes truly hilarious.)

[dianna]

Nah, it's SoHo Rep's blunder... it's also listed as "US Premiere" on the front page of their website

[dianna]

FYI - I just sent a "just so you know" email to Soho Rep.

And to add, the company that prioduced it in LA back in 2004 THEY couldn't even say US premiere - they coould only say "LA Premiere", so that means the US Premiere was over 4 years ago... somewhere in America.
(the safe money is on somewhere in NYC, and I agree with Ed, that will be truly hilarious!)

[Kris Vire]

When I posted this last night it was not yet listed on SoHo Rep's site. Unless they've got some claim as to this being a "new version" (unlikely, with Kane having died nine years ago now), that's a pretty big mistake on their part.

[Rob]

In the age of Google, yes, this is a pretty big blunder on the part of SoHo Rep, but the New York Times is not blameless here. They should have fact-checked the "US premiere" claim. I mean, Kane *did* die nine years ago, so any company claiming a US premiere in 2008 would have to be checked.

[Bilal]

A commenter at Marisa's blog claims that Undermain Theatre in Dallas produced the play in 2004...possibly shortly before the LA company, leading to the "LA Premiere" caveat.

[Bilal]

Thanks for your work on this, Kris.

[Malachy Walsh]

I worked at a prominent West Coast theatre some years ago when the AD was always hocking plays as a premiere of some sort. World, West Coast, U.S., North American, San Francisco, Bay Area - whatever.

Apparently he thought it was more likely to get a reviewer in, though I'm not sure any reviewer ever missed a show at this house since it had once been home to a Pulitzer winner.

I always thought it was crazy. And a piece of marketing foolery that most saw through. Indeed, box office was never good because something was newer to one area than another. It was only good when there was good word of mouth. And I'm pretty sure that never started with, "It's this world/west coast/whatever premiere of a really good show..."

Tangentially, I always find it a bit absurd when a small (or even mid-sized) theatre company demands that they be a "premiering" company. Like the 400 people who saw the show in Chicago will somehow keep the 200 people in Des Moines from seeing it.

[Dave Barton]

A writer from the LA Times called me this afternoon, asking me for clarification on Soho Rep's/NYT's error. I googlked and you guys showed up!
I'm the Artistic Director for Rude Guerrilla Theater Company and directed the second production of BLASTED done in the US, following the Seattle US Premiere by Theater Under the Influence.
Rude Guerrilla has produced CLEANSED at an earlier time and we lobbied hard for BLASTED for three years before receiving the rights. Playwright Ken Urban--mentioned here--can vouch for us, since he helped bring the situation about by talking with Sarah's brother--and executor of her estate--Simon Kane.
As for the Equity=professional bullshit...the shirts at Equity want their actors to work in Los Angeles, so they have prohibited waiver contracts in Orange County for over a decade.
If that keeps us from being professional, it has nothing to do with the quality of our work. We received a dozen reviews--most pretty sterling--all available on our website. The LA Times was especially glowing.
Just as clarification.
Dave

[Eric Z.]

I mentioned this on Marisa W.'s blog already, but I saw Blasted at the (beautiful) Loring Playhouse in Minneapolis back in 1997. This is the poster for that production:
http://poniesforchrist.com/illo1.html

[Kerry Reid]

Wow, my friends ran A Theatre Under the Influence and I didn't even know about this! I need to get out more. But I definitely remember Red Orchid did it.

[Craigfluence]

Hello

Craig Bradshaw, from A Theatre Under the Influence here.

Our production of Blasted was, in fact, the US premiere.

And it was reviewed, and featured an Equity actor.

So there!

;)

(Hi Kerry!)

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