Financial precarity, thy name is theater funding.   

As such, producers will occasionally — usually? — target the surest sells. An evergreen sentiment for artistic projects: it’s easier to invest when you can see as much of the finished product as possible (the best-laid plans, ya know?), which is why a bevy of productions transfer from one major market to another, albeit with different casts (those housing fees, not cheap).

I’ve noticed a trend of late relevant to this concept, which probably isn’t historically new, but feels novel at least in my lifetime:

Both Ivo van Hove’s A Little Life and Thomas Ostermeier’s An Enemy of the People began as non-English productions. After playing London, they returned to the city . . . in English, with a star-name attached, and one who shot to fame through TV (Happy Valley’s James Norton for A Little Life, and Dr. Who’s Matt Smith for An Enemy of the People).

Two tickets, please.

And lest there be unnecessary confusion, Ostermeier’s production has nada to do with the Enemy of the People opening on Broadway next season with Succession’s Jeremy Strong (the TV pattern continues); almost like the perils of capitalist democracy is a hot topic right now and always?

Also, does this mean that Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ long-ago promised translation of Ibsen’s play for Thomas is no more?

Oh, and speaking of Ivo’s A Little Life: it was filmed for release in movie theaters . . . but no dates have been announced in America . . . which is a good sign for its future LIVE life stateside.