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Apple TV+ has released the trailer for the Apple Original special ‘The Velveteen Rabbit,’ premiering globally on Wednesday, November 22.

The new special based on the treasured, classic children’s book by Margery Williams, celebrates the magic of unconditional love. When seven-year-old William receives a new favourite toy for Christmas, he discovers a lifelong friend and unlocks a world of magic.

The 40-minute special from Apple TV+ expertly mixes live-action and stunning animation to perfectly capture the imagination of a child and to lean into the timeless classic in a way you’ve always envisioned, but never seen before.

It features Phoenix Laroche (“The Royal Nanny”) as “William,” the all-star cast includes the voices of Alex Lawther (“Andor”) as “the Velveteen Rabbit,” Academy Award nominee Helena Bonham Carter as “Wise Horse,” Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton”) as “Playroom Fairy,” Bethany Antonia (“House of Dragon”) as “Female Rabbit,” Lois Chimimba (“Still Up”) as “Car,...

"When children love you, they do it with all of their hearts." Apple TV has unveiled an official trailer for a cute new adaptation of the beloved classic The Velveteen Rabbit, a story originally written by Margery Williams. This 44-min short film is rated TV-g and is meant for kids of all ages to enjoy this holiday season. Based on the treasured children's book by Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit celebrates the magic of unconditional love. When William receives a new favorite toy for Christmas, he discovers a lifelong friend and unlocks a world of magic. Starring Phoenix Laroche as William, and a voice cast with Alex Lawther as the Velveteen Rabbit, Helena Bonham Carter as Wise Horse, Nicola Coughlan as Playroom Fairy, Bethany Antonia, Lois Chimimba, Paterson Joseph, Clive Rowe, Nathaniel Parker, Samantha Colley as Mother. A classic storybook tale of friendship & adventure. The film features animated segments in...

A scene from ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ (Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+)

A musical event starring Ted Lasso‘s Hannah Waddingham and new holiday-themed specials from Frog and Toad and The Snoopy Show are set to premiere as part of Apple TV+’s November and December 2023 programming. The winter holiday lineup kicks off with the 50th anniversary screening of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which will stream for free on November 18 and 19, 2023.

The lineup also includes a new special based on Margery Williams’ classic children’s book The Velveteen Rabbit, and a sing-along version of Spirited starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. Holiday-inspired specials from Sago Mini Friends and Shape Island will debut on the streaming service in December.

Hannah Waddingham Home for Christmas (Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+) Apple TV+’s 2023 Holiday Lineup

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving 50th Anniversary – Streams Free November 18 and 19

Celebrating 50 years of this Peanuts classic, Peppermint...

Apple TV+ celebrates the holidays this year with an expansive line-up of programming for the whole family. From the debut of the Apple Original special,“The Velveteen Rabbit,” based on the beloved children’s classic written by Margery Williams, to the brand new holiday-themed film “Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas,” which features the Emmy Award-winning “Ted Lasso” actor; along with all-new holiday special episodes from “The Snoopy Show,” “Frog and Toad,” “Sago Mini Friends” and “Shape Island,” Apple TV+ is your home to celebrate the season.

Apple TV+ will also provide special free windows to stream iconic holiday specials from Mendelson/Melendez Productions and Peanuts Worldwide. “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, will be available for all to see Saturday, November 18 through Sunday, November 19 and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” will be available Saturday, December 16 through Sunday, December 17. This programming is available to subscribers now and every day.

The top honorees at the 2023 Laurence Olivier Awards were plays that focused on cultures outside of London. “My Neighbour Totoro,” which is based on the beloved Japanese film of the same name from Studio Ghibli, won six trophies, the most of the night, including Best New Comedy, Director, and four craft categories. A revival of the American classic “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams claimed three: Best Play Revival and for lead Paul Mescal and featured player Anjana Vasan. Meanwhile, the British-based “Prima Facie,” which is set to bow on Broadway this month and will thus compete at the Tony Awards, took home two prizes for Best Play and for star Jodie Comer.

The only other productions to win more than one trophy were all musicals. “Standing at the Sky’s Edge” won two of the top prizes: Best Musical and Best Original Score or New Orchestrations. “Tammy Faye,...

Two new works based on existing material dominated the nominations for the 2023 Olivier Awards, the top theatre honor in Britain. “My Neighbour Totoro” and “Standing at the Sky’s Edge” lead the play and musical fields with nine and eight bids apiece. The former is a stage adaptation of the Studio Ghibli film of the same name, brought to life in a visually stunning production featuring impressive puppetry by Basil Twist. “Standing at the Sky’s Edge” uses songs from the Richard Hawley album and new material to tell the story of three families in a Sheffield housing complex.

Revivals had strong showings, too. Director Daniel Fish’s remounting of “Rodger & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!” and the Paul Mescal-led “A Streetcar Named Desire” netted seven and six nominations, respectively. This production of “Oklahoma!” previously played Broadway and received eight Tony Award nominations, including wins for Best Revival and Featured Actress...

Cameron Mackintosh, the London theatre owner and impresario, nixed the idea of having a host introduce artists performing at Tuesday’s one-night-only Old Friends tribute show honoring the legacy of musical theatre genius Stephen Sondheim, who died in November at age 91.

“All you need are Steve’s words and music, and our cast. They speak, or rather sing, for themselves,“ Mackintosh explained to Deadline before the star-studded event began at London’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

Worked like a treat. Thirty minutes saved, because Old Friends wasn’t lumbered with a host.

In any case, no one needed to introduce actress Julia McKenzie when she walked onto the stage, for it was she who, with Mackintosh producing, was part of an ensemble that super-spread Sondheim in the West End over four decades ago with a revue entitled Side By Side by Sondheim.

She’s one of the composer and lyricist’s foremost interpreters.

All eyes were on Judi Dench.

The legendary actress was seated stage right, performing one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest hits. The sound of her voice, accompanied by a 25-piece orchestra led by Alfonso Casado Trigo, held a hushed audience in awe.

There was spontaneous applause. The great dame was led off stage. She reappeared moments later to perform the number again.

“Goosebumps,” said Cameron Mackintosh, echoing the thoughts of those lucky enough to be gathered in the stalls of London’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre for several hours Monday, for a long day and night of technical technical rehearsal for Tuesday night’s celebration of Sondheim, a giant of theatre, who died last November at age 91.

Tuesday’s one-night-only show is called Old Friends, named after a number in the composer’s 1981 musical comedy Merrily We Roll Along. Mackintosh has been putting Old Friends together with Matthew Bourne and Maria Friedman staging,...

Andrew Lincoln is swapping zombies for ghosts in his latest gig, as The Walking Dead star has just been announced to be playing Ebenezer Scrooge in an upcoming stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol this December. The production will take place at London’s The Old Vic theatre and be livestreamed online, kicking off on the 12th and running until Christmas Eve.

This version of the timeless festive tale has been adapted by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) and on December 17th, Lincoln will take part in a behind-the-scenes look at the socially distanced play as part of the Old Vic: In Conversation series, hosted by British TV personality Dermot O’Leary. Ahead of that, though, you can catch a glimpse at Lincoln in Scrooge’s Victorian top hat and coat below.

The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln To Star In A Christmas Carol Livestream 1 of...

Welcome back to our weekly roundup of what’s going on in film, TV, and theatre! THEATREJust a few days into June and we’re already looking far ahead to panto season with the news that Al Murray will be starring in “Jack and the Beanstalk” at the New Wimbledon Theatre alongside Olivier Award winner Clive Rowe MBE as the Dame. At the London Palladium, the “first lady of musical theatre” and Radio 2 favourite Elaine Paige will star alongside Ashley Banjo and Diversity, Julian Clary, and Nigel Havers in “Dick Whittington”. From winter back to summer again, Abba-member-turned-theatre-producer Björn Ulvaeus has applied for planning permission to build a new temporary space in London for “Mamma Mia!” spin-off “Mamma Mia! The Party”. The immersive event opened in Stockholm last year, has a new story and characters, contains songs from the musical and Abba back catalogue, and will be set in...

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, as part of a new series of musical concert performances at the Royal Festival Hall, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying makes its London concert debut tonight, May 19. Jonathan Groff, Hannah Waddingham and Clive Rowe are set to lead the concert, as J. Pierrepont Finch, Hedy La Rue and Twimble respectively. Scroll down for Bww's exclusive sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal...

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, as part of a new series of musical concert performances at the Royal Festival Hall, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying makes its London concert debut on May 19.Jonathan Groff, Hannah Waddingham and Clive Rowe are set to lead the concert, as J. Pierrepont Finch, Hedy La Rue and Twimble respectively. Scroll down for Bww's exclusive sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal...

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, as part of a new series of musical concert performances at the Royal Festival Hall, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying makes its London concert debut on May 19. Now according to Whatsonstage, Jonathan Groff, Hannah Waddingham and Clive Rowe are set to lead the concert, as J. Pierrepont Finch, Hedy La Rue and Twimble respectively.

Katherine Parkinson is to join new BBC family comedy The Kennedys.

The It Crowd actress will play Brenda Kennedy in the new six-part, 1970s-set comedy, with Shooting Stars actor Dan Skinner playing her husband Tony.

The multi-generation comedy is created and written by actress, writer and TV presenter Emma Kennedy and is loosely based on her memoirs The Tent, The Bucket and Me.

Each episode will be introduced by a young Emma Kennedy (Lucy Hutchison), a 10-year-old Star Wars obsessed tomboy who has a good relationship with her parents.

The show sees the Kennedy family move to a new estate in Stevenage, New Town. Delighted at the prospect of being considered middle class, the Kennedys soon get to work organising activities for their new neighbourhood.

The show also features the family's best friends, unmarried couple Tim (Toast of London's Harry Peacock) and Jenny (Up the Women's Emma Pierson...

Tori Amos' musical, The Light Princess, will open at the Lyttelton Theatre on October 9. Joining previously announced Rosalie Craig Ragtime, Finding Neverland and Clive Rowe Into the Woods, Kiss Me Kate will be Amy Booth-Steel, Stephanie Bron, Vivien Carter, James Charlton, Hal Fowler, Owain Gwynn, Nicola Hart, C J Johnson, Luke Johnson, David Langham, Richard Lowe, Tommy Luther, Jamie Muscato, Emma Norin, Malinda Parris, Kane Oliver Parry, Adam Pearce, Caspar Phillipson, Laura Pitt-Pulford, Clive Rowe, Nuno Silva, Phoebe Street, Ben Thompson and Lynne Wilmot.

Hannah Waddingham will play Lilli Vanessi in Trevor Nunn's Kiss Me Kate at the Chichester Festival Theatre, which will open June 18, the UK Daily Mail reports. She will star opposite the previously announced Australian actor Adam Garcia, who will play ladies' man Bill Calhoun, as well as Clive Rowe and David Burt, who will play the pair of gangsters who sing Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Stephen Mear will choreograph.

On 26th February London’s iconic Savoy Theatre plays host for one night only to Rockin’ Horses, an evening of music, comedy, poetry and more! Boasting a star-studded line up, the show will be raising money for Shooting Star Chase and the Mane Chance Sanctuary.

The glittering line up will include stars such as Shooting Star Chase patron, Olivier award winner and multi-platinum recording artist Michael Ball; who will perform alongside national treasure Christopher Biggins; Atomic Kitten and West End star Natasha Hamilton; and TV’s Judge John Deed, Broadway and West End actor Martin Shaw, as well as many other famous faces. Also expected to attend are Jenny Seagrove, Nichola McAuliffe, Roy Marsden, Clive Rowe, Hardeep Singh Kohli and Sylvia Syms.

Read more...

London museum will show filmed versions of major productions, including Ben Whishaw's 2004 Hamlet and Hackney Empire's 2009 panto

Critics dubbed it one of the best Hamlets of all time – and now theatre lovers will have the opportunity to compare Ben Whishaw's teenage Dane to the recent high-profile princes of David Tennant, Michael Sheen and Rory Kinnear.

The Victoria & Albert museum will screen Trevor Nunn's 2004 production for the Old Vic, which provided Whishaw his first role after drama school, as part of a series to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the National Video Archive of Performance.

Whishaw, who is soon to star in Rupert Goold's television version of Richard II for the BBC, was labelled "the most raw and vulnerable Hamlet I have ever seen" by The Telegraph's theatre critic, Charles Spencer. (Michael Billington, however, was less impressed, describing Whishaw's boy prince as "a scuttling, manic Danish Mr...

Now more than 50 years old, Ealing comedy The Ladykillers is one of Britain's best-loved films. So how will Graham Linehan, writer of The It Crowd and Father Ted, rework it for the theatre?

In the vaulting back room of a church off Islington's Upper Street in north London, five bad bogus men are plotting to bump off a little old lady. It is a hugely ambitious undertaking. Not only is The Ladykillers one of Britain's best-loved films, but the cast of the 1955 production – Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom and Danny Green – did include one or two actors that modern film programmes like to wrongly refer to as "legends", even if (pedantry aside) you know what they mean.

But this won't be a film; it's a stage version. And it's far from a knock-off of the film. The story's pretty much the same, of course – criminals posing as...

Christmas TV is pretty much a dead cert year in year out. Right from way back in the 70s when I was a kid (and being spooked by that revolving melted Santa head globe on BBC1 in 1978), the same old types of Christmas programme crop up. Whether they're festive versions of well-established comedies, horrible screechy carol services or doomy Bah Humbug soap shenanigans, Christmas TV always runs along tried and tested lines.

And then there's the films. There's usually a select pool of about four or five films that make an annual appearance around Christmas. The Sound Of Music, quite possibly my least favourite film ever – a never-ending shrill parade of twee noise; Mary Poppins – a similarly joyless experience of naff songs and Fearne Cotton-esque gorbloymey accents; Annie – more out of tune histrionics starring a nine-year-old Leo Sayer with a bad case of orange hair dye; oh, and The Poseidon Adventure,...

Channel 4 has announced details of a new sitcom starring Vic Reeves and Rhys Darby. Fun Police will focus on the employees of Brightsea Council's Health and Safety department, and has been written by The Russell Brand Show co-host Matt Morgan. Flight of the Conchords star Darby will play eccentric office boss Leslie, who takes charge when the previous boss suffers an accident in the workplace. Cemetery Junction's Jack Doolan, Tracy Beaker actor Clive Rowe, Him & Her star Kerry Howard and Not Going Out's Katy Wix will star alongside Reeves and Darby. (more)...

Channel 4 has announced details of a new sitcom starring Vic Reeves and Rhys Darby. Fun Police will focus on the employees of Brightsea Council's Health and Safety department, and has been written by The Russell Brand Show co-host Matt Morgan. Flight of the Conchords star Darby will play eccentric office boss Leslie, who takes charge when the previous boss suffers an accident in the workplace. Cemetery Junction's Jack Doolan, Tracy Beaker actor Clive Rowe, Him & Her star Kerry Howard and Not Going Out's Katy Wix will star alongside Reeves and Darby. (more)...

Alec Guinness classic crime caper re-cast as stage play in Liverpool by Father Ted and It Crowd writer Graham Linehan

It might be about criminals exploiting a sweet old lady so they can rob a bank, but The Ladykillers is regularly named as one of the nation's favourite comedy films. Now the Ealing classic is to be brought to the stage in a new version written by Father Ted and The It Crowd writer Graham Linehan.

Producers will announce that the memorably dark and stylish 1955 film is being adapted for the stage, with Peter Capaldi in the role of the charming but sinister gang leader Professor Marcus, played first by Alec Guinness.

The stage play will be very much Linehan's version. "I wanted the film to haunt the play rather than it be a transcription," he said.

There will also be more laughs. Linehan had been asked by producers if...

Alec Guinness seedy gang classic to become stage play, written by Father Ted author Graham Linehan

It might be about gangsters exploiting a sweet old lady to commit an ugly armed robbery, but The Ladykillers is regularly named as one of the nation's favourite comedy films. Now the Ealing classic is to be brought to the stage for the first time in a new version written by Father Ted and The It Crowd writer Graham Linehan.

Producers will announce that the memorably dark and stylish 1955 film is being adapted for the stage, with Peter Capaldi taking on the role of the charming but utterly sinister gang leader Professor Marcus, played originally by Alec Guinness.

The stage play will be very much Linehan's version. "I wanted the film to haunt the play rather than it be a transcription," he said.

There will also be more laughs. He had been asked by...