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Like most people without easy access to the West End and Broadway, I did not get the full measure of Dame Maggie Smith's genius as a performer. This is true of many great actors who found their way to film and television from the boards, and it is why I am often reluctant to enter arguments over or make lists ranking the greatest actors of all time. Theatrical performance requires a flexing of radically different muscles; you must fill the space, or recede from it, or mingle harmoniously within it without the emotive aid of close-ups and cutting. And you must play each role every night for weeks upon weeks (upon weeks should the show become a hit) while remaining in moments that cannot be manufactured – because an astute audience (and they'd better be good and goddamn astute given what they're paying to see a show in either of...

We talk a lot about the top of the pile when discussing horror novels and novelists. Obviously, the top of that pile is a certain man by the name of Stephen King. However, if you were going to have a Mount Rushmore of authors with him, I’m throwing the great Michael Crichton up there with him in one of the other 3 spots. Yeah, I know he’s not known as a hardcore horror guy, or even really a horror guy at all, I know for a fact his most well-known work Jurassic Park scared the bejesus out of a whole generation of kids. For that matter, I showed that movie to my kids as their first entryway into horror. While I’ll probably tackle Jurassic Park at some point as it is vastly different from book to movie, let me know in the comments if you guys want that,...

The Off Broadway world premiere of the new Robert O’Hara play Shit. Meet. Fan. will feature a cast headed by Garret Dillahunt, Billy Magnussen and Debra Messing, McC Theater announced today.

The play, which will also star Tramell Tillman and Constance Wu, begins previews Thursday October 10, at McC Theater’s Newman Mills Theater, with an opening night on Monday October 28. The limited engagement runs through Sunday November 17.

O’Hara will direct his play, which is based on Paolo Genovese’s 2016 Italian comedy-drama Perfect Strangers. The movie holds the Guinness record for most remade film in cinema history, with more than 24 remakes in different languages.

Also in the cast will be Genevieve Hannelius, most recently seen in the Netflix original film Along for the Ride and the Netflix original series American Vandal. She is perhaps best known for starring on the three-time Emmy-nominated Disney Channel series Dog with a Blog.

Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Romantic comedy icon Meg Ryan said she loves the challenges that directing a feature film offers up and that since stepping behind the camera for both 2015’s Ithaca and 2023’s What Happens Later, it’s helped her to look at acting in a different light.

“I understand acting I think more now because of that,” Ryan told an audience at the Sarajevo Film Festival. “I think, as an actor, you’re a soloist in an orchestra. You don’t see the big picture. Your one small job is to play your emotional instrument and know yourself well and be available to your feelings, you know, and to get out of your way and try not to be too intellectual about expressing them.”

Since being a director, said Ryan, she’s learned that “other actors I’ve worked with have a different process.”

Ryan spoke to a packed audience for a...

Welcome back to Oscars Playback, in which Gold Derby editors and Experts Christopher Rosen and Joyce Eng revisit Oscar ceremonies and winners of yesteryear. This week, we cover the 60th Academy Awards in 1988, honoring the films of 1987.

“The Last Emperor” ruled over the ceremony, winning all nine awards for which it was nominated to tie “Gigi” (1958) for the largest perfect sweep in Oscar history at that point. They will, of course, later be eclipsed by “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003), which went 11 for 11. But what’s up not a single “Last Emperor” actor getting a nomination?

See Oscars Playback: When ‘Platoon’ and Paul Newman capped off their long roads with gold

“Moonstruck” was the second biggest winner of the night with three wins from six bids — and all above the line for Best Actress champ Cher, Best Supporting Actress winner Olympia Dukakis and Best Original Screenplay for John Patrick Shanley.

Adam Driver will star in a new Off Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold on to Me Darling this fall, producers announced today.

Neil Pepe will direct the limited 13-week engagement. Previews begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Tuesday, September 24, ahead of an official opening night on Wednesday, October 16.

Additional casting will be announced at a later date. The creative team will include Walt Spangler (scenic design), Suttirat Larlarb (costume design), Tyler Micoleau (lighting design), and David Van Tiegham (sound design).

Producing are Seaview, Sue Wagner, and John Johnson.

The official synopsis: On learning of his mother’s death, country music icon Strings McCrane (Driver) finds himself in an existential tailspin. The only way out, he decides, is to abandon superstardom in favor of the simple life, so he moves back to his hometown in Tennessee. The simple life turns out to be anything but simple in this brilliantly observed tragicomedy,...

Winners of the 2024 Lucille Lortel Awards, honoring outstanding achievements in Off-Broadway theater, were announced on Sunday, May 5, in a ceremony at NYU Skirball. The show was hosted by Rosalind Chao, Jen Colella, Michael Esper, 2024 Tony nominee Eden Espinosa (“Lempicka”), 2024 Tony nominee Nikki M. James (“Suffs”) and Bd Wong. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by Tdf.

It was a banner evening for Ars Nova. Not only did the theater company receive an honorary award for Best Body of Work, their show “(pray)” was also the top winner of the night. This co-production with National Black Theatre took home three trophies including Best Musical, Best Director for NicHi douglas and Best Ensemble.

Four other productions earned multiple awards, with “Buena Vista Social Club,” “The Comeuppance,” “Stereophonic,” and “Wet Brain” each claiming two prizes.

“Stereophonic” is a frontrunner for Best...

Nominations for the 39th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards were announced today by Amber Iman and George Abud, two stars of Broadway’s “Lempicka.” The Lortels honor outstanding achievement in Off-Broadway theater. The 2024 ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 5 at NYU Skirball Center. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by Tdf.

It’s common for productions to begin their life Off-Broadway before transferring to the Main Stem, so many of this year’s Tony Awards hopefuls are among the list of Lortel nominations. Chief among these contenders is “Hell’s Kitchen,” the semi-autobiographical musical from Alicia Keys. That tuner garnered five Lortel nominations. These include Best Musical, Best Choreography for Camille A. Brown, a Lead Performer bid for Maleah Joi Moon, and Featured Performer bids for Shoshana Bean and Kecia Lewis. All performance categories at the Lortel Awards are gender neutral.

In the final two months of the 2023-2024 Broadway season, seven new plays and play revivals join a slate of 15 total dramas eligible for the 77th Tony Awards. With so many buzzy revivals and new works set to begin performances in the few weeks before the Tony nominations are announced on April 30, our users have been busy updating their choices for the most likely nominees in seven of the 11 play categories. See below for a breakdown of how our official odds have changes in the top categories since our last predictions center update on March 12, according to the 800 users currently making their picks. Scroll to the bottom of the article for a tall of nominations by show in seven of the 11 play categories.

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“Prayer for the French Republic” — Although this critically-acclaimed production closed on Broadway on March 3, it has been gaining momentum in our predictions center. We had previously...

A slate of Broadway newcomers drew strong audience figures last week, with several – An Enemy of the People, The Notebook and The Who’s Tommy filling every seat and then some.

Of the recent late-winter/early-spring arrivals, An Enemy of the People, the Ibsen revival starring Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli and Victoria Pedretti, was the top earner, grossing $1,109,137 and selling out Circle in the Square. Opening night is March 18.

Also at standing room only for the week ending March 10 was The Notebook, the musical adaptation of the bestselling book and hit movie. The production at the Schoenfeld grossed $769,387; opening night is March 14.

All seats were filled at the Nederlander as The Who’s Tommy began previews; the first two performances in the run took in $345,129. Opening night is March 28.

Water For Elephants played seven previews at the Imperial, grossing $723,077 and filling 93% of seats. Opening night is March 21.

The week’s sole opener was Doubt: A Parable,...

The Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable, starring Liev Schreiber and Amy Ryan, has been extended by a week. The show will now close on Sunday, April 21.

The Roundabout Theatre Company’s performance opened on March 7 at the Todd Haimes Theatre. The performance company attributed the extension to a demand for tickets.

The production was originally scheduled to open on Feb. 29 but was delayed when Tyne Daly, who had been cast opposite Schreiber, dropped out due to an unknown illness. Ryan joined the ensemble as Daly’s replacement and has been playing the lead role of Sister Aloysius since Feb. 13.

Schrieber and Ryan have both been praised by critics for their pitch-perfect performances.

Quincy Tyler Bernstine and Zoe Kazan are also stars in the show.

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The post Broadway Revival Of ‘Doubt: A Parable’ Starring Liev Schreiber & Amy Ryan...

Lynda Gravátt, a mainstay of the New York stage, a seminal figure in the Washington D.C. theater community and a familiar presence on television through appearances in the Law & Order franchise shows, The Good Wife and the 1999 Showtime series The Hoop Life, died February 23 at a hospital in New Jersey. She was 77.

Her death was confirmed by the National Black Theatre. A cause has not been disclosed.

Born in Harlem May 24, 1946 (some reports indicate 1947), Gravátt made her Broadway debut at age 4 in The King and I, and would subsequently appear as a child performer and singer on local TV shows and in concerts.

A graduate of Howard University, Gravátt resumed her acting career as a founding member of the Living Stage, a company at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage devoted to theater works promoting social justice.

Returning to New York City, Gravátt became a staple of the Off Broadway scene,...

Lynda Gravátt, the Harlem-born actress who starred on New York stages in such productions as 45 Seconds From Broadway, Doubt, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Old Settler and Intimate Apparel, has died. She was 76.

Gravátt died Friday at a hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, her son David Gravátt told The Hollywood Reporter.

A founding member of Robert Alexander’s Living Stage at the famed Washington-based Arena Stage company, Gravátt received a 1999 Theatre World trophy for her performance as 1940s Harlem resident Quilly McGrath in The Old Settler and a Audelco prize in 2004 for her turn as the bossy landlady Mrs. Dickson in Intimate Apparel.

On Broadway in 2001, she stood by for Leslie Uggams as Ruby in August Wilson’s King Hedley II and portrayed Bessie James in Neil Simon’s 45 Seconds From Broadway, then appeared as Mrs. Muller in 2016 in the original Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt.

After a health issue sent her to the hospital and led her to drop out of a Broadway revival of Doubt: A Parable, Tyne Daly is on the rebound. “On behalf of the cast and crew of Doubt, and the entire Roundabout [Theatre Company] family, we are elated that Tyne is on the mend and on her way to a full recovery,” Scott Ellis, director of the production and Roundabout’s interim artistic director, told People on Friday. Daly was slated to play Sister Aloysius in this production of the John Patrick Shanley play, but an undisclosed health issue resulted in her hospitalization on February 2, according to People. The 77-year-old “did her invited dress [rehearsal] performance and then was hospitalized” a source told the magazine. That day’s preview performance was canceled, and Isabel Keating temporarily filled Daly’s part for the preview the following day, as Roundabout said in a press release...

Winter had a chilling effect on Broadway last week, with most shows reporting at least some downturn at the box office and overall receipts dropping nearly 10% from the previous week.

In all, box office for the 24 productions totaled $21,192,251 for the week ending February 11, with attendance of 187,573 down about 12% from the previous week.

Only a half-dozen shows bucked the downward trend, most notably Sweeney Todd, which on February 9 welcomed Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster as the permanent replacements for Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford (understudies had been filling in since the originals departed January 14). Grosses for the Sondheim revival were up $402,763 for a $1,260,185 total.

Joining the roster was The Notebook, just a few seats shy of selling out all of its first three previews at the Schoenfeld Theatre. The production, with music by Ingrid Michaelson and a book by Bekah Brunstetter, grossed $364,678 for the three performances, with a healthy average ticket...

Tyne Daly was unexpectedly hospitalized on Friday and has withdrawn from her starring role in the Broadway revival of Doubt. She’ll be replaced by Amy Ryan.

The news was announced this afternoon by the Roundabout Theatre Company. No reason was given for Daly’s hospitalization, but the company said she is expected to make a full recovery.

“Ms. Daly was unexpectedly hospitalized on Friday and unfortunately needs to withdraw from the production while she receives medical care; she is thankfully expected to make a full recovery,” the announcement states.

“With respect and admiration for Tyne, we wish her the best and a quick recovery,” said director Scott Ellis. “We are grateful that Amy Ryan said yes – in a quick minute – to join our company and take on the role of ‘Sister Aloysius.’ We deeply appreciate Isabel Keating, who remarkably stepped in with a day of rehearsal and allowed us...

Broadway said goodbye last week to two well-regarded but underperforming productions, with both Harmony and Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch posting better-than-usual weekly box office as last-chancers grabbed seats.

Harmony, the Barry Manilow-Bruce Sussman musical about the real-life 1920s German singing group the Comedian Harmonists, filled a robust 99% of seats at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, grossing $853,055 for the week ending February 4. That’s a bump of $145,978 over the previous week.

Purlie Victorious, the universally acclaimed revival of the Ossie Davis comedy starring Leslie Odom Jr. and Kara Young, grossed $706,882, a boost of $58,090 over the previous week. Still, the production filled only 81% of seats at the Music Box.

In all, the 25 Broadway productions grossed $23,493,675, a slight 5% bump over the previous week (and nearly identical to last year’s gross for the week). Total attendance was 213,281, about 2% over the previous week and 9% over last year at this time.

The Roundabout Theatre Company tonight renamed its Broadway venue – a 104-year-old building that began as the Selwyn and most recently went by the prosaic American Airlines Theatre – to honor its late artistic director Todd Haimes.

The 42nd Street venue officially became the Todd Haimes Theatre in a dedication ceremony tonight. The name change was announced last June, and becomes official just in time to welcome its first tenant: The revival of John Patrick Shanley’s Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt: A Parable, directed by Scott Ellis and starring Tyne Daly and Liev Schreiber, begins previews this Friday ahead of a February 29 opening night.

The venue’s name change was made to honor, in the words of the company, the “extraordinary dedication to the institution [Haimes] called home, and his enormous contributions to Roundabout and the entire theatre community.”

Haimes, the Roundabout’s artistic director and chief executive for nearly 40 years,...

Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson, Tim Heidecker and Toby Huss will star in David Gordon Green’s “Nutcrackers.” They join the previously announced Ben Stiller, who will play a work-obsessed man who travels to rural Ohio to look after his four nephews after their parents die in a car accident.

Heidecker will play a local deputy, Patterson has been cast as an orphan profiteer, Huss portrays an eccentric empty-nester millionaire and Cardellini takes on the role of a social worker who helps Stiller’s character on his journey to find a home for the boys. The film is based on a script by Leland Douglas and was developed by Rough House Pictures.

Rivulet Films’ Rob Paris and Mike Witherill, Red Hour Films’ Stiller and John Lesher, and Rough House Pictures’ Nate Meyer are producing. Rivulet fully financed the film, which recently wrapped production outside of Cincinnati.

Cardellini is currently in production...

Norman Jewison, the multifaceted filmmaker who could direct a racial drama (In the Heat of the Night), stylish thriller (The Thomas Crown Affair), musical (Fiddler on the Roof) or romantic comedy (Moonstruck) with the best of them, has died. He was 97.

Jewison died Saturday at home — his family does not want to specify exactly where — publicist Jeff Sanderson announced.

A seven-time Oscar nominee, Jewison received the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences in 1999.

Known for his ability to coax great performances out of his actors — 12 of his players were nominated for Oscars, while five of his features made the cut for best picture — the most distinguished film director in Canadian history often used conventional genre plots to take on social injustice.

Improbably, he got his start directing musical specials on television.

Jewison earned best director and best picture nominations for Fiddler on the Roof...

On Dec. 18, 1987, MGM unveiled Norman Jewison’s romantic comedy Moonstruck in theaters, where it would go on to gross $80 million. The film nabbed six Oscar nominations at the 60th Academy Awards, winning best actress for Cher’s performance, best supporting actress for Olympia Dukakis’ role and screenplay for John Patrick Shanley’s script. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

Deck the halls and crack open the eggnog. The already impressive yuletide movie season has hit new heights with the arrival of Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck.

A romantic comedy that doesn’t skimp in either department, Jewison’s celebration of The Family, as captured by the pen of screenwriter John Patrick Shanley, expertly weaves the spell of a Capra or a Lubitsch. With its universal appeal, expect MGM to reap the lion’s share of box-office cheer.

Cher, in her most confident performance to date, is a delight as Loretta Castorini,...

Actress-comedian Aubrey Plaza got a new roommate to make sure her onstage debut was a success. The ‘Parks and Recreation’ alum, 39, revealed in an interview with Vulture that she’s currently living with three-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, reports ‘People’ magazine.

Plaza told the outlet that her ‘Agatha: Darkhold Diaries’ co-star, 74, has been helping her adjust to her role in the Off-Broadway revival of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by making her soup and doing her laundry.

“She insisted. She’s trying to whip me into shape,” Plaza told the outlet, quoted by ‘People’. The Broadway veteran has also been teaching Plaza some valuable life lessons. The White Lotus actress recalled a conversation she had with LuPone after getting strep throat shortly before rehearsals started.

“I was like, ‘Why is this happening?’”, Plaza recalled saying. “Patti went, ‘It’s happening because you have to toughen up’”, Plaza announced...

Actress-comedian Aubrey Plaza got a new roommate to make sure her onstage debut was a success. The ‘Parks and Recreation’ alum, 39, revealed in an interview with Vulture that she’s currently living with three-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, reports ‘People’ magazine.

Plaza told the outlet that her ‘Agatha: Darkhold Diaries’ co-star, 74, has been helping her adjust to her role in the Off-Broadway revival of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by making her soup and doing her laundry.

“She insisted. She’s trying to whip me into shape,” Plaza told the outlet, quoted by ‘People’. The Broadway veteran has also been teaching Plaza some valuable life lessons. The White Lotus actress recalled a conversation she had with LuPone after getting strep throat shortly before rehearsals started.

“I was like, ‘Why is this happening?’”, Plaza recalled saying. “Patti went, ‘It’s happening because you have to toughen up’”, Plaza announced...

All Arts’ upcoming non-fiction feature “Manhattan Theatre Club, a Home for Artists” will explore the 50-year history of one of the most impactful off-Broadway theaters in New York. Helmed by the club’s very own Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove, the film stitches together archival footage and photos and interviews with stars like Laura Linney, Edie Falco, Sam Waterston and Sarah Jessica Parker.

“Through their stewardship of Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove have left an indelible mark on the theatrical landscape for decades to come,” said Joe Harrell, executive producer of All Arts, a Wnet group streaming platform and broadcast channel based in New York. “Their story champions the vital role of nonprofit theaters in allowing artists to take risks, explore innovative ideas and challenge conventions.”

The Manhattan Theatre Club was founded in 1970 at Stage 73 but took off under the guidance of Meadow as artistic director and Grove as executive producer.

Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott will find love in a Bronx bar with an upcoming Off-Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.”

The “White Lotus” Emmy nominee and “Poor Things” actor, respectively, will star in the revival of the 1984 play, set for the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village this fall. “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” will start previews on Monday, October 20 with an opening night set for Monday, November 13. Actor Jeff Ward will make his stage directing debut with the production, while Plaza will make her own stage acting debut as well.

Many know John Patrick Shanley for his Oscar-winning original screenplay for “Moonstruck,” but he also won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony for Best Play in 2005 for “Doubt,” which he adapted to the screen in 2008. “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” first premiered Off-Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre...

Aubrey Plaza will make her stage debut this fall in the Off-Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.

The Parks and Rec and White Lotus star will appear opposite Christopher Abbott, who has appeared in Martha Marcy May Marlene and Girls. The 10-week run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre begins on Oct 30, with an opening night set for Nov. 13.

Sam Rockwell and Mark Berger are producing the play, which will be directed by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Jeff Ward, in his stage debut.

“My life and career have been profoundly impacted by Off-Broadway theater — like John Malkovich and Gary Sinise in True West at the Cherry Lane; Stanley Tucci in Scapin at Classic Stage Company; Phil Hoffman and Justin Theroux in Shopping and Fucking at New York Theatre Workshop; and Blasted with Reed Birney and Marin Ireland at Soho Rep,...

Aubrey Plaza, making her stage debut, and Christopher Abbott will star in an Off Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s 1984 classic Danny and the Deep Blue Sea this fall, with a producing team that includes Sam Rockwell.

The revival will begin previews Monday, October 20, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, with an opening night set for Monday, November 13. The 10-week limited engagement will be directed by Jeff Ward, in his stage directorial debut.

Rockwell said in a statement, “My life and career have been profoundly impacted by Off-Broadway theater – like John Malkovich and Gary Sinise in True West at the Cherry Lane; Stanley Tucci in Scapin at Classic Stage Company; Phil Hoffman and Justin Theroux in Shopping and F*cking at New York Theatre Workshop; and Blasted with Reed Birney and Marin Ireland at Soho Rep, to name a few. I really do believe it’s the beating heart of this city.

In a 2021 interview with The New York Times, Jodie Foster, one of our most guarded movie stars, confessed, "I am a solitary, internal person in an extroverted, external job. I don't think I will ever not feel lonely. It's a theme in my life. It's not such a bad thing. I don't need to be known by everyone."

Movie stardom can be a curse in this regard. Each performance, splashed across a big screen and examined time and again in the home-viewing format of your choosing, draws us near to them. We want to know them, befriend them, tear up the town with them... we want them. And since we are typically not an empathetic species (particularly in the United States), too many of us do not understand why these seemingly blessed individuals recoil from the public eye or feel ambivalent about their success.

This tension has been the central theme of Foster's career,...

The 104-year-old theater formerly known as the Selwyn – and soon to be formerly known as the American Airlines – will be renamed to honor the late Todd Haimes, the artistic director and guiding force behind the Roundabout Theatre Company who died in April.

The naming of the Todd Haimes Theatre was announced last night as members of the Broadway community honored Haimes by dimming the marquees of all 41 Broadway theaters. The new name is designed to recognize Haimes’ “extraordinary dedication to the institution he called home, and his enormous contributions to Roundabout and the entire theatre community.”

“Last year, when the thought of naming the theater after Todd arose, our instinct was to honor a visionary producer who had led Roundabout from a basement under a supermarket in Chelsea to an indelible force in the American theatre,” said Roundabout Vice Chair Lawrence Kaplen in a statement. “I am proud to be...

Tyne Daly and Liev Schreiber will star in a new Broadway production next February of John Patrick Shanley’s Tony Award & Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt: A Parable, with direction by Scott Ellis.

The Roundabout Theatre Company production will begin performances in February 2024 at the American Airlines Theatre. Exact dates, remaining cast members, and design team will be announced at a later date.

Doubt: A Parable returns to Broadway for the first time in nearly two decades. Daly will play Sister Aloysius, in the words of the synopsis the “prickly principal of an all-boys Catholic school in a working- class part of the Bronx” who “is feared by students and colleagues alike.”

“But when she suspects nefarious relations between the charismatic priest Father Flynn (Schreiber) and a student, she’s forced to wrestle with what’s fact, what’s fiction, and how much she’ll risk to expose the difference—all...

It took about an hour of speeches saluting Viola Davis during the Film at Lincoln Center’s 48th annual Chaplin Gala before someone addressed the elephant in the room.

“When I see a movie like ‘The Woman King,’ it has Viola’s fingerprints all over it,” said Davis’ “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” co-star Jessica Chastain. “A movie like that with a female director and a cast of powerful Black female leads can get made in Hollywood today because of Viola’s lifelong advocacy for women of color. Maybe one day a movie like that can get nominated for an Oscar.”

The statement was met with enthusiastic applause from an audience comprised of Lincoln Center donors, industry colleagues, and plenty of acting students from Davis’ alma mater, Juilliard. It was an explicit callout to the biggest Oscar snub to cast a shadow over last year’s awards season, and contextualized...

Actor Nicolas Cage has recalled the bizarre trend inspired by 1987 romantic comedy ‘Moonstruck’, which he starred in with ‘Believe’ hitmaker Cher.

Speaking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’, he said: “For the longest time, back from ‘Moonstruck’, I would walk to the airport and people just had a habit of saying, ‘Snap out of it!’ from Moonstruck – the Cher ‘snap out of it’ (line) – and I did get slapped a few times.”

He added: “Oh yeah, I did! And that, you know, it’s part of the job.”

When it comes to why fans felt compelled to act in such a way, Cage joked they might have been aiming for a role.

He said: “I think maybe (they think) I’ll cast them in something. Who knows?”

The actor said he almost turned down the movie but agreed to take the role in a deal with his agent because he actually wanted to...

They’re back. Rlje Films presents the Stephen King reboot Children of the Corn by Kurt Wimmer on 500+ screens. It’s a redo of the classic 1984 slasher-horror film about kids possessed by a demonic spirit in a dying cornfield, with bloody, rampaging results.

King’s iconic short story features a 12-year-old Nebraska girl who recruits the kids in her small town for a killing spree of all the adults, and anyone else who opposes her. A bright high schooler who won’t go along with the plan is the town’s only hope of survival. There are some new twists, in Wimmer’s version, the corn is genetically modified. Starring Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey and Bruce Spence.

The story is great, spawning numerous spinoffs beginning with Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice in 1992 followed by Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest in 1995. Most went direct to video.

All you need to do to understand the animating injustice of Viola Davis's career is scan through her Wikipedia biography, and note the puzzling dynamic of going from Tony-winning leads on Broadway in the late 1990s and early 2000s to, at best, supporting turns in studio movies. How was this Juilliard-trained dynamo who routinely set New York City stages ablaze getting relegated to undernourished roles in films starring actors she could dust straight off the screen?

If you're at all aware of how things work in the United States of America, you know the answer. Davis certainly does, and she shouted it from the mountaintop at a Woman in the World event in 2018:

"I have a career that's probably comparable to Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sigourney Weaver. They all came out of Yale; they came out of Julliard; they came out of NYU. They had the same path as me.

Barry Grove will step down as the Executive Producer of Manhattan Theatre Club, a major Broadway and Off Broadway institution, at the conclusion of the 2022-2023 season.

In his 48 years collaborating with Mtc’s founder and Artistic Director Lynne Meadow, Grove has been a driving force in the production of nearly 450 American and world premieres, earning Mtc 28 Tony Awards, 7 Pulitzer Prizes, 50 Drama Desk Awards and numerous Obie, Outer Critics Circle, and other honors.

Among the productions staged by the subscription-based non-profit company in the decades under Grove and Meadow are seminal works by playwrights Alan Ayckbourn; Richard Greenberg, Harvey Fierstein, Paula Vogel, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Charlayne Woodard and Matthew Lopez, to name a few. Pulitzer Prize and Tony winners include Cost of Living by Martyna Majok (Pulitzer); Crimes of the Heart (Pulitzer) by Beth Henley; Doubt by John Patrick Shanley (Pulitzer and Tony); Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony) by Terrence McNally; Rabbit...

Revered French actor Isabelle Huppert raved about Hugh Jackman’s performance in “The Son,” Florian Zeller’s Oscar hopeful, during a private event for Academy voters hosted by the movie’s French distribution banner Orange Studio at the Royal Monceau in Paris.

Huppert, who previously collaborated with Zeller on his play “The Mother,” which played in New York in 2019, reacted to “The Son” minutes after watching the movie at the screening event.

“(Hugh Jackman) is really extraordinary. The film gives almost more of an insight into his inner journey than into his son’s,” said Huppert, who seemed moved.

“He’s all at the same time completely helpless and… In that extraordinary scene with Anthony Hopkins he embodies so well this link in the chain, both strong and weak, between the past, the present, and the future,” Huppert continued.

The Sony Pictures Classics movie revolves around Peter (Jackman) whose busy...

On the rare occasion a theater director receives an opportunity to direct for the cinema, it’s typically due to the project in question being a play adaptation. It was, then, noteworthy to me when Causeway was announced as the first feature for New York-based director Lila Neugebauer, whose Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Wavery Gallery, with Elaine May starring in a Tony Award-winning performance, had recently concluded in early 2019. Not based on pre-existing material, Causeway was to be […]

The post Stage to Screen: Theater Director Lila Neugebauer on Her Feature Film Debut Causeway first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

On the rare occasion a theater director receives an opportunity to direct for the cinema, it’s typically due to the project in question being a play adaptation. It was, then, noteworthy to me when Causeway was announced as the first feature for New York-based director Lila Neugebauer, whose Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Wavery Gallery, with Elaine May starring in a Tony Award-winning performance, had recently concluded in early 2019. Not based on pre-existing material, Causeway was to be […]

The post Stage to Screen: Theater Director Lila Neugebauer on Her Feature Film Debut Causeway first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Primetime Emmy and SAG winning actress Debra Messing is in advance talks to join Warner Bros mob drama Wise Guys in the role of Bobbie, the faithful wife of Robert De Niro kingpin Frank Costello, Deadline has learned.

Messing recently starred as herself in Billy Eichner’s critically acclaimed LGBTQ romantic comedy Bros which received an A CinemaScore.

Wise Guys is a period piece that follows the story of Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, a pair of Italian Americans running two separate crime families during the mid-20th century. Genovese tried and failed to assassinate Costello in 1957, though the latter wound up taking his leave from the mob after being injured during the attempt on his life. De Niro is reportedly playing both roles.

Messing played Grace Adler for 246 episodes on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning comedy series Will & Grace, which returned to the network in 2017 with the entire original...

There aren’t many filmmakers like Florian Zeller. He’s the rare playwright given a chance to direct the big-screen adaptations of his work. John Patrick Shanley pulled that off with “Doubt,” Aaron Sorkin eventually made the transition from writing “A Few Good Men” to overseeing “Trial of the Chicago 7” and Martin McDonagh has successfully toggled between stage and screen. After that, the list gets thin.

Following the Oscar-winning success of “The Father,” Zeller has found himself in that elite company, and he’s used his newfound clout to bring another play, “The Son,” to the screen. It debuts in Venice before moving to other fall festivals and an eventual U.S. run courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. And the stories that Zeller is choosing to spin first on stage and now on film are interconnected in many ways. They explore illness and trauma — and the resilient bonds that link families together — with emotional brutality.

Thanks to a Tony Award win for “Take Me Out” in the Best Revival of a Play category, Second Stage Theater can finally join the ranks of the other nonprofit theater organizations on Broadway. The re-staging of Richard Greenberg’s baseball drama is their first Tony win in one of the production categories since Second Stage found a permanent home on Broadway.

Second Stage was founded in 1979 and has been a haven for exciting Off-Broadway ventures for years. While some of those productions have transferred to Broadway houses and even won Tonys (including Best Musical champion “Dear Evan Hansen” which was produced “in association with” the nonprofit), a Second Stage produced play has never won a top Tony category until now. Not bad considering they’ve only been on Broadway for four years.

The non-profit purchased The Hayes Theater (named after the legendary Helen Hayes) in 2015. This theater is the...

Exclusive: Ami Canaan Mann (Texas Killing Fields) is gearing up to direct the biopic Audrey’s Children for Amasia Entertainment (Wild Mountain Thyme) and Resonate Entertainment (Sitting in Bars with Cake).

The film will tell the story of Dr. Audrey Evans, the revolutionary pediatric oncologist best known as the co-founder of Ronald McDonald House Charities—the world-famous organization that provides housing and support to millions of families in 62 countries around the world. A rebel with a cause, Evans burst onto the scene at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 1970, discovering groundbreaking treatment methods for pediatric cancer. She then put her own career on the line, in a bid to administer her new methods to dire patients, and to provide housing for out-of-town families seeking care, going to extreme lengths to save her children.

Julia Fisher Farbman (Modern Hero) wrote the screenplay, which was based on years of research and conversations with Evans,...

From Oscar®-, Tony®- and Pulitzer Prize®-winning writer and director John Patrick Shanley, Wild Mountain Thyme captures the romance, lyricism, and transcendent beauty of the Irish countryside in an extraordinary love story between two lonely souls. To celebrate the release of Wild Mountain Thyme, we have teamed up with Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK to give three lucky winners the chance to win a copy of the film on DVD!

An epic love story with soaring lyricism, Wild Mountain Thyme is set against the breath-taking landscapes of rural Ireland, where everyone is half mad with loneliness or love, and the weather is terrible. Anthony and Rosemary are star-crossed lovers, whose families are caught up in a feud over a hotly contested patch of land that separates their two farms. Anthony (Dornan) always seems to be out in the fields working, worn down by his father’s constant belittling. But...

Exclusive: Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek are set to star in the family dramedy Sam & Kate, with Darren Le Gallo writing and making his directing debut. Jake Hoffman and Schuyler Fisk also star. Ben Shields Catlin, Orian Williams, Ford Corbett, Cindy Bru and Le Gallo will produce. Amy Adams and Stacy O’Neil will exec produce for Bond Group Entertainment.

“I am thrilled and humbled to have the incredible cast and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robert Yeoman (The Grand Budapest Hotel) to be a part of bringing this story into a reality,” said Le Gallo.

The film follows a life-affirming family comedy-drama film that takes place in a small town in the heart of the country. Dustin Hoffman will play Bill, the larger-than-life father being taken care of by Sam (Jake Hoffman), who has returned home to take care of his ailing father. While home, Sam falls for a local woman, Kate (Fisk). At the same time,...

This bucolic romance, co-starring bashful Jamie Dornan, is awash with whimsy, wonder – and laughable accents

There’s a sublime awfulness and condescension to this American vision of Ireland, adapted by writer-director John Patrick Shanley from his Broadway stage hit: a mind-boggling stew of bizarre paddywhackery that makes John Ford’s The Quiet Man look like a documentary about crack dealers. Two of its stars, Emily Blunt and Christopher Walken – both playing Irish people – engage in a colossal intergenerational battle for who can do the worst Irish accent. Blunt and Walken’s brogue-off makes this the King Kong v Godzilla event of inauthentic Irish voices.

It’s supposed to be happening in the present day, but it might as well be happening in 1958. Blunt plays Rosemary, a beautiful, sharp-tongued farmer’s daughter in County Westmeath, and isn’t she in love with the soft eejit from the farm next door? The first time we see her,...

Jamie Dornan & Emily Blunt are interviewed for Wild Mountain Thyme, the romantic comedy about a pair of star-crossed lovers in Ireland who get caught up in their family’s land dispute. The film also stars Christopher Walken, Lydia McGuinness, Anna Weekes, Jon Hamm, Abigail Coburn, Barry McGovern, Clare Barrett, Don Wycherley and Dearbhla Molloy. John Patrick Shanley wrote and directed the film based on his play Outside Mullingar. Hayley Donaghy asks the questions.

‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ available to rent on all major UK & Irish digital retailers from Friday April 30th.

Plot:

John Patrick Shanley, who created the classic Moonstruck, brings his sweeping romantic vision to Ireland with Wild Mountain Thyme. The headstrong farmer Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt) has her heart set on winning her neighbor Anthony Reilly’s love. The problem is Anthony (Jamie Dornan) seems to have inherited a family curse, and remains oblivious to his beautiful admirer. Stung...

Dramatists Play Service, the theatrical licensing and publishing agency formed in 1936 that represents scores the stage’s most prominent playwrights, has been acquired by Broadway Licensing in what the companies are calling a landmark agreement.

Broadway Licensing, a full-service theatrical licensing partner specializing in the development, production and worldwide distribution of new and established theatrical properties, will now house Dps under its slate of brands. Among the dramatists now represented under this newly formed umbrella are Ayad Akhtar, Edward Albee, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Christopher Durang, Horton Foote, Richard Greenberg, Katori Hall, Beth Henley, George S. Kaufman, Tracy Letts, Martyna Majok, Donald Margulies, Terrence McNally, Arthur Miller, Lynn Nottage, Eugene O’Neill, Susan-Lori Parks, John Patrick Shanley, Alfred Uhry, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, Tennessee Williams, Lanford Wilson, and Doug Wright.

The deal was announced today by Sean Cercone, CEO/President, Broadway Licensing, and David J. Moore, Acting President, Dramatists Play Service.

John Patrick Shanley, the Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, is best known for writing the scripts for the Cher/Nicolas Cage romance Moonstruck and for writing and directing two very different movies: 1990’s Joe Versus the Volcano and 2008’s Doubt. But Shanley re-entered the zeitgeist last year with his absolutely bonkers romantic drama Wild Mountain Thyme, […]

The post ‘The Twinkle Brothers’: ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ Director Tackling Whimsical Movie About Two Rival Restaurant Owners appeared first on /Film.

“Moonstruck” and “Wild Mountain Thyme” writer John Patrick Shanley is no stranger to complicated family dynamics.

The Oscar and Pulitzer-winning author will explore sibling rivalry with “The Twinkle Brothers.” The upcoming comedy, which Shanley will write and direct for Rivulet Media, recounts a story told by avuncular café owner Mordecai, who, when tasked with the responsibility of looking after his precocious six-year-old granddaughter Rita for an afternoon, spins her a yarn about Freddie and Miguel, two insanely competitive brothers from Puerto Rico. They move to New York and end up with rival restaurants directly across the street from one another. The brothers stop at nothing to be the best on the block, ratcheting up the competition to the delight of their neighbors who are treated to bizarrely spectacular light shows, dueling Santas, and seemingly endless plates of delicious and comforting food. Casting is underway with filming to begin in New York this fall.

With continued paucity of product from the US and other international territories, Australian films remain the main event at the box office.

Showing incredible legs, Robert Connolly’s The Dry is still the no. 1 title, earning just under $1.2 million across its sixth weekend, a drop of just 18 per cent.

The mystery drama, based on the novel by Jane Harper, has now made $16.2 million in total for Roadshow Films. That figure makes The Dry the 17th highest grossing Australian film of all time (without adjusting for inflation), and the fourth highest performing local film of the last decade behind Lion, The Dressmaker and Red Dog.

Fellow Roadshow drama Penguin Bloom, directed by Glendyn Ivin and produced by the same production company as The Dry, Made Up Stories, remains in the number two spot. In its third frame, the Naomi Watts-starrer earned $729,269, a fall of 43 per cent, to bring takings to $5.2 million.