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Peter Morgan’s new play Patriots, now on Broadway, opens with an awareness of its audience. “In the West you have no idea,” Boris Berezovksy (an excellent Michael Stuhlbarg) says through a voiceover. “You think of Russia as a cold, bleak place, full of hardship and cruelty.” The stage is bare, and the oligarch, who played an instrumental role in Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, speaks to us from a liminal space. He goes on to describe the beauty of his country, Russian music, the sounds of children laughing in the streets and the taste of ice cream on a cold day.

When the stage comes into view (set design by Miriam Buether, lighting design by Jack Knowles), it’s 1955. Berezovsky is a schoolboy gifted in mathematics. A teacher urges his parents — congenial and full of quips — to push their son. “Anyone can be a doctor, Mrs. Berezovsky,” says...

Netflix is about to make its Broadway producing debut, joining the team of Peter Morgan’s upcoming play Patriots.

The play from the creator of the Netflix signature series The Crown arrives on Broadway April 1 for a 12-week engagement following a record-breaking run at London’s Almeida Theatre and a sold-out 12-week West End transfer at the Noël Coward Theatre. Opening night at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre is April 22.

The play is set in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union and chronicles the rise of oligarchs like billionaire Boris Berezovsky (Michael Stuhlbarg) and a little-known deputy mayor of St. Petersburg named Vladimir Putin (Will Keen). When an eventual successor to President Boris Yeltsin is needed, Berezovsky turns to Putin, whose ruthless rise threatens Berezovsky’s reign and sets off a confrontation between the two powerful, fatally flawed men.

Netflix’s participation was announced in a press release today...

A new musical written by Anna Deavere Smith and featuring music from the Ella Fitzgerald songbook is currently in development. Ella: An American Miracle will receive an Aug. 25-Sept. 21 work session, with Tony-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater and Charity Angél Dawson portraying the iconic singer at different points in her life.

The work session will conclude with a private industry presentation. A production timeline was not disclosed.

“Composers wanted Ella Fitzgerald to sing their songs because listening to her, they knew how their songs were supposed to be sung,” said Smith in a statement. “A jazz singer, a scat singer, she also famously both sang and defined the American song book. To say she had humble beginnings is a profound understatement. She sang America through some of its most discordant times. She was America’s love song. She was an American miracle.”

Bridgewater, a Tony winner for 1975’s The Wiz, will...

Hey, "Elementary" fans. We hope you guys enjoyed tonight's episode 4. Now that it's officially in the history books, it's time to take a look at what's about to take place in the next,new episode 5. Thanks to the wonderful folks over at CBS, we're able to do that. They served up a press release for episode 5. So, that's what we'll be using for this spoiler session. To get things started, CBS' press release revealed that episode 5 is entitled,"Into The Woods." Episode 5 sounds like it will feature some very interesting plotlines as Holmes and Watson get hired by a billionaire! Holmes and Watson also work double duty by trying to solve some murders and more. We'll go ahead and start off this spoiler session with the billionaire situation. It turns out that a tech billionaire named Odin Reichenbach will indeed be on the scene in this episode, and he will...