News

Having started as a child star, Scarlett Johansson has given several acclaimed performances in a range of genres, from drama and rom-coms to action-packed ventures like The Avengers and Lucy. However, one pivotal rejection nearly derailed her versatile career.

Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl | Credit: Universal Pictures

The MCU star was left questioning her path in the competitive world of acting after her most popular role as Black Widow was initially offered to Emily Blunt along with facing the rejection for the Oscar-winning film, Gravity.

The Rejections that Left Scarlett Johansson Questioning Her Potential

Scarlett Johansson has been one of the most acclaimed and highly celebrated actresses. Initially receiving widespread recognition for her performance in Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, the actress soon found herself trapped in a cycle of typecasting of “hyper-s*xualized” roles.

Lost in Translation | Credit: Focus Features

Johansson opened up about her struggles...

Christopher Ashley, the longtime artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse, will take over as artistic director of Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway.

He will begin his tenure in July 2026 for the 2027-2028 season. Scott Ellis, current interim artistic director, will continue in the role for the 2025-2026 season, and Ellis will work with Ashley on the 2026-2027 season, as Ashley fulfills prior commitments at La Jolla.

Ellis was named interim artistic director of the nonprofit theater company after Todd Haimes died in April 2023, after holding the position for close to 40 years and growing the theater company into one of the largest not-for-profit theaters in the U.S., with three Broadway theaters and two Off-Broadway.

Roundabout’s American Airlines Theater, its main Broadway house, was renamed after Haimes in 2024.

Ashley comes to the role after leading La Jolla Playhouse, another nonprofit giant based in San Diego, since 2007. While there, Ashley directed Come From Away,...

Exclusive: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is set to recur in the Peacock series Law & Order: Organized Crime for Season 5 as Isabella Spezzano, a figure from Stabler’s (Meloni) past.

Law & Order: Organized Crime follows the detectives of the Organized Crime Control Bureau as they take on New York City’s most vicious and violent criminal syndicates. In addition to Meloni, Danielle Moné Truitt and Ainsley Seiger also star.

The show was renewed for a fifth season in April following the announcement the procedural would move from NBC to its streamer Peacock. The move gives Peacock an original Dick Wolf drama series to go with the Wolf Entertainment library and next-day runs of the company’s remaining NBC series Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Law & Order and Law & Order: Svu, which are among the platform’s most viewed titles.

Adam Epstein, who won a Tony Award for producing Hairspray before he was 30 and received other nominations for his work on revivals of Amadeus and The Crucible and adaptations of The Wedding Singer and Cry-Baby, has died. He was 49.

Epstein died Tuesday at Adventist Health hospital in Glendale after a brief battle with brain cancer, his family announced. He was in the midst of hosting his podcast, Dirty Moderate With Adam Epstein, when he fell ill.

When he was just 28, Epstein joined Margo Lion as a co-producer on the original Broadway production of Hairspray, which bowed in 2002 en route to collecting eight Tonys, including best musical, from 13 nominations. Originally starring Harvey Fierstein, it ran for more than 2,600 performances through 2009.

Epstein had started out on Broadway as an intern and casting assistant before serving as a production associate in 1997 on The Life, nominated for best musical. The next year, he produced...

Exclusive: Following a Tony season in which it collected 28 nominations and a number of notable wins, UTA has upped Patrick Herold and Rachel Viola to co-heads of its theater practice.

Based in the agency’s New York office, the pair will oversee day-to-day operations of the department and report to Jay Gassner, partner and co-head of talent; and Allan Haldeman, partner and co-head of TV lit.

Herold joined UTA in 2022 after nearly 20 years at ICM, where he was a partner and head of theater. His previous roles in the industry have included owning literary agency Helen Merrill Ltd. and holding the posts of associate general manager of Lincoln Center Theater, director of development at New York Theatre Workshop and trustee of Dramatists Play Service.

Herold’s clients include the estates of Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Sam Shepard, Horton Foote, Moss Hart, Tina Howe, Christopher Durang, and Wendy Wasserstein. He...

After a distinguished film career that began at age 10, Scarlett Johansson finally became an Academy Award nominee, earning a Best Actress nomination for her performance in “Marriage Story,” as well as being nominated as Best Supporting Actress for “Jojo Rabbit.” (Johansson is only the 12th actor in Oscar history to manage that feat.) But don’t feel too sorry for her: since 2018, she has reigned as the world’s highest-paid actress, and, with her films having grossed $14.3 billion worldwide, she is the third highest-grossing box-office star of all time.

Her tally of awards and nominations also make an argument for her being one of the best actresses of her generation. Johansson has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, three SAG Awards and has won a BAFTA Award from four nominations. (And she is nominated for all three of those awards this year.) But her acting prowess is not just limited to films.

Veteran character actor Gabriel Olds was arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday and has been charged with seven felony sexual assault charges, according to the LAPD. The 52-year-old actor who played Pat Robertson in the Jessica Chastain starrer “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” was taken into custody by West Bureau investigators around 9:40 a.m. near the area of Norway Lane and Norman Place in Brentwood. Olds is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Los Angeles Police Department’s Operations-West Bureau’s Special Assault Section detectives say they are now seeking additional victims and witnesses in a series of sexual assaults in the Los Angeles area that they believe may be tied to Olds, a Yale University alum and son of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Sharon Olds.

On January 19, 2023, a 41-year-old woman told police that Olds raped her at her home in Los Angeles. Two additional adult victims subsequently came forward and...

Exclusive: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actress Mallory Jansen and Emmy and Tony Award winner Anthony Lapaglia are boarding Alex Proyas’ upcoming sci-fi satire R.U.R. opposite Lindsay Farris (Ash vs Evil Dead).

Cameras roll on Oct. 21 in Sydney, Australia.

Proyas penned the screenplay which is an adaptation of Karel Capek famous science fiction play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), published in 1920. R.U.R. follows Helena, played by Jansen, who visits the island factory of Rossum’s Universal Robots to emancipate the robots from capitalist exploitation, with catastrophic results.

Proyas is the filmmaker behind the $353M-grossing Will Smith 2004 summer hit I, Robot.

The film is being produced by Proyas, Morris Ruskin, former CAA agent Adam Krentzman, Steven Matusko and Brett Thornquest. EPs are Matthew Rhodes of The Hideaway Entertainment, Rohit Khanna,...

Maleah Joi Moon has become the 101st performer to win a Tony Award for their first outing on a Broadway stage for her performance in the musical “Hell’s Kitchen.”

She won Best Actress in a Musical at the 77th Tony Awards for portraying Ali, a 17-year-old girl searching for her place in the world while living in the titular New York City neighborhood and also being restrained by her overbearing mother. She is the 10th person to win the category for her Broadway debut. She joins:

Elizabeth Seal, “Irma La Douce” (1961)

Anna Maria Alberghetti, “Carnival” (1962)

Liza Minnelli, “Flora the Red Menace” (1965)

Leslie Uggams, “Hallelujah, Baby” (1968)

Alexis Smith, “Follies” (1972)

Natalia Makarova, “On Your Toes” (1983)

Lea Salonga, “Miss Saigon” (1991)

Catherine Zeta-Jones, “A Little Night Music” (2010)

Cynthia Erivo, “The Color Purple” (2016)

Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Other performers who pulled off this accomplishment in recent years include...

Tony Lo Bianco, the Brooklyn actor who oozed criminal charm in the gritty 1970s New York City dramas The French Connection and The Seven-Ups, has died. He was 87.

Lo Bianco died Tuesday night of prostate cancer at his horse farm in Poolesville, Maryland, his wife, Alyse, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Lo Bianco was also memorable as a smooth-talking con man with a lonely nurse (Shirley Stoler) for a girlfriend/accomplice in Leonard Kastle’s documentary-style The Honeymoon Killers (1970), which Francois Truffaut once said was his favorite American film.

In another cult classic, the horror thriller God Told Me To (1976), directed by Larry Cohen, Lo Bianco starred as a New York cop who investigates a series of bizarre murders orchestrated by the leader of a religious group (Richard Lynch).

He received a best actor Tony nomination in 1983 for playing Eddie Carbone in a revival of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge,...

Exclusive: CAA has signed Tony and Olivier-Award winning director Ivo van Hove in all areas.

Belgian-born van Hove has built a reputation for experimental revisions of Hollywood and Broadway classics including Broadway revival productions of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, for which he received a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, and The Crucible as well as Lee Hall’s Network (starring Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany), All About Eve (with Gillian Anderson in the Bette Davis role) and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story.

Last year, van Hove teamed with John Wells to develop Doll at Warner Bros. Television. The project is described as a psychological thriller series set in the ruthless world of a modern music conservatory. The former’s artistic collaborator, Jan Versweyveld, was set to serve as production and lighting designer on the project, which marks the duo’s first foray into scripted television.

Mark Ruffalo is returning to the stage in a one-night performance of the new play Ironweed: An Evening of Art & Humanity.

Ruffalo will star opposite Jessica Hecht in a performance set for May 17 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The play is based on William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which was first published in 1983, and conceived of by Jodie Markell, who directs, and Brad Gilbert, who is the producer.

In addition to the onstage cast, the performance will include excerpts from the audio recording of the play, which is set to be released in fall 2024 and features Norbert Leo Butz, Kristine Nielsen, John Magaro, Michael Potts, David Rysdahl, Frank Wood and Katie Erbe, as well as songs by Tom Waits and an original score by Tamar-kali.

The play is set on All Hallow’s Eve in Albany in 1938. Francis Phelan, played by Ruffalo, returns to his hometown after being...

Exclusive: Award-winning stage actor Jos Vantyler and Niahm McCormack (Everything Now) are starring in an international action drama series the explores the dark side of detective work and artificial intelligence.

The pair will star in Cold Mind, an indie production from Algarve-based Spy Manor Productions that begins principal photography in Portugal next Monday (April 15). They’ll appear alongside Portuguese actors Joana Seixas and Paulo Calatre.

The show follows a young detective from London (McCormack) who is thrown into a Portuguese murder investigation, as a spree of horrific killings take place in the sunbaked Algarve. At the same time, other timelines on another continent as the plots dips in the action, detective, tech and mystery genres.

McCormack is best known for her role in Netflix’s British comedy-drama Everything Now and The Witcher. She is represented by The Lisa Richards Agency.

Scarlett Johansson is assembling the cast of her directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great.”

June Squibb, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Nebraska” will be joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Broadway veteran Jessica Hecht and Erin Kellyman.

The movie, formerly titled “Eleanor, Invisible,” follows Eleanor Morgenstein (Squibb), a 90-year-old woman trying to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades. Tory Kamen wrote the screenplay.

TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics, partnering for the first time, will release “Eleanor the Great” in theaters on a yet-to-be-determined date.

Johansson is producing the film with Jonathan Lia, and Keenan Flynn for These Pictures, Kara Durrett and Jessamine Burgum for Pinky Promise, and Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler of Maven Screen Media.

Wayfarer Studios co-financed “Eleanor the Great” with Content Engineers, Pinky Promise and MacPac. Steve Sarowitz, Justin Baldoni,...

Raine Allen Miller’s debut feature Rye Lane, Adjani Salmon’s Dreaming Whilst Black, and Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical were among the top winners at the sixth edition of the CDG Casting Awards. Scross down for the full list of winners.

Kharmel Cochrane picked up the Best Casting in an Independent Film award for her work on Rye Lane. Dreaming Whilst Black landed the Best Casting in a TV Comedy Series award for Heather Basten, Peter Noden, and Fran Cattaneo, and Louise Kiely won Best Casting in a Film for The Banshees of Inisherin.

High-profile titles that missed out on honors include Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which was nominated for Best Casting in a Film alongside Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Kharmel Cochrane cast Saltburn and also popped in the noms for Best Casting in a Commercial for her work on Vanish ‘Me, My Autism & I.

The awards were...

The Boiling Point TV series, The Banshees of Inisherin, Rye Lane and Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical are among the U.K. Casting Directors’ Guild Awards winners for 2024.

The sixth CDG Casting Awards, handed out Wednesday evening in London, also honored the likes of the theater play Dear England, a TV adaptation of which Sky has just unveiled.

Competing for the awards were productions that premiered between Sept. 1, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2023 and they were selected as nominees by members of the guild. The Casting Directors’ Guild represents casting directors in the film, television, theater and commercials industries in the U.K. and Ireland.

Its awards celebrate “the incredible work achieved by casting teams across film, television, theater and commercials,” in partnership with global casting platform Spotlight.

“Casting directors are often the unsung storytellers of the industry. Their vision and skills that help orchestrate an ensemble of characters bring a script to life in every medium,...

Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Cord Jefferson will write and executive produce the upcoming Scarlett Johansson limited series, which serves as her first major television role.

The “American Fiction” filmmaker has boarded the Amazon Prime Video adaptation of John Katzenbach’s novel “Just Cause.” Additionally, acclaimed writer John Wells has joined the project, co-writing the series with Jefferson, and will also serve as an executive producer.

“Just Cause,” first published in 1992, tells the story of Matt Cowart, a Miami reporter. In this adaptation, Johansson will portray a female iteration of Cowart, named Madison “Madi” Cowart. The narrative follows Cowart after receiving a letter from a death row inmate claiming innocence. The ensuing investigation not only casts doubt on the inmate’s guilt but also uncovers other hidden horrors.

This project marks the second adaptation of “Just Cause,” the first being a 1995 film featuring Sean Connery, Blair Underwood, Laurence Fishburne, Ed Harris,...

Dominic West is feeling some relief now that “The Crown” is over. The actor played Prince Charles during the Netflix series’ final two seasons, which just so happened to be its most divisive among television critics. Variety called Season 5 the show’s “weakest,” while Netflix’s decision to split the sixth and final season into two parts led to a batch of strong episodes (those primarily focused on Princess Diana’s final days) and not-so-strong episodes (Variety said the show ended in “anticlimax”). While still an awards heavyweight, “The Crown” fell off its critical throne by the end of its run and it appears West took notice.

“I don’t want to make their lives any more difficult than they already are, so I suppose it does concern you,” West said on BBC’s “Today” when asked about the royal reaction to his performance. “All reactions worry me. I read...

Dominic West was stressed over Royals’ and others’ reactions to the final season of “The Crown.”

West portrayed Prince Charles during his marriage to late Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki. The sixth and final season of the acclaimed Netflix series included Diana’s death and saw Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) scrambling to keep the monarchy relevant in the 21st century.

West explained during the BBC Radio 4 show “Today” (via Deadline) that he did have some “concern” over how the surviving Royal family would view the show, especially after “The Crown” cast had to defend the series against criticisms that certain portrayals were insensitive.

“I don’t want to make their lives any more difficult than they already are, so I suppose it does concern you. All reactions worry me,” West said. “I read all the reviews and spent two days in bed. So yes, I’m a sensitive soul,...

Barbie, Saltburn and The Banshees of Inisherin are among the nominees at the UK’s sixth CDG Casting Awards.

Lucy Bevan, Olivia Grant (associate), Lucy Downes (assistant) are nominated in Best Casting in a Film for Barbie, with Kharmel Cochrane (Saltburn), Louise Kiley (Banshees of Inisherin), Kahleen Crawford, Carla Morris & Eliza Heslop (All of Us Strangers) and Jessie Frost (Triangle of Sadness) providing the competition.

In the Best Casting in a TV Drama Series category, Nina Gold is nominated three times, for Andor and Slow Horses Seasons 2 and 3, competing against Shaheen Baig, Jonny Boutwood and Carolyn McLeod for Boiling Point and Robert Sterne and Kate Bone for The Crown.

In the TV Comedy category, Heather Basten, casting execs for Dreaming Whilst Black, Extraordinary, Motherland, Sex Education Season 4 and Ted Lasso Season 3 are up for awards. In the Limited or Single Series race are casting execs from A Small Light, Black Mirror Season 6, Somewhere Boy,...

Barbie, Saltburn, Sex Education and Ted Lasso are among the U.K. Casting Directors’ Guild Awards nominees for the 2024 edition of its honors.

The list of nominees for the CDG Casting Awards, now in its sixth year, also includes the likes of The Crown, Andor, Slow Horses and All of Us Strangers.

Nominated productions premiered between Sept. 1, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2023 and have been selected by members of the guild. The Casting Directors’ Guild represents casting directors in the film, television, theater and commercials industries in the U.K. and Ireland.

“We are delighted to be celebrating the sixth edition of our CDG Awards, recognizing the outstanding contributions of our members,” said CDG co-chairs Jessica Ronane and Rebecca Wright.

Celebrating “the incredible work achieved by casting teams across film, television, theater and commercials, the awards will be held on Feb. 21 in London in partnership with global casting platform Spotlight.

Check out the full list of nominees below.

Dominic West has revealed that The Crown weighed heavy on his head.

The actor, who portrayed Prince Charles in the Netflix series, said he is relieved that the drama has come to a conclusion and he no longer has to be immersed in the world of the royal family.

West was initially reluctant to take on the role, but told BBC Radio 4’s Today show on Tuesday that “you don’t turn down a Peter Morgan script very easily.”

Season 6 of The Crown garnered some bruising reviews in the UK, with British critics being left aghast at scenes involving West and Princess Diana’s so-called “ghost.”

Asked if he worried about how the royals would respond to the series, he said: “I don’t want to make their lives any more difficult than they already are, so I suppose it does concern you.

“All reactions worry me. I read...

Allison Janney is joining “The Diplomat” Season 2 at Netflix, Variety has learned exclusively.

Janney will appear in a guest starring role of the political thriller series, playing Vice President Grace Penn. She joins series lead Keri Russell, who stars as the titular diplomat Kate Wyler. The cast of the series also includes Rufus Sewell, David Gyasi, Ali Ahn, Rory Kinnear, and Ato Essandoh.

Janney is one of the most celebrated actresses of her time. She is no stranger to starring in political dramas, as she previously played White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg in the hit series “The West Wing.” Her work on that show earned her four of the seven Emmy Awards she has won to date. She won two more for her work on the CBS sitcom “Mom” and another for guest starring in the Showtime series “Masters of Sex.”

Janney is also an Academy Award winner,...

Scarlett Johansson has been interested in doing stage work as well as movies over the course of her acting career. But her first foray into theater work was particularly difficult since she was convinced audiences were actively rooting for her downfall.

Scarlett Johansson felt audiences were against her when she did ‘A View From the Bridge’ Scarlett Johansson | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Johansson ventured into the world of Broadway when she did the Arthur Miller play A View From the Bridge. She co-starred alongside Liev Schrieber in the project, and was drawn to the project because of how different the experience was from acting.

“I love film and acting for the camera,” Johansson once told The New York Times. “But the idea of working on something that you owned every night was so appealing. In some sense in film your performance doesn’t really belong to you. It belongs to the...

Hayley Elizabeth Atwell, born on April 5, 1982, is an actress from both Britain and America. She was born and raised in London and studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Atwell made her stage debut in 2005, starring in James Kerr’s adaptation of the Ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound. Since then, she has appeared in various West End productions and television shows. Her breakthrough role came as Lady Elizabeth Foster in the film The Duchess (2008), which earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the British Independent Film Awards.

Atwell gained international recognition for her portrayal of Agent Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). She reprised the role in the short film Agent Carter (2013) and the subsequent television series of the same name, along with other films, live-action series, and animated series within the Marvel Universe. In addition to her Marvel roles,...

Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore in the final six Harry Potter movies, has died.

He was 82.

Gambon's family revealed in a statement that he passed away while battling pneumonia.

The statement on behalf of his wife, Lady Gambon, and son, Fergus Gambon, issued by publicist Clair Dobbs, said:

"We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon."

"Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia. Michael was 82."

"We ask that you respect our privacy at this painful time and thank you for your messages of support and love."

Michael was born in Dublin, Ireland, on October 19, 1940.

His mother was a seamstress, and his father was an engineer.

He left school at 15 and began training to be a toolmaker.

At age 21, he was a qualified engineer, but he aspired to act and gave up the profession shortly after.

Michael Gambon, the decorated Irish actor who portrayed Albus Dumbledore in several Harry Potter movies and also appeared in films like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The King’s Speech, has died at the age of 82.

Gambon passed away “peacefully in hospital” following a bout of pneumonia, his family said in a statement released on Thursday.

Gambon took on the role of Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, following Richard Harris’ death in 2002. Gambon played the character in six Harry Potter films, beginning with 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Over his decade-long career, Gambon won four BAFTAs, three Oliver Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama. He is widely recognized as one of Ireland’s all-time great actors.

His film credits also included Fantastic Mr. Fox, Toys, Sleep Hollow, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and Paddington 2.

Michael Gambon, the veteran Irish-English actor of stage and screen known internationally for his role as Professor Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films, died Thursday in hospital after a bout of pneumonia. He was 82.

A statement issued by the actor’s publicist Clair Dobbs said, “We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon.”

“Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia. Michael was 82. We ask that you respect our privacy at this painful time and thank you for your messages of support and love.”

In recent years, Gambon was best known internationally for the role of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, which he played from 2004-11 after replacing the late Richard Harris.

Michael Gambon and Daniel Radcliffe in 2005’s ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...

Michael Gambon, a protégé of Laurence Olivier and giant of the British stage who portrayed Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, apparently with little effort, in the final six Harry Potter movies, has died. He was 82.

“The Great Gambon,” as Ralph Richardson once called him, died “peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia,” according to a family statement provided Thursday by a publicist.

Among the first group of actors recruited by Olivier for the National Theatre Company in the early 1960s, Gambon, a Dublin native, was nominated 13 times for an Olivier Award, winning in 1986 and ’90 for Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval and Man of the Moment, respectively, and in 1988 for Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.

He received another one for his turn as a recently widowed businessman trying to reunite with his former mistress in Skylight,...

Rose Gregorio, who received a Tony nomination for her performance as the browbeaten daughter of Geraldine Fitzgerald’s declining old woman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Shadow Box, has died. She was 97.

Gregorio died Aug. 17 of natural causes in her Greenwich Village home, her nephew Robert Grosbard told The Hollywood Reporter.

Gregorio was married to Belgium-born stage and film director Ulu Grosbard from 1965 until his death in 2012, and she appeared for him as the ex-wife of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971); as a local madam in True Confessions (1981); and as the mother of Treat Williams’ character in The Deep End of the Ocean (1999).

On television, she had a recurring role on NBC’s ER as Nurse Carol Hathaway’s (Julianna Margulies) mom from 1996-99.

Gregorio also landed a Drama Desk nom and a Clarence Derwent...

The upcoming Broadway production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play Appropriate starring Sarah Paulson will also feature Corey Stoll, Natalie Gold (Succession) and Alyssa Emily Marvin (Broadway’s Grey House), producers announced today.

The play, as part of Second Stage Theater’s 45th anniversary season, begins previews Wednesday, November 29 and officially opens on Monday, December 18, at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater.

The darkly comic Appropriate will mark the Broadway debut for playwright Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon), a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. Lila Neugebauer directs.

Stoll’s New York theater credits include Macbeth, Othello, Julius Caesar, A View from the Bridge and Intimate Apparel. Gold most recently portrayed Rava Roy in HBO’s Succession, and Marvin recently made her Broadway debut originating the role of A1656 in Levi Holloway’s Grey House.

Complete casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

The official synopsis for Appropriate: “It’s summer, the cicadas are singing,...

Jodie Comer has become the 100th performer to win a Tony Award for their Broadway debut for her performance in the play, “Prima Facie.”

She won Best Actress in a Play for portraying Tess, a lawyer who concentrates in providing legal defense for men who are accused of sexual assault but soon has the unthinkable happen to her. She is the 11th person to win the category for her first outing on a Broadway stage. She joins:

SEE2023 Tony Awards: Every winner (and nominee) in all 26 competitive categories

Martita Hunt, “The Madwoman of Chaillot” (1949)

Beryl Reid, “The Killing of Sister George” (1967)

Phyllis Frelich, “Children of a Lesser God” (1980)

Jane Lapotaire, “Piaf” (1981)

Joan Allen, “Burn This” (1988)

Pauline Collins, “Shirley Valentine” (1989)

Janet McTeer, “A Doll’s House” (1997)

Marie Mullen, “The Beauty Queen of Leeane” (1998)

Jennifer Ehle, “The Real Thing” (2000)

Deanna Dunagan, “August: Osage County” (2008)

Below are the Broadway debuts in the seven other...

To Washington Heights we go. The Tony Awards head to a new venue this year, the United Palace, but the excitement of honoring the year’s best in theater is the same as ever. If, like me, you can’t wait for Sunday night’s event to begin, that’s where math can come in.

Similar to the Oscars, I’ve built a mathematical model to predict the Tonys in all 26 categories, based on a combination of which categories a show is nominated in, the aggregated predictions of various Broadway critics, and the results of the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama League Awards. The model is trained on historical Tony Awards data over the past quarter-century — inputs that have done a better job of predicting each category in the past get more weight in this year’s predictions. In some years, the favorites will dominate, like the final...

Mark Ruffalo is an actor that has made a name for himself in Hollywood with his diverse roles on both stage and screen.

He has starred in blockbuster films such as The Avengers and Zodiac, and in critically-acclaimed indies like The Kids Are All Right and Foxcatcher. He has won multiple awards, including a Tony Award for his performance in the play A View from the Bridge.

In this article, we’ll take a look at Mark Ruffalo’s journey from stage to screen success. We’ll discuss his training, his early roles on stage and television, and how he became one of today’s most sought-after actors. We’ll also explore how he has used his success to further environmental causes that are close to his heart.

Mark Ruffalo’s Humble Beginnings Mark Ruffalo. Depostiphotos

You may know Mark Ruffalo as the actor whose portrayal of the Incredible Hulk...

The contest for Best Play Revival at this year’s Tony Awards is shaping up to be a true nail-biter, even in the nominations round of voting. Five of the eligible productions — “A Doll’s House,” “Death of a Salesman,” “Ohio State Murders,” “The Piano Lesson,” and “Topdog/Underdog” — all opened to excellent reviews, while a sixth contender, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” just announced its opening on the last day of eligibility.

Of these six productions, four will earn nominations. Four of the six have also already closed, which would seem to give an advantage to “A Doll’s House” and “Sidney Brustein’s Window,” both of which will run through the Tony voting period. Do those two productions thus have an advantage in this top race? How often does a shuttered production actually win Best Revival?

The raw numbers alone clearly demonstrate that shows that are running through...

Exclusive: CAA on Tuesday announced its signing of Allison Janney — the Academy Award-winning actress who has also been recognized over the course of her career with six Emmys, a Golden Globe, 7 SAG Awards, 2 Critics’ Choice Awards, a BAFTA, an Independent Spirit Award and other accolades.

Related Story ‘John Wick’ Franchise Creator Derek Kolstad Signs With UTA Related Story Ricky Martin Ends Volatile $3M Commissions Suit; Ex-Manager Threatened "Potentially Career-Ending Allegation" Related Story CAA Signs Diane Ademu-John And Declan De Barra, Founders Of Wait For Dark Prods.

Janney most recently exec produced and starred opposite Jurnee Smollett and Logan Marshall-Green in the action-thriller Lou, produced for Netflix by J.J. Abrams. She also appears in the Michael Morris drama To Leslie, which recently brought Andrea Riseborough her first Academy Award nomination, and from 2013-2021 starred in eight seasons of the acclaimed CBS sitcom Mom, created by Gemma Baker, Eddie Gorodetsky and Chuck Lorre.

We’re now about halfway through the 2022-23 Broadway season, and there are currently nine productions of plays set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tony Awards? Below is a plot overview of each play as well as the awards history of its author, cast, and creative teams, plus the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.

“Pictures From Home” (opens February 9; closes April 30)

This stage adaptation of Larry Sultan’s 1992 photo memoir is a comic and dramatic portrait of a mother and father, and the son who photographed their lives. As Larry tries to capture his parents, their reality explodes from the frame in an exploration of the power of art and how much it reveals.

Adapted for the stage by WGA nominee Sharr White, the production stars Tony winner Danny Burstein, three-time Tony winner Nathan Lane, and four-time Tony nominee Zoë Wanamaker.

Bob LuPone, a Tony-nominated actor and the founder of the off-Broadway McC Theatre, has died. He was 76. The brother of Patti LuPone had been on a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

“The McC Theater community mourns the loss of our much loved and uniquely inspiring partner, colleague, and dear friend, Bob LuPone, who lived fearlessly and with great curiosity, good humor, a boundless passion for connection, and a whole lot of heart. We will miss him deeply and always,” read a statement from McC.

LuPone was born on July 29th, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York to Angela Louise (known as Pat), a housewife, and Orlando Joseph LuPone, a school principal.

His passion for the arts began at an early age. In the sixth grade at his North Port, Long Island elementary school, he saw his younger sister Patti dance at a PTA Dance Concert in a colorful hula skirt. After he...

The 2021-2022 Broadway season has been quite a busy one for actor Brandon J. Dirden. First he appeared opposite Phylicia Rashad in Manhattan Theatre Club’s presentation of Dominique Morisseau‘s play “Skeleton Crew” this past winter. Now he can be seen in Second Stage Theater’s revival of Richard Greenberg‘s 2003 Tony-winning play “Take Me Out.” After having previously appeared in award-winning Broadway productions of “Clybourne Park” (2012), “All the Way” (2014), and “Jitney” (2017), will either of Dirden’s two main stem appearances from this past year make him a first-time Tony nominee?

In “Skeleton Crew,” Dirden played Reggie, the manager of one of the last auto stamping plants in Detroit. The company is on shaky ground and the workers have to make choices about how to move forward if their plant goes under. All the while Reggie is torn between doing right by his work family and the red tape in his office.

Joan Copeland, the younger sister of legendary playwright Arthur Miller whose decades-long Broadway career included performances in two of her brother’s plays, died Tuesday at age 99.

The actress, whose TV credits included multiple daytime soap operas and NBC’s “Law & Order,” passed away in her sleep in her Manhattan home, her son, Eric Kupchik, told The Hollywood Reporter. Kupchik did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Copeland starred in Miller’s 1968 play “The Price” and later won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Rose Baum in Miller’s 1980 Depression-era play “The American Clock.” The music-loving character was inspired by their mother, Augusta.

“Arthur didn’t write the part for me, but it’s one of the few roles I didn’t have to audition for my brother,” she said in a 2012 interview. “I’ve had to audition for several of his plays,...

Liz McCann, a groundbreaking Broadway producer who, as one of the first and most successful women to achieve a prominent leadership role in the theater industry – a term she hated, preferring “theater community” — died Thursday of cancer at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. She was 90.

Her death was announced by her longtime associate and friend Kristen Luciani.

Elizabeth Ireland McCann — known throughout the Broadway community simply as Liz — started her career in theater as a production assistant and manager with Proscenium Productions at the Cherry Lane Theatre in the 1950s. In 1955, the company would be the first Off Broadway theater to win a Special Tony Award for its seminal productions of The Way of the World and Thieves’ Carnival.

Following a series of short-term theater jobs, McCann, who had acted in plays during her student years at Manhattanville College, completed a law degree at Fordham University. She later earned a...

Update: With Rudin announcing he is stepping back from all film work, sources tell Deadline that includes five upcoming A24 projects: Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” (Coen is now sole producer), Stephen Karam’s “The Humans” (Eli Bush now sole producer), Lila Neugebauer’s “Red, White and Water”, Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert’s “Everywhere All at Once”, and Alex Garland’s “Men” (A24 producer)

Earlier: Scott Rudin is now extending his career step back to all of his film and streaming projects after announcing over the weekend that he would be taking time away from his various Broadway projects. The producer said in a new statement: “I am stepping back from my film and streaming projects in addition to my work on Broadway. I am doing so to take the time to work on personal issues I should have long ago.”

“When I commented over the weekend, I...

Aspiring young actors in New York in the 1960s came in many shapes and psyches. There were angry ones and cynical ones and sincere ones and intense ones. But there weren’t many joyful ones. The road was too hard and it was strewn with failure. “No one starts at the top in the theater,” Gene Hackman once said, “and the bottom is a very ugly place.”

Jon Voight was an exception. He was driven, compulsive and uneasy. But he also loved his work and his fellow actors, and he was confident that if he pushed himself hard enough and got a break or two along the way, he would succeed. The break he was waiting for was “Midnight Cowboy.”

More than 50 years later, Voight’s extraordinary talents as an actor have been overshadowed by his extreme right-wing politics — he’s called Donald Trump “our greatest president since Abraham Lincoln...

Roger Berlind, the 25-time Tony-winning producer of more than 100 Broadway plays and musicals ranging from Amadeus, City of Angels and Doubt to The Book of Mormon, Dear Evan Hansen and Mean Girls, has died. He was 90. His family said he died December 18 in Manhattan of cardiopulmonary arrest.

During his stunning 45-year career, Berlind won Tonys for new musicals and plays and revivals of each, starting with the 1981 Best Play trophy for Amadeus — also a future Best Picture Oscar winner and one of several of his shows that transferred from the stage to the big screen — to the 2019 Best Revival of a Musical Tony for Oklahoma!

Berlind’s original shows swept the 2011 Tony Awards, with War Horse winning Best Play and The Book of Mormon taking Best Musical.

He also cornered the Tony market in 2017 when his Dear Evan Hansen won Best Musical and Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler took Best Revival of a Musical.

Let’s take a closer look at the three nominees for Best Play Revival: “Betrayal,” “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” and “A Solider’s Play.” Our exclusive odds give the edge to “A Soldier’s Play,” but this only remains to be one of the closest races at this year’s virtual awards. Remember, only those Tony voters who saw all three nominees can vote in this category. Tony watchers theorize that this new rule helped “The Boys in the Band” win this race last year despite being the first production of the season to have opened.

The first nominee is the third Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s 1978 award-winning play, “Betrayal.” The story chronicles a seven-year affair in reverse chronological order. The original Broadway edition earned Tony nominations for star Blythe Danner and director Peter Hall.

This edition came to town after a successful run in...

Veteran Broadway general manager Nathan Gehan is opening his own New York City general management firm, ShowTown Theatricals, with a roster of clients including the international musical production of Notre Dame de Paris at Lincoln Center in 2022, the Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol, American Prophet (Arena Stage), Anne of Green Gables (Goodspeed Musicals) and planned productions of Romy & Michele The Musical, Room, Syncing Ink and The King’s Speech, among others.

ShowTown Theatricals staff includes Creative Producer Jamison Scott, General Managers Michelle Tamagawa and Samuel Dallas, Head of Development Michael Fiske, and Management Assistant Ryan Logue. The firm is partnering with the Black Theatre Coalition to provide employment opportunities for Black theater professionals.

“I believe ShowTown will thrive in this environment as Broadway and the industry face a restart,” said Gehan. “Our firm’s foundation is strong and built upon lessons from many mentors and managers.”

Gehan...

The John Gore Organization, a major Tony Award-winning production company and owner of Broadway.com and The Broadway Channel, has permanently laid off what sources say is more than 100 previously furloughed employees.

Lauren Reid, Chief Operating Officer of John Gore Organization, confirmed layoffs but did not provide numbers or details about which departments were hit. “It is with a heavy heart that we have laid off a number of previously furloughed employees,” Reid said in a statement. “We very much look forward to the day when theaters re-open and audiences and staffers can return.”

The layoffs come five months into the Broadway Covid-19 shutdown that has taken a massive toll on both the industry and the theater-related economy of New York City. According to the Broadway League, the shutdown has had a direct impact on nearly 97,000 jobs supported by Broadway, and the industry typically contributes about $575 million in tax revenue.

The Acting Company, Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley Ian Belknap, Artistic Director Elisa Spencer-Kaplan, Executive Director has announced a special one-night-only benefit reading of Arthur Miller's iconic mid-century drama A View from the Bridge. The reading will star two-time Emmy Award winner Bobby Cannavale The Irishman, Boardwalk Empire and his real-life partner, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Rose Byrne Like A Boss, Damages, Bridesmaids, as they play Miller's emotionally torn Eddie and Beatrice Carbone.

“West Side Story,” one of the most beloved and enduring Broadway musicals of all time, has often been seen on the Great White Way since it premiered more than sixty years ago, but never quite like this. The revolutionary musical has been reimagined in equally revolutionary fashion this season by Tony-winning director Ivo van Hove (“A View From the Bridge”), whose production opened at the Broadway Theatre on February 20.

This modern, taut staging of the Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical stars Isaac Powell and Shereen Pimentel as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, who lead a company that boasts dozens of Broadway debuts. To distinguish his take on this iconic material, van Hove enlisted Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to contribute new choreography––controversially replacing Jerome Robbins’ original, indelible dances––as well as designer Luke Halls to create videos that accompany the onstage action on a massive screen that...

If we’re being honest, West Side Story has seemed a little out of date for quite a while.

Rather than having the rebellious teenagers of the 1950s represented through rock & roll, the musical about Puerto Ricans newly arrived to New York City being targeted by earlier immigrants (Irish, Poles, and Italians) had Leonard Bernstein’s magnificent dissonant score coupled with Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics that capture the collision of rhythms and impulses. The book by Arthur Laurents is lean but filled with lines like, “Ya done good, Buddy boy” and “Thanks,...