News

Acclaimed filmmaker Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vaguefinds a home at Netflix.

Per Variety, Linklater's latest feature film, Nouvelle Vague, has officially been picked up by Netflix. Although this comes as a promising update for fans of the filmmaker's work, it also means that there is no guarantee of any theatrical release for the film apart from the scant two weeks necessary for it to qualify for major industry award nominations.

A retelling of the filming and production of Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 masterpiece Breathless (which itself is considered a pinnacle of the Nouvelle Vague or French New Wave film movement), Nouvelle Vague stars Guillaume Marbeck as the legendary filmmaker. Alongside Marbeck's Godard are Zoey Deutch as the legendary Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film was directed by Linklater from a screenplay penned by Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo Jr., Laetita Masson, and Michèle Pétin. During its debut at Cannes,...

Exclusive: Hannah Cruz (The Time Traveler’s Wife) has closed a deal to join Merrily We Roll Along, Richard Linklater’s adaptation of the 1981 musical from Stephen Sondheim and George Furth.

A Clarence Derwent Award-winning veteran of the theater world, Cruz is set to play Gussie, the wife of Paul Mescal’s Franklin Shepard, who after establishing himself as a talented composer of Broadway musicals, abandons his friends and songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood movies. The story takes place over 20 years, and Linklater will shoot the film over the same time span, taking a page from his playbook on the Oscar-nominated Boyhood, which was shot over 12 years.

As previously announced, Ben Platt, Beanie Feldstein and Mallory Bechtel will also star. Producers of the feature are Ginger Sledge, Jason Blum for Blumhouse Productions, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Linklater and Mike Blizzard.

With a book by Furth and music and lyrics by Sondheim,...

Tony Roberts, who appeared in Woody Allen films including “Annie Hall” while enjoying a long, bountiful career on Broadway, died Friday due to complications of lung cancer. He was 85 years old.

Roberts’ death was confirmed to The New York Times by his daughter, Nicole Burley.

Roberts appeared in six film directed by Woody Allen: “Play It Again, Sam” (1972), “Annie Hall” (1977), “Stardust Memories” (1980), “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy” (1982), “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986) and “Radio Days” (1987).

The actor had a long career on Broadway in which he was twice Tony-nominated: for best actor in a musical in 1968 for “How Now, Dow Jones” and for featured actor in a play in 1969 for Woody Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam.”

Roberts had most recently appeared in the 2017 television film adaptation of “Dirty Dancing.” He had most also appeared on television in a 2010 episode of “Law & Order” in which he played a U.S.

Paul Mescal, Merrily We Roll Along, 20-Year Shoot, Linklater, Filming Challenge (Photo Credit – Facebook)

Paul Mescal is strapping in for a filmmaking journey like no other. The Aftersun star revealed he had second thoughts when signing up for Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Along, a film set to be shot over 20 years. “I probably thought, ‘Oh, fuck!’” Mescal told Esquire UK, acknowledging the magnitude of the commitment.

Linklater, known for his time-lapse epic Boyhood, is tackling Stephen Sondheim’s beloved musical with the same long-game approach. The story, originally a Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, follows three friends in reverse chronological order as their careers in entertainment unfold and unravel. Mescal plays Franklin Shepard, a composer, alongside Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein as his closest companions.

Mescal admitted that the daunting timeline might leave him second-guessing his choices: “I think I’m going to spend...

Following the epic success of musicals at the weekend box office — hello, Moana 2 and Wicked! — Saturday Night Live decided to let the other movie playing on screens this season, Gladiator II, also deserved a sing-song-y adaptation. And what better time to do that than while the star of the film, Paul Mescal, is hosting SNL?

"So, after some rushed reshoots, Gladiator II is now...a Musical!" the narration begins. Because, as Kenan Thompson and Bowen Yang sing in the introduction, there's no place like Rome, is there?

Welcome to the Rome of 'Gladiator II: The Musical'

"It's the same, violent historical epic audiences have been raving about," the voiceover jokes, "but with an extra 50 minutes of songs."

Strapping on his Roman gladiator best, Mescal quickly turns into the sort of Broadway performer we would not have necessarily pegged him for, giving the amusingly clever lyrics that much more comedic oomph.

There have been many stories about Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean bonding during the production of George Stevens’ epic “Giant” in Marfa, Texas, in 1955. Though not exactly a “Harold & Maude” scenario, the 24-year-old Dean also developed a strong friendship with Edna Ferber, the diminutive Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such classic novels as “So Big,” “Showboat,” “Cimarron,” and “Giant,” who turned 70 that summer in Marfa. Ferber, who never married, was seen sitting on the back of Dean’s motorcycle as they would take rides during breaks. And she even tried her hand at twirling the lasso.

Author Julie Gilbert, Ferber’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated grand nice and biographer (“Ferber: The Biography of Edna Ferber and Her Circle”), doesn’t think the two were in love. “He was very young,” said Gilbert, who writes about her great aunt and the making of the Oscar-winning film in her latest book “Giant Love” set for a Dec.

I spent my first decade in New York working at Variety’s former offices on Park Avenue South and more than once found myself sharing an elevator with James Earl Jones while he was on his way to or from Verizon to shoot commercials. The giant of an actor, who died today at age 93, never failed to say a warm, “Good morning” or “Good afternoon,” and even if I hadn’t recognized his face or his imposing 6-foot, 2-inch frame, there was no mistaking that sonorous voice.

His voice was the earth-shaking basso rumble coming from behind the forbidding mask of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga, starting with the original 1977 film, and the stentorian growl of Mufasa, King of the Pride Lands and father of Simba in The Lion King.

It was also the voice of a revered stage actor, who forged his reputation in the 1960s and ‘70s,...

Back in 2016, Moma curator Dave Kehr programmed a series of restorations and rediscoveries from the early days of sound at Universal Studios. Across the country in Los Angeles, film historian Leonard Maltin looked at the schedule with envy and longing. “My mouth was watering,” Maltin told IndieWire. “I was so frustrated that I couldn’t just fly to New York and set up a futon in the lobby so I could go to all the films he was screening.”

Luckily, Maltin was able to see some of the films back in Hollywood when Universal archivist Bob O’Neil allowed him to sit in on screenings that had been set up to check answer prints. “I saw dozens of them,” Maltin said. “Some were good, many were unmemorable or downright bad, but every now and then I got lucky and found a real winner.”

Maltin wanted to share his discoveries with the Los Angeles film community,...

Exclusive: Mallory Bechtel (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) has landed a role opposite Paul Mescal, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein in Richard Linklater’s feature adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along, the classic musical from Stephen Sondheim and George Furth.

Details as to her role haven’t been disclosed.

Merrily follows Franklin Shepard, who after establishing himself as a talented composer of Broadway musicals, abandons his friends and songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood movies. The story takes place over 20 years, and Linklater will shoot the film over the same time span, taking a page from his playbook on the Oscar-nominated Boyhood, shot over 12 years.

With a book by Furth and music and lyrics by Sondheim, the musical is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It ran for 44 previews and 16 performances on Broadway in 1981 and recently returned to The Great White Way,...

Richard Linklater’s ongoing fascination with the passage of time has seen him use lengthy shooting schedules to make some of the most beloved independent films of the last quarter century. He famously spent a decade shooting “Boyhood” in order to accurately showcase the process of his actors aging, and the 18-year gap between “Before Sunrise” and “Before Midnight” (with “Before Sunset” coming in between) allowed him to capture a relationship from its initial spark to the domesticity of marriage. But his upcoming adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” might be his most ambitious undertaking yet.

Sondheim’s musical — which has a book by George Furth and is based on George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s play of the same name — famously tells the story of three friends whose lives change over the course of 20 years as they pursue diverging career paths in show business.

The...

Irony dwells in the bones of "Merrily We Roll Along," a musical that plays backward in time. The 1981 sinking of the original Broadway production of "Merrily We Roll Along" is a chaos best told by the documentary "Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened." The critics and audience were reportedly baffled by the reverse chronological storytelling and director Hal Prince's purposefully amateurish methodology, which casts high schoolers and young adults playing fortysomethings aging down to twentysomethings. It closed down after 44 previews and 16 performances. The loss demoralized the creatives so much that lyricist-composer Stephen Sondheim and Prince — mavericks who birthed successes like "Company" and "Sweeney Todd" — halted their collaboration for years. This short-lived run underscores the musical's themes: friendships breaking up and showbiz realities thwarting artistic plans.

Away from Prince's high-schoolish shell, major productions have repackaged "Merrily." This material also turned out to be a fitting endeavor for filmmaker Richard Linklater,...

Troubled musicals, like troubled friendships, can often seem like defeats lying in wait, sponging up every last second of loving care, effort and good intention. So Maria Friedman’s smartly tended production of that most troubled of stage properties, the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth backwards musical Merrily We Roll Along deserves all the applause – and ticket-buying business – it’s getting at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre.

Opening tonight, the musical is drawing rapturous audience responses, no doubt in large part because of the splendid performances by three very appealing stars – Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez.

But even if we could, for the sake of argument, put the talents of this delightful trio singing some of Sondheim’s loveliest songs, aside for a moment, the undeniable charm of this production has to be credited to a sort of relief – the relief of knowing that, for the most part, Friedman...

Merrily We Roll Along, the new Broadway revival of the Sondheim classic musical starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, broke the six-performance house record at the Hudson Theatre with a $1.3 million gross in its first week of previews.

Filling every seat in the venue, the revival carried an eye-popping average ticket price of $225.07, besting the $166.11 of the usual frontrunner Hamilton by a wide margin for the week ending September 24.

Merrily, the Off Broadway transfer from New York Theatre Workshop, grossed, to be exact, $1,304,508 for its first six Broadway previews, breaking the previous six-performance week record of $1.18 million set by David Byrne’s American Utopia. Merrily opens on October 10.

Directed by Maria Friedman, Merrily We Roll Along features music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and is based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. Spanning three decades in the entertainment business, Merrily...

Major film and TV productions are currently on hold due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, but the New York theater scene is still as active as ever. A new Broadway season is upon us, and there are five musicals set to open this fall. Will they contend at next year’s Tony Awards? Below, we give you a preview of the plot of each musical as well as the awards history of its author, cast and creative teams, plus the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.

“Merrily We Roll Along”

The first Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical adaptation of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart‘s 1934 play spans three decades in the entertainment industry and charts the relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two friends — writer Mary and lyricist and playwright Charley. The original production directed by Hal Prince only ran for 16 performances,...

Richard Linklater took inspiration from the musical numbers in Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster “Barbie.”

The “Hitman” writer-director revealed to NME that he saw the billion-dollar movie multiple times.

“I liked the musical numbers,” Linklater said. “I liked the movie a lot. It’s worth seeing a couple times.”

He added, “The best thing that happened to cinema in a while is ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie.’ Sends a good message. I’m glad those are doing well.”

Linklater is currently working on a musical himself, with the decades-spanning adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” The film stars Paul Mescal as a Broadway composer who leaves his theater pals (Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein) to pursue becoming a Hollywood producer.

The musical, which itself is adapted from a Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, spans 20 years and is told in reverse chronological order. Linklater is thus filming the feature adaptation backwards,...

Update, with opening night: An official opening night date has been set for the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along: Following the previously announced Sept. 19 preview launch, the opening night will be Tuesday, October 10 at the Hudson Theatre.

Previous, July 10: The first, star-packed Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along has extended its engagement by two months, giving ticket buyers until March 24, 2024 to see the production featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez.

Performances begin Tuesday, September 19 at the Hudson Theatre. The original closing date was January 21, 2024. The extension was announced today by producers Sonia Friedman Productions, David Babani, Patrick Catullo, and Jeff Romley, who cited popular demand as the reason for the longer run.

Directed by Maria Friedman, Merrily We Roll Along features music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth,...

Paul Mescal is ready to face his next two decades alongside director Richard Linklater.

Mescal is starring in Linklater’s adaptation of “Merrily We Roll Along,” which will be filmed over 20 years, similar to how Linklater shot coming-of-age movie “Boyhood.” The film is an adaptation of the beloved Stephen Sondheim musical, which itself was an adaptation of a Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

“Merrily We Roll Along” follows three friends pursuing careers in the entertainment industry and how their lives change as they age; the story is famously told in reverse chronological order. Mescal is cast as composer Franklin Shepard, with Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein playing the other two friend characters.

“I think I’m going to spend the next 20 years regretting choices that I made in some sequences,” Mescal told Esquire UK, “and then forgetting about others and being like, ‘Oh, fuck! We shot that in 2035!’ That’s crazy.

Screenwriter Bo Goldman, who won Oscars for his scripts to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Melvin and Howard” and was among a select group of film scribes including Robert Towne and William Goldman considered to be among that generation’s best, died Tuesday in Helendale, Calif., his son-in-law, director Todd Field, confirmed to the New York Times. He was 90.

Goldman was also Oscar nominated for 1993’s “Scent of a Woman.”

The 1976 Oscar he shared with Lawrence Hauben for co-adapting Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was a particularly impressive achievement considering that “Cuckoo’s Nest” represented only Goldman’s second screenplay and the first to be produced. The win for adapted screenplay was part of a sweep for the film that also included victories for best picture, director, actor and actress. No movie had won those five awards since 1934’s “It’s a Wonderful...

When Joel and Ethan Coen released Barton Fink in 1991, it turned a lot of heads.

The film, set in 1941, follows naive and principled New York City playwright Barton Fink (impressively realized by John Turturro), who moves to Los Angeles after accepting a job to write a wrestling picture for Capital Pictures. Fink sets up shop in the dilapidated and eerie Hotel Earle to begin work on the script, but quickly hits a mental impasse given the unfamiliar subject (one that Fink also views as beneath him). As his writer’s block gets worse, Fink rapidly descends into a waking Kafkaesque nightmare.

Barton Fink is both ambiguous yet impressively layered; a surreal and twisted pitch-black comedy that is brimming with symbolism and metaphors. The film also bears a lot of similarities to the Coen Brothers’ own creative struggles. Here’s how writer’s block inspired Barton Fink, arguably the most underrated film in the filmmakers’ cannon.

The upcoming Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez will play its first performance at the Hudson Theatre on Tuesday, September 19, producers announced today.

Directed by Maria Friedman, the production played a sold-out Off Broadway run at New York Theatre Workshop last year. The preview date for the strictly limited, 18-week Broadway engagement was announced by producers Sonia Friedman Productions, David Babani, Patrick Catullo, and Jeff Romley.

Merrily We Roll Along features music and lyrics by Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and is based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. The revival is choreographed by Tim Jackson

In addition to the previously announced stars, the production will feature Krystal Joy Brown as Gussie Carnegie, Katie Rose Clarke as Beth Shepard, and Reg Rogers as Joe Josephson.

Paul Mescal is replacing Blake Jenner in the decade-spanning production of the movie musical of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Richard Linklater will be directing the project, which is being backed by Blumhouse, and will shoot over a 20-year span. (The director shot his Oscar-winning Boyhood over 12 years.)

The much-beloved musical, based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, follows Franklin Shepard, a talented composer of Broadway musicals that abandons his friends and career to become a producer of Hollywood movies. The story begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing important moments in Frank’s life.

Mescal will be playing the lead role of Broadway composer Franklin Shepard, which was previously meant to be played by Jenner. After being cast, Jenner was embroiled in allegations of domestic abuse.

In...

We’re only nine days into the year, but Paul Mescal is already having quite the 2023. Just days after landing the coveted lead role in Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” sequel, the “Aftersun” star has joined the cast of Richard Linklater’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” IndieWire has confirmed. (Above the Line first reported the news.)

The film is an adaptation of the beloved Stephen Sondheim musical of the same name, itself an adaptation of a Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It tells the story of three friends pursuing careers in various facets of the entertainment industry and how their lives change as they age, though the story is famously told in reverse chronological order.

IndieWire can also confirm that Mescal has already shot a segment of the musical film, which was a reshoot.

Mescal takes over the role of composer Franklin Shepard, a role previously set...

Writer George S. Kaufman once said that “satire is what closes on Saturday night.” But nearly a century later, as real life has grown more absurd than most art, satire is everywhere — from popular franchises such as the “Knives Out” films and “The White Lotus” to hits including “Parasite.”

Why now? In our post-Trump world, where truth is subject to debate and issues like racism are impossible for anyone to ignore, talk-show monologues and “Saturday Night Live” skits became some of the only critiques able to break through the noise of political squabbling and call out lies, arguably paving the way for more films dealing in satire.

“Satire always puts events into a societal context, often dealing with hierarchies and economic influences. So if you want to examine the times we are living in, it’s a good starting place,” says writer-director Ruben Östlund, whose “Triangle of Sadness” skewers influencers,...

Dick Cavett can still picture the exact moment and location in New York City when he first met the man who would become one of his most cherished pals. It was 1961 and Cavett, then a 25-year-old writer for Jack Parr on The Tonight Show, met the legendary Groucho Marx after they both attended the funeral for playwright George S. Kaufman.

“He was walking east up 81st Street toward Fifth Avenue flanked by Art Carney on one side and Abe Burrows on the other,” recalls Cavett to Deadline. “And then when they left him, I moved to the corner of Fifth and 81st. And in one of my great inspired uses of the English language, I said the terribly witty ‘I’m a big fan of yours, Groucho.’ And he said, ‘well, if it’s gets any hotter, I could use a big fan.'”

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Marx,...

The Off Broadway musical revival of the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth classic Merrily We Roll Along, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff & Lindsay Mendez will move to Broadway in the fall, producers anounced today.

The announcement – from producers Sonia Friedman Productions, David Babani, Patrick Catullo and Jeff Romley – heralds the first ever Broadway revival of the show. The production is currently playing a critically acclaimed and completely sold-out run at New York Theatre Workshop through January 22 following sold-out runs at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory and the Olivier Award-winning West End transfer produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.

Directed by Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman, Merrily We Roll Along features music & lyrics by Sondheim, a book by Furth, and is based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. Radcliffe plays writer Charley Kringas, Jonathan Groff is composer Franklin Shepard, and Lindsay Mendez is author Mary Flynn. Additionally, the...

Click here to read the full article.

The 1981 musical that reunited composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and librettist George Furth, a decade after their landmark work on Company, has the rare distinction of being arguably Broadway’s most revered flop. Merrily We Roll Along closed after just 16 performances; audiences found the reverse-chronology storyline confusing and the decision to cast young actors took the sting out of scenes with the characters in disillusioned middle-age. Reviews were dismissive, and the experience was so difficult that Sondheim and his longtime director Harold Prince didn’t work together again for more than 20 years.

That fractured collaboration between two giants of the theater no longer with us has poignant echoes in the plot of Merrily, which was adapted from the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. But it’s not just historical significance that makes the show play much more accessibly today.

Issues with Furth...

Full casting for the upcoming Off Broadway revival of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along starring the previously announced Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe has been firmed up, with Krystal Joy Brown of Hamilton among those rounding out the production.

Merrily We Roll Along will begin previews at New York Theatre Workshop on November 21, opening December 12 and running through January 21, 2023.

In addition to Brown, the complete cast will include Sherz Aletaha, Katie Rose Clarke, Leana Rae Concepcion, Carter Harris, Colin Keane, Morgan Kirner, Corey Mach, Talia Robinson, Reg Rogers, Amanda Rose, Jamila Sabares-Klemm, Brian Sears, Evan Alexander Smith, Christian Strange, Koray Tarhan, Vishal Vaidya, Natalie Wachen and Jacob Keith Watson.

Featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth, and based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart, Merrily We Roll Along is directed by Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson, and...

Daniel Radcliffe will tackle Stephen Sondheim next season in a new revival of the 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along at the Off Broadway New York Theatre Workshop.

The revival, to be directed by Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson, is planned for a late 2022 opening, with full cast and specific production dates to be announced later.

Radcliffe, who appeared on Broadway in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2011, will play Merrily‘s Charley, one of three longtime show business pals whose friendship is presented in reverse chronological order, from its sad dissolution to its hopeful beginning. Among the beloved Sondheim songs given to Charley are “Old Friends” and “Good Thing Going.”

The musical, featuring music and lyrics by Sondheim, book by George Furth and based on the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, will complete Nytw’s 2022/23 season.

Friedman made her...

Our first episode back in the studio! Robert Weide discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

Mother Night (1996)

Woody Allen: A Documentary (2011)

Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition (1989)

Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth (1998)

Marx Brothers in a Nutshell (1982)

W.C. Fields: Straight Up (1986)

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (2021)

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Mary Poppins (1964)

The French Connection (1971) – Dennis Lehane’s trailer commentary, Mark Pellington’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Jesus Treviño’s trailer commentary

The Godfather (1972) – Ernest Dickerson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Exorcist (1973) – Oren Peli’s trailer commentary

Patton (1970) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

Mash (1970)

Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Lenny...

A Night at the Opera

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1935/ 1.33:1

Starring The Marx Brothers, Allan Jones, Kitty Carlisle

Directed by Sam Wood

When the Marx Brothers bolted the scrappy but frugal Paramount for the gilded halls of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, fans of the comedians feared the worst—would the anarchic trio maintain their punk rock cred or had they sold out for the Top 40? The answer was revealed in their first go-round with the studio, 1935’s A Night at the Opera. And it was a standoff—though the Brothers remained world class provocateurs, MGM survived with its reputation intact and a big hit on their hands.

Opera‘s basic plot stays close to the Marxian blueprint; three agents of chaos, a fast-talking con man, a pun-happy piano player, and a tongue-tied hedonist, infiltrate a revered if musty institution, upend said institution, and go on their merry way. Though that premise...

” I never could understand why it has to be just even, male and female. They’re invited for dinner, not for mating.”

Jean Harlow and John Barrymore in Dinner At Eight (1935) will be available on Blu-ray October 26th from Warner Archive

Dinner at Eight, a vastly entertaining behind-closed-doors glimpse into the lives of the troubled and troublemaking who’s who of people invited to a posh Manhattan party, is served with ample helpings of humor and melodrama. Buoyed by the success of the studio’s multistarred, multistoried Grand Hotel the year before, producer David O. Selznick aspired to something grander – and found it in this George Cukor-directed adaptation of the George S. Kaufman/Edna Ferber stage hit. Highlights include Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery’s bitter battle of the sexes, hostess Billie Burke’s hissy fit and Marie Dressler’s grande dame worldliness. Of course, there’s only one...

With the long-delayed 74th Tony Awards set for Sept. 26 at the Winter Garden and streaming on Paramount + and a CBS special, let’s take a deep dive into Tony Awards history and look back at the first decade. Broadway was bristling with excitement post World War II. Young playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and William Inge breathed new life into the Great White Way. And new talents electrifying audiences included Marlon Brando, Julie Harris and Gwen Verdon. It was the perfect time for the creation of the Tony Awards in 1947. The Antoinette Perry Awards or Theatre Excellence were named after the legendary theater actress who was co-founder of the American Theatre Wing; she had died in 1946.

The first annual Tony Awards took place on April 6, 1947 at the Waldorf Astoria and was broadcast on radio on Wor and Mutual Network radio. There was no categories for best play or musical,...

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.

Martha Stewart, the actress and singer best known for her supporting turns opposite Joan Crawford in Daisy Kenyon and alongside Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place, has died. She was 98.

Stewart died Wednesday, her daughter Colleen Shelley reported on Twitter.

“The original Martha Stewart left us yesterday,” she wrote. “She had a new part to play in a movie with all her heavenly friends. She went off peacefully surrounded by her family and cat.”

In original Broadway musicals, Stewart appeared in 1946-47 in Park Avenue, written by George S. Kaufman and Nunnally Johnson, and was a replacement for Vivian ...

Martha Stewart, the actress and singer best known for her supporting turns opposite Joan Crawford in Daisy Kenyon and alongside Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place, has died. She was 98.

Stewart died Wednesday, her daughter Colleen Shelley reported on Twitter.

“The original Martha Stewart left us yesterday,” she wrote. “She had a new part to play in a movie with all her heavenly friends. She went off peacefully surrounded by her family and cat.”

In original Broadway musicals, Stewart appeared in 1946-47 in Park Avenue, written by George S. Kaufman and Nunnally Johnson, and was a replacement for Vivian ...

“You cannot capture a man’s entire life in two hours. All you can hope is to leave the impression of one.” That’s a valuable piece of screenwriting advice offered up by legendary movie writer Herman J. Mankiewicz in “Mank,” but it’s also the film lowering the bar for itself – impressions of people and incidents are all that this immaculately produced and beautifully acted film ultimately has to offer.

In telling the story of the creation of the original screenplay for what would become “Citizen Kane,” one of the true masterpieces of American cinema, director David Fincher (working from a screenplay by his late father Jack Fincher) frames the film as the story of a career-dead, alcoholic Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) drumming out one final script partially to fulfill a contract with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre but mainly to settle an old grudge against former benefactor William Randolph Hearst.

When it comes to Old Hollywood screenwriters, there are few names that loom larger than Mankiewicz. That is probably because between two very different Mankiewicz brothers, some of the greatest screenplays of all-time were penned. In the case of Herman J. Mankiewicz that included The Wizard of Oz (1939), San Francisco (1936), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), and a little movie called Citizen Kane (1941). And it’s in the latter’s style filmmaker David Fincher is visiting Mank’s life.

In Fincher’s first film at Netflix, the modern filmmaker is teaming with Gary Oldman, still fresh off his Oscar win for playing Winston Churchill, to offer a highly stylized and intriguing interpretation of the life and times of Herman “Mank” Mankiewicz at time when the silver screen was still black and white, and life in a smoke-filled Tinseltown took on an ambiguous gray.

With a teaser trailer absolutely dripping with atmosphere,...

The great Larry Wilmore joins us to share some very personal double features.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

1917 (2019)

Animal Crackers (1930)

Duck Soup (1933)

My Little Chickadee (1940)

A Night At The Opera (1935)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

The Parallax View (1974)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Jaws (1975)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

The Party (1968)

The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

Richard Pryor: Live In Concert (1979)

Richard Pryor: Live And Smokin’ (1971)

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Lenny (1974)

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)

Lolita (1962)

Caligula (1979)

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

The Elephant Man (1980)

What Would Jack Do? (2020)

Blue Velvet (1986)

The Apartment (1960)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Double Indemnity (1944)

The Sting (1973)

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid...

A star-studded cast led by Tony-winner Walter Bobbie and Broadway and Hollywood star Brooke Shields are featured in a benefit reading of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's iconic comedy, aoeThe Man Who Came to Dinnera directed by Marsha Mason for Bucks County Playhouse. Performances will be held at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope on Wednesday, February 5 at 7 pm, followed by a reading in New York at the Wp Theater, 2162 Broadway at 76th Street, on Monday, February 10 at 7 p.m. Tickets are 25.

Filmmaker Richard Linklater has long been admittedly “pretty slow on the TV thing,” as he once said at the Television Critics Association panels back in 2017. However, he’s coming to the small screen with a nonfiction project for CBS All Access, as announced today at the winter TCA event. The streamer has given a series order for “The Untitled Richard Linklater Project,” a docuseries executive-produced by Linklater and documentary filmmaker Bill Guttentag, both of whom are Oscar winners.

The 10-episode series, per CBS, “takes place in and around Austin, Texas, Linklater’s hometown, and will provide a window onto the colorful and diverse world of animal rescue through moving, humorous and powerful stories of animals and the humans who love them.” His last TV foray was the 2012 Hulu travel series “Up to Speed.”

“I come to this project hoping to shine a light on the folks I’ve met who...

MasterVoices begins its 2019-20 season on Thursday, November 21 at Carnegie Hall with the concert staging of George and Ira Gershwins' 1933 musical Let 'Em Eat Cake, with a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, a comic satire about a populist U.S. President who is voted out of office and stages a coup to regain power. Artistic Director Ted Sperling will direct and conduct MasterVoices, soloists, and Orchestra of St. Luke's in this timely musical which has not been heard in New York since 1987. Updated casting details are included below.

The centerpiece of Scott Ora’s cluttered San Fernando Valley apartment is the 1939 Oscar his step-grandfather, the late lyricist Leo Robin, was presented for co-writing “Thanks for the Memory.” Sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the film “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” the trophy sits proudly on the piano where Robin worked on some of his biggest hits. The movie marked the comedian’s breakout role and Leo’s tune, co-written with frequent collaborator Ralph Rainger, soon became Hope’s theme song. It was Robin’s only Academy Award win out of a total of 10 nominations.

Over the course of 20 years, from 1934 (when the best original song category was introduced and he was nominated for “Love in Bloom”) through 1954, Robin, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame who died in 1984 at the age of 84, earned 10 Oscar nominations (two in 1949 alone). His impressive catalog includes signature tunes for Maurice Chevalier...

Richard Linklater set an unusual precedent when the 2014 film Boyhood came out. It was a film he had worked on for twelve years, telling the story of a boy, his sister, his parents, and the world around him. It was a great movie, and the most interesting part was how he chose to tell the story. Instead of casting multiple people to play each role, or use makeup to age an adult in the film, he simply shot the film over a twelve year period. So when it was all said and done, you watched those characters grow upon the screen. It was really cool. It’s more of a gamble to do a film this way, but I think it’s a pretty cool payoff with the end result. He’s now taking on a project with the same format, but this time, it’s even more ambitious.

Linklater...

Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein are working on a new project together.

The two actors are set to star in Richard Linklater’s adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Linklater, who directed Boyhood over a period of 12 years, is directing and plans to film the musical over a span of 20 years.

The musical is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The story follows a talented composer, Franklin Shepard, who abandons his Broadway career to make Hollywood films.

“Verified This project has already...

Boyhood and Before Midnight director Richard Linklater is going to take his sweet time making one of his upcoming films, as he has now announced that his upcoming adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along will be made over a time span of 20 years.

This may seem completely mad, but it is absolutely true that Richard Linklater plans not to finish this film until he is nearly at his 80th birthday. That's some real dedication. The time-spanning project will star an equally committed cast that includes this year's high school comedy Booksmart's Beanie Feldstein, alongside Blake Jenner and Pitch Perfect's Ben Platt. In for the long haul also will be Blumhouse on production duty, who clearly have faith in Linklater's time-consuming approach.

And so they should, as this will hardly be the first time that Linklater has filled a large part of his future calendar...

‘Boyhood’ filmmaker, Richard Linklater has signed up helm an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim musical ‘Merrily We Roll Along’.

The ambitious project is set to follow in the footsteps of ‘Boyhood’ and span over a number of years. The project is based on the musical and the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart which takes place over 20 years. Linklater has stated he wanted to stay faithful to the original. It is reported that the film is being shot in reverse chronological order, as the play and musical end when the characters are in their mid-20s and just embarking on their entertainment careers.

The story follows Franklin Shepard, a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theatre career in New York and all his friends in order to produce movies in Los Angeles. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time,...

Richard Linklater, who earned an Oscar nomination for directing “Boyhood” over the course of 12 years, is embarking on an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 stage musical “Merrily We Roll Along” that will be filmed over the next 20 years.

Ben Platt (“Pitch Perfect”), Beanie Feldstein (“Booksmart”) and Blake Jenner (“Everybody Wants Some!!”) will star in the project, which follows the careers and lives of three aspiring creative talents over two decades — but is told in reverse.

The project was announced Thursday by Blumhouse, which is producing the film through Jason Blum. Linklater, Ginger Sledge, and Jonathan Marc Sherman are also producing.

Also Read: Cate Blanchett Terrorizes Kristen Wiig's Home in New 'Where'd You Go Bernadette?' Trailer (Video)

Created by Sondheim and George Furth and based on the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, “Merrily We Roll Along” is a tragicomic tale about Franklin (Jenner), a talented Broadway...

In what is Blumhouse’s most ambitious project yet, Richard Linklater is bringing Stephen Sondheim’s musical Merrily We Roll Along to the big screen, but will shoot the film over a 20-year time span. Beanie Feldstein, Ben Platt and Blake Jenner will star.

Principal photography has been completed for the first segment of the film. Linklater shot his Oscar-nominated pic Boyhood over 12 years.

Producers are Ginger Sledge and Jason Blum for Blumhouse Productions, Jonathan Marc Sherman and Linklater. Rick Pappas brokered the deal on behalf of the authors of the musical, Stephen Sondheim & George Furth.

Merrily We Roll Along was written by Furth, with lyrics and music by Sondheim. It’s based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The musical updated the time frame of the play to 1957-...

Beanie Feldstein, Blake Jenner and Ben Platt will star in an adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along.

Richard Linklater will be directing the project, which is being backed by Blumhouse, and will shoot over a 20-year span. The director shot his Oscar-winning Boyhood over 12 years.

The much-beloved musical, based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, follows Franklin Shepard, a talented composer of Broadway musicals that abandons his friends and career to become a producer of Hollywood movies. The story begins at the height of his Hollywood fame ...

Beanie Feldstein, Blake Jenner and Ben Platt will star in an adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along.

Richard Linklater will be directing the project, which is being backed by Blumhouse, and will shoot over a 20-year span. The director shot his Oscar-winning Boyhood over 12 years.

The much-beloved musical, based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, follows Franklin Shepard, a talented composer of Broadway musicals that abandons his friends and career to become a producer of Hollywood movies. The story begins at the height of his Hollywood fame ...