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The lights will soon be back on inside the Ahmanson Theatre.

Center Theatre Group artistic director Michael Ritchie announced this week that the 54th season at the Ahmanson will kick off Nov. 30 — three months later than originally scheduled and 20 months after shuttering due to Covid-19 — with director Matthew Warchus’ A Christmas Carol.

The season includes productions of The Lehman Trilogy, The Prom, Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The Tony Award-winning best revival Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! that was previously set to open the season in August 2020 will now close the season in 2022....

The lights will soon be back on inside the Ahmanson Theatre.

Center Theatre Group artistic director Michael Ritchie announced this week that the 54th season at the Ahmanson will kick off Nov. 30 — three months later than originally scheduled and 20 months after shuttering due to Covid-19 — with director Matthew Warchus’ A Christmas Carol.

The season includes productions of The Lehman Trilogy, The Prom, Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The Tony Award-winning best revival Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! that was previously set to open the season in August 2020 will now close the season in 2022....

Two of the country’s major theatrical venues announced reopening plans today, with the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. set to house Broadway productions beginning in November and October, respectively.

In Los Angeles, the Ahmanson’s 2021-22 season will start later than previously announced – instead of an August opening with Daniel Fish’s Tony Award-winning reimagining of Oklahoma!, the venue will now reopen on Nov. 30 with the Jack Thorne-Matthew Warchus staging of A Christmas Carol. (Oklahoma! is now scheduled for September 2022).

Other productions planned for the Ahmanson’s upcoming season are Hadestown, The Lehman Trilogy, and The Prom, among others.

In D.C., the Kennedy Center announced that its new season will kick off on Oct. 13 with Hadestown in the Opera House, followed in December by Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. At the Center’s Einsenhower Theater,...

When a show exists in such a defined space as a train, no matter how long and wide and spacious the cars, there is claustrophobia to the setting.

The chance to see the world outside Snowpiercer already makes Snowpiercer Season 2 Episode 6 unique in the scope of the season and a half through which we've traveled the Wilford rails with them.

But the Powers That Be truly grab the chance here to blow open the walls on this world and its history.

Not only that, but they managed to pay homage to Dickens' A Christmas Carol in possibly one of the most inventive and contextually appropriate ways ever.

And while Melanie may not wake up from her visitations to Christmas Day and a prize turkey, there is a different form of awakening in watching Snowpiercer barrel past her at breakneck speeds and seeing Alex's desperate face in the back window as she is left behind.

“The plays are really where it’s at in terms of races,” Sam Eckmann declares to kick off the first of our 2021 Tony Awards predictions slugfest. Though we don’t yet know the date when the winners will be announced, we do know that Tony voters will fill out their ballots from March 1 to March 15. Sam and I regrouped ahead of the voting period to debate who we think currently has the edge going into this pivotal stretch of the race. Watch the full video above.

Sam and I both pick “Slave Play” for the top honor. Sam thinks “our conversations about racism and systemic racism, especially in the entertainment industry” will help the topical play pull off the win, while I emphasize that the opportunity to give a Tony to rising star playwright Jeremy O. Harris will also work in its favor. For Best Revival, we both back “Soldier’s Play,...

We'll be seeing more of Joe Alwyn on our TV screens. On Wednesday, Feb. 17, Hulu and BBC Three confirmed the cast for its TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's 2017 novel, Conversations With Friends. This marks Alwyn's latest foray into television as he previously starred as Bob Cratchit in the 2019 mini-series, A Christmas Carol, and is slated to appear in the highly anticipated remake of Brideshead Revisited. On this casting news, Alwyn wrote on Instagram, "'Conversations With Friends' is one of my favourite books of the last few years. I'm so grateful and excited to be invited onboard, and to get to work with this amazingly talented group of people." Alwyn's girlfriend,...

Following the tremendous success of Normal People, award-winning production company Element Pictures has today announced the highly anticipated casting for the BBC Three and Hulu TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations With Friends.

Alison Oliver, an emerging talent from Lir Academy (whose graduates include Normal People’s Paul Mescal) is set to play Frances, Sasha Lane will star as Bobbi, Joe Alwyn as Nick, and Jemima Kirke as Melissa.

The series is described as "both a complex coming of age drama and a very modern love story."

Element Pictures is once again collaborating with director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Alice Birch who will work alongside writers Mark O’Halloran (Rialto), Meadhbh McHugh (Asking For It), and Susan Soon He Stanton (Succession) on the 12-part drama for BBC Three in partnership with Hulu.

Conversations With Friends follows Frances (Alison Oliver), a 21-year-old college student, as she navigates a series...

Exclusive: In a bid to gain ground on rivals, UK film PR and marketing firm Strike Media is partnering with U.S. PR firm October Coast to offer combined services for clients across the UK & Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

The first project out of the combined PR partnership will be sci-fi horror feature Come True for Lightbulb Film Distribution. A tentative theatrical date of March 12 is set for the UK and Ireland, with Tvod from March 15. Australia and New Zealand’s Tvod release date is March 17.

In addition, the two firms are weighing up the potential to jointly acquire select film distribution rights in UK/Ire, Aus/Nz and North America. Both companies will attend the virtual EFM in March.

Strike Media’s Wez Merchant said: “This is a huge move for us, and I am delighted to be working with Clint and his October Coast team.

Charles Dickens is most commonly brought to life on screen via his holiday masterpiece “A Christmas Carol,” but it is his beloved story about an imaginative orphan that could bring Dev Patel his first Golden Globe Award. The actor anchors the whimsical and epic new adaptation of “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” tthe meaty role is a perfect acting showcase that makes him stand out among the competition.

Patel is nominated in the Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor category alongside Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), James Corden (“The Prom”), Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton”), and Andy Samberg (“Palm Springs”). This marks Patel’s second Globe nomination, after contending in Best Supporting Actor for “Lion” in 2017.

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” has been flying somewhat under the radar during this awards season. So it is telling that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association singled out Patel’s performance. Indeed, the actor...

Spirited, the expensive musical remake of A Christmas Carol headed to Apple TV+ with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, might add Octavia Spencer into the mix. The Oscar-winning actress is reportedly in talks to join the film in what sounds like an update of the Bob Cratchit-inspired figure who works with Reynolds’ Scrooge-like character. The news comes from Collider, […]

The post ‘Christmas Carol’ Musical ‘Spirited’ Adding Octavia Spencer Alongside Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell appeared first on /Film.

Guy Pearce will reunite with his “Mildred Pierce” co-star Kate Winslet for another upcoming HBO miniseries, “Mare of Easttown,” Variety has confirmed. Both Pearce and Winslet won Emmy awards in 2011 for their performances in the five-part adaptation, which garnered 21 nominations altogether and five wins.

Pearce is “The Crown” actor Ben Miles’ replacement for the role of Richard Ryan in the limited series, a visiting creative writing professor who wrote a National Book Award-winning novel 25 years ago, but has not lived up to his early potential. Miles left the show over a year ago due to scheduling conflicts. Pearce will co-star alongside Winslet, who plays Mare Sheehan, a small-town Pennsylvania detective whose life crumbles around her as she investigates a local murder.

“Mare of Easttown” will prominently focus on family and community. Winslet is one of its executive producers.

The series is a co-production between HBO and wiip, the CAA-backed independent studio headed by Paul Lee.

There have been dozens of movie adaptations of Charles Dickens’ classic story A Christmas Carol (with even more to come), but here’s one that puts a new spin on things. Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go), Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), and more are […]

The post ‘A Christmas Carol’, Featuring Andy Serkis, Daniel Kaluuya, and Carey Mulligan, Coming to U.S. Theaters appeared first on /Film.

Charles Dickens's classic novel, A Christmas Carol is one of the most adapted works of literature in human history, plain and simple. So it should come as no surprise that there are dozens of versions of its lead character, Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Related: 10 Christmas Movies That Were Considered Instant Classics On Release

Scrooge has become a part of the holiday season just as much as Rudolph, Frosty, or Santa Claus, and just like jolly old St. Nick, there are as many versions of the miserable miser scattered across media. Audiences certainly have more than their fair share to choose from, but the question is, which ones truly represent the version envisioned by the author all those centuries ago?...

Christmas Eve in Victorian London. While the poor shiver in snowy streets, a phantom menace stalks the fancy homes of the rich and shameless. Who you gonna call? Charles Dickens, of course, whose ghostbusting 1843 novella A Christmas Carol has been adapted, updated, rebooted and lovingly spoofed more than any other festive holiday classic. At least 70 big- and small-screen versions have been filmed to date alongside countless stage productions, operas, ballets, radio plays and graphic novels.

Billed as a “radical retelling,” this new artisan twist on A Christmas Carol from British writer-director duo Jacqui and David Morris is certainly ...

Christmas Eve in Victorian London. While the poor shiver in snowy streets, a phantom menace stalks the fancy homes of the rich and shameless. Who you gonna call? Charles Dickens, of course, whose ghostbusting 1843 novella A Christmas Carol has been adapted, updated, rebooted and lovingly spoofed more than any other festive holiday classic. At least 70 big- and small-screen versions have been filmed to date alongside countless stage productions, operas, ballets, radio plays and graphic novels.

Billed as a “radical retelling,” this new artisan twist on A Christmas Carol from British writer-director duo Jacqui and David Morris is certainly ...

CineLife Entertainment is handling the U.S. release of a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” with a British voice cast including Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya, Martin Freeman, Simon Russell Beale and Andy Serkis.

The film has been scheduled for more than 200 U.S. locations and will begin opening Dec. 4. through January. This retelling of the classic Christmas tale follows a Victorian family as they prepare a toy theater for their annual performance of “A Christmas Carol” with real dancers and stylized sets, with spoken narration.

The dance performances are led by former Royal Ballet first soloist and BalletBoyz founder Michael Nunn as Scrooge, Jakub Franasowicz, Russell Maliphant, Karl Fagerlund Brekke, Mikey Boats, Grace Jabbari and Dana Fouras. The UK release began in mid-November.

Made in association with Quickfire, Saboteur Media, Radioaktive Films, Darko Skulsky, Jane Yatsuta, Laurence Gornall, Anne Sheehan, Angus Neill and Clare Lee Davis serve...

In a perfect world, TV streaming services would offer a playlist feature – imagine the joyful nerdery of shareable Top 10 episode lists. When it came time for a Christmas binge-watch while you’re wrapping gifts, or spraying pine cones silver, or gently weeping and glugging Advocaat from the bottle, you could fire up hours of comedy specials without having to expend a single calorie of energy on touching the remote.

Until that glorious day comes, this is your next best thing. It’s a directory of the major US and UK 1990s-2010s sitcoms’ Christmas episodes, and where they’re available to stream. If you feel like grabbing your Frasier box set and going from Christmas 1993 to Christmas 2002, stopping at every feel-good Outlaw Laser Robo-Geek moment along the way, here’s the info you need.

Episodes are listed in chronological order, and we’ve tried to stick to Christmas-set stories only,...

Where do people get their personalities? Do parents play a part, or are such things somehow determined before birth? For centuries, doctors of psychology, doctors of philosophy and doctors of theology have contributed their thoughts on the subject, but the latest breakthrough comes from another kind of doctor entirely: Pete Docter, the big-idea Pixar brain behind outside-the-box toons “Inside Out” and “Up,” who takes a look deep inside and comes up with another intuitive, easy-to-embrace metaphor for — dare I say it — the meaning of life.

The result is “Soul,” a whimsical, musical and boldly metaphysical dramedy about what makes each and everybody tick, featuring a cast of characters who don’t have bodies at all. “Soul” opens with the death of its down-on-his-luck hero, middle school band teacher Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a frustrated pianist who aces a jazz band audition, then steps out into the street, where he narrowly...