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Opening Act, an organization dedicated to bringing free theater programs to underperforming New York City high schools, held their annual play reading benefit at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway on Monday to raise money for the organization. “[Opening Act] allows people like me and other amazing teaching artists to go and do professional work and then be able to bring that experience back into the classroom,” said Patrick Vassel, assistant director for “Magic/Bird.” “Opening Act does an amazing job of finding that middle ground where people can do both. It’s what’s best for kids because I can answer all their questions about being in a Broadway show.” The benefit included a silent auction and a reading of Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories” with Tony award-winners Laura Benanti (“Gypsy”) and Stockard Channing (“Other Desert Cities,” “The West Wing”). The production was directed by Michael Mastro (“West Side Story”).The witty and.

Tony Award winning actresses Stockard Channing Other Desert Cities, The West Wing andLaura Benanti Gypsy, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown will star in a one-night only reading of Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies Collected Stories to benefit Opening Act, an innovative nonprofit that provides free after-school theater programming to New York Citys most under-served public high schools.

In theater, they’re known as “two-handers”--a showcase duet for a pair of top-notch actors whose characters may initially represent a power imbalance, a different weight of experience or social ranking. Whether it’s teacher and student (Educating Rita), artist and acolyte (the recent Red), or mentor-guru and protege (Collected Stories, revived with Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson [Lavin’s role was originated by Uta Hagen]), shared confidences and bared resentments set up an intimate, tight-spaced dialectic--a sparring match that can escalate into a knock-down drag-out. So it couldn’t have been more apt for last night’s Mad Men to be set on the night of the momentous Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston championship fight...

Making for quite the glamorous evening in the Big Apple, the stars gathered together at Radio City Music Hall for the 2010 Tony Awards on Sunday night (June 13).

With Sean Hayes acting as the evening's host, big names such as Katie Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe, Beyonce and Jay-z, and Lea Michele all turned up for the annual Broadway event.

During the course of the evening, big winners included the lovely Scarlett Johansson as Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her work in "A View From a Bridge," as well as Denzel Washington as Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his stage duties in "Fences".

Also taking home trophies were Catherine Zeta Jones as Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for "A Little Night Music," along with "Red," which received the best play prize and five other trophies.

The complete list of...

Update: Sean Astin just signed with Brian Medavoy at his new company Jackson-Medavoy. After a lull, clients are on the move again. Among the most recent defections: Wme signed Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies, whose latest, the Laura Linney-starrer Time Stands Still, is Tony-nominated for Best Play. Margulies, who won his Pulitzer for Dinner With Friends, was repped by CAA. A revival of his play Collected Stories is also running on Broadway. Verve has signed Scott Kosar, whose genre script credits include The Crazies, The Machinist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Kosar, who'd been with CAA, has Verve working on financing and cast [...]...

Here’s the easiest prediction to make about this year’s Tony Awards, which will be presented June 13 at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall: Host Sean Hayes will almost certainly make some reference to the hullabaloo about being too gay to play a straight man in the musical Promises, Promises. The CBS broadcast will also have an excuse to present a production number from his show even though it didn’t snag a nomination for Best Revival of a Musical. (There’s talk that the show will open with a medley of “pop songs you might not know are on Broadway.

Though the economy was still in dire straits, Broadway carried on during the 2009-10 season, with visits from such high-voltage marquee names as Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Christopher Walken, Denzel Washington, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Liev Schreiber, and Scarlett Johansson. A little group called Green Day rocked Broadway's world with the stage adaptation of the band's hit album "American Idiot," Twyla Tharp paid tribute to Frank Sinatra in "Come Fly Away," and Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins formed a "Million Dollar Quartet." "Fela!," Bill T. Jones' combination dance party, concert, and musical biography, transferred to the Main Stem from its Off-Broadway run, as did Geoffrey Nauffts' tender and moving play "Next Fall." "Red" and "Time Stands Still" offered searing portraits of artists coping with crises, while Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room or the vibrator play" captured the repressive Victorian era. Broadway fare also...

Four-time Emmy champ Valerie Harper is contending for her first Tony Award this year for her lead performance in the play "Looped." Though Harper garnered rave reviews for her portrayal of theatrical diva Talullah Bankhead, the New York critics were less kind to this new work by Matthew Lombardo ("Tea at Five"), and the Broadway run ended in April. Harper's rivals are Viola Davis ("Fences"), Linda Lavin ("Collected Stories"), Laura Linney ("Time Stands Still") and Jan Maxwell ("The Royal Family"). Davis is competing in a role that won Mary Alice the featured-actress Tony for the original production of "Fences" in 1987, when Lavin -- who shares many theatrical connections with Harper -- prevailed in the...

Current Promises, Promises Tony nominee and past Will & Grace Emmy winner Sean Hayes will host June 13's 64th annual Tony Awards ceremony, CBS - which will broadcast the show live from Radio City Music Hall - announced Monday. The Tonys honor Broadway's best. This year's top nominees include the musicals Fela!" and La Cage aux Folles, with 11 nods each, and the revival of the drama Fences, starring Denzel Washington, with 10. "I am absolutely thrilled to be hosting the Tony Awards," Hayes, 39, said in a statement. "As the new guy on Broadway, it's an honor to be included in the established alumni.

Bespectacled Donald Marguiles looks like a writer out of central casting. And as a playwright, he is indeed pleased. When you write for theater, he said the morning after the Tony Award nominations were announced, as opposed to film or television, where the hope is the writer will recede into the woodwork, everyone works to portray your vision. His play Time Stands Still garnered important Tony nominations for the fine Laura Linney and the play itself. Of course it is bewildering what gets picked, what doesn't. Brian D'Arcy James, for example, said the playwright, is Broadway's Best Kept Secret. A revival of his Collected Stories has Linda Lavin a contender with Linney for the Best Actress in a Play award. The two-woman drama about a prominent writer and her student begins with the younger woman's sycophantic attentions to the older one...

There are so many movie and television faces nominated for the Tony Award this year that one begins to worry about how any stateside stage actor can earn a living. The answer, appears to be get famous in another medium in order to get plum stage roles.

Jude Law (Hamlet) is equally at home on screen or stage

This can work against the audience, this self destructive drive to only see the familiar, if it robs them of great stage trained actors in meaty roles. But thankfully this isn't a problem with actors who are adept at changing their "scale" for any medium. Take The Lovely Laura Linney, for instance, who no one would dare accuse of being out of her element whether she's on the silver screen, the living room telly or treading the boards on Broadway.

Lead Actor in a Play

Jude Law, Hamlet

Alfred Molina, Red

Liev Schreiber,...

Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge's "La Cage aux Folles" musical and Broadway show "Fela!" are leading the way at this year's Tony Awards after scooping 11 nominations each. "Fela!", about the life of revered African world music star Fela Kuti, will go up against Green Day's "American Idiot", "Memphis", and "Million Dollar Quartet" in the coveted Best Musical category at the 64th annual prizegiving, which honors the best on Broadway.

Meanwhile, Grammer and Hodge, who star as a camp gay couple in "La Cage", will compete against Sean Hayes ("Promises, Promises"), Chad Kimball ("Memphis)" and Sahr Ngaujah ("Fela!") for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. The evening is sure to be a star-studded event, with Hollywood actors Jude Law ("Hamlet"), Alfred Molina ("Red"), Liev Schreiber ("A View From the Bridge"), Christopher Walken ("A Behanding in Spokane") and Denzel Washington ("Fences") pitted against each other for the...

Broadway hit it big this season with even bigger stars that included marquee names like High Jackman, Daniel Craig, Scarlett Johansson, Denzel Washington, Catherine Zeta-Jones and much more.

The nominations for the Tony awards were narrowed down on Tuesday morning (May 4) by the American Theatre Wing that began with Fela!, about Nigerian Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kutie, as well as La Cage Aux Folles, that included Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge, which had 11 nominations.

Also taking bids for awards was August Wilson’s Fences, which starred Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, and received 10 nominations.

In leading actor in play, Lieve Schriber in A View from the Bride and Christopher Walken in Martin McDonaugh’s A Behanding in Spokane square off for top honors.

In leading actresses, Viola Davis, Valerie Harper, Linda Lavin, Laura Lenney and Jan Maxwell were all nominated. Best play nominations went to In the Next Room, Next Fall,...

One has to hand it to the Tony nominators: They didn't follow conventional wisdom nor did they particularly pay heed to commercial considerations.

Indeed, some of the biggest noms went to shows that are either long gone ("Ragtime," "Finian's Rainbow," "In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play," "Time Stands Still") or lagging at the boxoffice ("Fela!" "Memphis," "Next Fall," "Million Dollar Quartet").

The biggest surprises Tuesday were the omissions.

"The Addams Family," the most successful new musical of the season, was thoroughly dissed, failing to get noms for best musical, for its stars Nathan Lane or Bebe Neuwirth, or even for its production design. And though it did get one for original score, that's not exactly a coup in a season in which only one other musical, "Memphis," even had one. The category had to be embarrassingly filled out with the forgettable music from "Enron" and Branford Marsalis' incidental music for "Fences.

Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge's La Cage Aux Folles musical and Broadway show Fela! are leading the way at this year's Tony Awards after scooping 11 nominations each.

Fela!, about the life of revered African world music star Fela Kuti, will go up against Green Day's American Idiot, Memphis, and Million Dollar Quartet in the coveted Best Musical category at the 64th annual prizegiving, which honours the best on Broadway.

Meanwhile, Grammer and Hodge, who star as a camp gay couple in La Cage, will compete against Sean Hayes (Promises, Promises), Chad Kimball (Memphis) and Sahr Ngaujah (Fela!) for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.

The evening is sure to be a star-studded event, with Hollywood actors Jude Law (Hamlet), Alfred Molina (Red), Liev Schreiber (A View from the Bridge), Christopher Walken (A Behanding in Spokane) and Denzel Washington (Fences) pitted against each other for the Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play award.

Washington's co-star Viola Davis will battle it out in the category for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, against Valerie Harper (Looped), Linda Lavin (Collected Stories), Laura Linney (Time Stands Still) and Jan Maxwell (The Royal Family).

Catherine Zeta-Jones (A Little Night Music), Kate Baldwin (Finian's Rainbow), Sherie Rene Scott (Everyday Rapture), Montego Glover (Memphis) and Christiane Noll (Ragtime) received nods for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, and Scarlett Johansson's Broadway debut in A View from the Bridge has earned her a nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.

Nominations for Best Play include In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Next Fall, Red and Time Stands Still.

The winners will be announced on 13 June at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The main list of nominees is as follows:

Best Play:

In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)

Next Fall

Red

Time Stands Still

Best Musical:

American Idiot

Fela!

Memphis

Million Dollar Quartet

Best Book of a Musical:

Everyday Rapture - Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott

Fela! - Jim Lewis & Bill T. Jones

Memphis - Joe Dipietro

Million Dollar Quartet - Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre:

The Addams Family - Music & Lyrics: Andrew Lippa

Enron - Music: Adam Cork, Lyrics: Lucy Prebble

Fences - Music: Branford Marsalis

Memphis - Music: David Bryan, Lyrics: Joe Dipietro, David Bryan

Best Revival of a Play:

Fences

Lend Me a Tenor

The Royal Family

A View from the Bridge

Best Revival of a Musical:

Finian's Rainbow

La Cage aux Folles

A Little Night Music

Ragtime

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play:

Jude Law - Hamlet

Alfred Molina - Red

Liev Schreiber - A View from the Bridge

Christopher Walken - A Behanding in Spokane

Denzel Washington - Fences

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play:

Viola Davis - Fences

Valerie Harper - Looped

Linda Lavin - Collected Stories

Laura Linney - Time Stands Still

Jan Maxwell - The Royal Family

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical:

Kelsey Grammer - La Cage aux Folles

Sean Hayes - Promises, Promises

Douglas Hodge - La Cage aux Folles

Chad Kimball - Memphis

Sahr Ngaujah - Fela!

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical:

Kate Baldwin - Finian's Rainbow

Sherie Rene Scott - Everyday Rapture

Montego Glover - Memphis

Christiane Noll - Ragtime

Catherine Zeta-Jones - A Little Night Music

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play:

David Alan Grier - Race

Stephen McKinley Henderson - Fences

Jon Michael Hill - Superior Donuts

Stephen Kunken - Enron

Eddie Redmayne - Red

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play:

Maria Dizzia - In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)

Rosemary Harris - The Royal Family

Jessica Hecht - A View from the Bridge

Scarlett Johansson - A View from the Bridge

Jan Maxwell - Lend Me a Tenor

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical:

Kevin Chamberlin - The Addams Family

Robin De Jesus - La Cage aux Folles

Christopher Fitzgerald - Finian's Rainbow

Levi Kreis - Million Dollar Quartet

Bobby Steggert - Ragtime

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical:

Barbara Cook - Sondheim on Sondheim

Katie Finneran - Promises, Promises

Angela Lansbury - A Little Night Music

Karine Plantadit - Come Fly Away

Lillias White - Fela!

Best Direction of a Play:

Michael Grandage - Red

Sheryl Kaller - Next Fall

Kenny Leon - Fences

Gregory Mosher - A View from the Bridge

Best Direction of a Musical:

Christopher Ashley - Memphis

Marcia Milgrom Dodge - Ragtime

Terry Johnson - La Cage aux Folles

Bill T. Jones - Fela!

Best Choreography

Rob Ashford - Promises, Promises

Bill T. Jones - Fela!

Lynne Page - La Cage aux Folles

Twyla Tharp - Come Fly Away

Best Orchestrations:

Jason Carr - La Cage aux Folles

Aaron Johnson - Fela!

Jonathan Tunick - Promises, Promises

Daryl Waters & David Bryan - Memphis

Best Scenic Design of a Play

John Lee Beatty - The Royal Family

Alexander Dodge - Present Laughter

Santo Loquasto - Fences

Christopher Oram - Red

Best Scenic Design of a Musical:

Marina Draghici - Fela!

Christine Jones - American Idiot

Derek McLane - Ragtime

Tim Shortall - La Cage aux Folles

Best Costume Design of a Play:

Martin Pakledinaz - Lend Me a Tenor

Constanza Romero - Fences

David Zinn - In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)

Catherine Zuber - The Royal Family

Best Costume Design of a Musical:

Marina Draghici - Fela!

Santo Loquasto - Ragtime

Paul Tazewell - Memphis

Matthew Wright - La Cage aux Folles

Best Lighting Design of a Play:

Neil Austin - Hamlet

Neil Austin - Red

Mark Henderson - Enron

Brian MacDevitt - Fences

Best Lighting Design of a Musical:

Kevin Adams - American Idiot

Donald Holder - Ragtime

Nick Richings - La Cage aux Folles

Robert Wierzel - Fela!

Best Sound Design of a Play:

Acme Sound Partners - Fences

Adam Cork - Enron

Adam Cork - Red

Scott Lehrer - A View from the Bridge

Best Sound Design of a Musical:

Jonathan Deans - La Cage aux Folles

Robert Kaplowitz - Fela!

Dan Moses Schreier and Gareth Owen - A Little Night Music

Dan Moses Schreier - Sondheim on Sondheim

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre:

Alan Ayckbourn

Marian Seldes

Regional Theatre Tony Award:

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Waterford, Connecticut

Isabelle Stevenson Award:

David Hyde Pierce

Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre:

Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York

B.H. Barry

Tom Viola...

Although the Tony Awards honor Broadway productions, plenty of familiar faces from film and TV are among those receiving nods.

Among them are Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber for "A View From the Bridge," Christopher Walken for "A Behanding in Spokane," Kelsey Grammer for "La Cage aux Folles," Catherine Zeta-Jones for "A Little Night Music" and Laura Linney for "Time Stands Still."

Overall, "Fela!" and "La Cage aux Folles" tied for the most nominations with 11 apiece.

The Tony Awards show will air June 13 on CBS.

The full list of nominees:

Best musical

"American Idiot"

"Fela!"

"Memphis"

"Million Dollar Quartet"

Best play

"In the Next Room"

"Next Fall"

"Red"

"Time Stands Still"

Best performance by a leading actor in a play

Jude Law, "Hamlet"

Alfred Molina, "Red"

Liev Schreiber, "A View From the Bridge"

Christopher Walken, "A Behanding in Spokane"

Denzel Washington, "Fences"

Best performance by a leading actress in a play

Viola Davis,...

Theatre’s highest honor – Broadway’s Oscar equivalent – unveiled its nominations for the 64th Annual Tony Awards.; and it’s quite “colorful,” if you catch my drift, thanks to strong runs by 3 productions, namely, David Mamet’s Race, Fela!, the musical, and the revival of August Wilson’s Fences. I’m privileged to say that I saw all 3 productions and enjoyed them!

Notable nods include Fela! for Best Musical, Fences for Best Revival Of A Play, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis for Best Performance by a Leading Actor & Actress in a Play (both for Fences), Sahr Ngaujah (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, for Fela!), Montego Glover (Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Memphis), David Alan Grier (Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play, for Race), Lillias White (Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, for Fela!), Kenny Leon (Best Direction of a Play,...

One thing not lacking on Broadway this season was star power - with such marquee names as Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber, Denzel Washington, Justin Bartha, Alicia Silverstone, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christopher Walken, Jude Law, Sienna Miller Sean Hayes, Kelsey Grammer, Laura Linney and even Uncle Fester from The Addams Family packing in the crowds. As for who among them will take home the Tony, the selection process narrowed Tuesday morning with the announcement of nominations by the American Theatre Wing, with the stirring musical Fela!, about Nigerian Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and the moving revival of La Cage Aux Folles,...

New York – Star wattage will burn bright at the 2010 Tony Awards with Denzel Washington, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kelsey Grammer among those receiving nominations Tuesday.Washington and Law were each cited for best actor performances in "Fences" and "Hamlet," respectively. Zeta-Jones was nominated for best performance by a leading actress in a musical, "A Little Night Music," and Grammer was nominated for lead actor in a musical, "La Cage aux Folles.""Fela!" — nominated for best musical — and "La Cage aux Folles," nominated for the best musical revival, each received 11 nominations, followed by "Fences" with 10 nods.Nominated for best play were "In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)" by Sarah Ruhl; "Next Fall," by Geoffrey Nauffts; "Red," by John Logan, and "Time Stands Still," by Donald Margulies.Best musical nominations went to Green Day's "American Idiot"; "Memphis"; "Million Dollar Quartet," and "Fela!"The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford,...

Not even a bomb scare in Times Square can put a damper on the close of the Broadway season. Nominations for the Tony Awards will be announced tomorrow morning and look for the awards to recognize some -- though not all -- of the celeb-filled shows that have dominated the Great White Way's box office this year. Sorry, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. You may have sold out your limited run in the cop drama A Steady Rain last fall, but we can't picture you in the Tony nominee lineup this year. However, you can expect director Kenny Leon's...

You've seen who the "experts" predict will be nominated for the Tony Awards when bids are unveiled on Tuesday. Now heed the prophesy of some real pros -- three of our forum posters: Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night and Sorano916. See more of their views in our Tonys forum. Best Play

"Enron" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night

"Next Fall" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"Red" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"Superior Donuts" – Sorano916

"Time Stands Still" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916 Best Musical

"American Idiot" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"Come Fly Away" – Dr. McPhearson

"Everyday Rapture" – Sorano916

"Fela!" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"Memphis" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"Sondheim on Sondheim" – Royal Night Best Revival Of A Play

"Fences" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"Lend Me a Tenor" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"Royal Family" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano916

"A View From the Bridge" – Dr. McPhearson, Royal Night, Sorano...

A bevy of new shows opened on Broadway over the past week, as New York's theater season winds down before the cut-off for Tony Award eligibility. Nominations will be announced this Tuesday in advance of the June 13 show. On that note, the Denzel Washington and Viola Davis-led revival of August Wilson's Fences (the stars are pictured at left, with Chris Chalk) looks like it may land itself some Tony nods, for Best Play Revival as well as stars Davis and Washington. Melissa Rose Bernardo reviewed the show for EW, giving it mostly good marks and a B grade overall,...

Rave reviews for her performance in "Collected Stories" could win Linda Lavin her second Tony Award as best actress in a play. The revival of this 1997 Pulitzer Prize finalist from Donald Margulies stars Lavin as a respected writer battling a onetime protege (Sarah Paulson) who has found fame by fictionalizing one of the older woman's love affairs. Lavin, a longtime stage star before TV's "Alice" turned her into a household name, appeared opposite Samantha Mathis in a 1999 production of "Collected Stories" in Los Angeles, and the pair reunited in 2002 for a TV version that aired on PBS. Lavin's strongest competition may well be three-time Emmy champ Laura Linney, who recently finished an...

Green Day's punk-rock opera American Idiot power-chorded its way onto Broadway this week, but the critical reception was all over the map. EW's Leah Greenblatt gave the show a solid B. Her review fell somewhere between the New York Times' rave and New York Magazine's pan, concluding that "Purists on either side of the punk/Broadway divide will likely feel under-served by the mix, but for fans of both (and the ecstatic crowd seemed full of them), the evening offers a chaotic, cathartic experience." Green Day purists might be happier if the band decides to make frequent surprise appearances on stage at the St.

We're heading into the final stretch before the April 30 cut-off for Tony Award eligibility, but this week's only opening is the jukebox musical Million Dollar Quartet, based on a real-life jam session in 1956 with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. EW's Clark Collis gives the show a B-, noting, "One can't help wondering if the City of Sin would also be a better venue for this lightweight show." Meanwhile, producers announced plans to bring South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker's first stage musical, The Book of Mormon, to Broadway next March. Robert Lopez,...

After a Chicago run that garnered mixed reviews, the much-ballyhooed Addams Family musical, starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, finally opened on Broadway this past Thursday. EW's Thom Geier thought it was worthy of a B grade—he both praised it, saying "the look is perfect, from the lavish set to the monochromatic makeup and costumes," and poked a little fun at it, remarking that "if you have a high tolerance for corn on the macabre, this is the show for you." Lane, it appears, knows how to milk a punchline. Elsewhere in NYC, the Stanley Tucci-directed revival of...

The Broadway season is kicking into high gear. Though two new shows will be closing prematurely this weekend -- there was no box office miracle for The Miracle Worker or the Dame Edna-Michael Feinstein collaboration All About Me - the next month brings a steady stream of openings. (And I'm not even counting the announcement that Sherie Rene Scott's autobiographical musical Everyday Rapture will be filling the Megan Mullally-size hole left in the Roundabout Theatre's slate by the cancellation of Lips Together, Teeth Apart.) This week, the artistic biodrama Red opened to mostly plaudits, including an...

Starting yesterday, Frank Sinatra made a grand return to New York City. Well, his undeniable influence truly never really left the city, but the stage musical by famed choreographer Twyla Tharp (Movin' Out) that uses all of his songs opened at Broadway's Marquis Theatre to much fanfare. And strong reviews! Including mine, where I gave it an A– and said that the dance-infused show was "escapism at its best" and, overall, "a delicious love note to Ol' Blue Eyes." If you like dance and Sinatra -- and who doesn't? -- this is the show for you. Also opening this week were two plays.

Cabaret regular Michael Feinstein and campy Australian songbird Dame Edna Everage (the alter ego of Barry Humphries) join forces for a new Broadway show, All About Me, which opened this week to mostly middling reviews. "Aside from a few bright spots, All About Me is essentially two one-person shows glued together. Mediocrity ensues," writes EW's Jessica Shaw in her B- review. Valerie Harper wins praise for her portrayal of the tabloid-friendly mid-20th-century actress Tallulah Bankhead in the Broadway comic drama Looped. "Harper barrels gaily into the role, outfoxing any drag queen who might have coveted the part," writes Lisa Schwarzbaum,...

This week saw the London opening of Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber's eagerly awaited sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. EW's Mark Shenton described the show as "frequently clunky and clumsy," with a score "that seems like a rehashed parade of pastiche and throbbing crashing-chord melodies." (He gives it a C.) Back in New York City, a new musical by John Kander and Frank Ebb (the renowned composer and lyricist of classics such as Chicago and Cabaret) opened Off Broadway: The Scottsboro Boys depicts the true story of nine African Americans falsely convicted of raping two white women.

It was another busy week on the boards, as a handful of new shows opened. One of the most notable, of course, was Abigail Breslin's Broadway debut as a young Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, which EW's Lisa Schwarzbaum awarded a B–. Schwarzbaum lauded Breslin (at left, with costar Alison Pill) for being "impressively un-actressy in the showcase role." Meanwhile, EW's Thom Geier reviewed A Behanding in Spokane and gave it a B+, calling its star Christopher Walken "the ideal leading man." Also opening was the meta-theatrical Shakespearean homage, Equivocation, which Melissa Rose Bernardo thought worthy of a...

This past week, off-Broadway production The Pride, an exploration of gay culture past and present starring Hugh Dancy and Ben Whishaw (at left), opened. EW's Thom Geier awarded the production a B and said that it "grabs you with it's considerable intelligence and heart." Meanwhile, another off-Broadway show, A Lie of the Mind—a revival which is directed by Ethan Hawke and stars Laurie Metcalf and Keith Carradine—hit the boards. EW's Jeff Labrecque lauded Hawke for assembling "a marvelous combination of players to torment each other and resurrect the spellbinding uneasiness of the original" before awarding it a grade...

Annette Bening returned to the stage of L.A.'s Geffen Playhouse for the second time in six months this week, opening in Joanna Murray-Smith's farcical new play The Female of the Species. In her C+ review of the production, our critic Whitney Pastorek says the playwright "has a breezy way with one-liners.... but plot mechanics aren't really her thing." If you're looking for some live theater, check out the EW.com Stage hub for up-to-date news and reviews; or consult this handy guide below, which includes links to all of our stage reviews of current shows. (Note: The...

The past week was slow, in terms of new stage openings, so we thought it'd be fun to tout—and point you back toward—our recent chat with the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones, who's starring in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music as diva actress Desirée Armfeldt until June. (EW gave the very solid A Little Night Music a B+ when it opened back in December.) Zeta-Jones talked to EW about her current stint starring on Broadway, including everything from the time she made up her own Sondheim lyrics to the teeny-tiny size of her dressing room at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

We all know the pressures women are under in our society: to look young, thin, and beautiful forever, even more so if they're actors, especially in Hollywood. But what about the craft itself? How do older women relate to the ages of their characters? And what do they know now about the craft of acting that they didn't know when they were younger?Commit and BelieveKathleen Chalfant, a 65-year-old New York–based stage, film, and TV actor, says, "I don't have anything like as many theories about acting as I used to. If you commit to the character and believe what you're doing, audiences will believe almost anything." That goes for playing older than yourself. Last season Chalfant played a 96-year-old Armenian woman, without age makeup, in the play "Red Dog Howls" in Los Angeles. "I suppose I slightly accentuated it, but not all the time," she says of the character's age,...

After a slow start to the year, in terms of new theater offerings, the boards welcomed several new productions in the past week. First, and probably foremost, was the revival of Arthur Miller's play A View From the Bridge (at left), a dark drama starring Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber as niece and uncle, that EW's Thom Geier awarded a B+. Geier mostly lauded Schreiber, saying the show "pivots on Schreiber, as it must, and he's more than up to the task," while remarking that Johansson "struggles a bit on what to do with her hands, but otherwise acquits...

In case you haven't heard, Pee-wee Herman is currently making quite the comeback! Specifically, right now, Paul Reubens is staging a show in L.A. with his former childlike-but-grown-up persona as the subject. EW's Adam B. Vary reviewed the production, awarding it a B grade and saying that, while watching, "feelings of goodwill for Pee-wee Herman come rushing back." Meanwhile, back in New York City, a revival of Noël Coward's play Present Laughter, starring Victor Garber as narcissistic stage legend Garry Essendine, opened. "For the most part, however," I said in my review of the show," Present Laughter lives up to its name.

We finally caught up with the Off Broadway hit Circle Mirror Transformation (pictured at left) and boy are we glad that we did. Ditto for the reinvention of the David Lean movie Brief Encounter that wraps up this weekend at Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse. These little shows are both stunners...and will certainly tide us over until the coming wave of big openings. (We're particularly excited about The Pee-Wee Herman Show in L.A. -- you can read more about the plans for the production in the profile of Paul Reubens in this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly.) If you're looking for some live theater,...

In December, David Cromer's production of the Off Broadway play Our Town (pictured at left) became the longest running version of the show ever, so we here at EW urge you to take a look at our just-posted review of the production—and consider heading to downtown NYC to give it a gander. It's worth it, as EW's Tanner Stransky gave the production an A- and called it "incredibly moving." Because of the recent holidays, few new shows have been opening on the boards in NYC. But if you're looking for some live theater, check out the EW.com...

With the holiday season upon us, new stage openings are sparse. What's worse, audiences have been sparse at several of this season's new shows. This week brought closing notices for two well-reviewed revivals, Finian's Rainbow (final performance Jan. 17) and Ragtime (pictured at left; final show Jan. 10). On the other hand, we received casting news on some upcoming productions (The Hangover's Justin Bartha in for T.R. Knight in the Broadway revival of Lend Me a Tenor) -- as well as word that Martin Sheen will return to the stage in February (at L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum) in a...

Kandis Chappell and Melanie Lora take on the celebrated roles of Professor Ruth Steiner and Lisa Morrison in Donald Margulies? Collected Stories at South Coast Repertory. Margulies? Pulitzer Prize-nominated play about two women writers at opposite stages of their careers is one of Scr?s best-known commissions and has achieved worldwide success. Directed by Artistic Director Martin Benson, Collected Stories will run from May 15 through June 14, 2009 on the Segerstrom Stage. Low-priced previews are available from May 15 through May 21. Opening night is May 22. Press night is Saturday, May 23 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets to Collected Stories may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the Scr box office.

'Variations' on a ThemeColin Hanks and Samantha Mathis on turning points, Jane Fonda, and famous parentsBy Simi HorwitzColin Hanks and Samantha Mathis admit that the chance to appear on a Broadway stage with Jane Fonda was a major draw. So was performing in a work written and directed by Moisés Kaufman (Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde). From the outset they knew 33 Variations would be a high-profile production and scrutiny would be intense — especially for Hanks, who is making his Broadway debut and whose father is Tom Hanks. Mathis also hails from an industry family. Her late mother is the well-known television actor Bibi Besch, and her grandmother Gusti Huber starred in the original Broadway productions of The Diary of Anne Frank and Dial M for Murder. Hanks and Mathis take their family backgrounds in stride. At least that's how they come off when they talk about their famous parents — the advantages,...

The Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) production of Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) by Donald Margulies, a story-telling adventure suitable for all ages from the author of Sight Unseen, Collected Stories and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends, in its New York Premiere, ends its limited engagement Saturday, March 7, 2009.W...

rimary Stages (Casey Childs, Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) presents the Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) by Donald Margulies, a story-telling adventure suitable for all ages from the author of Sight Unseen, Collected Stories and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends, in its New York Premiere. Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) by Donald Margulies began performances January 27, 2009 for a limited run through Saturday, March 7, 2009, at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Opening night is today, Sunday, February 8, 2009.

Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) presents the Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) by Donald Margulies, a story-telling adventure suitable for all ages from the author of Sight Unseen, Collected Stories and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends, in its New York Premiere. Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) by Donald Margulies began performances January 27, 2009 for a limited run through Saturday, March 7, 2009, at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Opening night is Sunday, February 8, 2009.

Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) continues the second half of their 24th season with Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) by Donald Margulies, a story-telling adventure suitable for all ages from the author of Sight Unseen, Collected Stories and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends, in its New York Premiere. Mr. Margulies returns to Primary Stages where his play The Model Apartment won an Obie Award for Playwriting.