Tag: Stage (1-10 of 229)

Dec 20 2011 03:59 PM ET

Christina Ricci to star in off-Broadway Shakespeare

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Christina Ricci’s stage debut last year apparently didn’t scare her off — she’s going back. Producers said Tuesday the Pan Am star will join two-time Tony Award winner Bebe Neuwirth in a Classic Stage Company production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The off-Broadway show will begin performances March 28 and play through May 6. Neuwirth will play the role of Titania. Ricci will have the role of Hermia.

Ricci made her Broadway debut last season in Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still, replacing Alicia Silverstone and starring opposite Laura Linney, Brian d’Arcy James and Eric Bogosian. Ricci burst onto the scene in 1990 as Cher’s daughter in Mermaids and has built a long list of film credits, including The Addams Family, The Ice Storm, Speed Racer and Penelope.

Dec 18 2011 02:31 PM ET

Vaclav Havel, playwright and anti-communist revolutionary, has died at 75

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Filed under: Books, News and tagged: , ,

Vaclav Havel wove theater into revolution, leading the charge to peacefully bring down communism in a regime he ridiculed as “Absurdistan” and proving the power of the people to overcome totalitarian rule. Shy and bookish, with a wispy mustache and unkempt hair, the dissident playwright was an unlikely hero of Czechoslovakia’s 1989 “Velvet Revolution” after four decades of suffocating repression — and of the epic struggle that ended the wider Cold War. He was his country’s first democratically elected president, leading it through the early challenges of democracy and its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, though his image suffered as his people discovered the difficulties of transforming their society.

A former chain-smoker who had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails, Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend home in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Tancevova said. His wife Dagmar and a nun who had been caring for him the last few months of his life were by his side, she said. He was 75.  READ FULL STORY »

Nov 10 2011 08:35 PM ET

'Spider-Man' actor hurt during Peter Parker debut

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Filed under: News and tagged: ,

An actor making his Broadway debut as Peter Parker during matinees of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has been injured during a performance but is expected to return to fly again.

Matthew James Thomas was rushed to a hospital after being hurt offstage during Act 2 on Wednesday afternoon. Show spokesman Rick Miramontez said Thursday he’ll be back for his next scheduled performance Saturday.

Reeve Carney plays Peter Parker during the week’s other six shows. He was at the theater and finished the performance. Details about Thomas’ injury weren’t immediately released.

Thomas’ injury was first reported by the New York Post.

It was just the latest in a series of accidents that have left several actors in the stunt-heavy $75 million show hurt or hospitalized.

Read more:
‘Spider-Man’ musical producers respond to Julie Taymor lawsuit
Julie Taymor sues over ‘Spider-Man’ musical

Nov 8 2011 09:01 PM ET

'Spider-Man' musical producers respond to Julie Taymor lawsuit

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Filed under: News and tagged: ,

In the wake of Julie Taymor’s lawsuit against the producers of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark – alleging her creative rights were violated when she was outsted from the show, and that she has not been compensated for her work — lead producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris have released the following statement:

Since Ms. Taymor’s departure in March, we have repeatedly tried to resolve these issues. The production has indeed compensated Ms. Taymor for her contribution as a co-book writer. Fortunately the court system will provide, once and for all, an opportunity to resolve this dispute. We look forward to a resolution in which everyone is properly compensated for their contribution to Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark.

Read more:
Julie Taymor sues over ‘Spider-Man’ musical
Julie Taymor says ‘Spider-Man’ harmed by Twitter, focus groups
EW’s official review of ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’

Nov 8 2011 03:09 PM ET

Julie Taymor sues over 'Spider-Man' musical

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Filed under: News and tagged: ,

Director Julie Taymor filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the producers of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, alleging they violated her creative rights and haven’t compensated her for the work she put into Broadway’s most expensive musical. Charles Spada, an attorney who filed the suit on behalf of the Tony Award-winning director, said Tuesday in a statement that “the producers’ actions have left her no choice but to resort to legal recourse to protect her rights.”

Rick Miramontez, the show’s spokesman, was not immediately aware of the lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York. Taymor was not available to comment. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 23 2011 10:19 AM ET

'How to Succeed' canceled after backstage overdose

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Filed under: News and tagged: , ,

Last night’s Broadway performance of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was canceled after a stagehand overdosed backstage and died, according to the New York Times. Police told the paper that the 29-year-old man — whose name is being withheld until his family can be notified — was found unconscious backstage just before the 8 p.m. show and pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital. The cast and crew ultimately decided they couldn’t perform, and stars Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette apologized to the audience from the stage.

Jun 3 2011 05:14 PM ET

Tony Kushner accepts honorary degree after 'anti-Israel' controversy

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Filed under: News and tagged: ,

Playwright Tony Kushner accepted the honorary degree from the City College of New York that had become a point of controversy several weeks ago when a member of the school’s board of trustees accused the Pulitzer-Prize winner of being “anti-Israel.” The board initially voted to deny Kushner the academic honor, but facing widespread criticism, the decision was reversed, opening the door for Kushner to accept the Doctor of Letters today and address the new graduates of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Calling the degree “the most interesting one I had to work hardest to get,” according to the Associated Press, Kushner, who is married to EW columnist Mark Harris, recognized the supporters who rallied against the accusation that he was an anti-Semite. “Behind [this honor] there stands a shining community of people, of spirits of whom I’m proud to be able to call myself kindred,” he said, “who believe in the necessity of honest exchanges of ideas and opinions, who understand that life is a struggle to synthesize, to find a balance between responsibility and freedom, strategy and truth, survival and ethical humanity.”

Read more:
Tony Kushner talks about his latest play, ‘The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures’

May 7 2011 01:15 AM ET

Sada Thompson of 'Family' dies at 83

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Filed under: News, TV and tagged: , ,
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Image Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images

Sada Thompson, the TV and stage actress best known for playing a no-nonsense mom in the ABC drama Family, died of lung disease, the Los Angeles Times reports. The actress, who lived in Southbury, Conn., was 83.

Thompson earned four Emmy nominations — and won in 1978 – for her memorable role as Kate Lawrence on Family. The immensely relatable drama, which also starred Meredith Baxter and Kristy McNichol, aired on ABC from 1976 to 1980.

Baxter, who played Thompson’s older daughter Nancy in the series, released this statement to the Times: “It saddens me greatly that she’s gone. She was a formidable teacher and a wonderful woman.  I admired her greatly.”

Thompson also earned Obie and Drama Desk awards for her role in “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” which opened off-Broadway in 1970. She made numerous TV appearances after Family made her a household name, including guest-starring roles in The Love Boat, Father Dowling Mysteries, Cheers and Law & Order.

May 5 2011 09:59 PM ET

Arthur Laurents, writer of 'West Side Story' and 'Gypsy,' has died at 93

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Filed under: Movies, News and tagged: , , ,
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Image Credit: Oliver Morris/Getty Images

Arthur Laurents — an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director who penned the books of watershed musicals West Side Story and Gypsy — died on Thursday due to complications from pneumonia. He was 93. (Deadline first broke the news.) Born in Brooklyn, Laurents wrote training films during World War II, and transitioned to playwriting after the war, finding his first success with 1945′s Home of the Brave, a play about anti-semitism in the armed services. His first major hits, though, were the musicals West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). Laurents directed Broadway revivals for both shows — Gypsy in 1974 and again in 1989 and 2008, and West Side Story in 2009, when he was 91. He won the Tony for Best Direction for the 1983 Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles.

In film, Laurents wrote the Alfred Hitchcock 1948 thriller Rope, which starred his then-lover Farley Granger, as well as the films Anastasia (1956), Bonjour tristesse (1958), The Way We Were (1973) and The Turning Point (1977), the last of which was nominated for Best Picture.

Most recently, Laurents had signed onto a prospective feature film version of Gypsy starring Barbra Streisand. His partner of over 50 years, actor and real estate developer Tom Hatcher, passed away in 2006.

Apr 26 2011 09:12 PM ET

Grammy Awards exec producer John Cossette dies at 54

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Filed under: Music, News and tagged: , ,

John Cossette, who produced many Grammy Awards and BET Awards telecasts over the last two decades, has passed away, his family announced today. He was 54. “We ask that you please respect our privacy during this incredibly emotional time,” Cossette’s wife Rita and daughters Maria and Rose said in their statement. “We appreciate everyone’s love and support.” Cossette also oversaw the re-opening of Radio City Music Hall, and is one of the producers of the current Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet.

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