Daniel Craig News

Bette Midler, and her tree hugging troop at New York Restoration Project (NYRP), have been cleaning and greening New York City for nearly 15 years. In an effort to put the 'fun' back in fundraising, the organization has announced one of its biggest fundraising initiatives to date, with an online auction featuring once-in-a-lifetime celebrity experiences donated by Bette and her famed friends.

A STEADY RAIN, currently playing at The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway starring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, will dedicate the November 8th performance to The Actors Fund, granting proceeds to the fund in support of their programs and services. The curtain rises at 7:00pm.

Hugh Jackman, currently starring on Broadway opposite Daniel Craig in A STEAD RAIN, has declined the opportunity to host the Oscar telecast for a second straight year, Variety reports. Jackman was supposedly offered the job, but turned it down, as he begins preparing for his new role in the movie The Real Steel following his Broadway run, as previously reported.

Bette Midler, and her tree hugging troop at New York Restoration Project (NYRP), have been cleaning and greening New York City for nearly 15 years. In an effort to put the 'fun' back in fundraising, the organization has announced one of its biggest fundraising initiatives to date, with an online auction featuring once-in-a-lifetime celebrity experiences donated by Bette and her famed friends.

The world premiere of A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE, by Academy Award®- winning playwright Martin McDonagh will open on Broadway on Thursday, March 4, 2010. Directed by John Crowley (A Steady Rain), A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will be McDonagh's first play to originate on Broadway.

Chicago Dramatists announced today that Resident Playwright Lydia Diamond's play Stick Fly was nominated for 5 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards (including Best Production, Director, Ensemble, Lighting and Scenic) and Resident Playwright Keith Huff's play The Bird and Mr. Banks was also nominated for Ovation Awards for Best Actor for Sam Anderson (Bernard on 'Lost') and Best Sound Design.

Tony® Award-winner Liev Schreiber and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson, in her Broadway debut, will star in Arthur Miller's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE directed by Gregory Mosher on Broadway at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street). Performances begin Monday, December 28, 2009 and the official opening is Sunday, January 24, 2010. The limited engagement will run for 14 weeks only.

Audience members in the audience on Friday night at A Steady Rain have reported to BroadwayWorld.com that with Hugh Jackman acting as auctioneer, along with Daniel Craig, the pair auctioned off their undershirts for a total of $10,000 for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, with two matching $5,000 bids. Jackman did the same thing during his BOY FROM OZ days as part of BC/EFA's fundraising efforts.

CommanderBond.net reported on a YouTube video in which Daniel Craig revealed that the 23rd James Bond film will start production at the end of 2010. Just about at the one-minute mark, Craig says 'We start at the end of next year.'

Theater Talk, a weekly expose of American theater that airs on PBS Friday nights (PBS/Thirteen) and 5 times weekly on CUNY TV will feature Broadway heavyweights Michael Korie, Arthur Perlman, Neil Simon and more in it's upcoming broadcasts this fall.

With all of the recent talk of Broadway's seeming immunity to the economic downturn as it continues to enjoy a banner season with some its highest grosses in recent history, the New York Times points out in an article today that it cannot be overlooked that the pretty numbers peppering the gross charts are due in large to a small handful of starry shows carrying most of the weight. A Steady Rain starring heavyweights Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, God of Carnage starring Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden, and Hamlet featuring Jude Law are among the shows skewing the outlook, according to the times, as their unprecedented box office revenues rival those of the monster musical hits Wicked, Jersey Boys, and Billy Elliott.

The Public Theater, Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori presented COURAGE IN CONCERT, a one-night-only benefit concert reuniting Kevin Kline, Jenifer Lewis, Austin Pendleton, Meryl Streep and Frederick Weller for an evening of songs from the Public Theater's 2006 Shakespeare in the Park production of Brecht's masterpiece, Mother Courage and Her Children. The benefit was performed at The Public Theater on Monday, October 19th with all proceeds benefiting American Jewish World Service and Partners In Health.

The cast of HAIR along with special guests Daniel Craig, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Linda Emond, and Mike Nichols will complete the evening.

Variety reports this week that the Broadway hit, A Steady Rain starring powerhouse duo Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, broke it's own box office record last week, setting a new high in weekly gross sales for a non-musical production. Last week the production pulled in $1,276,106 in sales, with an the average ticket price of a startling $147. As standard ticket prices range from $66 - $140, this figure suggests that many more seats than usual are being sold at premium prices. This placed the production fourth on the comprehensive gross charts, landing after the moster hits Wicked, Billy Elliott and The Lion King.

The Play Company, one of New York's leading Off-Broadway theatre companies dedicated to new plays with an international perspective, will kick off its 10th anniversary season with an evening to benefit the company that includes a performance of the new play by Keith Huff, A STEADY RAIN starring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 W. 45 St.) on Thursday, October 15.

Noreen Heron & Associates, Inc., a public relations firm specializing in entertainment, is launching their first annual Chicago to New York tour scheduled the weekend of October 15th through October 18th, 2009.

Chicago Dramatists enters its 31st Season with the world premiere of Resident Playwright Mia McCullough's twisted comedy, Lucinda's Bed. Lucinda is six years old, and all she wants is to be good. But when the Monster under her bed introduces himself one night, Lucinda finds out that staying good will be harder than she thinks.

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Sunday, October 11, 2009.