Ed Battle News

William Gibson's The Miracle Worker is one of those rare serious American dramas you can call a real crowd-pleaser, as much as Oklahoma!, Hello, Dolly! or any other musical with an exclamation point at the end of its title.  Death of A Salesman?  Long Day's Journey Into Night?  Great dramas for sure, but not exactly crowd-pleasers.  Heck, we already know there's a happy ending.  It's called The Miracle Worker, for goodness sake.

TOYER by Gardner McKay has posted early closing notice at London's Arts Theater. The run will now end March 21. The production had originally been slated to run through April 11th. TOYER stars Al Weaver and Alice Krige. It is directed by William Schoular.

Is a night at the theater, simply that?an evening?s entertainment where you laugh, you cry, you kiss $15 bucks good-bye? Or should what happens on stage be an evolutionary experience, reality taken to a higher level? If the latter, check out the Vagabond Players' production of Harold Pinter's OLD TIMES now playing...

IMBD has a report that reveals that screen superstar Eddie Murphy has landed his dream role - portraying the late, great comedic icon Richard Pryor in a new bio film.

From March 13 to 22, The Club at La MaMa E.T.C. will present the U.S. premiere of 'Tonight: Lola Blau,' written and composed by Georg Kreisler, English version by Don White, directed by Dick Top (Holland), featuring Anna Kr?mer (Germany) as Lola. This U.S. premiere is an opportunity for NY audiences to savor one of Europe's 'big little' musicals and its unforgettable holocaust themes. The piece depicts a rising, charismatic, Dietrich-style cabaret singer who is forced to flee Austria because of her Jewish heritage, taking refuge in the U.S. She makes do with 'survival jobs' on Tin Pan Alley until her sensational return to her homeland after the war, when she discovers that nothing much has changed.

When a charming stranger appears at psychologist Maude's remote house in the LA hills one night, an innocent encounter soon becomes a sexually charged battle of wits. Al Weaver was cast as Hamlet in Trevor Nunn's Old Vic production in 2004 and appeared in the lead role in the National Theatre's Coram Boy. His film credits include Colour Me Kubrick, and The Merchant of Venice. Alice Krige is known to millions for her role as the Borg Queen in the film, Star Trek: First Contact. She received an Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her debut play Arms and the Man.

The Los Angeles Time reports that 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' 'The Dark Knight,' 'Frost/Nixon,' 'Milk' and 'Slumdog Millionaire' were nominated Monday for the Producers Guild of America's top award. The Envelope section of the LA Times website gives a detailed view of the entire list of nominees.

Variety reports that Ron Howard's 'Frost/Nixon' won best-feature honors at the Las Vegas Film Critics Society's Sierra Awards. 'Frost/Nixon' star Frank Langella earned two trophies, winning for best actor and the William Holden Lifetime Achievement Award.

The films 'Doubt' and 'Frost/Nixon' have been nominated for Critics Choice Awards, placing them in competition with 'The Reader,' 'Milk' and 'Slumdog Millionaire' for Best Picture.

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan's (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both: Frost/Nixon. Reprising their roles from Morgan's stageplay are Frank Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and Michael Sheen, who fully inhabited the part of Frost onstage in London and New York. The film opens in selected cities 12/5 and 12/12 with a nationwide release on Christmas Day.

The Canadian Stage Company opens its 2008/09 Bluma Appel Theatre season with Frost/Nixon, the 2007 Tony Award®-nominated play by Peter Morgan, award-winning author of The Last King of Scotland and The Queen. Tony Award®-winning stage and screen veteran Len Cariou (star of the original Broadway production of Sweeney Todd) plays the role of President Richard Nixon and is joined by David Storch (Canadian Stage's Lonesome West) as TV talk-show host David Frost. Three-time Dora Award-winner Ted Dykstra (Canadian Stage's Fire) directs. A co-production with Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, Frost/Nixon had its Canadian premiere September 18, 2008 in Vancouver. The production transfers to the Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto October 13 to November 8, 2008.

A co-production from the OBIE-winning HERE Arts Center and The Juggernaut Theatre Company, OH WHAT WAR will play Wednesday, September 10 - Saturday, October 4 at HERE Arts Center. Conceived and directed by Mallory Catlett, OH WHAT WAR is presented as part of HERE's 2008-09 mainstage season of new multi-disciplinary productions spanning theatre, dance, puppetry and multimedia works. Official Opening is Saturday, September 13 @ 7:30 PM. A fantasy of flagrant disobedience to authority, OH WHAT WAR, is underground entertainment performed by a band of deserters stuck in No Man's Land.

A co-production from the OBIE-winning HERE Arts Center and The Juggernaut Theatre Company, OH WHAT WAR will play Wednesday, September 10 - Saturday, October 4 at HERE Arts Center. Conceived and directed by Mallory Catlett, OH WHAT WAR is presented as part of HERE's 2008-09 mainstage season of new multi-disciplinary productions spanning theatre, dance, puppetry and multimedia works. Official Opening is Saturday, September 13 @ 7:30 PM. A fantasy of flagrant disobedience to authority, OH WHAT WAR, is underground entertainment performed by a band of deserters stuck in No Man's Land.