Laurence Olivier News

Grease, the satirical Broadway hit that launched the movie musical sensation starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, will be at Wells Fargo Pavilion from June 26 - July 1. With book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, Grease will get the 2012 Music Circus season off to a singing, dancing, high energy start.

Obie Award winning director Austin Pendleton is now joined by playwright Marcy Lafferty for talkbacks for Mississippi Mud Productions reprise of her stunning play, VIVIEN LEIGH: THE LAST PRESS CONFERENCE, in New York, NY, July 6, 7, & 9, 2012 at the Alexander Technique Center For Performance And Development, 330 West 38th Street, Suite 805.

After auditioning performers in New York City, Los Angeles and Sacramento, California Musical Theatre Artistic Director Glenn Casale has announced casting for the 62nd Music Circus season, including celebrated stage and screen stars as well as audience favorites from previous Music Circus seasons. The five-show season at the Wells Fargo Pavilion includes Grease, Disney's The Little Mermaid, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof and Crazy for You.

The groundbreaking and internationally acclaimed dance company Pilobolus today unveiled a behind-the-scenes trailer of its all-new work, Automaton. Watch the video below! The piece will have its New York premiere as part of Pilobolus's 2012 Joyce Theater engagement, from July 16 through August 11.

Trevor Nunn will direct the Old Vic and Chichester Festival Theatre's production of KISS ME, KATE, with Music and lyrics by Cole Porter and Book by Sam and Bella Spewack, which is scheduled for London performances from the 20th of November and a Chichester premiere in June.

This autumn Ken Stott, Anna Friel and Samuel West are united together on stage for the first time in one of Anton Chekhov's undisputed masterpieces, Uncle Vanya. Adapted by Christopher Hampton, Uncle Vanya uniquely blends sparkling wit and earthy humour to brilliant comic effect. Directed by Lindsay Posner with designs by Christopher Oram, this new production opens at the Vaudeville Theatre on 2 November 2012 with previews from 24 October.

Disney Theatrical Productions and SHN announced today that tickets for the long-awaited return engagement of Disney's THE LION KING will go on sale to the public today, June 8 at 7 am.Disney's THE LION KING returns to San Francisco for the first time since its triumphant 43 week run at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in 2004. THE LION KING will play an 11 week engagement at the SHN Orpheum Theatre beginning November 1 through January 13, 2013.

The Hurly Burly Girlys are back in town with a bigger, bolder, sexier new show for a summer season of deliciously bawdy fun.

John Tiffany is this year's recipient of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for ONCE.

Today we are shining a light on one of the most respected and revered stage and screen stars of the last several decades who is known the world over for not only his stirring and commanding dramatic performances and touching and rib-tickling comedies on film, but also for his iconic roles on the stage playing Shakespeare, and, perhaps most of all, for his essaying of Captain Von Trapp in the celebrated Robert Wise film adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Tony Award-winning THE SOUND OF MUSIC - the elegant, graceful and eminently gifted Christopher Plummer. Looking back at a career spanning nearly seven decades, today we will focus on Plummer's most important and most fondly remembered roles to date - ranging from Sidney Lumet's STAGE STRUCK in 1958 to his Shakespeare stage work, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER, TV's THE THORN BIRDS, and, of course, his Academy Award-winning turn in last year's BEGINNERS - with a look ahead to the exceptionally enticing new Fathom in-cinema presentation of Des McAnuff's Stratford Shakespeare Festival production of THE TEMPEST starring Plummer as Prospero, in movie theaters nationwide on June 14 - what the 83-year-old actor has promised will be his final Shakespeare performance onstage. So, if there were ever a time to take a look back at one of the most remarkable Broadway/Hollywood crossover stars of the last century or the current one as he reaches yet another peek in a career populated with many highs, now is certainly the time! After all, as the oldest Oscar-winner to date, a midsummer night's dream has evidently quite quickly turned to a winter's tale - but with sound and fury signifying much, as we will see.

Ten Chimneys Foundation has announced the ten actors who will participate in the 2012 Lunt- Fontanne Fellowship Program, a widely acclaimed national program to serve the future of American theatre. July 22-29, the Lunt-Fontanne Fellows will join Broadway legend Joel Grey for an intensive, weeklong master class and immersion experience at Ten Chimneys, the National Historic Landmark estate of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin.

Ten Chimneys Foundation has announced that Washington, D.C. actors E. Faye Butler, Christopher Bloch, and Brad Oscar have been selected as 2012 Lunt-Fontanne Fellows.

In its 15th year, THE LION KING remains ascendant, recently becoming the highest-grossing Broadway show in history. Since its Broadway premiere on November 13, 1997, 19 productions around the globe have been seen by more than 64 million people, grossed over $4.8 billion and, cumulatively, run a staggering 91 years. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions (under the direction of Thomas Schumacher), THE LION KING is the sixth longest running musical in Broadway history and only the second show to produce five productions running 10 or more years.

Disney Theatrical Productions and SHN announced today that tickets for the long-awaited return engagement of Disney's THE LION KING will go on sale to the public on Friday, June 8 at 7 am.Disney's THE LION KING returns to San Francisco for the first time since its triumphant 43 week run at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in 2004. THE LION KING will play an 11 week engagement at the SHN Orpheum Theatre beginning November 1 through January 13, 2013.

David Leonard will take over the role of Miss Trunchbull from Tuesday 3 July 2012 and Annette McLaughlin will join the company as Mrs Wormwood from Tuesday 21 August 2012. They will play alongside Haley Flaherty and Steve Furst who have recently joined the Company as Miss Honey and Mr Wormwood. Bertie Carvel's last performance as Miss Trunchbull will take place on Sunday 1 July and Josie Walker will perform as Mrs Wormwood for the last time on Sunday 19 August.

Dame Maggie Smith will be the 2012 recipient of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Legacy Award and will be honoured at a gala at Toronto's new Four Seasons Hotel on Monday, September 10.

The New York Times reports today that a Scarlett Johansson is in talks to star in a revival of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof on Broadway in the Spring of 2013.