Lee J. Cobb News

If I were delusional enough to think my scribblings could turn an unknown into a star overnight, then I'd be writing these words fully confident that by tomorrow morning every Broadway producer in town would want to sign a young musical comedy actress named Oakley Boycott.  Yes, Oakley Boycott is her actual name and as a performer she's as unique as her moniker.  I first saw her two years ago at one of Town Hall's Broadway's Rising Stars concerts, where she floored the place as a rhythmically-challenged singer awkwardly pounding her way through John Kroner's 'Where's The Beat.'  Since then it seems her New York appearances have been limited to Scott Siegel's Town Hall concerts and doing concert musicals for Mel Miller's Musicals Tonight!

Following a heartfelt and entertaining memorial for Sidney Lumet at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with speakers and performers including Lauren Bacall, Walter Bernstein, Bobby Cannavale, Glenn Close, Jonathan Demme, James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jenny Lumet, David Mamet, Phylilis Newman and Christopher Walken among others, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the details today for a retrospective of the admired and beloved director's work, Prince of the City: Remembering Sidney Lumet which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 19 - 25.

Today we lost one of the greats: the gentle giant of directors, Sidney Lumet. What a resume! Just to pick seven of perhaps the best known of the bunch, the bunch in question being over 100 titles strong: 12 ANGRY MEN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, SERPICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD - the films spanning fifty years from MEN in 1957 and DEVIL in 2007 - it is clear to see why Lumet was one of the most cherished and celebrated directors in Hollywood, especially known for his tough, gritty New York stories and his pristine stage-to-screen transfers. For an excellent example of the latter (in addition to LONG DAY'S JOURNEY and the others) check out DEATHTRAP - based on Ira Levin's play, the longest-running thriller in Broadway history - featuring Michael Caine in one of his best roles and Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon in their finest performances on film. For an example of the former genre, look no further than NETWORK, containing one of the strongest screenplays ever penned, from the fiery and ferocious pen of Paddy Cheyefsky, and Faye Dunaway in her Oscar-winning performance for all the ages. As far as theatrical screenplays on screen, Lumet would be hard-pressed to even come close to the power, prescience and transformative brilliance at the core of the conceit of that film - yet he did just that; with his final, 2007 film no less. I am speaking, of course, of the underrated and riveting BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, with Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris. Taking an original screenplay that could just as well have been written for the stage - shades of 12 ANGRY MEN, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and SERPICO, certainly - Lumet made a bristling, biting brilliant work of staggering craft and ingenuity - all with verve, energy and drive of a man a quarter of his age at the time (80). His films were classics in his own time and, now, in his passing, they are just as timeless - if not more so. With each passing year, new layers of truth, beauty, sadness and soulfulness can be found in the countless frames in the innumerable unforgettable scenes in his many masterpieces.

There is always a reason a warhorse gets to become a warhorse. Here, the fun stems from some reversals, a couple of sucker-punches to the expectations of both the characters and the audience, and the ebb and flow of the alliances and enmities around the jury-table. There are five logical set-pieces as well, each devoted to one evidentiary question. For each, further discussion reveals surprising aspects. These traits explain why the play continues to draw audiences the world over, for all the old-fashioned drawbacks.

The New York Times has just broke the news that stage and screen vet Philip Seymour Hoffman and Linda Emond will lead a revival of Death of a Salesman on Broadway as Willy and Linda Loman. The production will be directed by Mike Nicols and open on Broadway next fall. Hoffman and Nicols have been working out details for the production for months, according the report. The pair last collaborated on 2001 production of the Seagull in Central Park.

Experience Don Quixote's impossible dream like never before with Taproot Theatre's intimate new staging of Man of La Mancha. Featuring the story and songs of an immortal classic, this Tony Award-winning musical comes to the Taproot stage with fresh, acoustic arrangements. Don Quixote is mad... mad enough to dream an impossible dream while tilting after windmills with his trusty sidekick, Sancho Panza. Quixote's romantic quest is as crazy as he is.

Experience Don Quixote's impossible dream like never before with Taproot Theatre's intimate new staging of Man of La Mancha. Featuring the story and songs of an immortal classic, this Tony Award-winning musical comes to the Taproot stage with fresh, acoustic arrangements. Don Quixote is mad... mad enough to dream an impossible dream while tilting after windmills with his trusty sidekick, Sancho Panza. Quixote's romantic quest is as crazy as he is.

Experience Don Quixote's impossible dream like never before with Taproot Theatre's intimate new staging of Man of La Mancha. Featuring the story and songs of an immortal classic, this Tony Award-winning musical comes to the Taproot stage with fresh, acoustic arrangements. Don Quixote is mad... mad enough to dream an impossible dream while tilting after windmills with his trusty sidekick, Sancho Panza. Quixote's romantic quest is as crazy as he is.

After a successful premiere aboard the Manhattan-docked Steamship Lilac, THE REPORT OF MY DEATH sets out to follow the equator, re-creating Twain's international lecture tour from over a century ago.

After a successful premiere aboard the Manhattan-docked Steamship Lilac, THE REPORT OF MY DEATH sets out to follow the equator, re-creating Twain's international lecture tour from over a century ago.

New Artists Theater Company and the city of Hoboken present a staged reading of ON THE WATERFRONT, written by Budd Schulberg and produced by Nick Puccio and the Hudson Film Group. The staged reading will be presented Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 7pm in Frank Sinatra Park between 4th and 5th Street in Hoboken, NJ, and features cast members from The Sopranos, Oz, and Brotherhood.

Kurt Weill's Johnny Johnson gets its UK premiere at Sadler's Wells - but why here and why now? Our correspondent finds out

The Los Angeles Times has reported that Nina Foch, a veteran actress from Hollywood's film noir era of the 1940s who became a widely respected acting coach and teacher of directors, died Friday at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She was 84. The cause was complications of long-term myelodysplasia, a blood disorder, according to her son, Dr. Dirk De Brito.

Boston Conservatory Musical Theater students join the Boston Pops in celebrating Bernstein on Broadway as 123rd season opens at Symphony Hall