Maggie Smith News

Stars of the stage and screen swapped their costumes for aprons, and served diners for a one-off sitting at The Ivy, a restaurant renowned for its unfaltering service. Leading the waiting staff this year and trying their hand at bartending, waiting tables, auctioneering, taking coats and welcoming guests were Jim Carter, Sheila Hancock and Dame Penelope Wilton. They were joined by Annette Badland, Michael Ball, Samantha Bond, Laura Carmichael, Ben Forster, Michael Fox, Ginny Holder, Celia Imrie, Jeremy Irvine, George Layton, John Partridge, Arlene Phillips, Peter Polycarpou, Jemma Redgrave, Samantha Spiro, Neil Stuke, Owen Teale, Harriet Thorpe, Jason Watkins and Simon Williams.

The Royal Theatrical Fund, a member charity of Acting for Others, today announces its Christmas Festival 2018, with a fantastic line up of theatre royalty coming together in support of the charity. The festival takes place at the Charing Cross Theatre on Tuesday 11 December at 6.30pm.

Carrie Edel Isaacman and her company, Shakespeare Sports, will bring a fascinating new production of Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT to New York for the upcoming holiday season starting November 30 at downtown's historic Players Theater, 115 MacDougal Street, between West 3rd and Bleecker Streets, in NYC.

This fascinating tome offers an insider's history of the National Theatre, via some 800 letters exchanged between Artistic Directors, actors, directors, playwrights, politicians, agents, critics and more. From arcane trivia through to vigorous words on the very nature and purpose of drama, it's a theatre geek's must-have.

The Stratford Festival lost one of its pioneers today. Douglas Rain died of natural causes early this morning at the age of 90 at St. Marys Memorial Hospital, just outside of Stratford, Ontario, the city in which he established his career, becoming one of the world's great classical actors.

San Francisco Playhouse celebrates the magic of the holiday season with the hit Broadway musical Mary Poppins. Susi Damilano will direct the Playhouse production, with music direction by Katie Coleman and choreography by Kimberly Richards.

Following the critically acclaimed release of 'Lost West End Vintage' (highlighted in The Sunday Times as an 'Essential New Release') and 'Lost West End Vintage 2', Stage Door Records are pleased to continue the album series with 'Lost West End Revues' to be released on November 30th 2018.

Thank goodness my lack of knowledge of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's library of theatrical plays and fictional stories didn't prevent me from enjoying Christopher Durang's wildly hilarious, Chekhov-inspired VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, a modern-set play that won the Tony Award for Best Play back in 2013. Apparently filled with casual allusions to past Chekhov works---from character names and one-off references to thematic motifs---the play does offer, at its core, a laugh-a-minute comedy about a dysfunctional trio of siblings trying to face the apparently troubling onset of middle age…and the possibility that they may not have done enough in their lives to deem it a satisfactory one. This undeniably funny production continues at Orange County's Tony-winning regional theater South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 21, 2018.

To celebrate their five year anniversary, TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) is celebrating with FOUR new verse plays this October: a developmental production of The Other, Other Woman, and a staged reading of the entire Love and Death Trilogy: Persephone Rises, The Seduction of Adonis and Cupid and Psyche, all written and directed by foundress and playwright, Emily C. A. Snyder. Tickets are available now, including VIP seats with an open bar and pre-show salon for The Other, Other Woman, and an all-day picnic with the gods for The Love and Death Trilogy. Package deals are available.

San Francisco Playhouse celebrates the magic of the holiday season with the hit Broadway musical Mary Poppins. Susi Damilano will direct the Playhouse production, with music direction by Katie Coleman and choreography by Kimberly Richards.

It was like an entertaining musical mash-up tour of the Tony Award Winner's charmed life, and I didn't want it to end.

The Downton Abbey film will be released by Focus Features on Sept. 20, 2019, in North America, according to Variety. Universal Pictures International will debut it overseas on Sept. 13, 2019.

To celebrate their five year anniversary, TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) is celebrating with FOUR new verse plays this October: a developmental production of The Other, Other Woman, and a staged reading of the entire Love and Death Trilogy: Persephone Rises, The Seduction of Adonis and Cupid and Psyche, all written and directed by foundress and playwright, Emily C. A. Snyder. Tickets are available now, including VIP seats with an open bar and pre-show salon for The Other, Other Woman, and an all-day picnic with the gods for The Love and Death Trilogy. Package deals are available.

Pert, engaging, hysterical rift on Chekov and life

The Douglas Morrisson Theatre (DMT) opens its 2018-19 season to Once Upon a Mattress, with performances running September 13-30, 2018.

According to Deadline, Focus Features has set production with Carnival Films to begin production on the Downton Abbey this summer. The original principal cast, including Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville and more, are set to reprise their upstairs/downstairs roles with Focus and Universal Pictures International distributing.

Carrie Edel Isaacman and her company, Shakespeare Sports, will bring a fascinating new production of Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT to New York for the upcoming holiday season starting November 30 at downtown's historic Players Theater, 115 MacDougal Street, between West 3rd and Bleecker Streets, in NYC.

IFC Films has released the trailer for TEA WITH THE DAMES, which is opening in theaters on September 21st and on demand September 27th. 

The Douglas Morrisson Theatre (DMT) opens its 2018-19 season to Once Upon a Mattress, with performances running September 13-30, 2018.

BroadwayWorld is sad to report that legendary playwright Neil Simon has died at 91.