Meryl Streep News

The Dallas Opera has announced that mezzo-Soprano Susan Nicely will portray twentieth-century culinary icon Julia Child in composer Lee Hoiby's BON APPÉTIT! The one-act operetta, with a libretto by Mark Shulgasser and support from The Perot Foundation Education and Community Outreach Programs, is based on two episodes from Julia Child's popular cooking show in which she concocts a chocolate cake.

Tony Award-winner Scarlett Johansson returns to Broadway to star as Maggie, with Ciaran Hinds as Big Daddy, Benjamin Walker as Brick and Tony and Emmy Award-winner Debra Monk as Big Mama in Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning classic CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Directed by Tony and Emmy Award-winner Rob Ashford, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF will begin preview performances Tuesday, December 18 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 West 46th Street). Opening night is Thursday, January 17.

According to Entertainment Weekly, SMASH guest star and Meryl Streep's daughter Grace Gummer will join ABC's new drama Zero Hour in a recurring role as FBI Agent Paige Willis, beginning the third week of the season.

Since bursting onto the New York musical theater scene in 1995 with his short-lived, but highly-praised Off-Broadway revue Songs For a New World, and then winning a 1999 Tony Award for Best Score for another short-lived show, Parade, pundits have been consistently predicting Jason Robert Brown's membership into the musical theater composer pantheon. While he has quite made it there yet, this week at his concerts at 54 Below (September 11-15), Brown offered a preview of songs from upcoming musicals that could finally allow him entree among the gods of Broadway musical composing.

Margot Harley, co-founder and Producer of The Acting Company has announced the appointment of Ian Belknap to the position of Artistic Director. "We're a Company of young actors - founded forty years ago with the young Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, David Schramm and David Ogden Stiers right out of Juilliard - and it is appropriate that we begin our next 40 years with a vibrant young talent as our artistic leader," said Ms. Harley, who moves from Producing Artistic Director to Producer. John Houseman, Alan Schneider, Jack O'Brien, Michael Kahn, Gerry Gutierrez, Zelda Fichandler, Ms. Harley and now Mr. Belknap complete the list of impressive talents to serve as Artistic Director of The Acting Company founded in 1972 and oft-considered the leading nationally touring repertory theater in the country.

Labyrinth Theater Company, the award-winning, downtown ensemble has announced their Fall lineup of free play readings for the 13th Annual Barn Series, to be held at the Bank Street Theater in Manhattan's West Village throughout the Company's 2012/13 Season.

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, presents cabaret singer and actress, KAREN AKERS in her critically acclaimed show "Live, Laugh, Love: Akers Sings Sondheim." Featuring songs from Company, Follies, Sunday in the Park With George and more, the evening was called "ravishing, brilliant and sophisticated" by Rex Reed in The New York Observer when it debuted last year at the Oak Room in New York. The show, which is directed by Eric Michael Gillett and features Musical Director Don Rebic on piano, runs for three nights only tonight, September 14 and 15 at 7:30 PM and September 16 at 4:00 PM.

Producer Matt Murphy (Memphis, Thurgood, Altar Boyz) today announced that he will present the world premiere of Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man, a new three-character comedy written by Murphy and Drama Desk Award winner Jim Brochu, based on the best-seller by Dan Anderson and Maggie Berman (It Books/HarperCollins). The popular "how to" book is currently featured in the Sony film Hope Springs starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell.

Deadline.com reports that Ewan McGregor has joined the cast of the film adaptation of Tracy Letts' AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, alongside Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. The actor will portray Bill Fordham, described as 'the estranged husband of Barbara (Roberts) and son-in-law of pill-popping matriarch Violet Weston (Streep).

Producers of THE ADDAMS FAMILY announced additional dates today for the Fall 2012 leg of the musical's North American tour. The production will play Dallas (Oct. 2 - 21), Seattle (Oct. 24 - Nov. 11), Salt Lake City (Nov. 13 - 18), Las Vegas (Nov.20 - 25), Tempe (Dec. 11 - 16) and Costa Mesa (Dec. 18 - 30). Plus, Curtis Holbrook (West Side Story, Xanadu) will join the cast of the national tour as "Lucas Beineke."

The Lynne Show's next two interviewees have won awards for their work in theater, film and TV. They are honored and respected by their colleagues. They have all struggled with and overcome significant obstacles, in order to achieve the skill they have achieved and the recognition of their peers. Another thing they have in common is their remarkable candor, openness, unselfconsciousness, self-deprecation and amazing generosity.

Gallery Books has announced a three-book deal with bestselling e-book author Jennifer Probst. THE MARRIAGE BARGAIN, the first book in the deal, has been released immediately as a Gallery e-book. Entangled Publishing released the first print edition of THE MARRIAGE BARGAIN on September 4, 2012, with all reprints being published by Gallery Books. The second and third books in the series, THE MARRIAGE TRAP and THE MARRIAGE MISTAKE, will follow in both e-book and print editions from Gallery.

Honoring excellence in theater, Guinness World Records recognizes the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "The Phantom of the Opera" as the 'Longest-Running Show (musical or play) on Broadway', having reached the unprecedented milestone of 10,000 performances at The Majestic Theatre in New York earlier this year. The cast celebrated this special honor just yesterday, and BroadwayWorld was there to bring you full photo coverage below!

Labyrinth Theater Company, the award-winning, downtown ensemble has announced their Fall lineup of free play readings for the 13th Annual Barn Series, to be held at the Bank Street Theater in Manhattan's West Village throughout the Company's 2012/13 Season.

The RRazz Room, San Francisco's premier nightclub, presents cabaret singer and actress, KAREN AKERS in her critically acclaimed show "Live, Laugh, Love: Akers Sings Sondheim." Featuring songs from Company, Follies, Sunday in the Park With George and more, the evening was called "ravishing, brilliant and sophisticated" by Rex Reed in The New York Observer when it debuted last year at the Oak Room in New York. The show, which is directed by Eric Michael Gillett and features Musical Director Don Rebic on piano, runs for three nights only on September 14 and 15 at 7:30 PM and September 16 at 4:00 PM.

Martha Swope, a former dancer with a Brownie camera who would go on to become a world renowned photographer of dance and theater in New York, is the subject of an exciting exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Martha Swope: In Rehearsal opens September 26, 2012, and focuses solely on Swope's rehearsal photography, where she captured rarely seen images from some of the most iconic stage and dance productions of the 20th Century. As a former dancer herself, the exhibition reveals Swope's unique understanding of movement and also illustrates the process of creating dance and theater. Martha Swope: In Rehearsal will be on display from September 26, 2012 to January 26, 2013 in the Vincent Astor Gallery at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at 40 Lincoln Center. Admission is free.