Orson Welles News

The Austin Film Critics Association announced its 2013 awards today, with Spike Jonze's futuristic feature “Her” winning Best Film as well as two other awards, and leading the group's Top Ten list. “Gravity” and “12 Years a Slave” also won multiple awards this year.

Celebrated Beckett interpreter Barry McGovern returns to Center Theatre Group following his memorable performance in 2012 as Vladimir in the acclaimed production of 'Waiting for Godot' at the Mark Taper Forum (LADCC Awards, Best Revival and Best Ensemble; Ovation Award Best Production and Best Ensemble). For the first time in Los Angeles, McGovern will perform in his tour-de-force, one-man show, 'I'll Go On' by Samuel Beckett in the Gate Theatre production presented at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, January 10 through February 9, 2014. The opening is set for January 12.

The Coen Brothers' latest film comes out this weekend, but does Inside Llewyn Davis, really dig deep?

London director, Ian Marshall Fisher has rediscovered the long lost play written by the unique collaboration of Orson Welles and Cole Porter, AROUND THE WORLD. This historical Welles and Porter partnership (Citizen Kane & Touch Of Evil meets Kiss Me, Kate & Anything Goes) is based on their take on Jules Verne's Around The World in 80 Days. AROUND THE WORLD will play a series of 'Benefit/Fundraising' performances in London's Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler's Wells, and will be unveiled to Americans for the first time in over seventy years at New York's Mint Theatre.

SiriusXM today announced that legendary entertainer Regis Philbin, host of FOX Sports' 'Crowd Goes Wild,' will return as the host of SiriusXM's 'Bing Crosby Christmas Radio,' a limited-run 24/7 holiday channel devoted to the American entertainment icon synonymous with classic holiday entertainment.

The unknown play written by Orson Welles and Cole Porter Around The World, based on Jules Verne's Around The World in 80 Days, is to play a series of benefit performances in London's Sadler's Wells and New York City's Mint Theater. The performances are fundraising events for The Lost Musicals Charitable Trust (UK). This production marks the first time it will be seen in NYC since the original production in 1946. Some 70 years after the original Broadway production, a new generation of New Yorkers will get the rare opportunity of seeing Around The World.

Returning to the London stage for the first time in nearly 40 years the inimitable Angela Lansbury reunites with acclaimed director Michael Blakemore to reprise her Tony award-winning Broadway performance as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit. Opening at the Gielgud Theatre on 18 March 2014, with previews from 1 March, this new production of Noel Coward's sharp comedy of social mores will also star Janie Dee and Charles Edwards.

Michael Grandinetti has come a long way since he first found a Fisher Price magic set underneath the Christmas tree in 1982, when he was just five years old. With national and international performances now under his belt, Michael is set as one of the stars in the new CW series 'Masters of Illusion'.

AboutFACE Ireland will be presenting Orson Welles' Christmas Carol, a new play for Christmas for the whole family, at the Powerscourt Theatre in Dublin, for 5 performances only, December 20th-22nd 2013. Written by Paul Nugent, it tells a fictionalized account, based on true events, of the Christmas Eve 1938 night where, in CBS Radio Studio 1, the young radio superstar Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air are set to perform their eagerly awaited weekly 60-minute version of a classic; tonight it's “A Christmas Carol.” Only things aren't too Christmassy: it's ten minutes to ON-AIR and legendary Scrooge Lionel Barrymore has fallen sick, and now 23-year-old Orson has to step into his shoes; plus the script still isn't right, Orson's on the rampage, his cast are revolting after three days of rehearsing without sleep, and the pressure's on after the success of “War of the Worlds”: the Nation awaits and Hollywood's watching! Will this Christmas Carol have a happy ending?

Laurence Fox, Jack Huston, ChristIan McKay, Miranda Raison, Imogen Stubbs and MyAnna Buring will star in Strangers on a Train by Craig Warner, which will be presented at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End by Barbara Broccoli, Colleen Camp, Michael G Wilson, Lucky VIII/Lou Spisto, Frederick Zollo and Michael Rose Limited for Strangers (UK) Limited. The production, directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, will preview from today, 2 November. This gripping thriller is based on Patricia Highsmith's acclaimed novel, which was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's legendary movie.

On the 30th October, 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a dramatisation of The War of the Worlds. Seventy five years and one day later the South Australian Radio Collective played a recording of that radio play to an audience who assembled especially to hear this work.

Westport Community Theatre celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the CBS radio dramatization of H. G Wells' novel with an 'old-time radio recreation' staged reading...

Seventy-five years after Orson Welles' radio production of 'War of the Worlds' panicked a nation, his legend continues to inspire old collaborators and new generations of audio artists

If Bruce Willis can do another Die Hard movie, we think he can reunite with Cybill Shepherd for a Moonlightingflick. Eonline reports that Cybill Shepherd, who co-starred in the hit detective series wants to bring the show to the big screen.

WAR OF THE WORLDS 75th Anniversary Event invades Theater Barn!

The Department of Theatre & Dance at Northern Kentucky University has announced its 2013-2014 Academic Season of main stage shows.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles' spectacular, historic Halloween media hoax about Martians invading the earth, the Gift Theatre offers an alternate re-imagining of the infamous 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton's staged re-creation of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast is updated with locations shifted to 1938 Chicago. The performances, part of the Chicago Park District's Classics in the Parks series, will feature live music by the Chicago City Wide Symphony Orchestra and Foley artists creating sound effects as it celebrates the Golden Age of American radio. H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, A Radio Drama will be staged Oct. 30-Nov. 2 at Jefferson Memorial Park, 4822 N. Long Ave and Nov. 7-9 at Lincoln Park Cultural Center, N. Lincoln Park West. Suitable for ages 6 and up. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended. 773-283-7071

London director, Ian Marshall Fisher has rediscovered the long lost play written by the unique collaboration of Orson Welles and Cole Porter, AROUND THE WORLD. This historical Welles and Porter partnership (Citizen Kane & Touch Of Evil meets Kiss Me, Kate & Anything Goes) is based on their take on Jules Verne's Around The World in 80 Days. AROUND THE WORLD will play a series of 'Benefit/Fundraising' performances in London's Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler's Wells, and will be unveiled to Americans for the first time in over seventy years at New York's Mint Theatre.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles' spectacular Halloween radio hoax about Martians invading the earth, based on the H.G. Wells novel. In commemoration, Music Box Theatre presents a special screening of the 1953 film The War of the Worlds. Before the movie, University of Chicago Professor and radio expert Neil Verma will present excerpts of the infamous Halloween broadcast of War of the Worlds that convinced radio listeners the earth was truly under siege in 1938. Welles on the Radio plus War of the Worlds takes place Sunday, Oct 27, 1 p.m. at Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. $10.