Philip Seymour Hoffman News

At the annual meeting of Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees, under new Chairman Patricia Cox, the boards, artists and staff celebrated the success of its 2008/2009 immediate past season, one of unsurpassed artistic quality and diversity on its stages, and outreach into the Chicago community.

As previously reported, My Girl's Anna Chlumsky and Kristen Johnston are set to headline the Mint Theater Company's SO HELP ME GOD! The Off-Broadway run, which will begin previews November 18th, opens officially at the Lucile Lortel Theatre Dec. 7 and runs through Dec. 20. Today, the full cast and creative team have been announced.

Actress Anna Chlumsky will join the cast of Mint Theater Company's SO HELP ME GOD! Chlumsky joins Kristen Johnston for the Off-Broadway run, which will begin performances November 18th.

Pirate Radio is the newest ensemble comedy from filmmaker Richard Curtis (screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, and writer/director of Love Actually), spinning the irreverent yet fact-based tale of a seafaring band of rogue rock and roll deejays whose 'pirate radio' captivated and inspired 1960s Britain opens on November 13th.

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation hosted its 19th annual A Magical Evening gala on Monday, November 9, 2009 at The Marriott Marquis in New York City. This year's gala recognized the results of a recently published study sponsored by the Reeve Foundation, which shows that 5.6 million Americans are living with paralysis, 1.275 million of those as a result of spinal cord injury.

LAByrinth Theater Company (Co-Artistic Directors Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mimi O'Donnell, Yul Vázquez and Producing Director Marieke Gaboury) enters the arena to crank up the stakes at the seventh annual benefit featuring Celebrity Charades: Jackpot on Monday December 7th. In this, the second of a series of videos, we learn how far the celebrities will go to win the game.

InViolet Repertory Theater will present the World Premiere of KISS ME ON THE MOUTH by Melanie Angelina Maras. This new romantic tragicomedy will be directed by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Center Stage (where several of Guirgis' plays were originally staged by LAByrinth Theater Company). Performances of this limited engagement begin previews on November 3rd with opening night slated for Thursday, November 5th.

InViolet Repertory Theater will present the World Premiere of KISS ME ON THE MOUTH by Melanie Angelina Maras. This new romantic tragicomedy will be directed by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Center Stage (where several of Guirgis' plays were originally staged by LAByrinth Theater Company). Performances of this limited engagement begin previews on November 3rd with opening night slated for Thursday, November 5th.

InViolet Repertory Theater will present the World Premiere of KISS ME ON THE MOUTH by Melanie Angelina Maras. This new romantic tragicomedy will be directed by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Center Stage (where several of Guirgis' plays were originally staged by LAByrinth Theater Company). Performances of this limited engagement begin previews on November 3rd with opening night slated for Thursday, November 5th.

Native Chicago playwright Alan Gross teams up with director Steven Robman to bring his newest work, High Holidays, to Goodman Theatre. At the center of this four-character drama-inspired by Gross' own life and family experience-is young Billy Roman (Max Zuppa) and the anxiety-riddled preparations for his Bar Mitzvah in 1963 north suburban Chicago.

Pirate Radio is the newest ensemble comedy from filmmaker Richard Curtis (screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, and writer/director of Love Actually), spinning the irreverent yet fact-based tale of a seafaring band of rogue rock and roll deejays whose 'pirate radio' captivated and inspired 1960s Britain opens on November 13th.

Goodman Artistic Director Robert Falls, acclaimed Canadian director Jennifer Tarver and celebrated star Brian Dennehy team up again for a Broadway-bound double bill, Hughie/Krapp's Last Tape; January 16- February 21, 2010 in the Goodman's Albert Ivar Theatre. Tickets are $25 – $83 and go on sale Friday, November 13 at GoodmanTheatre.org.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that stage and screen star Oliver Platt is set to co-star opposite Laura Linney in the Bill Condon-helmed dark comedy series 'The C Word' for Showtime.

LAByrinth Theater Company (Co-Artistic Directors Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mimi O'Donnell, Yul Vázquez and Producing Director Marieke Gaboury) enters the arena to crank up the stakes at the seventh annual benefit featuring Celebrity Charades: Jackpot on Monday December 7th. In this, the first of a series of videos, we learn how far the celebrities will go to get a leg up on the competition.

LAByrinth Theater Company (Co-Artistic Directors Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mimi O'Donnell, Yul Vázquez and Producing Director Marieke Gaboury) enters the arena to crank up the stakes at the seventh annual benefit featuring Celebrity Charades: Jackpot on Monday December 7th.

Orange County's Chance Theater presents the West Coast Premiere of Richard Nelson's adaptation of THE SEAGULL by Anton Chekov, which continues through October 25. The production is directed by Tony Vezner, Assistant Professor of Theatre at Irvine's Concordia University and director of the Chance's 2008 critically-acclaimed production of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol. As one of the great works in the history of the theatre, THE SEAGULL is one of the most prolifically-produced plays in the world. From the original, famed production at Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre in 1898 to the recent landmark revival in New York's Central Park, THE SEAGULL has enchanted and engaged audiences from across the world for the last 100 years.

Animal Crackers runs through October 25, 2009 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. Tickets are currently available by season subscription - www.ExploreTheGoodman.org or call 312.443.3800. Individual tickets ($25 - $83) are on sale now.

Goodman Theatre launches its new 2009/2010 Season with tap dancing, acrobatics, tumbling, guitar- and ukulele-playing in an original take on the rarely-produced Marx Brothers classic musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced that acclaimed actor and playwright Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio, 'Law & Order: CI') has joined the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming Broadway production of Donald Margulies' TIME STANDS STILL directed by Daniel Sullivan.

RUNT OF THE LITTER, play by former NFL player Bo Eason, opens in the final hour of Jack Henry's lifelong dream, only one thing stands in his way - his brother.