Richard Burton News

Rupert Everett has joined the cast of the upcoming Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? alongside two-time Tony Award and three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf. Everett will succeed the previously announced Eddie Izzard, who departs the production due to scheduling difficulties.

One of the first that became known as 'kitchen sink dramas'.

Nearly 60 years after Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF first premiered to rave reviews, Weston Playhouse Theatre Company's production, directed by Mike Donahue, breathes new life into the play, playing up the better angels of both George and Martha's natures through sustained, nuanced subtext that is in constant interplay with the nonstop onslaught of verbal ammunition being hurled across the living room late into the night.

Broadway's Golden Age of Theatre comes alive next month when New York's Feinstein's/54 Below presents legendary two-time Tony Award winning actor John Cullum in his first ever one man show, John Cullum: An Accidental Star.  Performances will be Sept. 2 nd and Sept. 4th through 7th, at the 254 W. 54th St. supper club, each night at 7.

The director has decided to look at the more giggle-worthy elements of PRIVATE LIVES, and has avoided some of the darker implications of this Noel Coward classic. Audiences should eat this one up like a buttered brioche with coffee the morning after a sordid affair.

In Tahiti in 1940, a penniless Tennessee Williams lay in a hammock beside another writer also despairing of ever finding success, both binge-drinking rum-cocos and welcoming the dramatic storms that temporarily eclipsed their melancholy. To make matters worse, a party of German Nazis was bragging about their success in the war, and Williams' friend pitched 'the long swim to China'.

Tennessee William's The Night of the Iguana plays a strictly limited season at the Noel Coward Theatre. The cast is led by Golden Globe-winner Clive Owen (Closer, Children of Men) who returns to the West End as Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon for the first time in 18 years; Lia Williams (The Crown, Mary Stuart) as Hannah Jelkes; two-time Emmy Award-winner Anna Gunn (Deadwood, Breaking Bad) in her West End debut as Maxine Faulk and Julian Glover (Game of Thrones) as Nonno. Let's see what the critics had to say!

The African-American Shakespeare Company begins its 25th season with an ambitious and varied slate of programming. Established in 1994 by professional theater artists from the American Conservatory Theatre as an alternative to the 'Color Blind Casting' initiative that began in the early 90s, the company flourished by bringing its artists rich cultural heritage to the fore. 

Casting is announced for a new production of Agatha Christie's classic whodunit thriller Towards Zero, to be directed by Brian Blessed at The Mill at Sonning.

Main Street Theater (MST) offers the perfect sparkling summer refreshment in the form of the wit and wisdom of Noel Coward's Private Lives. "It is by far my favorite of his plays," shares Coward specialist and the production's director Claire Hart-Palumbo. "In many ways Private Lives is an extraordinary play. The Twentieth Century equivalent of the Well-Made Play, it is elegance personified. The language is intelligent and delightfully witty. It's about the generation that was ravaged by World War I. He chose to write in a more familiar and recognizable style, with humor, wit, vivacity, and charm, but his characters express the same doubts and questioning with an elegance that is inevitably entertaining and astonishingly memorable." Along with Hart-Palumbo's insights, MST Executive Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden, who has a delicious cameo role in the show, offers, "It's just so brilliantly funny. I think we could all use a good laugh right now."

Despite the valiant efforts of the cast, a strikingly handsome set, and beautiful costumes, PRIVATE LIVES will not be (pardon the pun) everyone's cup of tea. The material is dated and generally appeals most to an older audience segment and those who long for the days of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (not that there is anything wrong with that). To be clear and fair, many audience members at the charming Dorset Playhouse where this production of PRIVATE LIVES continues through July 6th enjoyed the presentation thoroughly.

Two-time Tony Award winner and member of the Theater Hall of Fame, John Cullum, celebrates his 57th year as a Broadway star with his first ever one man show, 'An Accidental Star,' at Feinstein's54 Below this September 2-7 at 7PM.

Greensboro Arts Alliance and Residency (GAAR) in Greensboro, Vermont announces its 2019 Mainstage Summer Season, kicking off July 25-28

Italian director Franco Zeffirelli was died at age 96, according to AP.

Rosemary Harris won her first Tony Award nearly 55 years ago in THE LION IN WINTER, now starring in the Lincoln Center Broadway revival of MY FAIR LADY, at the 73rd Annual Tony Awards, she received a 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award. Watch her accept the award here.

Agatha Christie is missing and barmy ace detective, Miss Clarissa Marbles, needs your help in solving the crime. Was it the cook, the husband, the secret admirer . . . or you? Everyone is a suspect in this fun-filled murder mystery. If you have a criminal record or any skeletons in your closet, she'll find out. And of course don't hesitate to inform on your neighbours. The audience votes on the best solution to this rollicking whodunit and a lovely prize will be awarded to the winner!

It's Washington D.C in 1990 where love, politics and art intermingle in Rich Orloff's star-spangled comedy 'Veronica's Position' being given its regional premiere at Island City Stage.

Written in 1868, the year that the Finborough Theatre's building was constructed, The first London production in over 120 years of Dion Boucicault's rip-roaring Victorian melodrama, After Dark; or, A Drama of London Life, directed by the multi-award-winning Phil Willmott, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Wednesday, 12 June 2019 (Press Nights: Wednesday, 19 June 2019 and Thursday, 20 June 2019 at 7.30pm).

Artistic Directors of Paines Plough James Grieve and George Perrin today announced casting, creative team and tour for their final ROUNDABOUT season. Paines Plough's award-winning portable in-the-round auditorium, ROUNDABOUT was conceived by Grieve and Perrin and launched in 2014. ROUNDABOUT will showcase three world premieres, ON THE OTHER HAND, WE'RE HAPPY by Daf James, DEXTER AND WINTER'S DETECTIVE AGENCY by Nathan Bryon and DAUGHTERHOOD by Charley Miles across the country.

It's Washinton D.C in 1990 where love, politics and art intermingle in Rich Orloff's star-spangled comedy 'Veronica's Position' being given its regional premiere at Island City Stage.