Stephen King News

The Biennale di Venezia and Jaeger-LeCoultre have announced that the great American director Brian De Palma will receive the Venice International Film Festival's Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2015 Award

"If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" Erma Bombeck, the award-winning humorist and syndicated columnist known for her wry and humorous take on family life, is the subject of the newest project from twin-sister journalists and playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel-the world-premiere drama Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End debuting at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The Engels reunite with director David Esbjornson (Arena Stage's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) following their collaboration on the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which starred Kathleen Turner in its celebrated 2012 run at Arena Stage.

Peregrine Theatre Ensemble will be performing its entire 2015 season in the old high school auditorium at Provincetown Schools, 12 Winslow Street in Provincetown, MA. This allows Peregrine to transform the space into Carrie's high school in Chamberlain, Maine. During this interactive theatrical experience they invite the audience to attend prom and fully commit to the world of CARRIE the musical for a night they will never forget.

From the pioneers of British improvised theatre and creators of the award-winning international smash hit Showstopper! The Improvised Musical and Ken Campbell's School Of Night, Extempore Theatre brings the spooky The Society of Strange to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from the 18th - 30th August.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that The Alliance Theatre's upcoming production of A STEADY RAIN, a contemporary crime drama by writer and producer Keith Huff (Mad Men, American Crime), will be directed by Steppenwolf Theatre co-founder Jeff Perry (who currently plays White House Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene on ABC's SCANDAL).

AUGUST PAPERBACK ORIGINALS. . . THUG NOTES: A Street-Smart Guide to Classic Literature by Sparky Sweets, PhD (Vintage • 304 pages • On Sale: 8/18/15 • Price: $14.95 • ISBN: 9781101873045).Sparky Sweets, PhD. and Wisecrack proudly present this outrageously funny, ultra-sharp guide to literature based on the hit online series, Thug Notes. Inside, you'll find hilarious plot breakdowns and masterful analyses of sixteen of literature's most beloved classics, including: The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, Pride & Prejudice, The Color Purple, Hamlet, Things Fall Apart, and more! Thug Notes has been featured on BET, PBS, and NPR and has been used in hundreds of classrooms around the world. Whether you're a student, teacher, or straight-up literary gangster like Dr. Sweets, THUG NOTES has got you covered. You'll certainly never look at literature the same way again. PUBLICIST: David Archer • 212-572-2331 • darcher@penguinrandomhouse.com

The Alden in McLean announces its upcoming season of national and international touring artists. Professional artists from the worlds of comedy, dance, theatre, music, jugging, children's theatre and more will visit the 383-seat performing arts venue located inside the Beltway and minutes from downtown DC.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Michael Lee Stever (SUPER FORCE, BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE) and revered stage actress and Academy Award nominee Piper Laurie (THE HUSTLER, TWIN PEAKS, CARRIE) are joining 'Scares That Care' founder Joe Ripple and his entire team tonight, tomorrow & Sunday in Williamsburg, Virginia for the second annual 'Scares That Care' Weekend film festival and convention.  

Three decades of an intimate letter-writing friendship between two of America's most celebrated poets, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, are brought to life by JoBeth Williams and Julian Sands.

Clowntime Is Over at MadLab Theatre (227 N. 3rd St.), running August 20 - September 5, 2015. A loveless rabbit, a hungry serpent and a TV clown are trapped in a room in Clowntime Is Over, Joseph E. Green's surreal comedy.

Producers Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Castle Rock Entertainment and Raymond Wu announced today tickets for Broadway's new suspense thriller Misery, starring two-time Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe Award winner Bruce Willis and three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf, will go on sale exclusively for American Express Card Members beginning Wednesday, July 15, 2015. American Express Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Wednesday, July 15th at 10am EST through Sunday, July 26th at 10pm EST by visiting www.telecharge.com or calling 212.239.6200.

Three decades of an intimate letter-writing friendship between two of America's most celebrated poets, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, are brought to life by JoBeth Williams and Julian Sands.

Today, we focus our spotlight on Andrew Strong and Cat Arnold, stars of KB Productions' staging of Del Shores' The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Park Housewife, opening tonight at Nashville's iconic Darkhorse Theater for a six performance run over the next two weekends. Directed by the First Night Star Award winning director/actor/producer Clay Hillwig, the latest from Shores promises to pack an emotional wallop, judging from everything we've heard during the run-up to opening night.

Simon & Schuster Audio is thrilled to announce the publication of DRUNKEN FIREWORKS, a brand new story from Stephen King. DRUNKEN FIREWORKS will be released exclusively as an audiobook today, June 30, 2015.

Peregrine Theatre Ensemble will be performing its entire 2015 season in the old high school auditorium at Provincetown Schools, 12 Winslow Street in Provincetown, MA. This allows Peregrine to transform the space into Carrie's high school in Chamberlain, Maine. During this interactive theatrical experience they invite the audience to attend prom and fully commit to the world of CARRIE the musical for a night they will never forget.

Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of the Henry James gothic novella The Turn of the Screw opens at Theater at Monmouth tonight, June 26 at 7:30 p.m.

Project: Theater (producers of the critically acclaimed Occupation and the monthly Our Bar series) has announced the US premiere of UNITY (1918), written by Kevin Kerr and directed by KJ Sanchez. UNITY (1918) begins performances on Thursday, August 6 for a limited engagement through Sunday, August 23. Press opening is Sunday, August 9 at 7 PM. 

The hottest news of the week as far as plays for the new season are concerned is the surprise announcement that the mainstage adaptation of Stephen King's iconic best-selling novel and its subsequent Academy Award-winning feature film adaptation, MISERY, would be coming to Broadway with Hollywood headliner Bruce Willis and a new leading lady in place of the previously announced Elizabeth Marvel - no less than three-time Emmy Award-winning stage and screen notable Laurie Metcalf. Of course, Metcalf will be essaying the operatically dramatic role of the ultimate all-time uber fan Annie Wilkes in the tale of a writer rescued from a horrific car accident by his number one fan only to be trapped and tortured at her secluded cabin in the deep backwoods of Maine. Kathy Bates memorably took home a Best Actress Oscar for her turn in the 1990 film and acclaimed screenwriter William Goldman told me himself in our InDepth InterView about the new stage version of the story that he originally wrote the role in the film explicitly for Bates, as revealed in our exclusive 2012 conversation here. Surely, now is the ideal time to consider some spectacular dramatic actresses who just might be the right replacements should the run of the play extend beyond Metcalf's involvement in the production - and Willis's, too, for that matter.

Producers Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures , Castle Rock Entertainment and Raymond Wu announced today that three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf will star as Annie Wilkes opposite two-time Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe Award winner Bruce Willis as Paul Sheldon in the new suspense thriller MISERY.

Producers Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman and The Transfer Group have announced that CARRIE: THE MUSICAL will return to Los Angeles this October at the historic Los Angeles Theatre, direct from its acclaimed run at the La Mirada Theatre this past spring.