Bette Davis News

Starring San Francisco's four top drag luminaries, Victoria Theatre presents THE GOLDEN GIRLS: THE CHRISTMAS EPISODES. The formula is reasonably straightforward. Take 4 talented drag performers, cast them in two classic Xmas episodes of the ground-breaking and uproarious TV show: THE GOLDEN GIRLS, and joviality will ensue.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present Let There Be Light: The Films of John Huston, December 19 - January 11,

If anyone ever told me that, on a Saturday night, I would be watching a play about an elderly woman suffering from the horrors of Alzheimer's Disease, I would question that person's sanity. However, having 'sung the praises' of actor/playwright Jerre Dye on more than one occasion, and having read a couple of rapturous local reviews, I decided to forgo a nearby musical concert by Luna Nova ( a musical venue I have ardently supported) and see Mr. Dye's DISTANCE at Voices of the South. I was not disappointed. Legendary actress Bette Davis famously proclaimed, 'Old age ain't no place for sissies' (and she knew well the truth of that, having suffered strokes, a mastectomy, and, worse, the betrayal of a daughter); compound 'old age' with Alzheimer's or dementia, and you can magnify the truth of that tenfold.

The Film Society of LINCOLN Center announced this weekend at the 52nd New York Film Festival, which they sponsored, that actor Robert Redford will be the recipient of the Chaplin Award.

Queens Theatre (QT) is pleased to announce that their 2014-2015 Season Dance Series will begin with performances by the world-renowned Martha Graham Dance Company today October 11 at 2pm & 8pmand Sunday, October 12 at 3pm at Queens Theatre (14 United Nations Avenue South, Flushing Meadows Corona Park). Tickets are available at queenstheatre.org and range from $25-$42.

Full casting is announced for Emlyn Williams' masterpiece Accolade directed by award-winning director Blanche McIntyre. Alexander Hanson and Abigail Cruttenden lead the company as Will and Rona Trenting, with Bruce Alexander (Daker), Sam Clemmett (Ian Trenting), Claire Cox (Marion Tillyard), Daniel Crossley (Albert), Olivia Darnley (Phyllis), Jay Taylor (Harold) and Jay Villiers (Thane Lampeter). Accolade - produced by Nicola Seed - is the final production in Stage One's One Stage season at the St James Theatre.

The play itself is a dichotomy. While written by Noel Coward in 1932, and no longer as controversial as it was in its day, the material is still timely and the themes are not dated.

Sir Howard Stringer, Chair of the American Film Institute's Board of Trustees, announced today the Board's decision to honor Steve Martin with the 43rd AFI Life Achievement Award, the highest honor for a career in film.

Renowned author/biographer James Spada, who has penned best-selling books on Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis and Peter Lawford, to name a few, has a new coffee table book which will hit the book stands mid October, entitled Streisand in the Camera Eye. I have seen an advanced copy, and it is simply beautiful...'Hello, gorgeous!' Barbra would say as Fanny Brice. Fans of Barbra will adore this one and even if you are merely fond of her work, like me, you will be blown away by the beauty of these rarely seen photographs accompanied by short descriptions of the time and place by Spada. It's a real page turner, and each photograph is more eye-catching, more vivid than the last.

Queens Theatre (QT) is pleased to announce that their 2014-2015 Season Dance Series will begin with performances by the world-renowned Martha Graham Dance Company on Saturday, October 11 at 2pm & 8pmand Sunday, October 12 at 3pm at Queens Theatre (14 United Nations Avenue South, Flushing Meadows Corona Park). Tickets are available at queenstheatre.org and range from $25-$42. (Photos for Queens Theatre events are available here:http://bit.ly/QT_Photos)

When Gaston Leroux published THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA back in 1911, little did he realize the numerous chandeliers that would come crashing down through the decades, and I've witnessed a good number of them. First, in 1925, there was 'the Man of a Thousand Faces,' Lon Chaney, Sr., who frightened poor Mary Philbin (a well-done version, even IF the film was silent); then, for Universal in 1941, Claude Rains (Bette Davis' favorite co-star) was a more subdued vocal coach for soprano Susanna Foster (a wooden Nelson Eddy, alas, is a greater impending horror as 'Raoul'). I could go on - even Herbert Lom, the actor who was the harried police superior to Peter Sellers' 'Inspector Clousseau,' took a swing on the old light fixture. (And let us not forget diminutive Paul Williams in the slightly askew PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.) All of these pale, of course, in comparison to the legendary interpretation by Michael Crawford in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which first brought the audience to its feet in 1986.

Queens Theatre will present the Tony-nominated play Say Goodnight Gracie, starring Alan Safier as George Burns, written by Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and directed by Michael White. The show will be at Queens Theatre (14 United Nations Avenue South, Flushing Meadows Corona Park) today, September 27 at 2pm & 8pm and on Sunday, September 28 at 3pm. Join Rupert Holmes, Alan Safier, and Moderator WABC's Sandy Kenyon for a lively talk-back after the 3pm performance on Sunday, September 28.

Skip E. Lowe, the comic, raconteur and perennial TV host whose weekly public access cable program has been airing in Los Angeles, New York and other major markets for more than 35 years--the longest in television history--and is generally credited as the inspiration for the Martin Short character “Jiminy Glick,” died in his home at Kingsley Manor Apartments in Hollywood on Monday, Sept. 22. He was 85 and had been suffering from emphysema and other respiratory ailments, though he never smoked, but blamed years of working as a comic in smoke-infested nightclubs. Lowe had conducted more than 6,000 interviews, often two a week, with guests that included Orson Welles and Bette Davis.

Queens Theatre will present the Tony-nominated play Say Goodnight Gracie, starring Alan Safier as George Burns, written by Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) and directed by Michael White. The show will be at Queens Theatre (14 United Nations Avenue South, Flushing Meadows Corona Park) on Saturday, September 27 at 2pm & 8pm and on Sunday, September 28 at 3pm. Join Rupert Holmes, Alan Safier, and Moderator WABC's Sandy Kenyon for a lively talk-back after the 3pm performance on Sunday, September 28.

The national tour of the international hit show Menopause The Musical comes to The Cape Playhouse for a one week run this fall, playing today, September 16-21. Menopause The Musical is a groundbreaking celebration of women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or have survived 'The Change.'

American Conservatory Theater, in association with The Commonwealth Club of Northern California, will present John Lahr in Conversation with Carey Perloff on the occasion of the release of his newest biography, "TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" on Monday, October 6 at 7 p.m. at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco).

Bette Davis On the Edge, a new one-woman show about the screen legend, written and performed by Christine St. John, an American actress, who has spent the last two decades working in London, and directed by renowned Chicago director, teacher and casting agent, Jane Drake Brody, will receive its world premiere at the Mainstreet Theatre in Michigan City, Indiana, beginning on September 12th, and running for four performances through September 20th.

The national tour of the international hit show Menopause The Musical comes to The Cape Playhouse for a one week run this fall, playing September 16-21. Menopause The Musical is a groundbreaking celebration of women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or have survived "The Change."

Debbie Reynolds – actor, singer, dancer, author, champion for the preservation of the artifacts of film history and for the understanding and treatment of mental illness – has been named the 51st recipient of SAG-AFTRA's highest honor:

'Backwards in High Heels,' now playing through August 23rd at The Winter Park Playhouse, is as entertaining as it is educational. The story is an account of the transformation of a young girl, Virginia Katherine McMath, into one of the country's best-known dancing idols; you may know her by her pseudonym Ginger Rogers, the bright-eyed teenager with dreams of dancing her way through Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.