Billy Crystal News

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed that Hugh Jackman will host the 81st annual Academy Awards.The Academy said Friday that the 40-year-old Australian actor, recently named People magazine's 'Sexiest Man Alive,' will host the Oscars.

West Coast Ensemble presents YENTA: Straight from the Mouth, written and performed by Annie Korzen and Directed by Judy Chaikin. YENTA: Straight from the Mouth will open on Saturday, February 21 at 3:00pm and continue through Sunday, March 22 at the new home of West Coast Ensemble - the El Centro Theatre, 800 N. El Centro Ave. in Hollywood. Annie Korzen (SEINFELD's Doris Klompus) thinks the world would be a better place if everyone would just do what she says. Much to her amazement, the world doesn't seem to agree. An engaging evening of comedy. music and constructive criticism from the creator of the world-wide hit, YENTA UNPLUGGED. Mostly funny, sometimes serious, sometimes naughty: all of it scientifically calibrated to make you a better person!

Hugh Jackman tell the Associated Press he'll be bringing plenty of nudity to this years Oscar telecast. Jackman discussed his upcoming Academy Award hosting duties saying, 'I haven't told anyone this, but we are going to do most of it naked and we're going to sing through the whole show,' the affable actor joked during an interview backstage at the Kodak Theatre. 'In fact, all the acceptance speeches are going to be sung. There will be some interpretive dance behind them, and I really think it will be beautiful and touching.'

IMDB.com and other sources are reporting that Academy Award nominee Anne Hathway is now set to be part of the opening number for this Sunday's Oscars with a 'song and dance routine' that she's been spotted rehearsing along with Hugh Jackman in preparation for Sunday's awards.

Comedy icon Joan Rivers met her fans at the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Square, as she signed copies of her two newly published titles. BWW TV was there to spend the evening with the entertainment legend!

BWW TV STAGE TUBE brings you the official Oscar night preview trailer courtesy of the fine folks over at ABC!

ABC's Barbara Walters, who interviewed Hugh Jackman for her annual Oscar-night special, says the actor's role as host of Sunday's Oscar broadcast has given him a trace of pre-show jitters. Walters revealed, 'He's nervous about it. He's never done it before!' She added, 'I said, 'What would REALLY make you nervous?' And he said, 'Looking in the front row and seeing Jack Nicholson.'

E! Online is reporting that stage and screen star (and Oscars' host) Hugh Jackman won't be the only one singing and dancing at this Sunday's Academy Awards. They report that he'll be joined on stage by stars including Beyonce, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Amanda Seyfriend, Dominic Cooper & more.

Barry Manilow was inducted into the legendary Friars Club on Saturday, February 14th, joining the ranks of such greats as Frank Sinatra, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg in the exclusive entertainers' group reports the New York Daily News.

Hugh Jackman tell the Associated Press he knows the Oscars ceremony isn't about him, but he's looking forward to enjoying it all the same. The screen and stage superstar chatted with the AP in a phone interview yesterday, Friday, February 13th, less than two weeks before the Feb. 22 ceremony which will be airing on ABC.

La Jolla Playhouse welcomes back Rick Elice, co-writer of the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, as the playwright of Peter and the Starcatchers. Alex Timbers and Roger Rees are set to direct with choreography by Kelly Devine and music by Wayne Barker. Peter and the Starcatchers will be playing at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse February 13 -March 8, 2009. Based on the best-selling novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatchers dares to tell the real story of precisely how a desperate orphan in Victorian England became The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. It's a tale that travels halfway round the world and straight up to the stars. It's a comedy that takes aim at social injustice. It's a romance of young heroes who risk everything for the sake of doing right. It's an expos? of extravagant villains possessed of a single-minded ferocity from which no good shall ever spring. In short, it's an awfully big adventure. La Jolla Playhouse will present Peter and the Starcatchers, a new play, as a part of its Page To Stage program, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions. Adam Green has been cast in the role of Peter. He has appeared in Off-Broadway productions such as Election Day, All This Intimacy and None of the Above. Molly will be played by Celia Keenan-Bolger who most recently appeared on Broadway in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She also appeared in Saved. Lost boy Prentiss will be played by Carson Elrod, who appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Our Town. Elrod has also appeared on Broadway in Reckless and Noises Off. David Rossmer is cast as the ever - peckish lost boy Teddy. His Broadway credits include Fiddler on the Roof and Titanic. Christian Borle, who will be playing the ravenous Black Stache, received acclaim for his roles in Spamalot. He also received a 2007 Tony Award nomination for his role in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde. Andrew McGinn is set to play Slank. His New York credits include Coast of Utopia and The Invention of Love. Playing Lord Aster is John G. Preston, who recently appeared as Cameron Parker in the Off-Broadway production of Taboos. Greg Hildreth, playing the good hearted Alf, recently appeared in Dance Dance Revolution and Gentlemen of Verona. Teddy Bergman will be playing Fighting Prawn. His New York theater credits include Dance Dance Revolution and Nobody Likes the Mormons.

Monday, February 23 at the Gershwin Theatre marks another momentous occasion for multi award-winning music master Marc Shaiman, with the Broadway premiere of his Prop 8 - The Musical,' as a special part of the 'Defying Inequality- The Broadway Concert, A Celebrity Benefit for Equal Rights.' Shaiman is at right work right now on an all-new version of the internet sensation, (first created by FunnyOrDie.com and to date has logged over 3.5 million hits).

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre continues its 32nd season with NEWWORKS 09 March 16 - April 11 at the West End Theatre (263 W. 86th Street between Broadway & West End Avenue in the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew, 2nd floor). This four week event of new plays, solo pieces and music features some of the brightest young talent in the Asian-American community and beyond.

La Jolla Playhouse extends its warmest welcome to Michael Benjamin Washington, who appeared in Playhouse productions of The Wiz and Memphis.In his one-man show, Washington portrays five different characters as they explore the new America with a newly-elected president. An invite-only reading of Letters to Barack: A New American Play is taking place on Monday, February 9, 2009 at 7:30 pm in the Seuss 1 rehearsal room at La Jolla Playhouse.

West Coast Ensemble presents YENTA: Straight from the Mouth, written and performed by Annie Korzen and Directed by Judy Chaikin. YENTA: Straight from the Mouth will open on Saturday, February 21 at 3:00pm and continue through Sunday, March 22 at the new home of West Coast Ensemble - the El Centro Theatre, 800 N. El Centro Ave. in Hollywood. Annie Korzen (SEINFELD's Doris Klompus) thinks the world would be a better place if everyone would just do what she says. Much to her amazement, the world doesn't seem to agree. An engaging evening of comedy. music and constructive criticism from the creator of the world-wide hit, YENTA UNPLUGGED. Mostly funny, sometimes serious, sometimes naughty: all of it scientifically calibrated to make you a better person!

With the closing of The Cutting Room, legendary comedian JOAN RIVERS brings her her live stand-up act to The Lower East Side. Beginning February 3rd, Rivers presents an evening of her newest and most outrageous riffs on Hollywood, pop culture, celebrities, and award show fashions at The Slipper Room, 167 Orchard Street (on the corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets, one block below Houston -- accessible from the F&V trains at 2nd Avenue). Rivers performs live every Tuesday at 7:30pm from February 3 - 24. Tickets are $30 with a portion of the proceeds going to Joan Rivers' favorite charities: God's Love We Deliver and Guide Dogs for the Blind. For reservations call 212-352-3101 or visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com. Doors open one hour before showtime, with food and a full bar available.

The New York Times has reported that Tony winner Rob Ashford will lend his talents to director Baz Luhrmann's staging for Hugh Jackman's opening number for the 81st Annual Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on December 12th, 2008, that Hugh Jackman will host this year's Oscar telecast. Previous hosts have usually been TV or film comedians including Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, John Stewart, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres and others

Comedy icon Joan Rivers met her fans on Thursday, January 29th at the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Square, as she signed copies of her two newly published titles. BroadwayWorld.com's cameras were there to spend the evening with the entertainment legend! Rivers' books are MEN ARE STUPID...AND THEY LIKE BIG BOOBS...A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO BEAUTY THROUGH PLASTIC SURGERY and MURDER AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS...A RED CARPET MURDER MYSTERY.

La Jolla Playhouse's Artistic Director Christopher Ashley is proud to announce the six productions in the 2009/2010 season. 'So much of the joy of running a theatre comes from the ability to invite world-class artists into your home - and allowing them to make it their home as well,' says Ashley. 'At La Jolla Playhouse, our goal is to serve as an artistic home where the most exciting theatre artists in the country are given the resources to create works that drive them, and our 2009/2010 season welcomes some of the best to San Diego.'

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on December 12th, 2008, that Hugh Jackman will host the 81st annual Academy Awards. The film and stage superstar spoke to Entertainment Weekly about hosting the legendary telecast, including his sure-fire secret to television success, 'nudity'.