Ian McKellen News

Live Performance Australia™ (LPA) announced today that Liza McLean will be the Executive Producer of the Helpmann Awards® in 2013.

Actor Liam Neeson will visit the season premiere of INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO on Tuesday, October 2 on Bravo (7-8 p.m. ET)

Actor Roger Rees zooms through his life in Shakespeare - from auditioning for the Royal Shakespeare Company at this very theatre as a young lad, to playing mute extras and delivering some of theatre's greatest monologues - in this one-act, one-man show

Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is coming to theaters on December 14, 2012. Check out a just-released trailer for the highly-anticipated film below!

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) has selected Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham as the 2012 recipient of The William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre(Will Award). Abraham will be honored at the Harman Center for the Arts Annual Gala hosted by STC at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) on Monday, October 15, 2012. This year's Gala will be inspired by Shakespeare's great characters.

The Colony Theatre presents the second production of its "Season of Premieres" with the West Coast Premiere Premiere of BLAME IT ON BECKETT, written by John Morogiello and directed by Andrew Barnicle. BLAME IT ON BECKETT opens tonight, Saturday, August 11 at 8:00pm and continues through Sunday, September 2 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.

International screen and stage star Kim Cattrall leads the cast of William Shakespeare's depiction of politics and passion, alongside distinguished actor Michael Pennington, in the final production at Chichester's Festival Theatre this summer.

Two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz will join Katie Holmes on Broadway this fall in DEAD ACCOUNTS, the new comedy by Theresa Rebeck, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien. This limited engagement of DEAD ACCOUNTS, produced by Jeffrey Finn, John N. Hart Jr., David Mirvish, and The Shubert Organization, will begin previews on Saturday, November 3 and open Wednesday, November 28 at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street).

BroadwayWorld.com, the largest theatre site on the Internet, is excited to announce a new feature to its comprehensive regional coverage - the Featured Regional Theater of the Week! Each week, BWW will introduce its readers to a regional theater located in one of our (over 130!) coverage cities. By exploring these different venues, their history and showcasing the production seasons, BWW continues its commitment to expand our presence in communities and cities across the United States. This week it's off to the Washington, D.C. area where we take a look at the award-winning Olney Theatre Centre!

Deadline.com reports that THE HOBBIT director Peter Jackson confirms that the saga will be split into three individual films, with the final chapter being released in the summer of 2014.

The Colony Theatre presents the second production of its "Season of Premieres" with the West Coast Premiere Premiere of BLAME IT ON BECKETT, written by John Morogiello and directed by Andrew Barnicle. BLAME IT ON BECKETT will preview on Wednesday, August 8; Thursday, August 9; and Friday, August 10 at 8:00pm and will open on Saturday, August 11 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, September 2 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.

Tony and Olivier Award winning stage, screen and television actor Roger Rees returns to the West End in What You Will, playing for a limited three-week season at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue from 18th September 2012.

Only Make Believe, the New York City based non-profit organization that brings laughter and imagination to children suffering from chronic illnesses and disabilities is expanding their reach to help children and families in Washington D.C.

Profiles in History, run by Joe Maddalena, has announced Treasures from the Hollywood Vaults auction in July. The items below are from the esteemed Dreier Collection and will be auctioned off on July 28th in Los Angeles. The Animation Auction will be July 29th and the Treasures from the Hollywood Vaults auction has been moved to July 30th and July 31st.

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, June 24, 2012 - Sunday, June 24, 2012.

Stars of the upcoming Hobbit film made a surprise appearance at a performance of Ian McKellen's one-man show in support of Christchurch's theatre in New Zealand on Saturday night, June 23. According to TheOneRing, Aidan Turner, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans and Martin Freeman appeared in the show's finale. Watch them onstage in the video below!

American Players Theatre (APT) announces its 2012 Season, which will run June 9 to October 21, 2012. The season will be especially exciting to Shakespeare lovers, with the return of three Shakespeare productions in APT's 1148-seat outdoor amphitheater Up the Hill, as well as Vern Thiessen's Shakespeare's Will, about William Shakespeare's enigmatic wife Anne Hathaway, in APT's 200-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre. Additionally, APT will present a new Shakespearience festival, featuring preeminent Shakespeare scholars and special events from August 24-26, 2012.

Today we are talking to an actor who has appeared in over fifty feature films and starred in plays on Broadway and in the West End all about his career thus far, looking ahead to his new role as John Sculley in the forthcoming jOBS, co-starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak, directed by Joshua Michael Stewart - the one and only Matthew Modine. In this all-encompassing chat tracing the past to the present, Modine also manages to give us the scoop on his featured role in the final part of Christopher Nolan's BATMAN trilogy, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and shares his candid impressions of working with Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the rest of the starry cast of the sure-to-be blockbuster of the summer. Additionally, Modine illustrates his experiences working with director Robert Altman on screen and stage projects as diverse as SHORT CUTS and STREAMERS on film, Arthur Miller's FINISHING THE PICTURE in Chicago and RESURRECTION BLUES at the Old Vic in the West End and Modine expresses his overall general enthusiasm for acting and reveals deeply probing insight into many of his most memorable and famous roles to date - ranging from roles in Stanley Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET to Alan Parker's BIRDY to his work with Oliver Stone, Tony Richardson, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, Mike Figgis, John Schlesinger and others. All of that, a thorough discussion of his recent roles in the theatrical productions of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and THE MIRACLE WORKER, as well as recollections of working on many of his most beloved projects to date, such as AND THE BAND PLAYED ON, THE REAL BLONDE, ORPHANS, CUTTHROAT ISLAND, BYE BYE LOVE, THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE, WEEDS - and much, much more!

Happy Medium Theatre, Inc. (HMT) presents The American Plan, written by Richard Greenberg and directed by Melanie Garber from tonight, June 8th to June 16th, 2012 at the Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, 02118.

Following a limited season at the Menier Chocolate Factory and a UK Tour Educating Rita, the Olivier Award-winning comedy by Willy Russell, will play at the Assembly George Square Theatre this summer from Wednesday 1st - Sunday 26th August 2012 as part of the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Claire Sweeney plays Rita and Matthew Kelly is Dr Frank Bryant in a production directed by Tamara Harvey.