Joan Plowright News

Stage and screen actresss Billie Whitelaw died early Sunday MORNING at 82.

Angela Lansbury recently stopped by PBS' TAVIS SMILEY to talk with the host on her career and returning, at age 89, to the role that won her a Tony in BLITHE SPIRIT. Check out her interview below!

Following the internationally acclaimed production with sold-out engagements on Broadway and in London's West End, television legend, Oscar recipient and five-time Tony Award-winner Angela Lansbury returns to the stage in Noel Coward's smash-hit comedic play 'Blithe Spirit' in an exciting North American tour to be launched at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre.

Happy Birthday Angela Lansbury! Lansbury - who returned to Broadway in this year's revival of THE BEST MAN - has enjoyed an unprecedented career, first as a star of motion pictures, and then as an award-winning stage actor in New York and London. She appeared as Madame Armfeldt in the 2009 revival of A Little Night Music, and before that as Madame Arcati in the 2009 revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, for which she won her fifth Tony Award, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. She performed in 2006 in Terrence McNally's Deuce, for which she was also nominated for a Tony Award. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 as Bert Lahr's wife in Hotel Paradiso. In 1960, she returned to Broadway as Joan Plowright's mother in the season's most acclaimed drama, A Taste of Honey, by Shelagh Delaney. A year later, she starred in her first musical, Anyone Can Whistle. Lansbury returned to Broadway in triumph in 1966 in Mame, for which she won her first Tony Award.

Following the internationally acclaimed production with sold-out engagements on Broadway and in London's West End, television legend, Oscar recipient and five-time Tony Award-winner Angela Lansbury returns to the stage in Noel Coward's smash-hit comedic play 'Blithe Spirit' in an exciting North American tour to be launched at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre.

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced that its upcoming season will include productions of ASSASSINS by Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman, BUYER AND CELLAR by Jonathan Tolins & starring Michael Urie, plus AN EVENING WITH JOAN PLOWRIGHT.

Film and stage legend and two-time Tony Award winner Lauren Bacall, passed away last week (first reported by TMZ) at the age of 89. The legendary actress suffered a massive stroke and died at home (New York City's famous Dakota Building) according to a family member. BroadwayWorld remembers the legend below.

BLITHE SPIRIT may be making a journey stateside.

It's 1967. Lyndon B. Johnson is in office, Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis have just become an "item," protests against the Vietnam war are going strong - and Judge Francis Biddle, former Attorney General under FDR and Chief Judge at the Nuremburg Trials, is 81 years old. Trying, the award-winning play inspired by the real-life experiences of playwright Joanna McClelland Glass as personal secretary to Biddle during the last year of his life, opens at International City Theatre on Aug. 22, directed by John Henry Davis and starring Tony Abatemarco and Paige Lindsey White.

The Broadway community mourns the loss of renowned stage and screen actor Eli Wallach, who passed away on Tuesday at age 98. The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in his memory Friday, June 27th, at exactly 7:45pm for one minute.

The cast of West End's Blithe Spirit performed a special cabaret in honor of Angela Lansbury at the Cafe de Paris, directed by Michael Blakemore. Featured performers included Janie Dee, Charles Edwards, Simon Jones, and Jemima Rooper.

Burbage Theatre Company is proving to be a gem of a small company. Last season's "The Liar" was one of the funnier, tighter, and most professional shows I saw all of last year, and this Spring's production of "Orson's Shadow" by Austin Pendleton is every bit as good. The show is the 2nd in a shortened, 3-play season BTC is staging at the Artists' Exchange in Cranston, bookended by the recently closed "Doctor Cerberus" and the about to open "The Bald Soprano," by Eugene Ionesco.

Artists' Exchange has announced its upcoming camps, productions and events. Details below!

CAT Theatre continues its 50th Anniversary Season with Enchanted April which runs from today, March 21 thru April 5, 2014.

According to Deadline, Ullman has just signed to join James Roday and Rich Sommer in CBS' upcoming comedy pilot GOOD SESSION from John Hamburg and Matt Miller.

Jemima Rooper, Sandra Dickinson, Simon Jones and Patsy Ferran join Janie Dee, Charles Edwards and Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit, directed by Michael Blakemore. This new production of Noel Coward's sharp comedy of social mores opens at the Gielgud Theatre tonight, 18 March 2014.