Judi Dench News

Seattle Shakespeare Company will offer free previews of its upcoming adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV trilogy called Bring Down the House at area public libraries. During the 45 minute presentations, director Rosa Joshi and members of the cast will read selected scenes and follow up with a question and answer session.

Production has begun in Louisiana on writer/director Sofia Coppola's THE BEGUILED, which reteams the filmmaker with Focus Features.

Musical Theatre West's (MTW) Reiner Staged Reading Series presents the Rodgers & Hart's classic The Boys from Syracuse Sunday, November 13, 2016 at 7:00pm at its new home, the Beverly O'Neill Theater, located at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center.  Tickets are now on Tickets are now on sale online at www.musical.org, by visiting the MTW West Ticket Office, or by calling (562) 856-1999, ext. 4.  Advance general admission tickets for each performance are $27 (or $32 on the day of the performance).  You can also purchase a subscription for the final two 2016 Reiner Staged Reading performances (She Loves Me will be performed Saturday, December 3, 7pm) for $50.  Seating is general admission, with season subscribers receiving early access to the theatre via a special subscriber door.

The first Central London production in eighty years of Rodney Ackland's After October opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited four and a half week season on Tuesday, 22 November 2016.

The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company in partnership with Picturehouse Entertainment invites dozens of countries around the world, including over 600 cinemas across the UK, to share one of The Entertainer's final performances. John Osborne's modern classic will be broadcast live to cinemas direct from London's Garrick Theatre on Thursday 27 October, marking the final production in a year of unmissable theatre.

It is announced today that the Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor Sophie Okonedo will join Damian Lewis in a new production of Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?  Directed by Ian Rickson, the production will play a strictly limited 12 week season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 24th March to 24th June 2017.

The Public Theater has announced a final extension today for the first major New York revival of PLENTY, written by David Hare. Directed by five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux, the show began performances on Tuesday, November 4 and was originally extended through Sunday, November 20. It will now run through Thursday, December 1, with an official press opening Sunday, October 23.

Four hundred years after the death of William Shakespeare, The Museum of Modern Art will screen 21 films based on his iconic writings in Breaking Bard: Shakespeare on Film, today, October 12, through October 24 in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters.

Winner of 12 Tony Awards, 8 Academy Awards and 7 BAFTA Awards, CABARET wows audiences and critics alike time and time again sky-rocketing the careers its starts.  Fifty years ago in 1966 the original Broadway production made a household name of Joel Grey who shook audiences as The Emcee.  Two years later an unassuming Judi Dench stole the show as Sally Bowles on London's West End.  Arguably the most iconic movie musical of all time made a star of Liza Minnelli when she brought Sally Bowles to the silver screen directed by Bob Fosse.

The Kit Kat Club is returning to Sydney in all its decadence for a new Australian revival of CABARET at Hayes Theatre Co. from 9 January 2017 starring Paul Capsis as The Emcee.  CABARET will then play the Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne from 27 April 2017.

BWWs Tim Carney sat Down with Charles Edwards taking over the role of Henry Higgins in Brisbane and Melbourne in 2017

The Public Theater's production of Plenty, written by David Hare, recently extended two weeks through Sunday, November 20. Directed by five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux, the show begins previews tonight, October 4.

Will Broadway's beloved Leslie Odom Jr. be the murdered instead of the murderer this time? According to the BBC, Odom Jr. has joined the already-starry reboot of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, helmed by renowned theatre and film actor-director, Kenneth Branagh. Odom Jr. joins A-listers such as Dame Judi Dench, Daisy Ridley, and Johnny Depp. The film will begin production this coming November, in London, although the mystery of which characters some of the actors (including Odom Jr.) remains unsolved. 

Vanessa Redgrave is to receive this year's Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts at the UK Theatre Awards 2016. The ceremony will take place on Sunday 9 October at London's historic Guildhall.  

Tony and Olivier Award-winning director Michael Grandage and Tony and Olivier Award-winning scenic and costume designer Christopher Oram are confirmed for the creative team of Frozen, a new musical based on Disney's Academy Award-winning musical film, slated to open at Broadway's St. James Theatre in spring 2018.  

Nominations for the 2016 International Emmy Awards were announced today by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. There are 40 Nominees across 10 categories and 15 countries. The full list of Nominees follows this release. Winners will be announced at a black-tie Ceremony on November 21, 2016 at the Hilton New York Hotel.

Production has begun on Working Title Films' VICTORIA AND ABDUL, to which Focus Features holds worldwide rights as part of the company's renewed global initiative.

A new production of The Exorcist, directed by Sean Mathias, will receive its UK premiere at Birmingham Repertory Theatre from Friday 21 October - Saturday 5 November 2016. The cast features Jenny Seagrove in the role of Chris, Peter Bowles as Father Merrin and Adam Garcia as Damien.

The multiple GRAMMY-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is widely recognized as one of the world's great opera singers.

The multiple GRAMMY-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is widely recognized as one of the world's great opera singers. The New Yorker has proclaimed her “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation,” and The New York Times has described her as “the perfect 21st-century diva—an effortless combination of glamour, charisma, intelligence, grace and remarkable talent.” She is known not only for her extraordinary virtuosity, but also for her impassioned social engagement. Perhaps more than any project in her career to date, DiDonato's new album, In War and Peace: Harmony through Music, epitomizes this combination of qualities. The collection of Baroque arias arose from her pondering the question, in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks on Paris and Brussels, “In the midst of chaos, how do you find peace?” DiDonato hopes the album, out November 4 on Erato / Warner Classics, and concert presentation, with which she will tour 12 countries between November 2016 and June 2017, will help listeners answer the same question. Please see below for an itinerary of live performances.