Laurence Olivier News

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) rings in the New Year with William Shakespeare's As You Like It, staged by CST's Associate Artistic Director Gary Griffin.

Director Michael Carleton has envisioned Richard as the prototype of the amoral modern politician who will stop at nothing to achieve power. While professing the purest and most altruistic of motives, he holds no allegiance but to himself; he is the master of media and manipulator of appearances. To drive the point home, Carleton has Richard's famous opening monologue delivered in part as if it were a victory speech after a political campaign, shows some of the events being broadcast on CNN, and invests much of the proceedings with a Georgetown-y air. And by golly, he's right. The effect is not much different from that of Fair Game, the movie about l'affaire Valerie Plame now playing in the local bijou.

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is thrilled to host the US premiere of LINGUA FRANCA, written by Peter Nichols, at the 2010 Brits Off Broadway festival.

Only three weeks remain to see Disney's THE LION KING in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, where performances play though November 27, 2010.

The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Love Story will transfer to the West End previewing at the Duchess Theatre from 27 November, with press night on 6 December 2010.

Emily Bruni (Harriet), Lucy Cohu (Sylvia Gellburg), Nigel Lindsay (Dr Harry Hyman), Madeleine Potter (Margaret Hyman) and Brian Protheroe (Stanton Case) join previously announced Antony Sher (Philip Gellburg) in Arthur Miller's Laurence Olivier Award winning play Broken Glass, directed at the Tricycle Theatre by Iqbal Khan.

The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Love Story will transfer to the West End previewing at the Duchess Theatre from 27 November, with press night on 6 December 2010.

The 35th Laurence Olivier Awards, the most prestigious event in Britain's theatrical calendar, will be presented at the iconic Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on Sunday 13 March 2011 and will receive extensive coverage on BBC News on TV, radio and online.

WICKED, the long-running hit musical at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre, is pleased to announce that Mark Evans will join the cast on Monday 7 February 2011 in the starring role of Fiyero opposite Rachel Tucker (Elphaba) and Louise Dearman (Glinda).

The Walnut Street Theatre's 2010-2011 Independence Studio on 3 season opens with the world premiere of Frank Ferrante's mayhem-driven variety show, Caesar's Palace O' Fun.

Count Dracula, the world's most famous vampire, returns to the New York stage in DRACULA by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, based on the eponymous novel by Bram Stoker, set to begin previews December 14, prior to its official press opening January 5 at the Little Shubert Theatre (442 West 42nd Street). Paul Alexander to direct.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce that Atlantic Theater Company members Larry Bryggman and Matt McGrath and guest artists Lisa Emery, Rebecca Henderson and Darren Pettie will star in its first main stage production of the 2010-2011 season, THE COLLECTION & A KIND OF ALASKA: TWO PLAYS BY HAROLD PINTER, directed by Atlantic founding member Karen Kohlhaas.

Take an action-packed Alfred Hitchcock thriller, assign over 100 roles to only four actors, and amp up the comedy, and the result is the Broadway hit Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, on stage in November.

Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities and Executive Producer James A. Blackman III proudly closes their 19th season with Walton Jones' musical holiday tribute to the swing era.

Actor, Producer, Writer and Author, ROBERT WAGNER, will appear as the Guest Speaker at the Westside Center for Independent Living's Associates' (WCIL's) Annual Literary Tea on Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. at a private home in Beverly Hills, CA, at which time Wagner will talk about and sign copies of his New York Times bestselling autobiography, Pieces of My Heart - A Life.

Raise money for BBC Children in Need and enjoy a night at one of the London's biggest musicals, at BBC London 94.9FM's special gala performance of smash-hit award-winning musical JERSEY BOYS at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End on Wednesday 17th November 2010.

Disney Theatrical Productions and the Providence Performing Arts Center are pleased to announce that tickets for the long-awaited return engagement of Disney's THE LION KING will go on sale to the public on Saturday, November 6 at 10A at the PPAC Box Office, located at 220 Weybosset Street in downtown Providence, online at www.ppacri.org or by phone at (401) 421 - ARTS (2787). THE LION KING, which Channing Gray from The Providence Journal heralded as 'a thrilling spectacle,' will triumphantly return to the PPAC stage on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 for a limited three-week engagement through Sunday, February 20, 2011. The press opening night is Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 7:30P.

Marquee Productions presents the Broadway sensation, Hairspray, at the Montgomery Theater in downtown San Jose, December 3 - 12, 2010. Winner of eight Tony Awards and four prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards, including 'Best Musical,' this smash-hit musical about a girl with big hair, a big heart and big dance numbers is piled high with bouffant laughter, romance and deliriously fun show tunes. Hairspray is directed by Children's Musical Theater San Jose's Artistic Director Kevin R. Hauge.

Kathleen Turner and Matthew Rhys will reprise the roles they created in the original West End production when L.A. Theatre Works records Terry Johnson's hit stage adaptation of The Graduate for radio.

?Chicago Shakespeare Theater's (CST) Funk It Up About Nothin'-an exuberant hip-hop 'ad-rap-tation' of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing-will thrill audiences in New York City, Chicago and Australia in the New Year.