Lucille Ball News

Accompanied by Wayne Abravenel on keyboards, cabaret performer Francesca Amari takes us through Gilda Radner's early years, her loves, and her ultimate challenge, facing her own death, through storytelling and song. If you didn't love Radner already, you will by the time the show ends.

It was reported today that acclaimed playwright William Luce has passed away at age 88.

Before the The Play That Goes Wrong there was Noises Off. There are few directors, designers, and actors that can take on this incredibly difficult work. The comedic timing must be perfectly executed, the set has to change into two different sets between acts, and it is very physically demanding. Theatre Three's production has mastered it. The opening night audience of Noises Off were left completely sore from laughter. I am happy to say it was one of the most hilarious productions I have seen here in DFW. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the classic, Noises Off by Michael Frayn is about a group of actors who are rehearsing the play Nothing On. Broken into 3 acts the actors rehearse the play in Act 1, perform it in Act 2 (shown from backstage), and performing again Act 3. The characters in this show are completely dysfunctional from who is sleeping with whom, drinking problems, divorces, etc. It's a proper madhouse set for disaster.

I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, a new one-hour special featuring two back-to-back colorized episodes of the classic series, will be broadcast Friday, Dec. 20 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Award-winning playwright Gina Schien is set to bring her critically-acclaimed lesbian comedy to South Australia for the first time when it premieres at the 2020 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL originally opened Off-Broadway in 1992, created as an over-the-top dark comedy spoof of the films The Bad Seed and All About Eve, and well-known Broadway musicals Gypsy and Annie. Similar to the dark comedy in musicals such as Little Shop of Horrors and Sweeney Todd where characters are murdered and then eaten, RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL centers on 8-year old Tina Denmark, who knows she was born to play the lead in her school's third grade show and will do anything to win the part. And I do mean anything. Now onstage at Theatre Palisades, directed by Alta Abbott who first fell in love with the show during its 1993 West Coast premiere at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, I can only say that the over-the-top production sometimes seemed so dark that the comedy became invisible.

Laguna Playhouse announces the final cast and creative team to join acclaimed film, TV and theatre veterans Frances Fisher (a?oeTitanic,a?? Native Gardens, Barbeque), as a?oeQueen Eleanora?? and Gregory Harrison (a?oeTrapper John, M.D.,a?? Broadway's Chicago, Steel Pier), as a?oeKing Henry IIa?? in THE LION IN WINTER

REELZ today announced that two more of its original series are headed to PodcastOne with the launch of Autopsy: The Last Hours of... on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 and Copycat Killers on Thursday, November 21, 2019. New podcasts for episodes of both Autopsy: The Last Hours of... and Copycat Killers will be available every week on Apple Podcasts and PodcastOne. Both Autopsy: The Last Hours of... and Copycat Killers podcasts were originally slated to debut in 2020 but advanced to this year in response to customer demand based on the success of the network's Murder Made Me Famous podcasts on PodcastOne.

Hell in a Handbag Productions' presents its annual benefit, THE RIP NELSON CELEBRITY ROAST on Saturday, November 9, 2019 from 6 - 11 pm at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster Ave. in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood.

Rachel York is set for a recurring role in the new Fox drama series Filthy Rich, according to Deadline. She will star opposite Kim Cattrall, Gerald McRaney and Melia Kreiling in the high-profile new drama. 

Laguna Playhouse Artistic Director Ann E. Wareham and Executive Director Ellen Richard are thrilled to announce that acclaimed film, TV and theatre veterans Frances Fisher (a?oeTitanic,a?? Native Gardens, Barbeque), will star as a?oeQueen Eleanora?? and Gregory Harrison (a?oeTrapper John, M.D.,a?? Broadway'sChicago, Steel Pier), will star as a?oeKing Henry IIa?? in its upcoming production of THE LION IN WINTER, written by James Goldman and directed by Sheldon Epps.  

Lucie Arnaz brings a?oeI Got the Job!a??: Songs from My Musical Past to WPPAC Friday, September 27 at 8pm.

Luminario Ballet (Judith FLEX Helle, Managing and Artistic Director) is pleased to announce the Company's 2019 Gala Fundraiser, Gala Bacchanal. This one-night-only event, honoring Emmy Award-winning choreographer Anita Mann for her Lifetime Achievement and Influence in Choreography, will take place on Saturday, November 16, 2019 from 5:30 p.m. a?' 9:30 p.m., at the Beverly Hills Women's Club (1700 Chevy Chase Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210). 

ACT a?' A Contemporary Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director John Langs, officially announces its 55th seasona?'a celebration of five contemporary plays including ACT's 50th Mainstage world premiere. The 2020 mainstage season will open with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat by Lynn Nottage, followed by The Effect, a scintillating, pill-popping love story by Lucy Prebble. Summer 2020 will feature a co-production with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts with the soaring coming-of-age musical-drama Choir Boy by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Moonlight, Tarell Alvin McCraney. Fall at ACT will feature the world premiere of The Laugh Track by Wendy MacLeod, inspired by the true story of the first female Hollywood writer on the I Love Lucy Show. Closing the season, will be the weirdly wonderful and witty Witch by Jen Silverman, an updated version of The Witch of Edmonton, where the Devil comes to bargain for souls and things go awry when he meets up with the town outcast.

Nosotros, the first Latinx arts advocacy organization in Hollywood, announced the recipients of the 2019 Golden Eagle Awards.  The honorees include a wide array of Hollywood talent in front and behind the camera. The awards will take place on Thursday, September 19, 2019 at the historic Montalban Theatre 1615 Vine Street in Hollywood.  www.nosotrosorg.com

The White Plains Performing Arts Center (WPPAC) is proud to announce an exciting fall season featuring AIDA, NEWSIES, Lainie Kazan, and more!

Totem Pole Playhouse, America's summer theatre, located in Caledonia State Park between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, PA has announced the final production in the Playhouse's new summer subscription series, Wrong Turn at Lungfish by legendary writer/director, Garry Marshall and acclaimed screenwriter, Lowell Ganz. 

Darlings, last night we watched Joe's Pub BURN to the ground! Set on FIRE by the incendiary Jackie Hoffman's fire breathing mouth. This perennial of such New York musical comedy classics as Hairspray, On The Town, her star turn in Once Upon A Mattress, and the current Off-Broadway hit-of-the-season A Kleyn Eydish (oh the heck with it) Fiddler On The Roof - In Yiddish no less, held forth with stand-up and lay-them-in-the-isles comedy songs for 70(ish) minutes that have us still laughing and wanting more; even though we are SORE from all the laughter.

A moving and memorable portrait of America's favorite sidekick. Vivian Vance.

Dorset Theatre Festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Dina Janis and Producing Director Will Rucker, will begin performances of Slow Food by Wendy MacLeod, the final production of the 42nd Season, on August 22.