Maggie Smith News

Billy Connolly will bring his uncensored, uncut and unpredictable stand-up to New York this winter when he plays the legendary Beacon Theatre on Friday December 7 with his show, BILLY CONNOLLY: THE MAN LIVE. Tickets are now on sale at www.ticketmaster.com. Other cities will be announced in the future.

Nominations for this year's Primetime Emmy Awards were announced today, Thursday, July 19, from the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre at Television Academy headquarters in the NoHo Arts District of Los Angeles.

Creator and Artistic Director Dambra Sabato and partners Ray Croce and Chelsea DiPilla bring A Saturday's Child, their arts and entertainment company's groundbreaking theatrical production of MONDAY NIGHT MONOLOGUES to a close this month. The trio will present the 'one-of-a-kind', now thrice-proven show at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey Street in Philadelphia. All shows are on Mondays: July 9, 16 and 23. Shows start at 8:00pm, doors open at 7:30pm. BroadwayWorld has a video promo of the show below.

Creator and Artistic Director Dambra Sabato and partners Ray Croce and Chelsea DiPilla bring A Saturday's Child, their arts and entertainment company's groundbreaking theatrical production of MONDAY NIGHT MONOLOGUES to a close this month. The trio will present the 'one-of-a-kind', now thrice-proven show at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey Street in Philadelphia. All shows are on Mondays: tonight, July 9 and July 16 & 23. Shows start at 8:00pm, doors open at 7:30pm.

Creator and Artistic Director Dambra Sabato and partners Ray Croce and Chelsea DiPilla bring A Saturday's Child, their arts and entertainment company's groundbreaking theatrical production of MONDAY NIGHT MONOLOGUES to a close this month. The trio will present the 'one-of-a-kind', now thrice-proven show at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey Street in Philadelphia. All shows are on Mondays: July 9, 16 and 23. Shows start at 8:00pm, doors open at 7:30pm.

British stage, film, television and radio star James Grout, nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as Harry Chitterlow in Half a Sixpence, has died, according to The Guardian. He was 84.

Today we are taking a look at four sparkling new Blu-ray editions of well-regarded films from the Disney vault by focusing on three titles that are also currently running on Broadway in screen-to-stage adaptations at this very moment - EVITA, NEWSIES and SISTER ACT. The current trend of adapting hit films into musicals for the stage has sporadically proven that some stage adaptations can even be more entertaining onstage, while some recent movie musicals have one-upped their stage roots in a way a few Golden Age adaptations also managed to do. Such is the case with EVITA, NEWSIES, SISTER ACT and SISTER ACT 2 (the latter two both acting as inspiration for the Broadway SISTER ACT musical) - all available for the first time on Blu-ray and each certainly justifying consideration for inclusion in your library if only because each is regarded as a modern-day classic - of sorts - in its own unique and special way. And, without these films, we would never have the current versions of the shows now running on Broadway based upon them (even in the case of a classic like EVITA, whose stage version may have come first, but, as seen and heard in the hit Elena Roger/Ricky Martin/Michael Cerveris revival, now includes the film addition, "You Must Love Me"). Whatever the medium, all of these winning entities offer an entertaining way to beat the heat and celebrate the start of summer in style - with some tunes, old and new, you are not soon to forget.

QUARTET will be coming to theaters from The Weinstein Company. Directed by Dustin Hoffman, the comedy stars Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtenay and Sheridan Smith. Check out the trailer for the upcoming film below!

AFI Life Achievement Award honoree Meryl Streep presented Shirley MacLaine with the American Film Institute's 40th Life Achievement Award - America's highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie gala was held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City on June 7 and will air on TV Land tonight, June 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Dame Maggie Smith will be the 2012 recipient of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Legacy Award and will be honoured at a gala at Toronto's new Four Seasons Hotel on Monday, September 10.

AFI Life Achievement Award honoree Meryl Streep will present Shirley MacLaine with the American Film Institute's 40th Life Achievement Award - America's highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie gala will be held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City on June 7 and will air on TV Land on Sunday, June 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that they have acquired U.S. and Latin American rights to Dustin Hoffman's QUARTET from HanWay Films.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced Tuesday, April 24 the nominations for its 2012 television awards. British miniseries 'Appropriate Adult,' which chronicles the real-life serial killer Fred West, leads the way with four nominations.

According to The Huffington Post, actress Maggie Smith will be leaving the popular PBS series DOWNTOWN ABBEY at the conclusion of the show's third season.

Today we are shining a special spotlight on some of the most spot-on short video parodies in recent memory - with a special focus on the creme de la creme of such shorts; unveiled last night on THE JIMMY FALLON SHOW, the absolutely hilarious first installment of DOWNTON SIXBEY, starring Jimmy Fallon and Brooke Shields as well as Fallon's announcer, Steve Higgins (and a cameo from SNL and PORTLANDIA's Fred Armisen). An incredibly detailed and well-honed winking homage to the international smash hit Julian Fellowes early-19th century-set DOWNTON ABBEY that has cleaned up at the recent Emmy Awards and Golden Globes - a drama largely concerning itself with the goings on upstairs and downstairs at an impossible palatial country estate - DOWNTON SIXBEY centers on the various intrigues of the cast of characters at Studio 6B at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City and contains countless winks and nudges to and taken at the expense of the hit Brit soap sensation of the century. From the opening sequence - a direct shot-for-shot recreation of the already iconic DOWNTON prologue - through to Fallon's all-to-apt pronunciation of 'here', Broadway and Hollywood star Brooke Shields looking ravishing as she says 'howdy' as politely as the other Lady Grantham herself and beyond - without even mentioning Fred Armisen's cameo as the homely 'other daughter' and the ?uestlove (Fallon's bandleader and the head of The Roots) cameo cliffhanger at the conclusion - this joking and sensitively rendered tribute hits the notes and chords all too few of the countless DOWNTON ABBEY parodies committed to celluloid so far fail to consistently reach and truly sings, zings and stings. When it comes to this sort of thing, it's all in the details, after all, isn't it? The same could be said of DOWNTON ABBEY itself, actually.

David Suchet returns to the West End stage in Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece, Long Day's Journey Into Night, following his critically acclaimed performance in Arthur Miller's All My Sons last year.

From Time to Time will be available March 20th on DVD, Digital Download, and On Demand from Freestyle Digital Media.

TV and stage icon Hayley Mills will be starring alongside Belinda Lang in the world premiere stage production of Ladies In Lavender at Royal & Derngate this spring. This evocative and heart-warming story of unfulfilled dreams and unrequited love runs from Friday 6 April to Saturday 28 April, as part of the 2012 Made In Northampton season before embarking on a national tour.

Chichester Festival Theatre celebrates its 50th birthday with an anniversary season that echoes and acknowledges the past while also looking to the future. Uncle Vanya was part of Chichester's very first season in 1962 and became a key part of its history and is revisited during Festival 2012. The Way of the World in 1984 has also become an emblematic production; the play will feature again this year.

ITV and Carnival films have announced that stage and screen star Shirley MacLaine will be joining the cast of the PBS period drama DOWNTOWN ABBY for its third season.