Mike Leigh News

A Red Orchid Theatre closes its 2009-2010 season with Abigail's Party, written by Mike Leigh and directed by Shade Murray. The production will run February 12 - March 28, 2010 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells. Press opening is February 15, 2010 at 7:00 PM.

Tickets are now on sale for Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh's A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE, which begins previews on Broadway on February 15, 2010 and opens on March 4, 2010. The production stars Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken and stage and screen stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan. Directed by John Crowley, A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will play the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Tickets are on sale through Telecharge.com, or by phone at 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250, for this strictly limited engagement which will run for 16 weeks only.

A matchless quintet of interlinked plays by Britain's best-loved comic playwright, illustrates the hilarious consequences of not listening to one another.  Ayckbourn's overlapping characters are alternately naturalistic and farcical - quirky, neurotic, self-important, and hysterical.  Whether the comedy concerns marital conflict, infidelity, motherhood, or manhood; is set on a park bench or at a village fete, the characters reveal a LOL timeless familiarity in their desperation to make contact with one another. Ayckbourn's American premiere of 'Confusions' will be staged by the Lost Studio from January 15 - March 7, 2010 in Los Angeles.

Eddie Marsan appears as what Marc Samuelson calls "the solid centre of what's going on in the madness." John Houseman's late career as an actor makes him more familiar to many cinemagoers than some of the other characters in the film...

A Red Orchid Theatre closes its 2009-2010 season with Abigail's Party, written by Mike Leigh and directed by Shade Murray. The production will run February 12 - March 28, 2010 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells. Press opening is February 15, 2010 at 7:00 PM.

The four-member cast of Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh's A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE stars Academy Award-winner Christopher Walken and stage and screen stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan. Directed by John Crowley, A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE will begin performances Monday, February 15 and will open Thursday, March 4, 2010 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street. Tickets go on sale Monday, December 14 through Telecharge.com, by phone at 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250, or online at www.Telecharge.com , for this strictly limited engagement which will run for 16 weeks only.

In big news from the U.K. today, Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton have teamed up to star in a new production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at the Chichester Festival Theatre, prior to leading the show to the West End, according to a report from Baz Bamigboye in the U.K.'s Daily Mail.

David Grindley directs Obi Abili, Anthony Head and Lesley Manville in John Guare's adrenalin-fuelled, Olivier award-winning play

Last night, Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron's new play LOVE, LOSS and WHAT I WORE, an intimate collection of stories, premiered at New York's Westside Theatre with a star-studded cast including Rita Wilson, Mary Birdsong and Rosie O'Donnell. Today, O'Donnell took to her blog to reflect on a memory inspired by the production.

Producer Daryl Roth announced today that Mary Birdsong, Capathia Jenkins, Lisa Joyce, Jane Lynch and Natasha Lyonne will join the rotating cast of the upcoming World Premiere production of Love, Loss and What I Wore, an intimate collection of stories by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, playing a 12-week run at New York's Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street). Preview performances will begin on September 21, 2009, with the opening night set for October 1.

Lesley Sharp, Marc Warren and Diana Vickers to star in the first major West End revival of Jim Cartwright's multi-award-winning play, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.

Seven characters are catapulted into a mysterious world to confront their destiny.

Seven characters are catapulted into a mysterious world to confront their destiny.

Seven characters are catapulted into a mysterious world to confront their destiny.

The Mountain Play - ?A Great Outdoor Adventure' and the San Francisco Bay Area's most magical outdoor theater experience, is proud to present for the first time in its 96 year history, the Tony Award© winning musical Man of La Mancha for its 2009 season.

The Mountain Play - ?A Great Outdoor Adventure' and the San Francisco Bay Area's most magical outdoor theater experience, is proud to present for the first time in its 96 year history, the Tony Award© winning musical Man of La Mancha for its 2009 season.

Producer Debbie Bisno and Ars Nova (Jason Eagan, Artistic Director; Jon Steingart and Jenny Wiener Steingart, Executive Producers) announce a by-invitation only Equity staged reading of new musical Big Money by Kyle Jarrow and Nathan Leigh, presented at Ars Nova on April 13 and 14.

Producer Debbie Bisno and Ars Nova (Jason Eagan, Artistic Director; Jon Steingart and Jenny Wiener Steingart, Executive Producers) announce a by-invitation only Equity staged reading of new musical Big Money by Kyle Jarrow and Nathan Leigh, presented at Ars Nova on April 13 and 14.

Sean Mathias will direct Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot which is his first production as Artistic Director of the 2009 Theatre Royal Haymarket Company. Waiting for Godot will tour the UK prior to its opening in London in April.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 are being presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center?, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide. Winners are updated below as they're announced in bold red.