Oscar Wilde News

33 Variations' star Jane Fonda appeared on NBC's 'Today Show' on Monday morning. BWW TV's STAGE TUBE is pleased to bring you Meredith Vieira's interview with Jane Fonda.

It was with great dismay that I read a recent notice in the Los Angeles Times of layoffs amongst the theatre critic and arts coverage world at publications including the LA Weekly, Daily Variety and the L.A. Daily News...

Jane Fonda, star of 33 VARIATIONS, will conduct a live interview with Meredith Vieira, on NBC?s ?Today Show? on Monday, February 16th between 8:00-9:00AM on channel 4. Tune in to hear Jane discuss her return to Broadway after a 46 year absence.

Jane Fonda, star of 33 VARIATIONS, will conduct a live interview with Meredith Vieira, on NBC?s ?Today Show? on Monday, February 16th between 8:00-9:00AM on channel 4. Tune in to hear Jane discuss her return to Broadway after a 46 year absence.

Tom Stoppard?s classic comic masterpiece, Travesties, previewing at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from 9 March 2009 (opening 13 March), will reunite one of Australia?s most versatile comic actors, Jonathan Biggins, with director Richard Cottrell, award-wining designer Michael Scott-Mitchell and Composer and Sound Designer, Paul Charlier: the creative team behind Sydney Theatre Company?s 2007 hit, Ying Tong.

Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre celebrates thirteen years of theatrical excellence next year with six mainstage productions and the return of the popular Storytellers Series. The 2009 season runs May-September with a special family friendly December production in time for the holidays. The organization has snagged the rights to produce one of the very first regional productions of Tom Stoppard's recent Broadway sensation Rock'n'Roll, and will present the play as the opener of the 2009 season, 'New and Ideal.' The season continues with the naughty-yet-sophisticated wit of Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, the moral uncertainty of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, the unbridled enthusiasm of Alan Bennett's students in The History Boys, and two classics of modern literature, Crime and Punishment and Jane Eyre, in phenomenal new adaptations for the stage. The Storytellers Series returns with Prague Spring: Three comedies about life under Communism by Vaclav Havel.

The American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program presents Maxim Gorky's Philistines in a fresh new version by Andrew Upton, the co-artistic director of Australia's Sydney Theatre Company and an acclaimed adaptor of Russian plays.

On February 18 and 19, La MaMa will host an open house, 'New Voices Heard,' featuring a sampling of eight plays that were developed during the summer of 2008 in the La MaMa Umbria International Playwrights Retreat. This free event will take place at La MaMa La Galleria, 6 East First Street, Manhattan (between Second Avenue and Bowery), Manhattan. Admission is free. Excerpts of eight plays will be presented. Seven will be staged readings and one will be fully acted.

Oscar & Emmy Award winning screen legend JANE FONDA will return to Broadway in MOISES KAUFMAN's 33 VARIATIONS. Performances begin on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street). The official opening will be Monday, March 9th, 2009. The engagement will play through May 24th, 2009. Tickets are now available for sale to the general public.

Oscar & Emmy Award winning screen legend JANE FONDA will return to Broadway in MOISES KAUFMAN's 33 VARIATIONS. Performances begin on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street). The official opening will be Monday, March 9th, 2009. The engagement will play through May 24th, 2009. The play marks Fonda's first time on Broadway in 46 years.

Jane Fonda's official website was launched this week. Visit www.JaneFonda.com to read Fonda's personal blog, view photos and learn about the new play 33 VARIATIONS. Jane Fonda returns to the New York stage after a 46 year absence. 33 VARIATIONS, written and directed by Mois?s Kaufman, begins previews this Monday, February 9th on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. On www.JaneFonda.com, Fonda discusses everything from the challenges of the rehearsal process, to missing her father, Henry Fonda. The New York Times has said that her blog is 'relatively unguarded for a celebrity blog.' Visit the blog daily to read new entries and see the world through the eyes of Jane Fonda.

Theater News from Broadway and the Baltimore/Washington Region

Variety has announced that Al Pacino will play the title role in 'King Lear,' an adaptation of the Shakespeare play that will be directed by Michael Radford. Radford, who wrote the script, is making his second Shakespearean foray with Pacino after their 2004 collaboration 'Merchant of Venice,' which cast Pacino as Shylock.

Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, T. Schreiber Studio will present a production of Tom Stoppard's dazzling romantic comedy The Real Thing at The Gloria Maddox Theater, 151 West 26th Street, 7th Floor from February 19th to March 29th. Directed by Terry Schreiber, director of the Tony-nominated play K2, as well as The Trip Back Down (starring John Cullum) and Devour the Snow on Broadway, The Real Thing is Stoppard's multi-layered look at love, passion, adultery, and marriage. The full-scale, profession production will feature members of the T. Schreiber Company.

Celebration Theatre announces that its critically-acclaimed, smash-hit World Premiere production of MISSIONARY POSITION, written and performed by Steven Fales, the creator of the smash-hit Confessions of a Mormon Boy, and directed by Celebration Theatre's Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd, is EXTENDING through SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22 at Celebration Theatre, 7051B Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. Steven Fales's new solo play is based on his journals and adventures as a Mormon missionary in Portugal. Anyone who has ever felt the agony, ecstasy, and insanity of turning their will and their life over to a socio-economic-political-tax-exempt-multinational corporation posing as the kingdom of god on earth (and over-run by hot young men in white shirts and ties) will appreciate this smart, sexy, and funny look at extreme religious devotion. 'A mission is the best kept secret in the Mormon Church!'

Roundabout Theatre Company (Artistic Director, Todd Haimes) is proud to announce plans to establish a permanent archive, generously funded by a major grant from the Leon Levy Foundation. Roundabout's archive will permanently document the company's illustrious 43-year production history as well as provide a resource for the theatre community, Roundabout's audience and the general public.

Broadway In Chicago is thrilled to announce the Chicago engagement of August: Osage County, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play that tells the bitingly funny and sensationally entertaining tale of the Weston family of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons will star as the family matriarch, Violet Weston. August: Osage County comes to Chicago's Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre for a limited two-week engagement February 2 - 14, 2010. Written by 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy Letts (Superior Donuts, Man From Nebraska, Killer Joe, Bug), this grand and gripping new play tells the story of the Westons, a large extended clan that comes together at their rural Oklahoma homestead after the alcoholic patriarch disappears. Forced to confront unspoken truths and astonishing secrets, the family must also contend with matriarch Violet, a pill-popping, deeply unsettled woman at the center of the storm. Directed by 2008 Tony Award-winner Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County is a rare theatrical event: a large-scale work filled with 13 unforgettable characters, a powerful tragicomedy told with unflinching honesty and the unforgettable breakthrough of a major American playwright. August: Osage County premiered and was produced at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2007. 'Steppenwolf is delighted that August: Osage County has a new life in Chicago,' comments Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey. 'Steppenwolf audiences were the first to see this exciting play written by our ensemble member Tracy Letts, under the direction of fellow ensemble member Anna Shapiro, and we're thrilled that it will be playing in Chicago again after its successful runs on Broadway and at the National Theatre of London,' Lavey said.

Oscar & Emmy Award winning screen legend Jane Fonda will return to Broadway in Moises Kaufman's 33 VARIATIONS. Jane Fonda and the cast met the press yesterday Thursday, January 29th and BroadwayWorld's cameras were there!Tickets are now available to the general public by visiting Telecharge.com, calling (212) 239-6200 and at the box office of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street). Performances begin on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street). The official opening will be Monday, March 9th, 2009. The engagement will play through May 24th, 2009.

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Thursday, January 29, 2009.

Tom Stoppard's classic comic masterpiece, Travesties, previewing at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from 9 March 2009 (opening 13 March), will reunite one of Australia's most versatile comic actors, Jonathan Biggins, with director Richard Cottrell, award-wining designer Michael Scott-Mitchell and Composer and Sound Designer, Paul Charlier: the creative team behind Sydney Theatre Company's 2007 hit, Ying Tong. Travesties is set during the first world war when James Joyce (Peter Houghton), Lenin (William Zappa) and the Dadaist Tristan Tzara (Toby Schmitz) were all, for various reasons, resident in Zurich. Stoppard imagines them coming together to mount an amateur production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. The uproarious action is presented from the indistinct memories but distinctive perspective of Biggins' minor British consulate official, Henry Carr, who places himself, to hilarious effect, at the centre of this convergence of some of the most acute minds of the twentieth century.