Ralph Richardson News

Downton Abbey meets Broadway! BWW can report that Dan Stevens, star of the Golden Globe-winning series "Downton Abbey," will play the role of "Morris Townsend" opposite Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain (Catherine Sloper) and Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner David Strathairn (Dr. Austin Sloper) in the Tony Award-winning play The Heiress. Written by Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award nominated playwright and director Moises Kaufman. Performances will begin October 2012 at a theatre to be announced.

Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award winner David Strathairn (Dr. Austin Sloper) will join Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain (Catherine Sloper) in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress. Written by Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award® nominated playwright and director Moisés Kaufman and will open in the Fall of 2012 at a theatre to be announced.

Acclaimed actress Jessica Chastain, winner of 2011 New York, Los Angeles and Chicago Film Critics and National Board of Review Awards and recently nominated for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, will make her Broadway debut starring in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress.

Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) has announced a new theatre company, Theatre Royal Brighton Productions, which will present classic drama both on tour and in the West End, under the Artistic Direction of Christopher Luscombe, with Associate Directors Maria Aitken and Philip Franks.

According to Variety, Tyler James Williams is set to star in a new Disney Channel original movie, titled 'Let It Shine.' The film will be a 'gospel/hip-hop musical adaptation' of 'Cyrano De Bergerac.

Following a heartfelt and entertaining memorial for Sidney Lumet at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with speakers and performers including Lauren Bacall, Walter Bernstein, Bobby Cannavale, Glenn Close, Jonathan Demme, James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jenny Lumet, David Mamet, Phylilis Newman and Christopher Walken among others, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the details today for a retrospective of the admired and beloved director's work, Prince of the City: Remembering Sidney Lumet which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 19 - 25.

Following a heartfelt and entertaining memorial for Sidney Lumet at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with speakers and performers including Lauren Bacall, Walter Bernstein, Bobby Cannavale, Glenn Close, Jonathan Demme, James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jenny Lumet, David Mamet, Phylilis Newman and Christopher Walken among others, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the details today for a retrospective of the admired and beloved director's work, Prince of the City: Remembering Sidney Lumet which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 19 - 25.

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), began previews on April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opened last night, April 21 and will play a limited 16-week engagement. Broadway Beat was there to capture the opening night fun!

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), began previews on April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opened last night, April 21 and will play a limited 16-week engagement. BroadwayWorld.com was there to capture the cast on their way into the opening night party!

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), began previews on April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opened last night, April 21 and will play a limited 16-week engagement. BroadwayWorld.com was there to capture the opening night red carpet!

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), began previews on April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opened last night, April 21 and will play a limited 16-week engagement. BroadwayWorld.com was there to capture the opening night curtain call!

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), began previews on April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opens tonight, April 21 and will play a limited 16-week engagement. Click below for a performance preview!

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), began previews on April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opens tonight, April 21 and will play a limited 16-week engagement.

Today we lost one of the greats: the gentle giant of directors, Sidney Lumet. What a resume! Just to pick seven of perhaps the best known of the bunch, the bunch in question being over 100 titles strong: 12 ANGRY MEN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, SERPICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD - the films spanning fifty years from MEN in 1957 and DEVIL in 2007 - it is clear to see why Lumet was one of the most cherished and celebrated directors in Hollywood, especially known for his tough, gritty New York stories and his pristine stage-to-screen transfers. For an excellent example of the latter (in addition to LONG DAY'S JOURNEY and the others) check out DEATHTRAP - based on Ira Levin's play, the longest-running thriller in Broadway history - featuring Michael Caine in one of his best roles and Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon in their finest performances on film. For an example of the former genre, look no further than NETWORK, containing one of the strongest screenplays ever penned, from the fiery and ferocious pen of Paddy Cheyefsky, and Faye Dunaway in her Oscar-winning performance for all the ages. As far as theatrical screenplays on screen, Lumet would be hard-pressed to even come close to the power, prescience and transformative brilliance at the core of the conceit of that film - yet he did just that; with his final, 2007 film no less. I am speaking, of course, of the underrated and riveting BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, with Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris. Taking an original screenplay that could just as well have been written for the stage - shades of 12 ANGRY MEN, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK and SERPICO, certainly - Lumet made a bristling, biting brilliant work of staggering craft and ingenuity - all with verve, energy and drive of a man a quarter of his age at the time (80). His films were classics in his own time and, now, in his passing, they are just as timeless - if not more so. With each passing year, new layers of truth, beauty, sadness and soulfulness can be found in the countless frames in the innumerable unforgettable scenes in his many masterpieces.

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), begins previews tomorrow night, April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opens Thursday, April 21 and will play a limited 16-week engagement.

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), is pleased to announce a rush ticket policy. The production, directed by Ian Rickson, begins previews on Saturday, April 2, prior to a Thursday, April 21 opening night at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). JERUSALEM will play a limited 16-week engagement.

The Music Box Theatre box office (239 West 45th Street) opens tomorrow, March 5 at 10:00 AM for The Royal Court Theatre's JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (La Bête, Boeing-Boeing).

Casting has been announced for the Broadway production of The Royal Court Theatre's JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (La Bête, Boeing-Boeing). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, will open on April 21, 2011 at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). Previews begin April 2. The production will play a limited 16-week engagement.

Tony and Olivier Award winning star Mark Rylance (La Bête, Boeing-Boeing) will recreate his wildly acclaimed, multi award-winning performance as Johnny ‘Rooster' Byron on Broadway in the Royal Court Theatre production of Jez Butterworth's universally heralded new play, JERUSALEM. The production, directed by Ian Rickson, will also star Mackenzie Crook (The Seagull, 'The Office') as Ginger and most of the original Royal Court cast, with full casting to be announced at a later date. JERUSALEM will open on Broadway on April 21, 2011 at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). Previews will begin on April 2, 2011. The production will play a limited 16-week engagement.

Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett today announced Sydney Theatre Company's 2011 Main Stage Season, their third as Artistic Directors of the Company, comprising twelve diverse shows at Sydney Theatre, the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House and The Wharf.