William Wyler News

The hit Broadway revival of The Heiress has partnered with GoldDerby.com on an exclusive sweepstakes where fans can enter to win round trip air travel for two to New York City, a two night stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Metropolitan and a pair of tickets to The Heiress, plus a backstage tour of the Walter Kerr Theatre. For more information, go to www.goldderby.com/news/3804/the-heiress-contest-broadway.html.

The Heiress' Jessica Chastain & Dan Stevens will appear on ABC's "Good Morning America" tomorrow, Thursday, September 8th between 8:30AM-9:00AM on channel 7. Jessica Chastain will also appear on ABC's "The View" tomorrow between 11:00AM-12 noon on channel 7. Check local listings.

The new Broadway production of the Tony Award winning play The Heiress began previews on October 6th and will open tonight, November 1st at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th St.). The show will play a limited run through February 10, 2013. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will open the 2013 edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival with the world premiere of a brand new restoration of the musical classic Funny Girl (1968). TCM's own Robert Osborne, who serves as official host for the festival, will introduce Funny Girl to kick off the four-day, star-studded event taking place Thursday, April 25 - Sunday, April 28, 2013, in Hollywood. In addition to Funny Girl, the TCM Classic Film Festival will feature world premiere restorations of The General (1926), Giant (1956) and The Great Escape (1962), with many additional titles to be announced later.

Opening night is tonight for the new Broadway production of The Heiress. The Heiress stars Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain as Catherine Sloper, Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner David Strathairn as Dr. Austin Sloper, the leading man of "Downton Abbey" Dan Stevens as Morris Townsend and Tony Award winner Judith Ivey as Lavinia Penniman. Written by Ruth & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress is directed by two-time Tony Award nominated playwright and director Moises Kaufman.

Join us for the New-York Historical Society's inaugural Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series, World War II and Its Legacy in Film, featuring opening remarks by notable directors, writers, actors, and historians. Produced in conjunction with New-York Historical's exhibition WWII & NYC, this selection of classic films will show a broad scope of life during and after the war and reflect many of the exhibition's themes, including life on the home front, the dispatch of troops and the struggle to readapt to postwar life.

The producers of the Broadway production of the Academy and Tony Award winning play The Heiress have just announced that the box office at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 W. 48th St. NYC) is now open and preview performances will begin one day earlier on Saturday, October 6 at 8 p.m.

The producers of The Heiress have just announced full casting for the Broadway-bound production that stars Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain, Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner David Strathairn, the leading man of "Downton Abbey" Dan Stevens and Tony Award winner Judith Ivey. Written by Ruth & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award nominated playwright and director Moises Kaufman. Tickets go on sale to the general public today, August 27.

With this week's news of the passing of American literary and political icon Gore Vidal at the advanced age of 86, now seems a particularly apt time to look back at a truly anomalous career and some of the highlights of a life lived on pages, stages, planes, trains and many of the most exclusive locales in the world.

But The Music Man? Come on, the classic Meredith Willson musical chestnut is as corny and all-American as you can possibly get (let's face it, Willson is the master of that particular genre of musical theater occupied by The Music Man and The Unsinkable Molly Brown-plus he wrote the Oscar-nominated score for William Wyler's The Little Foxes, which is one of my all-time favorite movies: "The grits didn't hold they heat"), it's pure hokum and there is absolutely nothing at all cynical about it. So why the heck does it make me respond with some emotional fervor?

Tony Award® winner Judith Ivey joins Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain, Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award winner David Strathairn and the leading man of "Downton Abbey" Dan Stevens in a new production of the unforgettable drama and Tony Award® winning play The Heiress. Written by Ruth & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award® nominated playwright and director Moises Kaufman. The Heiress will be produced by Paula Wagner, Roy Furman and Stephanie P. McClelland.

THE HEIRESS by Ruth and Augustus Goetz and directed by Moisés Kaufman, is coming to Broadway in a strictly limited engagement, starring Jessica Chastain, David Strathairn and Dan Stevens, in October 2012. The show has just announced the launch of its official website, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier! Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles: Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War, and A Bridge Too Far, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth, John Schlesinger's Marathon Man, Daniel Petrie's The Betsy, Desmond Davis' Clash of the Titans, and his own Henry V, Hamlet, and Richard III.

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.

The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director) announces the full cast and creative team for THE HEIRESS at The Pasadena Playhouse. The production will star Richard Chamberlain in the role of "Dr. Austin Sloper," Heather Tom as his daughter "Catherine Sloper" and Julia Duffy as Dr. Sloper's sister "Lavinia Penniman." THE HEIRESS by Ruth and Augustus Goetz (suggested by the Henry James novel Washington Square), will be directed by Damaso Rodriguez and performs April 24 - May 20, 2012.

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.

Aprovechamos el final del año para realizar un repaso por todos los títulos que hemos expuesto a lo largo de estos cinco meses y mostramos el corto 7: 35 de la mañana, un ejemplo de cine musical hoy:

Today, in an extension of the FLASH FRIDAY column, we are sharpening our focus on the six upcoming revivals of musicals that are soon to hit the boards in the next few months (post-FOLLIES) and battle it out for the Best Revival as the Broadway season heats up just when the weather begins to cool: the classic Jule Styne/Bob Merrill musical that originally starred that star-of-stars, Barbra Streisand - FUNNY GIRL; the groundbreaking rock opera that rewrote the theatrical rulebook thanks to young creators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice - JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR; the hippie, flower child take on the Christ story covering some similar Biblical ground to that of SUPERSTAR, with this one being the composing debut of WICKED songwriter Stephen Schwartz - GODSPELL; another Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice collaboration that won seven Tony Awards and acted as the vehicle for Patti LuPone's blazing Broadway debut in a starring role - EVITA; the significantly reworked, revised and rewritten new version of the beautifully scored time-travel musical by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner, this time starring a male movie star crooner - ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER; and, the landmark American opera composed by the Gershwins with DuBose Haywerd - PORGY & BESS. While each and every one of these entities has a huge hit song or two that nearly everyone on the planet knows by heart - "Don't Rain On My Parade", "I Don't Know How To Love Him", "Day By Day", "Don't Cry For Me Argentina", "On A Clear Day…" and 'Summertime' included - each of these revivals also comes after a film version (or two) that, in more than a few of these cases, will be relatively difficult to top as far as expectations of many audience members undoubtedly will go. So, by taking a listen to the smash hit crossover songs from these musicals as well as looking at their respective film version's trailers - as well as a couple of surprises, too - perhaps we can glean some insight into what makes these generally pretty terrific properties so well worth reviving on Broadway, here, now, today, in 2011. Furthermore, all of this crystal ball commentary is not even taking into account the starry assortment of performers that have already been announced for these productions so far - especially with FUNNY GIRL's Lauren Ambrose and Bobby Cannavale, GODSPELL's Hunter Parrish, SUPERSTAR's lauded Josh Young, EVITA's Ricky Martin and Michael Cerveris, PORGY's Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald, as well as the leading man in what was once a leading lady's role (that of Barbara Harris) in ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, Harry Connick, Jr.! What a tight race it is turning out to be for these new productions, particularly come Tony time in June! With rock to rhumba and borscht belt comedy to messianic hosannas and even full-out opera, seemingly every conceivable customer base is more than covered by this packed, potentially, well, awesome, season of shows - and many Broadway babies around BroadwayWorld are undoubtedly looking most forward to these six forthcoming revivals - with particularly good reason given the relative dearth of new musicals announced so far. So, let these revivals revive your flagging spirits as we leap into the 2011-2012 season with this comprehensive prospective and retrospective all about what makes them work so well in the first place and so worthy of another look!

La penúltima película de William Wyler fue Funny Girl (1968).Con este film Wyler se enfrentó al género del musical que apenas había trabajado a lo largo de su carrera. La película está basada en la obra teatral de Isobel Lennart quien también escribió el guión de la adaptación cinematográfica.