From the Nutcracker to American Psycho, from Mary Poppins to Kurt Vile, our critics pick their must-sees of the festive season
If you wish it could be Christmas every day
Nutcrackers, various
You know it's Christmas in the ballet world by the number of Nutcrackers touring the world's stages. In the UK alone, there are close to a dozen doing the rounds, but the top three remain the Royal Ballet's exquisitely traditional version, the sparky family friendly production by Birmingham Royal Ballet, and English National Ballet's – with the best snow scene of them all. Royal Opera House, London (020-7304 4000), 4 December to 16 January; Birmingham Hippodrome (0844 338 5000), to 12 December; London Coliseum (020-7845 9300), 11 December to 5 January.
Father Christmas
Does Father Christmas use the loo? Does he secretly long for summer? Does he have strong views on the size of chimneys? You bet he does. Raymond Briggs's gorgeous picture book gets a heartwarming makeover for under-sixes.
If you wish it could be Christmas every day
Nutcrackers, various
You know it's Christmas in the ballet world by the number of Nutcrackers touring the world's stages. In the UK alone, there are close to a dozen doing the rounds, but the top three remain the Royal Ballet's exquisitely traditional version, the sparky family friendly production by Birmingham Royal Ballet, and English National Ballet's – with the best snow scene of them all. Royal Opera House, London (020-7304 4000), 4 December to 16 January; Birmingham Hippodrome (0844 338 5000), to 12 December; London Coliseum (020-7845 9300), 11 December to 5 January.
Father Christmas
Does Father Christmas use the loo? Does he secretly long for summer? Does he have strong views on the size of chimneys? You bet he does. Raymond Briggs's gorgeous picture book gets a heartwarming makeover for under-sixes.
- 11/25/2013
- by Lyn Gardner, Michael Billington, Andrew Clements, Alexis Petridis, Judith Mackrell, John Fordham, Brian Logan, Stuart Heritage, Mark Lawson, Jonathan Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
More than 80,000 admissions, £1m for first ‘live from Stratford-Upon-Avon’ screenings.
Alternative content continues to impress at the UK box office, with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) Richard II attracting 60,000 admissions from a whopping 364 screens across the UK last night (Wednesday 3).
Last night’s performance combined with 20,000 advance bookings for follow-up screenings have generated more than £1m in box office receipts, according to distributor Picturehouse Entertainment.
Doctor Who star David Tennant plays the eponymous king in Shakespeare’s classic drama directed by Gregory Doran.
The production was filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium, with John Wyver as producer.
Internationally, the production was broadcast live across Northern Europe (Germany, Austria, Sweden), Ireland, Canada and Malta last night with six further countries - Us, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Russia - screening the production over the next two months.
“We are looking forward to building on this success with our next three productions: Henry IV parts...
Alternative content continues to impress at the UK box office, with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) Richard II attracting 60,000 admissions from a whopping 364 screens across the UK last night (Wednesday 3).
Last night’s performance combined with 20,000 advance bookings for follow-up screenings have generated more than £1m in box office receipts, according to distributor Picturehouse Entertainment.
Doctor Who star David Tennant plays the eponymous king in Shakespeare’s classic drama directed by Gregory Doran.
The production was filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium, with John Wyver as producer.
Internationally, the production was broadcast live across Northern Europe (Germany, Austria, Sweden), Ireland, Canada and Malta last night with six further countries - Us, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Russia - screening the production over the next two months.
“We are looking forward to building on this success with our next three productions: Henry IV parts...
- 11/14/2013
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
New York — Fiona Shaw's small Broadway dressing room had the look of a makeshift bar. There were more than a dozen bottles of wine stashed on a high shelf.
"It looks like a sort of speakeasy, doesn't it?" the actress said, looking up at the gifts left by well-wishers that were now on duty for post-show cheers. "Over many months, we hope. Not in a night."
Visitors might be handed a glass of pinot but the hostess would rather stay as sober as possible as she tackles another astonishing part in a career populated by plenty of them. This new one may even top the rest: the Virgin Mary, whose son turned water into wine.
Shaw, perhaps best known for playing Harry Potter's aunt, is re-imagining the life of the mother of Christ in Irish writer Colm Toibin's New York premiere stage adaptation of his novella "The Testament of Mary,...
"It looks like a sort of speakeasy, doesn't it?" the actress said, looking up at the gifts left by well-wishers that were now on duty for post-show cheers. "Over many months, we hope. Not in a night."
Visitors might be handed a glass of pinot but the hostess would rather stay as sober as possible as she tackles another astonishing part in a career populated by plenty of them. This new one may even top the rest: the Virgin Mary, whose son turned water into wine.
Shaw, perhaps best known for playing Harry Potter's aunt, is re-imagining the life of the mother of Christ in Irish writer Colm Toibin's New York premiere stage adaptation of his novella "The Testament of Mary,...
- 4/12/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
From performing Coleridge's maritime epic to creating a coastal art-and-poetry installation with glowing tents, True Blood star Fiona Shaw is on a mission to make us love language.
Given the context for my interview with Fiona Shaw, my central question – what is your favourite love poem? – doesn't seem especially tricky or prying. We meet to talk about Peace Camp, an art collaboration with director Deborah Warner and composer Mel Mercier, for which Shaw has been darting across the UK, imploring people to record their favourite love poems – and accosting well-known actors she's bumped into at airports. "Alun Armstrong! Please, will you do it?" She has recorded 570 poems in total, with voices from Cornwall, Northumberland, Wales, the Isle of Skye, and everywhere in between.
And yet Shaw is not easy to pin down. Her words keep hurtling off through exclamations, exhortations, then collapsing in laughter. She revises herself regularly, shouting into my dictaphone: "Don't write that!
Given the context for my interview with Fiona Shaw, my central question – what is your favourite love poem? – doesn't seem especially tricky or prying. We meet to talk about Peace Camp, an art collaboration with director Deborah Warner and composer Mel Mercier, for which Shaw has been darting across the UK, imploring people to record their favourite love poems – and accosting well-known actors she's bumped into at airports. "Alun Armstrong! Please, will you do it?" She has recorded 570 poems in total, with voices from Cornwall, Northumberland, Wales, the Isle of Skye, and everywhere in between.
And yet Shaw is not easy to pin down. Her words keep hurtling off through exclamations, exhortations, then collapsing in laughter. She revises herself regularly, shouting into my dictaphone: "Don't write that!
- 7/18/2012
- by Kira Cochrane
- The Guardian - Film News
New York -- Long before Kenneth Branagh stepped into the role of Sir Laurence Olivier in "My Week With Marilyn," there already were strong parallels between them.
Both are synonymous with film adaptations of William Shakespeare, delivering lines with implausible realism, and earning accolades for their troubles. Each starred and directed their own successful adaptations of "Hamlet," and "Henry V," that earned Oscar nods for their work on both sides of the camera. (Olivier received an honorary award that included directing the film).
With such similarities, it seems fitting that Branagh earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as the legendary actor.
"He was a master of his craft, and at the same time very vulnerable," Branagh says of Olivier.
"My Week with Marilyn," is in theaters and stars two-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. It's based on the writings of Colin Clark, who spent a week...
Both are synonymous with film adaptations of William Shakespeare, delivering lines with implausible realism, and earning accolades for their troubles. Each starred and directed their own successful adaptations of "Hamlet," and "Henry V," that earned Oscar nods for their work on both sides of the camera. (Olivier received an honorary award that included directing the film).
With such similarities, it seems fitting that Branagh earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as the legendary actor.
"He was a master of his craft, and at the same time very vulnerable," Branagh says of Olivier.
"My Week with Marilyn," is in theaters and stars two-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. It's based on the writings of Colin Clark, who spent a week...
- 12/23/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Roland Emmerich's new film, which suggests that William Shakespeare was a fraud, relies on the 90-year-old theories of J Thomas Looney. Do not be taken in
Roland Emmerich's new film Anonymous is keen on showing that Shakespeare was a fraud and Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, the true author of his plays. The film is part of a broader campaign to unseat Shakespeare, one that includes a documentary by First Folio Pictures (of which Emmerich is president), along with instructional guides Sony Pictures has been distributing to teachers in America declaring that Anonymous "presents a compelling portrait of Edward de Vere as the true author of Shakespeare's plays". When Emmerich agrees to make a promotional video (part lecture, part cartoon, it shows him tossing quills that topple a statue of Shakespeare), you get a sense of how committed those behind the film are to rewriting literary history.
Roland Emmerich's new film Anonymous is keen on showing that Shakespeare was a fraud and Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, the true author of his plays. The film is part of a broader campaign to unseat Shakespeare, one that includes a documentary by First Folio Pictures (of which Emmerich is president), along with instructional guides Sony Pictures has been distributing to teachers in America declaring that Anonymous "presents a compelling portrait of Edward de Vere as the true author of Shakespeare's plays". When Emmerich agrees to make a promotional video (part lecture, part cartoon, it shows him tossing quills that topple a statue of Shakespeare), you get a sense of how committed those behind the film are to rewriting literary history.
- 11/5/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
A striking stage presence for more than 60 years and a familiar face on TV
Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.
The role remained one of her favourites,...
Sheila Burrell, who has died aged 89 after a long illness, was a cousin of Laurence Olivier, and a similarly distinctive and fiery actor with a broad, open face, high cheekbones and expressive eyes. She stood at only 5ft 5ins but could fill the widest stage and hold the largest audience. Her voice was a mezzo marvel, kittenish or growling and, in later life, acquired the viscosity and vintage of an old ruby port, matured after years of experience.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, she made her name as a wild, red-headed Barbara Allen (subject of the famous ballad) in Peter Brook's 1949 production of Dark of the Moon (Ambassadors theatre), an American pot-boiler about the seduction of a lusty girl by a witch boy and the hysterical reaction of her local community.
The role remained one of her favourites,...
- 7/27/2011
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Ben Whishaw, Patrick Stewart and David Suchet will star together in a new BBC series adapting four of William Shakespeare's greatest history plays. As part of next year's Cultural Olympiad celebrations, BBC Two has commissioned television adaptations of Richard II, Henry IV Part I and II, and Henry V. Richard II, the first in the series, will begin filming early in June. The project is co-produced by Neal Streat Productions, NBC Universal and Wnet. Criminal Justice star Ben Whishaw will play lead character King Richard II opposite Rory Kinnear, while Shakespeare regular Patrick Stewart will play John of Gaunt. Poirot actor David Suchet will portray the Duke of York, opposite Red Riding star David Morrissey as Northumberland. Rounding out the cast (more)...
- 5/31/2011
- by By Tom Ayres
- Digital Spy
He may be white, but Johnny Depp is perfect casting for Tonto, the Lone Ranger's Native American sidekick
Reports that a movie remake of The Lone Ranger will star Johnny Depp as the Native American sidekick Tonto have brought immediate complaints that the Kentucky white boy is taking a part that might have gone to a performer who has the correct racial makeup, rather than having to apply it in his trailer each day.
These complaints echo Rupert Everett's lament, when his friend Colin Firth was cast in A Single Man, that, just as Hollywood was finally featuring mainstream gay roles, they were going to straight actors. Similar objections have been applied to The Kids Are All Right, in which Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a lesbian couple, although viewers were reassured in the movie's publicity that they were just pretending.
These debates over casting go directly to...
Reports that a movie remake of The Lone Ranger will star Johnny Depp as the Native American sidekick Tonto have brought immediate complaints that the Kentucky white boy is taking a part that might have gone to a performer who has the correct racial makeup, rather than having to apply it in his trailer each day.
These complaints echo Rupert Everett's lament, when his friend Colin Firth was cast in A Single Man, that, just as Hollywood was finally featuring mainstream gay roles, they were going to straight actors. Similar objections have been applied to The Kids Are All Right, in which Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a lesbian couple, although viewers were reassured in the movie's publicity that they were just pretending.
These debates over casting go directly to...
- 2/21/2011
- by Mark Lawson
- The Guardian - Film News
Moviemaker Sam Mendes is turning his attentions to the small screen - he's set to helm four television films based on the works of William Shakespeare. The "American Beauty" director has signed up to executive produce "Richard II", "Henry IV" parts I and II, and "Henry V" for the BBC as part of a special season dedicated to The Bard.
Mendes reveals he "couldn't be more delighted" to be working on the programmes, adding, "One of my earliest introductions to Shakespeare was watching the plays on TV, and it's terrific to have the opportunity to bring them to a new, wider audience."
The TV films are set to air in the U.K. in 2012.
In the big screen, Mendes is also signed to direct "On Chesil Beach" which may be starred by Carey Mulligan and premiere in 2012 as well.
Mendes reveals he "couldn't be more delighted" to be working on the programmes, adding, "One of my earliest introductions to Shakespeare was watching the plays on TV, and it's terrific to have the opportunity to bring them to a new, wider audience."
The TV films are set to air in the U.K. in 2012.
In the big screen, Mendes is also signed to direct "On Chesil Beach" which may be starred by Carey Mulligan and premiere in 2012 as well.
- 9/30/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Mendes Makes Shakespeare For The Small Screen
Moviemaker Sam Mendes is turning his attentions to the small screen - he's set to helm four television films based on the works of William Shakespeare.
The American Beauty director has signed up to executive produce Richard II, Henry IV parts I and II, and Henry V for the BBC as part of a special season dedicated to The Bard.
Mendes reveals he "couldn't be more delighted" to be working on the programmes, adding, "One of my earliest introductions to Shakespeare was watching the plays on TV, and it's terrific to have the opportunity to bring them to a new, wider audience.
The TV films are set to air in the U.K. in 2012.
The American Beauty director has signed up to executive produce Richard II, Henry IV parts I and II, and Henry V for the BBC as part of a special season dedicated to The Bard.
Mendes reveals he "couldn't be more delighted" to be working on the programmes, adding, "One of my earliest introductions to Shakespeare was watching the plays on TV, and it's terrific to have the opportunity to bring them to a new, wider audience.
The TV films are set to air in the U.K. in 2012.
- 9/30/2010
- WENN
The BBC has announced that it will adapt four of William Shakespeare's plays for television. The BBC's controller of drama Ben Stephenson revealed that Richard II, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II and Henry V will all be broadcast on the channel. Sam Mendes, who has worked on American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, has signed up to executive produce the plays alongside Away We Go and Starter For Ten producer Pippa Harris. Meanwhile, the directors working on the adaptations include Sir Richard Eyre and Rupert Goold. "I (more)...
- 9/29/2010
- by By Catriona Wightman
- Digital Spy
The Olivier Awards -- London's equivalent to the Tony Awards -- were dominated by home-grown winners when the 33rd edition of the kudos unwrapped Sunday night in an event hosted by James Nesbitt at Grosvenor House.
Only one of the top awards went to an American production, as the 2006 Tony best musical champ "Jersey Boys" took the tuner prize. The show, which recounts the story of the Four Seasons using their songs, prevailed against only one other contender -- "Zorro," a telling of the old tale set to the music of the Gipsy Kings.
The 2008 Tony-winning best play "August: Osage County" was bested by Gregory Burke's drama "Black Watch," while its leading lady -- the Tony-winning Deanna Dunagan -- lost to Margaret Tyzack for a revival of "The Chalk Garden." That production of the 1955 Enid Bagnold psychological drama, which also won lighting design, originated at the Donmar Warehouse. That...
Only one of the top awards went to an American production, as the 2006 Tony best musical champ "Jersey Boys" took the tuner prize. The show, which recounts the story of the Four Seasons using their songs, prevailed against only one other contender -- "Zorro," a telling of the old tale set to the music of the Gipsy Kings.
The 2008 Tony-winning best play "August: Osage County" was bested by Gregory Burke's drama "Black Watch," while its leading lady -- the Tony-winning Deanna Dunagan -- lost to Margaret Tyzack for a revival of "The Chalk Garden." That production of the 1955 Enid Bagnold psychological drama, which also won lighting design, originated at the Donmar Warehouse. That...
- 3/9/2009
- by tomoneil
- Gold Derby
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