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For Richard Kind, joining “Only Murders in the Building” Season 4 in the role of West Tower resident Vince Fish didn’t take too much convincing.

“They offered it to me. They said, ‘We’ll give you money if you play the part.’ I said, ‘Good, that’s good enough for me’,” the veteran actor of TV, film and theater told TheWrap in an interview when asked what drew him to the role. “If a show that’s produced by Dan Fogelman and John Hoffman, starring Marty Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez says they want you to work with them. You drop everything and you do it. I don’t care if they had me on the toilet reading the Yellow Pages. You do it. I am drawn to these creative people and I trust them because their talent cannot be contained to a page. They’re just spectacular.”

Kind...

James B. Sikking, the prolific, Emmy-nominated actor known for his roles on Hill Street Blues and Doogie Howser, M.D., died July 13 of dementia. He was 90.

Sikking died at his Los Angeles home, where his publicist Cynthia Snyder tells Deadline that the actor was surrounded by family in his final moments.

“In a remarkable career, Sikking’s wonderfully exciting face gave us drama, comedy, tragedy and hilarious farse. His career spanned over six decades in television, film and on stage,” said Snyder in a statement, adding: “His talent, integrity and imagination intrigued and delighted audiences.”

Sikking earned an Emmy nom in 1984 for playing the gung-ho S.W.A.T. leader Lt. Howard Hunter on Hill Street Blues during the show’s full 1981-87 run and co-starred as the title character’s father Dr. David Howser on Doogie Howser, M.D. from 1989-93. He also was a regular on Brooklyn South in 1997-98 appeared on such shows as Rawhide,...

Rod Steiger is primarily remembered for his tough guys in such films as “Al Capone,” “The Big Knife” and his Oscar-winning performance in “In the Heat of the Night.” But his performances include such diverse characters as a meek Holocaust survivor in “The Pawnbroker” and a fey embalmer in the satire “The Loved One.”

In addition to his performance in “In the Heat of the Night,” for which Steiger also won a Golden Globe as well, he was Oscar-nominated for “The Pawnbroker” and for his iconic performance as the brother of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in the back seat of that car in Elia Kazan‘s “On the Waterfront.”

So let’s raise a glass to the late great man and honor him by counting down his 12 greatest screen performances, ranked from worst to best.

Apparently, it’s never too late to open a show on Broadway. With just 23 days left until the eligibility cutoff for the 2023 Tony Awards, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” has just announced a Broadway transfer. The production will begin performances on April 25, with an opening night of April 27 at the James Earl Jones Theatre. The limited run will last just 80 performances, through July 2. This will officially make the play the final eligible production in the 2022-2023 Broadway season, throwing chaos into many Tony races.

The play is a political drama from the late Lorraine Hansberry which recently ended a run Off-Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam). Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Oscar Isaac (“Scenes From a Marriage”) will reprise their starring roles in the Broadway mounting. This will mark Isaac’s Broadway debut, though he has numerous New York theater credits to his name,...

Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan will bring The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window to Broadway this April in a late entry for the season.

The play, written by Lorraine Hansberry, will begin performances on April 25 and open on April 27, the final day for this season’s Tony Awards eligibility, at the James Earl Jones Theatre. Isaac and Brosnahan are reprising their roles from the play’s Off-Broadway run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which ended in March.

The play, produced by Seaview, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, Jeremy O. Harris and Bam, is scheduled to play 80 performances only. It was able to find a slot at the James Earl Jones Theatre after the show Room, which was meant to occupy the theater starting April 3, was unable to start performances due to a lack of funding.

This will mark the Broadway debut for Isaac, who most recently appeared on screen...

May on the Criterion Channel will be good to the auteurs. In fact they’re giving Richard Linklater better treatment than the distributor of his last film, with a 13-title retrospective mixing usual suspects—the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Slacker—with some truly off the beaten track. There’s a few shorts I haven’t seen but most intriguing is Heads I Win/Tails You Lose, the only available description of which calls it a four-hour (!) piece “edited together by Richard Linklater in 1991 from film countdowns and tail leaders from films submitted to the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas from 1987 to 1990. It is Linklater’s tribute to the film countdown, used by many projectionists over the years to cue one reel of film after another when switching to another reel on another projector during projection.” Pair that with 2008’s Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach and your completionism will be on-track.

Legendary movie star, Last Call‘s Bruce Dern, joins Josh and Joe to discuss a few of his favorite movies and moments.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Cowboys (1972)

Last Call (2021)

Silent Running (1972)

The Long Goodbye (1973)

The Reivers (1969)

The War Wagon (1967)

Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)

The Shootist (1976)

Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949)

Wild River (1960)

Viva Zapata (1952)

Castle Keep (1969)

The Big Knife (1955)

Attack (1956)

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Suspicion (1941)

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

The Great Gatsby (1974)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Ben-Hur (1959)

The Trial (1962)

Great Expectations (1946)

The Sound Barrier (1952)

Oliver Twist (1948)

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

Rko 281 (1999)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Mank (2020)

The Chase (1966)

The Formula (1980)

Shine (1996)

All That Jazz (1979)

A Decade Under The Influence (2003)

Shane (1953)

The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965)

The King Of Marvin Gardens (1972)

Deliverance (1972)

Nebraska (2013)

Twixt (2011)

The ’Burbs (1989)

About Schmidt (2002)

Sideways (2004)

The Descendants (2011)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Charade (1963)

The Truth About Charlie...

Richard Kind and Maria Bamford have been tapped for recurring roles on the upcoming second season of Freeform’s comedy series Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. In addition to the castings, Freeform also announced today at the TCA press tour that Season 2 will premiere Thursday, April 8 at 10 pm with two back-to-back episodes.

Created, exec produced by and starring Australian comedian Josh Thomas, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay follows Nicholas, a neurotic twenty-something-year-old who is forced to raise his two teenage half-sisters, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, after the death of their father. Kayla Cromer, Adam Faison and Maeve Press also star.

In Season 2, after their heartbreaking trip to New York, the Moss family and Nicholas’ boyfriend, Alex (Faison), are just trying their best to move forward. With everyone back home, Matilda (Cromer) is rethinking her life goals, Genevieve (Press) starts...

Robert Aldrich promised no-holds barred rough-tough dramas, and his first two Associates & Aldrich productions certainly hit hard. This play adaptation shows its director’s strength (no-flinching full shock impact) and weakness (theatrical overplaying) in full measure, but the unrestrained performances of Jack Palance and Eddie Albert are unforgettable. The main event can’t have pleased the Pentagon: shooting one’s own officer in combat. Plus, Lee Marvin and Richard Jaeckel get in early innings for their future work in Aldrichs’s The Dirty Dozen.

Attack

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1956 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date December 1, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, William Smithers, Buddy Ebsen, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel, Jon Shepodd, Peter van Eyck, Jimmy Goodwin, Steven Geray, Strother Martin.

Cinematography: Joseph Biroc

Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Original Music: Frank Devol

Written by James Poe from the play Fragile Fox by Norman Brooks...

A happy birthday greeting as we remember Rod Steiger, the screen actor who would have been 94 on April 14, 2019. Although he is primarily remembered for his tough guys in such films as “Al Capone,” “The Big Knife” and his Oscar-winning performance in “In the Heat of the Night,” Steiger’s performances include such diverse characters as a meek Holocaust survivor in “The Pawnbroker” and a fey embalmer in the satire “The Loved One.”

SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

In addition to his performance in “In the Heat of the Night,” for which Steiger also won a Golden Globe as well, he was Oscar-nominated for “The Pawnbroker” and for his iconic performance as the brother of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in the back seat of that car in Elia Kazan‘s “On the Waterfront.”

SEEMarlon Brando movies: 20 greatest films ranked worst to best

So let’s raise...

Ida Lupino (c. 1952). Courtesy Film Forum via Photofest.Much has been written about Ida Lupino’s centenary this year, and the renewed critical attention is a cause for celebration. The veteran screen actor and director of Golden Age Hollywood has too often been a name casually trotted out in lip service to women’s historical impact in the film industry. She most certainly did have that impact, but her films have proven difficult to see and completism with her work has been equally challenging. This began to shift after Martin Scorsese wrote an affectionate obituary of Lupino in a 1995 issue of The New York Times. Not long after, restorations and DVD releases would follow—some by Scorsese’s Film Foundation itself. Now, in her centenary year, both the British Film Institute and New York’s Film Forum are holding retrospectives to celebrate her, including works like her mother-daughter sports saga Hard,...

We're still so terribly depressed about the Academy's foolhardy new decisions, that we're looking for Anything else to think about today as distraction. Herewith...

12 random things that happened on this very day (Aug 9th) in history...

1918 Happy Robert Aldrich Centennial! The director was born 100 years ago today in Rhode Island. Among his best known films: The Big Knife, The Dirty Dozen, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Autumn Leaves, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, and The Longest Yard. Alfred Molina was recently Emmy-nominated for playing him in the TV series Feud: Bette and Joan...

By John M. Whalen

In 1988 Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (“In the Heat of the Night”, “The Poseidon Adventure”) got fed up with what he called “the eel pit of Hollywood,” and moved to Thailand to start a new life. According to the La Times, he’d grown tired of the power plays, the egos, the hypocrisy and the dictum that homage must be paid to the box office. He left and never came back.

Hollywood has always had its dark side-- just read “Hollywood Babylon.” Silliphant’s “eel pit” was never a more apt description than when, a few years later in 2015, the film industry was rocked by WikiLeaks release of some really nasty Sony emails that gave a glimpse into what powerful producers and studio execs really thought of some of their stars. Scott Rudin called Angelina Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat.” Clint Culpepper called Kevin Hart “a whore,...

One of the best pictures to come out of Hollywood in the late 1960s, Sydney Pollack’s screen version of Horace McCoy’s hardboiled novel is a harrowing experience guaranteed to elicit extreme responses. Jane Fonda performs (!) at the top of an ensemble of stars suffering in a Depression-Era circle of Hell – it’s an Annihilating Drama with a high polish. And this CineSavant review ends with a fact-bomb that ought to start Barbara Steele fans off on a new vault search.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 120 min. / Street Date September 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Gig Young, Red Buttons, Bonnie Bedelia, Bruce Dern, Allyn Ann McLerie.

Cinematography: Philip H. Lathrop

Production Designer: Harry Horner

Film Editor: Fredric Steinkamp

Written by James Poe, Robert E. Thompson from the novel They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?...

What seemed too raw for 1955 still packs a punch, as Robert Aldrich takes a meat cleaver to the power politics of the old studio system. Monstrous studio head Rod Steiger has just the leverage he needs to blackmail frazzled star Jack Palance into signing the big contract. But will Hollywood corruption destroy them all?

The Big Knife

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date September 5, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen,

Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, Everett Sloane, Wesley Addy, Paul Langton, Nick Dennis.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Art Direction: William Glasgow

Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Original Music: Frank De Vol

Adapted by James Poe from the play by Clifford Odets

Produced and Directed by Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich’s 1940s film apprenticeship was largely spent as an assistant director for strong, creative filmmakers that wanted to do good personal work free of the constraints of the big studios.

Forgotten amid Robert Aldrich’s more critic-friendly movies is this superb suspense picture, an against-all-odds thriller that pits an old-school pilot against a push-button young engineer with his own kind of male arrogance. Can a dozen oil workers and random passengers ‘invent’ their way out of an almost certain death trap? It’s a late-career triumph for James Stewart, at the head of a sterling ensemble cast. I review a UK disc in the hope of encouraging a new restoration.

The Flight of the Phoenix

Region B Blu-ray

(will not play in domestic U.S. players)

Masters of Cinema / Eureka Entertainment

1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 142 min. / Street Date September 12, 2016 / £12.95

Starring: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Duryea, George Kennedy, Gabriele Tinti, Alex Montoya, Peter Bravos, William Aldrich, Barrie Chase.

Cinematography: Joseph Biroc

Stunt Pilot: Paul Mantz

Art Direction: William Glasgow...

According to Entertainment Weekly, stage and screen star Bobby Cannavale Broadway's The Big Knife, The Motherfk With The Hat will reprise his role as 'Vince D'Angelo, easily distracted cop and ex-boyfriend of Will' in the highly anticipated NBC revival of Will amp Grace.

The Big Knife (1955) will be available on Blu-ray + DVD September 5th From Arrow Video

Mere months after delivering one of the definitive examples of film noir with Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich brought a noir flavor to Hollywood with his classic adaptation of Clifford Odets’ stage play, The Big Knife.

Charles Castle, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, looks like he has it all. But his marriage is falling apart and his wife is threatening to leave him if he renews his contract. Studio boss Stanley Shriner Hoff isn’t taking the news too well, and he’ll do anything he can to get his man to sign on the dotted line – even if means exposing dark secrets…

Winner of the Silver Lion at the 1955 Venice Film Festival, The Big Knife also boasts a remarkable cast list including Jack Palance (Shane) as Castle and Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront) as Hoff,...

The quintessential shot in Robert Aldrich’s filmography is that of a close-up, held for a smidgen longer than the normal length one would think appropriate for such a shot. The face the camera is focusing on is usually a signifier of the most central element in Aldrich’s films: tension. Whether it’s melodrama (Autumn Leaves, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?), war pictures (Too Late the Hero, Attack!), or Westerns, both sober and jocular (Ulzana’s Raid and 4 For Texas, respectively), ideological and external forces wrestle within the psyche that defines Aldrich’s cinema. Metrograph's all-35mm retrospective in New York offers us the opportunity to survey the oeuvre of the auteur who hammered out his cinematic legacy with the vigor of an undoubtedly indignant and irreverent artist. Too Late the Hero (1970)Consistency across genre and modes of filmmaking marks Aldrich as one of the last great studio auteurs,...

On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

1040 King Duncan is killed in battle and King Macbeth succeeds him. Shakespeare fictionalizes everything later for Macbeth. So many theatrical productions and movies follow. Out damn spot!

1932 The 1932 Summer Olympics end. This is the Olympic year when gorgeous Buster Crabbe became a gold medalist (pictured left). Hollywood then snatched him right up for movie serials and action adventure franchises including Tarzan The Fearless

1945 Japan surrenders during Ww II (the six year war will last only two more weeks.) but movie makers all over the world have never stopped telling the war's infinite stories. On that same day Steve Martin is born in Waco Texas. It only takes him another 68 years to get the Oscar he totally deserved

1946 Two actor birthdays: Blacksploitation actor Antonio Fargas who became "Huggybear" on TV's popular Starksy & Hutch and Susan Saint James TV of McMillan & Wife...

The director-centric 1970s were a time for pushing the boundaries of 'acceptable' film content, but John Byrum's witty and profane period piece about a Hollywood porn director was a step too far. Richard Dreyfuss leads a cast of utterly fearless actors in a witty and intelligent dissection of movieland decadence. Inserts Region A Blu-ray Twilight Time 1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date June 14, 2016 / (Nc-17) / Available from Twilight Time Movies Store29.95 Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Harper, Veronica Cartwright, Bob Hoskins, Stephen Davies. Cinematography Denys N. Coop Art Direction John Clark Costumes Shirley Russell Produced by Davina Belling, Clive Parsons Written and Directed by John Byrum

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

At least in Los Angeles, the theatrical showings of John Byrum's remarkable Inserts came and went (cough) so fast that nobody had time to be outraged. The reviews made it sound like sordid trash that could only attract men in plastic raincoats.

Robert Mitchum all but snoozes through this promising war-espionage thriller that pits lazy Gestapo agents against clueless partisans in occupied Greece. It's got great locations and a good cast, but director Robert Aldrich seems off his feed -- there's not a lot of excitement to be had. The Angry Hills DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1959 / B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date February 16, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Robert Mitchum, Stanley Baker, Elisabeth Mueller, Gia Scala, Theodore Bikel, Sebastian Cabot, Donald Wolfit, Marius Goring, Jocelyn Lane, Kieron Moore, George Pastell, Marita Constantinou, Alec Mango. Cinematography Stephen Dade Film Editor Peter Tanner Production Design Ken Adam Original Music Richard Rodney Bennett Written by A.I. Bezzerides from the novel by Leon Uris Produced by Raymond Stross Directed by Robert Aldrich

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Director Robert Aldrich had come through with successes for Burt Lancaster's production company (Apache, Vera Cruz...

It's a different Bogart -- a character performance in a Nicholas Ray noir about distrust anxiety in romance. Gloria Grahame is the independent woman who must withhold her commitment... until a murder can be sorted out. Which will crack first, the murder case or the relationship? In A Lonely Place Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 810 1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 93 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 10, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Art Smith, Jeff Donnell, Martha Stewart, Robert Warwick, Morris Ankrum, William Ching, Steven Geray, Hadda Brooks. Cinematography Burnett Guffey Film Editor Viola Lawrence Original Music George Antheil Written by Andrew Solt, Edmund H. North from a story by Dorothy B. Hughes Produced by Robert Lord Directed by Nicholas Ray

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Which Humphrey Bogart do you like best? By 1950 he had his own production company, Santana, with a contract for release through Columbia pictures.

Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been… ? | Jean-Luc Godard

The closing half of that title is “… a member of the Communist party?”, a question that could have presaged the end of your career and possibly your liberty in 1950s Hollywood. Now we can eat brunch over it, safe in the knowledge that a McCarthy-style witch hunt could never happen again – could it? In advance of Trumbo, a Bryan Cranston-led biopic on the Hollywood Ten writer (out 5 Feb), this season revisits those bad old days each Sunday this month. Proceedings begin tomorrow with sci-fi allegory Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and continues with Clifford Odets’s lid-lifting Hollywood drama The Big Knife (Odets was one of those who cooperated with the committee) and Woody Allen-starring satire The Front (featuring cast and crew who actually were blacklisted), culminating in Spartacus, the film that literally restored Dalton Trumbo’s name.

Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...

Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...

Joan Crawford Movie Star Joan Crawford movies on TCM: Underrated actress, top star in several of her greatest roles If there was ever a professional who was utterly, completely, wholeheartedly dedicated to her work, Joan Crawford was it. Ambitious, driven, talented, smart, obsessive, calculating, she had whatever it took – and more – to reach the top and stay there. Nearly four decades after her death, Crawford, the star to end all stars, remains one of the iconic performers of the 20th century. Deservedly so, once you choose to bypass the Mommie Dearest inanity and focus on her film work. From the get-go, she was a capable actress; look for the hard-to-find silents The Understanding Heart (1927) and The Taxi Dancer (1927), and check her out in the more easily accessible The Unknown (1927) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928). By the early '30s, Joan Crawford had become a first-rate film actress, far more naturalistic than...

Talk about a legacy. Acclaimed titles designer Saul Bass worked with some of Hollywood’s most legendary directors during his 40-plus year career, and on some of their best pictures. His first title credit was on Otto Preminger’s 1954 “Carmen Jones.” From there, Bass went on to collaborate on over 60 films, many of which have become much deserved cinema classics. In this hour-long compilation, YouTube user FlaneurSolitaire pieces together scores of Bass’ revered title sequences in chronological order, starting with “The Man with the Golden Arm” (also directed by Preminger), from 1955. (Bass’ credits from that year alone also include Robert Aldrich’s “The Big Knife,” “The Shrike” helmed by José Ferrer, Billy Wilder’s “The Seven Year Itch,” and “The Racers,” which starred Kirk Douglas and was directed by Henry Hathaway.) “The Racers” wasn’t the only Kirk Douglas film Bass did the titles for; he also designed them for...

'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...

Born for Broadway welcomed Richard Kind, star of stage and screen and a Tony nominee for The Big Knife, as the host of its fifth annual fundraiser and celebrity cabaret, held at the Merkin Concert Hall last night, October 13, 2014. This marks Kind's second time hosting the show, which he helped to inaugurate in 2009. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a look back at the men's performances...

Born for Broadway welcomed Richard Kind, star of stage and screen and a Tony nominee for The Big Knife, as the host of its fifth annual fundraiser and celebrity cabaret, held at the Merkin Concert Hall last night, October 13, 2014. This marks Kind's second time hosting the show, which he helped to inaugurate in 2009. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a look back at the ladies' performances...

Born for Broadway welcomed Richard Kind, star of stage and screen and a Tony nominee for The Big Knife, as the host of its fifth annual fundraiser and celebrity cabaret, held at the Merkin Concert Hall last night, October 13, 2014. This marks Kind's second time hosting the show, which he helped to inaugurate in 2009. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a look back at the evening's red carpet...

The Acting Company will present a benefit staged reading of Murderers, a new play by Jeffrey Hatcher Never Gonna Dance, Tuesdays with Morrie at 7 pm on Monday, February 24 at the Mainstage Theater Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street 9th-10thAvenues. The performance-starring Acting Company Alumna and Tony-winner Harriet Harris Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, EncoresLittle Me, Marylouise Burke TV's Alpha House and Reg Rogers The Big Knife-will be followed by a reception with the cast and director, Ian Belknap, Artistic Director of The Acting Company. Tickets 35 and 60 Patron are available from 212-258-3111.

Actor Martin Shaw talks about working with Polanski, the dumbing-down of his profession, and the death of his fellow Professional Lewis Collins

How did you become interested in acting?

It started at school. I didn't have a healthy attitude towards education: it took me a long time to work out that I was there for me, not for my teachers. There were only two teachers I could really respond to – one taught English, the other drama. When we were doing Shakespeare, it seemed crystal-clear.

What was your big breakthrough?

In 1968, I appeared at the Royal Court in the first major revival of Look Back in Anger (1). Then I starred in several other plays there. Roman Polanski saw one and offered me the role of Banquo in his film of Macbeth. Everything took off from there.

What have you sacrificed for your art?

I've grown a few grey hairs – well, a...

54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Chip Zien on December 5 and 11. Broadway favorite Chip Zien is much beloved on the Great White Way for creating the roles of the Baker in Into the Woods and Mendel in Falsettos. Now, 54 Below proudly presents his swinging cabaret debut Expect some wild jazz standards as well as tunes that trace his brilliant stage career, including special personal favorites from shows that include Grand Hotel, Merrily, Sweeney Todd, The Big Knife, In Trousers and The Dean Martin Show, among many others. Join Chip and his oversized band for two very special performances only - no more riddles, no more jests...

Most people don’t think of director-writer-historian Peter Bogdanovich as an actor, but that’s how he began his career in the entertainment world. He studied with the famed acting coach Stella Adler in New York for four years before discovering one day during class that he had a knack for directing. “I got five actors together and directed a scene from The Big Knife,” Bogdanovich tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Stella was very impressed with what I did as a director, so I thought maybe I should direct the whole play and eventually got the rights from Clifford

read more...

Primary Stages presents the World Premiere of Bronx Bombers, written and directed by Tony Award nominee Eric Simonson Broadway's Lombardi. The production opened last night, Tuesday, October 8, and features Francois Battiste Broadway's Magic Bird as Reggie Jackson and Elston Howard,Chris Henry Coffey Off-Broadway's Water by the Spoonful as Joe Dimaggio,Bill DawesBroadway's Lombardi as Mickey MantleThurman Munson,Christopher JacksonBroadway's In the Heights, Memphis asDerek Jeter, Wendy Makkena Broadway's Side Man as Carmen Berra, Keith Nobbs Broadway's Lombardi as Billy Martin, Richard Topol Broadway'sThe Normal Heart, The Merchant of Venice as Yogi Berra, John Wernke Broadway's The Lyons as Lou Gehrig, and C.J. Wilson Happy Now at Primary Stages, Broadway's The Big Knife,Glengarry Glen Ross as Babe Ruth. Bronx Bombers runs through October 19 at Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street. BroadwayWorld brings you highlights of the cast in action below...

Great performers relive their terrible performances to benefit The Performing Arts Project. On Sunday, November 3rd at Joe's Pub, Steve Pasquale The Bridges of Madison County, Do No Harm, Rescue Me hosts an evening of fabulous performers sharing video of their most embarrassing moments onstage and then redeeming themselves by recreating that moment live on stage. Broadway musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell Big Fish, The Addams Family will serve as the music director for the evening, which includes participation by Pasquale, Hunter Bell title of show, Grinch, Susan Blackwell title of show, Side By Side, Richard Kind The Big Knife, Mad About You, Spin City, Lin-Manuel Miranda In the Heights, Do No Harm, Krysta Rodriguez First Date, Smash, Jeremy Shamos The Assembled Parties, Clybourne Park, and David YazbekThe Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels At the end of the evening, the audience will vote on the star performer who most redeemed themselves through their efforts that night.

The annual 'Rock The Dock' Summer Benefit Bash today, July 20, will be hosted by the one and only Susan Lucci. Actor and Bay Street Board Member, Richard Kind, who most recently won the Drama Desk Award for his role on Broadway's The Big Knife, will be the evening's celebrity auctioneer. Board member Joy Behar also plans on attending, with a host of other surprise celebrities...

The 2013 Tony Awards brought out some of the best actors in the business, and was led by Neil Patrick Harris for the fourth time as host. Taking place at Radio City Music Hall Sunday June 9, some of the biggest winners of the night included Kinky Boots and Pippin. Check out the complete winners list below!

| Related: Check out the performances from the Tony Awards 2013! |

 

Best Performance By Actor In Leading Role In Play

Winner: Tracy Letts, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Other nominees: Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy; Nathan Lane, The Nance; David Hyde Pierce, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; Tom Sturridge, Orphans

Best Performance By Actress In Leading Role In Play

Winner: Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

Other nominees: Laurie Metcalf, The Other Place; Amy Morton, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Kristine Nielsen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; Holland Taylor, Ann

Best Performance By Actor...

Honoring the best and brightest on the Broadway Stage, stars gathered together on Sunday (June 9) for the 67th Annual Tony Awards.

Held in New York CIty's historic Radio City Music Hall, Neil Patrick Harris led the evening with his hilarious hosting antics and dazzled the crowd with his musical talents.

Big winners of the night included the cast and crew of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" and "Kinky Boots" taking home the prize for Best Play and Best Musical, respectively.

Meanwhile, Tracy Letts and Cicely Tyson were honored with trophies for Best Performance by an Actor and Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.

Check out the complete list of winners from the 2013 Tony Awards below:

Best play

"The Assembled Parties" by Richard Greenberg

"Lucky Guy" by Nora Ephron

"The Testament of Mary" by Colm Toibin

Winner "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" by Christopher Durang

Best musical

"Bring It On,...

New York — Talented children and high-energy musical performances will be on tap Sunday night as the Tony Awards kick off, capping a season that hasn't produced a runaway favorite show and only one starry celebrity nomination in Tom Hanks.

The Tonys will be broadcast live Sunday by CBS from the cavernous Radio City Music Hall, a homecoming of sorts after two years in a much smaller theater on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Neil Patrick Harris is back for his fourth turn as host and the formula seems locked in: A big, splashy opening number followed by performances by the musical nominees and a crush of big awards at the end. Likely targets for humor this year will be Mike Tyson, the ex-boxer who showed up with a one-man show this season, and Shia Labeouf, who left a revival of "Orphans" before the show opened and then tweeted about it.

"Kinky Boots...

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was thrilled to sit down and speak with nearly all of this year's Tony Award nominees at the official Tonys Meet amp Greet on May 1, 2013, and we will be bringing you special coverage on all of them throughout the awards season. Today we bring you Richard Kind, a nominee for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for The Big Knife. Check out what he had to say below...

The annual 'Rock The Dock' Summer Benefit Bash on Saturday, July 20, will be hosted by the one and only Susan Lucci. Actor and Bay Street Board Member, Richard Kind, who most recently won the Drama Desk Award for his role on Broadway's The Big Knife, will be the evening's celebrity auctioneer. Board member Joy Behar also plans on attending, with a host of other surprise celebrities. The gala is being held in honor and memory of the Theatre's founder and former Artistic Director, Sybil Christopher.

Despite a Broadway season that saw a 6-percent dip in attendance, theater fans still have cause for celebration at this Sunday’s Tony Awards. There’s a contest heating up for Best Musical, pitting the “revolting” children of Matilda against the fabulous drag queens of Kinky Boots.

And there’s some real suspense in other major categories: Will two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks (above) add a Tony to his mantel for his Broadway debut in Lucky Guy? Will former Who’s the Boss star Judith Light win back-to-back Tonys in Best Featured Actress in a Play? EW critics Melissa Rose...

It's curtains for "The Big Knife": The revival of Clifford Odets' excoriation of Hollywood mores will end its Broadway run on June 2, having been largely shut out from Tony Award nominations. Also read: Tony Award Nominations for Tom Hanks, 'Lucky Guy,' But Many Hollywood Snubs The show, which stars "Boardwalk Empire's" Bobby Cannavale, has also had difficulty finding its box office footing during a spring theater season that has overflowed with star driven shows like Tom Hanks' "Lucky Guy" and Bette Midler's "I'll Eat You Last."  Last week, "The Big Knife"...

“Matilda The Musical” and “Pippin” took home the top awards for best musical and best musical revival at the 58th annual Drama Desk Awards. The West End import also received awards for outstanding featured actor in a musical for Bertie Carvel, outstanding book of a musical, outstanding lyrics, and outstanding set design. The Diane Paulus–helmed revival won the award for its director, outstanding featured actress in a musical for Andrea Martin, and outstanding choreography. Christopher Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” won outstanding revival of a play, and the now-closed “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” won best play revival, along with best leading actor in a play for Tracy Letts. Other acting awards went to Laura Osnes for outstanding actress in a musical for “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” Billy Porter for outstanding actor in a musical for “Kinky Boots,” Richard Kind for outstanding featured actor...

Tony Awards 2013 ‘Hollywood Snubs’ (photo: Scarlett Johansson in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) [See previous post: "Tony Awards 2013: Cicely Tyson, Tom Hanks Nominated."] Among the movie celebrities who could have been nominated but weren’t, are The Avengers‘ Scarlett Johansson and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter‘s Benjamin Walker for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (made into a 1958 movie directed by Richard Brooks, and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman); and two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty) for The Heiress (in the role that earned Olivia de Havilland an Oscar). Here are a few more: Alien and Avatar‘s Sigourney Weaver for Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike; Bette Midler for John Logan’s I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers, about the powerful Hollywood agent whose clients ranged from Barbra Streisand to Tatum O’Neal; and Paul Rudd (Prince Avalanche) and Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) for Grace. (See also Tony...

There were plenty of surprises in the Tony nominations this morning, starting with the fact that the most-recognized show was Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots (with 13 total nominations, including Best Musical) — and not presumed front-runner Matilda (with 12). Of course, the Roald Dahl-inspired Matilda might have picked up a tying 13th nomination had the four young actresses rotating in the title role not been ruled ineligible for Best Actress in a Musical (the quartet will share special Tony honors instead).

Plenty of familiar Hollywood names made the cut for nominations, including three in the Best Actor in a Play category:...

The nominations for the Tony awards 2013 are in. Musical Kinky Boots has 13 nods, followed by Matilda with 12. What have you seen – and who would you like to win?

Best play

The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg

Lucky Guy by Nora Ephron

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toíbín

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang

Best musical

Bring It On: the Musical

A Christmas Story: the Musical

Kinky Boots

Matilda: the Musical

Best revival

Golden Boy

Orphans

The Trip to Bountiful

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Best revival of a musical

Annie

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Pippin

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella

Best book of a musical

A Christmas Story: the Musical by Joseph Robinette

Kinky Boots by Harvey Fierstein

Matilda; the Musical by Dennis Kelly

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella by Douglas Carter Beane

Best original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the...