Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. But, we can't begin a new year without first looking back at '07:

• Linda Winer of Newsday says that plays, not musicals, took center stage in 2007:
  

  [...] for the first time in who knows when, drama is flourishing on Broadway and off. At this rare instant, serious theatergoers can see major revivals of Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard, Edward Albee and Edmond Rostand. [...]

  And, Sir Tom made the number two spot in her 'Top 10 in Theater' list:
  

  2. TOM STOPPARD. The year began with the now-closed "Salvage," the third and final installment of "The Coast of Utopia," the unlikely and poignant extravaganza about pre revolutionary Russian progressive thought. And now we have "Rock 'n' Roll," the Czech-born British playwright's latest extreme-sport expedition to the jagged coasts of another Utopia. (Bernard Jacobs Theatre, ongoing.) Although less wonderful than such Stoppard masterworks as "Arcadia" and "The Real Thing," this strangely distant play is still a heady and entertaining drama about Czechoslovakia from 1968 through 1990 - with rock music as its audacious guide.

• Playbill dedicated an entire section to Martha Plimpton in the 'Top Theater Stories of 2007':
  
  

  MARTHA PLIMPTON When Martha Plimpton was searching for treasure in "The Goonies" and having Keanu Reeves' baby in "Parenthood," who would have thought that two decades later she'd be one of the hottest stars on the New York stage? Although Plimpton had previously appeared on Broadway in Sixteen Wounded (2004) and Shining City (2006), 2007 seemed to be her year: The stage and screen star received a Best Featured Actress in a Play Tony nomination (as well as a Drama Desk Award) for her performance in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia and stellar notices for two Shakespeares: Midsummer Night's Dream in Central Park and Cymbeline at Lincoln Center. Plimpton's already booked for 2008: She'll star in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls — under the direction of James Macdonald — at the Biltmore Theatre beginning in April.

We have many exciting things to look forward to in the coming months!!

• Rosemary Harris will be reprising her role(s) in Oscar and the Pink Lady at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey from January 15 to February 10. According to Playbill:
  

  [...] In a statement George Street artistic director David Saint said, "I am thrilled and honored to be welcoming Rosemary Harris to George Street Playhouse. It is amazing to me to have this great lady of the theatre on our stage. I am doubly thrilled to welcome back Frank Dunlop, the founder of England's Young Vic Company as well as the Brooklyn Academy of Music's theatre company. He magnificently directed Address Unknown a few seasons ago, and we are so pleased to be able to work with him again. [...]

  Visit the George Street Playhouse website to order tickets.



• January 13 marks the beginning of Masterpiece Theatre's The Complete Jane Austen, which will air on PBS. The PBS PressRoom describes the "event" as such:
  

  [...] For the first time on television, Austen fans can now sit down to a weekly feast of all of her immortal plots, presented by MASTERPIECE® THEATRE over the course of four months in beautifully acted, lavishly set and gorgeously costumed adaptations. As a bonus, viewers will be treated to a new drama based on Austen€™s own bittersweet love life. [...]

  For a sneak peak, click on the link in the upper right corner of the PBS website and watch the commercial that has been posted at youtube. Also at youtube is "a behind-the-scenes look at adapting Jane Austen's classic novels to television with screenwriter, Andrew Davies." The PBS PressRoom has the entire television schedule, though My Favorite Things has posted one that is a bit easier to read. Note that Pride and Prejudice will be shown in three parts on February 10, 17, and 24.

• Before the Rains will make its US premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 11 and 12. Visit the PSIFF site to purchase tickets.



• The Russell Girl will be broadcast on CBS (US) on January 27 and...



• Pride and Glory will be released in the US and UK on March 14. See IMDB for more release dates.

Best wishes to everyone in 2008!