Little excitement today. There, I said it.

Although there are a few pieces to tide us over...

Before the Rains

• MSN movies have another nice Rains clip which you may or may not have seen. It features Henry and Sajani (Linus Roache and Nandita Das). Enjoy! (And apologies for the advert before it.)

• Review-wise, James Thompson of People's Weekly World seems contented, referring to the film's 'wonderful imagery'. He also has some interesting observations:

[...] The movie “Before the Rains” should be used as an example to illustrate the main points of Frederick Engels’ work “Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.” Set in 1930s India during the uprising of Indian nationalists, it clearly shows the effects of capital on love and human relationships. The bottom line is that people who love money, particularly capital, cannot love people. [...]

[...] One of the most poignant moments in the film came when the British master asked his Indian collaborator if the workers in the village were calm. The complacency of the workers is of utmost importance to the capitalist. [...]

The Heidi Chronicles

• Playbill have been interviewing actor Robert Sean Leonard, who discussed his career highlights. Among those he shared was:

[...] James Lapine calling and asking me to read Boyd Gaines' part in The Heidi Chronicles, with Jennifer Ehle, because Andre [Bishop] and Bernie [Gersten] wanted to hear it. I told him, 'It means so much to me, more than 20 years later, that you believe in me.' To me, that's it — it's family. To be included in a room with people you admire is one of the greatest joys in life. [...]

The context of this reading is unclear, and may or may not have anything to do with Ms Ehle's involvement in Nothin' Like A Dame in 2006. See back-posts for more information.

Tony time

• The infamous Mr. Charles Isherwood of the New York Times looks to this year's Tonys with reflection on the 'larger' winners of the previous two years (The Coast of Utopia and The History Boys).

Rosemary Harris

• Sue Merrell of The Grand Rapids Press has been conversing with actress Elizabeth Wilson. Wilson was Ms Harris' co-star in Waiting in the Wings in 1999/2000.

[...] Wilson, 87, said the onstage animosity between "Wings" characters Lotta (Lauren Bacall) and May (Rosemary Harris) wasn't all acting, either, as the two had their conflicts off-stage as well. But Wilson speaks highly of both actresses. "Rosemary Harris is just the best actress on the planet," Wilson said. [...]

• There is a little more news from The Belfast Telegraph regarding the forthcoming Yankee King. Regarding the story:

[...] Yankee King is a romantic comedy... [It] is set in Ireland in the early sixties and tells the story of a man 'done good' returning to his native Ireland where the plot becomes an entanglement of love and tragedy with interludes of comic relief. [...]

On the film set:

[...] Once again the Paint Hall in the Titanic Quarter [will] be transformed into a studio for the new film. ... The Paint Hall is an organic, user-friendly space with a 90 ft working height, the biggest in Europe. ... [The] production will create about 150 jobs sourced locally and is due to start filming in July with a budget of £4m. As well as filming at Titanic Quarter, the production team proposes to travel to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and Groomsport Harbour. [...]

Still not IMDb-able, but we'll keep you posted. And for future reference, a bag of imaginary rubles for the first person to spot an Ivanov confirmation. (Should one materialise, of course.)

Nothin' Like a Dame reports

Broadwayworld reports that the charity show raised a whopping $300 000 for The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative.

Recap of all the night's acts on Broadway Pulse

Review from Broadwayworld forum members who attended.

Cynthia Nixon, Julianna Margulies and Jennifer Ehle read a section of "The Heidi Chronicles" as a tribute to Wendy Wasserstein... I wasn't sure how they were going to do a tribute to her in the middle of a show that was mostly singing, but, I thought it worked well.
...
The Wendy Wasserstein Tribute was really good too, as perhaps embarassingly, I'm not familiar with "The Heidi Chronicles." Twas a great monolugue shared by the 3 performers.

More Nothin' Like a Dame writeups

Playbill has an announcement of the amount raised, and the Broadway Cares site about the event has a report about all the performances.

...Rosemary Harris appeared to speak eloquently of the Women’s Initiative, reminding us how women, so naturally nurturing, need a place where they, too, can get the help they need.

The Phyllis Newman Health Initiative was organized in 1996 with a $10,000 grant form BC/EFA to provide a safety net for women in the entertainment industry who are coping with critical health concerns, or life-threatening illnesses; illnesses such as lymphoma, which claimed the life of Wendy Wasserstein this past January. Wendy was honored on stage at this year’s DAMES in selected readings from her Tony-award and Pulitzer-prize winning play, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, performed by Jennifer Ehle, Julianna Margulies and Cynthia Nixon.

The photos below are by Ben Strothmann for BroadwayWorld. Click to enlarge.

In the same vein...

More from Kerry, who provided the stage door pics below.

The show was really fun - even from the second to last row! Cynthia Nixon came out and spoke a little about Wendy Wasserstein and said in her honor that they were going to read one of her more famous passages. As a movie person I had never heard of Chronicles of Heidi but she introduced JE and Julianna as Wendy worthy actresses. It was a passage in which Hedi - the main character - goes back to her old school to give a speech about where women are today. They all portrayed Hedi - not different characters. Julianna started, JE continued and Cynthia finished up. They all did a good job but JE is was the only one who had clearly memorized her lines and didn't need the crutch of the binder that was in front of each of them.