Curtain up!

Today is January 26, 2010 and the time in New York City is 6:03 p.m. as I type this. In 57 minutes, the first preview performance of MR. & MRS. FITCH is due to begin. John Lithgow and our own beautiful and talented JENNIFER EHLE make up the two-person cast. It marks her return to live theater since her Tony award-winning performance in The Coast of Utopia nearly three years ago.


More about the Fitches, the Starks, and the Logues to follow since I now trust I can get my letterbetweenEandG'd up and twisted self back in line.



Lordy, Lordy
A (Very) Belated Birthday Wish for Ms Ehle.!



The X-zero ones are memorable and I hope she enjoyed hers.

Etc

• BroadwayWorld roundup of John Lithgow's tweets about Mr & Mrs Fitch. Particularly friendly:

  1/3 of FITCH staged in a 5 hour rehearsal. Jennifer E. is fast, smart, and fabulous, Scott Ellis terrific. This is going to be some fun.

• Follow Mr Lithgow and Second Stage (also on Facebook).
  

• Previews start Jan 26th. BWW readers note that there's a discount available from Theatermania, at $49. There are $30 tix for youth (under 30s) and $15 student rush tix.
• There was a YouTube video of the photo shoot for Mr & Mrs Fitch, now deleted. The pic below is from the Second Stage site.
  
• A few screenshots I don't recognise on Flickr. Probably The Russell Girl?
• Also at Flickr are two batches of set photos from The King's Speech at the Pullens Estate. There are even a couple of videos, one of a Geoff Rush scene. More photos seen at Facebook.
  
• The movie is said to be in post-production, according to IMDB. There are a couple of posts on the message boards about filming at Buckingham Palace and Ely Cathedral. An extra posts a few shots of costumes and such on her blog, The Virtue of Style.
• Never too soon for the O-bomb...
  

  Analysis: The most obvious chance for Oscar glory next year for the Weinstein Company, this British/Australian co-production has a simply superb pedigree of talent involved combined with a story rarely heard about that should ensure something hopefully remarkable.

  The teaming of Rush and Firth in any film is exciting enough, but with supporting talent in historical roles like Guy Pearce as the abdicating Edward VIII, Helena Bonham Carter as a young Elizabeth II, Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill, not to mention greats like Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon - it's downright pants-wetting.

• And seconded:

  Colin Firth is so hot right now — and Oscar bound — in “A Single Man.” Add all that to Geoffrey Rush and very hot HBO director Tom Hooper (”John Adams”) and we may have a new “Shakespeare in Love” next fall. Woefully underused Jennifer Ehle, plus Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Timothy Spall, and Michael Gambon round out this cast. If this isn’t an Oscar nominee, I don’t know what it is.

• For a great collection of news and photos, check out Firth.com's page on King's Speech. Some quotage from The Man. Example.
• Some pro-con discussion of Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn at the ASOIAF forums.
  

Thanks for tagboard tips. & belatedly...