With a cast that includes Richard Briers, Paul Ready, Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw and Michelle Terry, it opens in the Olivier Theatre on March 10, 2010 before continuing in repertoire.

What a piece of work is Rand! Photo by Tim Fennell. Let's not lie, maybe some of us went to see that four-hour, unabridged Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet back when we were in grade six, then wore out our VHS copies of the perhaps over-the-top film, to-be-or-not-to-be-ing along with Ken.

The stars are out on Broadway. That's what they always say, but consider a list of Jude Law, Julia Stiles, Hugh Jackman, Angela Lansbury, Daniel Craig, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sienna Miller, Richard Thomas, Carrie Fisher, Lynn Redgrave and more, all now up-and-running or in previews.

Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Williams, Miller - all these playwrights and many more wrote memorable roles that over time have become iconic.

Mary Z. Maher once lived upstairs in the home of Jocelyn Herbert, the English set and costume designer.

When actor Roger Rees performs his one-man show "What You Will" at Washington University on Friday, audiences can look forward to a trove of backstage anecdotes, selections from a man who played Hamlet and nearly everyone else during 22 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and plenty of time for a post-show dessert.

Disney's Secretariat is getting locals pumped about Hollywood filmmaking. So we thought it would be fun to do a little pop culture "six degrees of separation" free-association, using the film's stars as a launching pad.

Nov 13 - Sir Ian McKellen ventures into television with "The Prisoner," a science fiction TV show based on the cult classic 1960s series of the same name.

Today's Cinematic Birthdays 11/13 1312 Edward III , not the gay one who gets more cinematic treatment , but his son.

Tony Award-winning actress Zoe Caldwell called Mary Maher last week to say that the chapter about her in Maher's new book was "glorious." Such a reaction may not be the reason writers write, but it doesn't hurt.

Venerable English stage actor Ian McKellen has played all the great parts from Hamlet to Richard III, but in the twilight of his career, he is finding new roles in mainstream film and TV - and as a gay icon.

There's nothing but the Village where Ian McKellen rules in AMC's remake of 'The Prisoner' NEW YORK - NEW YORK a ' A man named Michael from New York wakes up in the desert, much to his surprise.

ALSO La Daily Musto The place where you read it first. There is nothing more boring, self-aggrandizing, and sad than when columnists take pains to remind you, "You read it here first" about some fly-by-night gossip scoop or other.

Yo ho ho: Marianne Faithfull performs pirate ballads and sea shanties in Rogues Gallery , a one-night-only concert at the Sydney Arts Festival.

In the running: Enron is a contender for the best play while its star, Samuel West, is up for best actor Special award: the Best Actress award is in honour of Natasha Richardson With 2009 set to be a blockbuster year at the box office, today's longlist for the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards proves it has been 12 months of critical as well ...

Opera fans who travel across country to see some of the biggest productions live on the stage of the famed Metropolitan Opera in New York City now can see the same productions close to home.

In this film publicity image released by Disney, Bob Cratchit carries Tiny Tim, both characters voiced by Gary Oldman, in a scene from "A Christmas Carol." Lionel Barrymore.

American soul legend Al Green will help inject a whole lotta love into the Sydney Festival in 2010, headlining the event alongside The Velvet Underground's John Cale and Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman.

The abrupt closing Sunday of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" after only nine performances has cast a brief, uneasy shadow over Broadway's fall season, ironically one of the busiest in years.

IN A year in which the shadowy figure of recession spread its cape across the world, it is no surprise that the film for which 2008 will be remembered is one of its most bleak.