Tom Hiddleston Talks Shakespeare, THOR & AVENGERS

BROADWAY WORLD
Tuesday, August 20, 2013; 06:08 PM - by Pat Cerasaro

Film superstar and dedicated thespian Tom Hiddleston discusses his integral role in the forthcoming four-film Shakespeare series premiering on PBS later this Fall, dubbed THE HOLLOW CROWN, as well as his AVENGERS and THOR roles, as part of a new interview.

Hiddleston first remarks upon his first experience with the Bard, relating, "My first Shakespearean production I ever saw, I was 13 years old. It was the RSC, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I thought some bits were funny but, to be honest, a lot of it went over my head, and it was really being taken to see Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and sort of being dragged, kicking and screaming because it wasn't an action film and then go, "'Oh. Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves are in this. Oh. This is hilarious and I understand everything and it's great.'"

He adds of his affection for Baz Luhrmann's wildly imaginative re-telling of Romeo & Juliet, "I was 15 when Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet came out so it's as if he made that film for me. The soundtrack to that film was my soundtrack. Romeo or Juliet, I can't remember which character, one of them is actually supposed to be 15 and it seemed so romantic and so true."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Hiddleston-Talks-Shakespeare-THOR-AVENGERS-20130820

Paul Bhattacharjee, wonderful British actor from 'Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' & Casino Royale found dead

'Casino Royale' actor found dead near English cliffs, by

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper  Today

Paul Bhattacharjee, who had roles in "Casino Royale" and "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," has been found dead at age 53. Bhattacharjee's body was found near the Splash Point cliffs in Seaford, East Sussex, England on July 12, the BBC reports.

(Amazing how beautiful Shakespeare can sound, when it's done right!  Paul Bhattacharjee and Meera Syal in Much Ado About Nothing)

Bhattacharjee had last been seen leaving rehearsal for the London play "Talk Show" on July 10. His death is not being treated as suspicious, although authorities would not reveal the cause of death.

Paul Billington, theater critic for the London Guardian, wrote that "Bhattacharjee was one of those actors whose name on a programme gave you the reassuring sense that you were in safe hands."

Bhattacharjee is survived by his son and his mother.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.today.com/entertainment/casino-royale-actor-found-dead-near-english-cliffs-6C10678564

Kenneth Branagh: lost Shakespearean? Kenneth Branagh seemed to give up on Shakespeare. But now he's come back to the playwright who made his name, says Dominic Cavendish. (TELEGRAPH)

By Dominic Cavendish, Theatre Critic 7:10AM BST  04 Jul 2013



The other day I found myself spending a fruitless hour pacing the backstreets of Manchester in the hope of stumbling across the as-yet-undisclosed deconsecrated church where Kenneth Branagh (Sir Kenneth since last November) will present his Macbeth as part of the city’s biennial International Festival, which is almost upon us.

The reason wasn't so much journalistic as nostalgic. I hadn't managed to bag a ticket in advance – all availability went in nine minutes – and the fancy possessed me that perhaps if I laid eyes on the building I’d get closer to the spirit of the project.

Closer, if I’m honest, to Ken. Almost unwittingly I found myself succumbing to something I hadn’t experienced for 25 years: what was once known as Branagh-mania. The reflex action whirled me back to my teenage self, queuing outside the Phoenix Theatre, fresh out of school – an age when to be young was pretty groovy but to see the talk of the town giving his Hamlet was very heaven.

In 1988, when you thought of Branagh, you thought of the Bard – and marveled at how sexy, exciting and fresh-minted he had made the “sweet swan of Avon” seem. The Belfast-born boy-wonder, who blazed a self-radicalized trail out of Reading, where his family moved after the start of the Troubles, made those of us half in love with theatre fully smitten, and rather doting on him, too.

Aged 23 and barely out of the swaddling clothes of drama school, he had seized the crowning role of Henry V at the RSC, bestriding its stages like the proverbial colossus – even daring to consult Prince Charles about the role – only to decide afterwards that it would be better if he could run his own company, and lead from the front.

Such certainty, such vigour, such chutzpah! He was the model of the new can-do age while harking back to the mythical world of Olivier (with whom he was ceaselessly compared) and all the great knights fighting the good fight for immortal nights out with every syllable of perfectly enunciated, rapier-sharp Shakespearean utterance.

He hung out with the right crowd – Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Richard Briers, Geraldine McEwen. In fact he did more than just hang out with them, he incorporated them into his gang, the Renaissance Theatre Company. The company started its 1988 campaign in Birmingham before sweeping into the West End. Critics and audiences alike adored the company’s Much Ado – in which he twinkled mischievously as Benedick opposite Samantha Bond’s foxy Beatrice.

They delighted at As You Like It, in which he dazzled as the fool Touchstone – the Guardian’s Michael Billington declaring “Mr Branagh actually makes you wait impatiently for every appearance of Shakespeare’s unfunniest clown”. And they kissed the hem of his Hamlet, in which his dazzling Great Dane, as the Financial Times’ reviewer wryly noted, “went to his death with a sardonic dash worthy of Douglas Fairbanks, blond hair kept at bay by the sword-free hand”.




READ MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10120995/Kenneth-Branagh-lost-Shakespearean.html

Tom Hiddleston Interview at Much Ado Premiere (FLICKS AND THE CITY)

FLICKS AND THE CITY

Sir Kenneth Branagh: Richard Briers was a national treasure (ITV)

ACTOR RICHARD BRIERS DIES

Sir Kenneth Branagh and Richard Briers worked together on various classic plays Credit: PA

Sir Kenneth Branagh has paid tribute to Richard Briers, saying: "He was a national treasure, a great actor and a wonderful man. He was greatly loved and he will be deeply missed."

They worked together on Henry V, Peter's Friends, Much Ado About Nothing and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein during their lengthy association.

READ MORE: http://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-02-18/sir-kenneth-branagh-briers-was-a-national-treasure/

Maggie Smith receives Stratford festival’s Legacy Award (TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL)

By Richard Ouzounian
Theatre Critic

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival said “thank you” to Dame Maggie Smith on Monday night, 35 years after her talent and star quality raised the theatre company to dazzling heights in the late 1970s.

She was honoured with the Festival’s Legacy Award, presented to her by Christopher Plummer, in a star-studded ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

“There may be a lot of glittering events in Toronto tonight,” said event chair Barry Avrich, alluding to TIFF, “but this is the only one with two Oscar winners and a Dame.”

Jian Ghomeshi, the host of CBC’s Q morning radio program, emceed the evening, introducing the three artistic directors of the festival — past, present and future — Robin Phillips, Des McAnuff and Antoni Cimolino.

Smith was already an Oscar-winning star when Robin Phillips invited her to join the company in 1976. She returned for three more seasons, making her last appearance in 1980.

In her four seasons at Stratford, Dame Maggie gave some of the most memorable performances in the Festival’s history, including Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, Rosalind in As You Like It, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Mistress Overdone in Measure for Measure, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Lady Macbeth.

Monday night’s entertainment included Cynthia Dale singing “La Vie en Rose,” Brent Carver performing a bravura version of Jacques Brel’s “Jacky,” Ben Carlson offered a moving interpretation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 126 and Kyle Blair sweetly rendered selections from the score written by Bert Carrière for Smith’s production of As You Like It.

Her non-Shakespeare roles at Stratford were equally noteworthy: Masha in Three Sisters, The Actress in The Guardsman, Judith Bliss in Hay Fever, Amanda Prynne in Private Lives, Irina Arkadina in The Seagull and Millamant in The Way of the World.


READ MORE: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/onstage/article/1254696--maggie-smith-receives-stratford-festival-s-legacy-award

Kenneth Branagh interviewed at Castro Theatre (SF GATE)

The San Francisco Film Society gave this year’s Founder’s Directing Award to Kenneth Branagh on Wednesday night at the Warfield theater, but on Friday night the actor/director, who’s arguably best known from his popular film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s work, was in the glorious Castro Theatre for an onstage interview with CalShakes director Jonathan Moscone. Branagh’s 1988 noir thriller film Dead Again rounded out the evening.

Moscone started off by reading a litany of headlines & quotes about Branagh from over the years — and pointed out how many times the phrase “renaissance man” has used to describe the Belfast-born blonde, who has directed and acted in numerous stage, film and and TV productions. In addition to directing the Bard’s Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s Lost and As You Like It, he also helmed Dead Again, Swan Song, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Magic Flute, Sleuth, and Thor. He co-launched the Renaissance Theater Company in 1987 and has been nominated for five Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards, and has won an Emmy Award and three BAFTA Awards.



He did a lot a relatively young age (Branagh wrote his autobiography at age 28 — the first installment, anyway) and that raised some eyebrows– and possibly prompted some schadenfreude when a rare clunker surfaced. Janet Maslin wrote that of his direction in 1994′s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that “Frankenstein is a cogent reminder that Mr. Branagh’s reputation as a film maker rests primarily on seductive popularizations of Shakespeare.” Ouch. If you’re going to miss the mark, be as inspired as you can and miss it my miles, otherwise you’re not trying, Branagh countered.


READ MORE:  http://blog.sfgate.com/culture/2012/04/29/sfiff-last-friday-kenneth-branagh-interviewed-at-castro-theater/