Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens give Tony Award to Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne

Maggie Smith and her husband, Robert Stephens

Toby Stephens in Private lives --- Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens in Private Lives

Maggie Smith has always moved in Royal company - Cary Grant and Noel Coward

The Lunts with Noel Coward

Toby Stephens - Toby Stephens Wins Rave Reviews For Tackling His Father's West End Role 04 July 2013 (CONTACT MUSIC)

British actor Toby Stephens has won praise from theatre critics for his role in a West End revival of a play which once starred his famous parents Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Robert Stephens.

Stephens' mother and father won rave reviews for their portrayal of sparring ex-lovers in a 1972 London production of Noel Coward's Private Lives, and now their son has followed in their footsteps by scoring his own glowing write-ups.

The Die Another Day star plays the role his father tackled more than 40 years ago in the new production with Anna Chancellor, which opened at London's Gielgud Theatre on Wednesday night (03Jul13), and Henry Hitchings of the London Evening Standard branded the show a "deliciously fresh revival".

Hitchings calls Stephens a "superb comic actor" and compares him to Chancellor's Four Weddings and a Funeral co-star Hugh Grant, adding, "I can't recall having seen him give a better performance than he does here."

Charles Spencer of Britain's Daily Telegraph gave the play five stars out of five, writing, "This is a gloriously entertaining evening, opulently designed... and offering two hours of comic bliss", while The Independent's Paul Taylor concludes by calling the new production of Private Lives "the best in a decade".

READ MORE HEREhttp://www.contactmusic.com/story/toby-stephens-wins-rave-reviews-for-tackling-his-father-s-west-end-role_3745734

Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West to Star in BBC America’s 'Burton and Taylor'(DEN OF GEEK)

According to published reports Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West will play cinema’s iconic couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the upcoming “Burton and Taylor” that will be produced by BBC America. The hour-and-a-half TV movie is said to be set at the 1983 stage revival of Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,” which ran at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and was directed by Milton Katselas. The movie will air in the network’s Dramaville block. The movie was written by William Ivory and directed by Richard Laxton. The film will premiere in 2014

READ MORE: http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/bbc-america%E2%80%99s-burton-and-taylor-to-star-helena-bonham-carter-and-dominic-west/84399/bbc-america%E2%80%99s-burton-and-taylor-to-star-helena-bonham-carter-and-dominic-west

Colin Firth To Play Noel Coward In 'Mad Dogs And Englishmen,' & Co-Star In Rupert Everett's Oscar Wilde Biopic NEWS BY CAIN RODRIGUEZ | MAY 22, 2012 3:50 PM (INDIEWIRE)

Colin Firth is set to play famed English playwright Noel Coward, in the Willy Holtzman-penned project, “Mad Dogs And Englishmen,” about Coward’s eventful two week stay at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas in 1955. Although there’s still no director attached, this seems like a great role for the actor to sink his teeth into, as Coward was famous for what Time called “a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.” So we’ll be definitely be looking forward to this project in the future. [Screen Daily]

And finally, Rupert Everett will make his directorial and screenwriting debut with “The Happy Prince,” an Oscar Wilde biopic. Everett, pulling triple duty, stars as Wilde, and has drafted a talented cast to help him realize Wilde’s life, including Colin Firth (him again?) legendary character actor Edward Fox, Emily Watson, and Tom Wilkinson.The film will take place during Wilde’s final days as he looks back on his life with characteristic dry wit and black humor, and seeing as it shares a name with Wilde's classic fairy tale, it may well end up including some elements of that story. There’s been a whole slew of actors getting behind the camera over the past few years, hopefully Everett ends up on the Ben Affleck side of the spectrum. Shooting starts summer 2013. [Hollywood Reporter]

READ MORE:  http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/colin-firth-to-play-noel-coward-in-mad-dogs-and-englishmen-co-star-in-rupert-everetts-oscar-wilde-biopic-20120522

Colin Firth to star as Noel Coward in ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ Daniel S Levine 5/19/2012 (THE CELEBRITY CAFE)

Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth is set to star as British playwright and actor Noel Coward in Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The dramedy will be produced by BiteSize Entertainment.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the dramedy will tell the story of the legendary Coward’s two-week run at Las Vegas’ Desert Inn in 1955.

Gene Kirkwood and Ross Elliot are producing the film, reports Deadline. The two recently ended their Kirkwood-Ellis banner to start BiteSize, a new U.S.-based venture with Ron Bloom, the CEO of the online video site Mevio. Kirkwood is an experienced producer who worked on Rocky and Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

Kirkwood told Deadline that Willy Holtzman will be penning the script, which tells the story of how Coward ended up working at the Desert Inn after Liberace pulled out. Coward took the job since he owed the UK government taxes. The film also focuses on his relationship with his manager and a piano teacher he works with.



READ MORE:  http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/2012/05/colin-firth-star-noel-coward-mad-dogs-and-englishmen

Colin Firth Playing Noel Coward In Upcoming Las Vegas Drama by Sean O'Connell (CINEMA BLEND)

Colin Firth is getting comfortable playing British “royalty.” After earning a well-deserved Oscar for capturing the complicated dignity of King George VI in Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, Firth next appears ready to turn his attentions to English legend Sir Noel Coward in the feature film Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

The title is borrowed from Coward’s smash-hit song, penned by the award-winning playwright, singer, composer, songwriter and actor. Deadline, which links Firth to the new production, says the film will focus primarily on Coward’s late-career stint at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, circa 1955. At the time, Coward was invited to Sin City to stand in for local legend Liberace, how had fallen and had to cancel a string of dates. The Mad Dogs screenplay, credited to Willy Holtzman, will focus on Coward’s two-week sting in Vegas, and the relationship he forged with the piano player who back him up on the gig.


READ MORE:  http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Colin-Firth-Playing-Noel-Coward-Upcoming-Las-Vegas-Drama-31013.html

BRENDAN COYLE ADMITS HE WOULD LIKE TO PLAY THE GOOD GUY By Lizzie Catt with Lisa Higgins and Jack Teague (EXPRESS UK)

"I would like to posh up a bit,” the unlikely heart-throb admits. “I’ve never been cast in a Noël Coward play but I would love to be.”

With series three of Downton filming, Coyle, 48, has a confession to make to a co-star: “I had lunch with Shirley MacLaine a couple of weeks ago and didn’t tell her this but the first girl I ever kissed looked like Shirley – red cropped
hair and big blue eyes.

“Perhaps I should have leapt on her and kissed her for old time’s sake.”


READ MORE:  http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/318683/Brendan-Coyle-admits-he-would-like-to-play-the-good-guy/

Tom Hiddleston: The Deep Blue Sea (PILOT CATHOLIC NEWS)

By Joseph McAleer EW YORK (CNS) --

It's a safe bet that when violins start playing in a film, a big emotional moment is bound to follow. Such is the case with "The Deep Blue Sea" (Music Box); this period drama is punctuated by the soaring strings of Samuel Barber's 1939 "Violin Concerto."

Based on Terence Rattigan's 1952 play and directed by Terence Davies ("Of Time and the City"), who also wrote the screenplay, "The Deep Blue Sea" charts a lonely wife's downward spiral into adultery, divorce and suicide. Whenever caught between the devil and you-know-where, she consistently makes bad, selfish decisions.

Rattigan's work can be regarded as the trampy sibling of Noel Coward's 1936 one-act play "Still Life," which was made into the classic film "Brief Encounter" in 1945. Coward's story concerns an unhappy wife who meets a handsome stranger at a train station. Friendship turns to love; they consider an affair, but in the end decide -- sensibly, though with regret -- to part.


READ MORE:  http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=14461

Jeremy Northam: Hay Fever by Noel Coward (Playbill)

PHOTO CALL: A Look at London's Hay Fever With Jeremy Northam, Lindsay Duncan and More
By Krissie Fullerton 17 Feb 2012

 Lindsay Duncan and Jeremy Northam star in a new production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever, which began performances Feb. 10 at the London theatre that bears the playwright's name.

In addition to Northam and Duncan, the cast also includes Kevin R. McNally, Olivia Colman, Sam Callis, Freddie Fox, Jenny Galloway, Amy Morgan and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

 In the comedy, written in 1924 and premiered at London's Ambasadors Theatre the following year, Judith Bliss (Duncan), once glittering star of the London stage, now in early retirement, is still enjoying life with more than a little high drama and the occasional big scene. To spice her weekend up, Judith invites a younger suitor (Northam) to join her in the country.

However, her novelist husband, David (McNally), and her two eccentric children, Simon and Sorel, have had the same idea for themselves and any hope for private flirtation disappears as the family's guests begin to arrive. Misjudged meetings, secret seductions and scandalous revelations duly follow.


Ticket information and more:  http://www.playbill.com/news/article/159891-PHOTO-CALL-A-Look-at-Londons-Hay-Fever-With-Jeremy-Northam-Lindsay-Duncan-and-More