Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse is leading the line-up for the Friday, October 22 edition of The Graham Norton Show.

Motsi will be joining Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne and Chernobyl actress Jessie Buckley, who will be on the sofa promoting their new West End musical Cabaret.

The new production of Cabaret, which opens next month at the Playhouse Theatre in London, is described as an “immersive” experience where the play is performed in the round for guests, with the theatre transformed into the Kit Kat Club. [Source]

The production is expected to begin performances at Playhouse Theatre in November 2021.

According to Baz Bamigboye of The Daily Mail, Kander and Ebb’s classic musical Cabaret is headed back to the West End stage in an all-new production.

According to the report, Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne and BAFTA nominee Jessie Buckley are currently in final talks to portray the Emcee and Sally Bowles, respectively.

The production is expected to begin performances at Playhouse Theatre in November 2021.

Two-time BAFTA nominee Jessie Buckley was most recently seen in the National Theatre film production of Romeo and Juliet. Buckley first rose to recognition as a finalist on the Oliver! reality competition series, I’d Do Anything. She has been seen on the West End in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Her notable screen credits include Chernobyl, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and Fargo. Her film roles include Beast and Wild Rose.

On Broadway, Redmayne co-starred with Alfred Molina in the award-winning John Logan play RED for which he took home a Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play in 2010. He originated the role at the Donmar Warehouse in London where he won the coveted Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor. His film work includes the Les Miserables, Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Danish Girl, and The Theory of Everything, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Cabaret features some of the best-known songs in musical theatre, including “Willkommen,” “Maybe This Time” and “Cabaret.”

The musical premiered on Broadway in 1966 and won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in addition to the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, the Outer Critics’ Circle Award, the Variety Poll of New York Critics, and London’s Evening Standard Award. [Source]

Variety and PBS SoCal announced today the actor lineup and schedule for the thirteenth season of their three-time Emmy Award-winning series Variety Studio: Actors on Actors.

The new season was filmed entirely from the actors’ homes and includes exclusive one-on-one conversations between top acting talent from potential contending movies in this year’s Academy Awards race. The episodes will premiere on PBS SoCal on Friday, March 5 at 8:00 pm, 8:30 pm, 9:00 pm and 9:30 pm. All episodes will stream on pbssocal.org and on the free PBS Video app following their premieres.

Variety Studio: Actors on Actors won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2019 and Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards for best entertainment programming in 2015 and 2016. The series was produced by PBS SoCal in partnership with Variety Media, LLC.

Variety’s Actors on Actors issue will hit newsstands on Jan. 20 with clips appearing on Variety.com starting Jan. 19. All Variety.com Actors on Actors videos will be presented by Amazon Studios. Continue reading  »

Nine of Britain’s biggest film and TV stars narrate ads in push that will donate £2m to chosen charities.

Marks & Spencer has brought on board nine of the UK’s most prominent acting names to voice a series of ads in its classic “Not just food” style, that come alongside charity donations totalling £2m from the retailer to a range of charities.

The campaign, created by Grey London, kicks off with a spot that is live on social media and TV from this morning, in which Olivia Colman, star of The Crown, tempts shoppers with M&S products including a Light Globe Gin Liqueur and Mini Beef & Porcini Yorkshires.

A further execution will launch every week from now until the new year, each voiced by a different celebrity and profiling different items from the range.

Colman is one of two women to have portrayed Queen Elizabeth II to be involved: Dame Helen Mirren is also set to appear, along with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Eddie Redmayne, Gillian Anderson, Jeremy Irons, Dame Julie Walters, Naomie Harris and Tom Hardy.

The campaign was created by Naomi Taylor and directed by Helen Downing through Pulse.

The glitzy casting of the ads will be balanced by a major charity initiative under which M&S is donating £2m to various causes. This includes donations to charities chosen by the acting talent – in Colman’s case, this includes blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan, anti-abuse arts charity Tender and spinal-cord injury charity Back Up.

Alongside this, M&S has chosen 10 employees from across the UK who are its most active charity volunteers, and will make a donation to their chosen charities. And lastly, through loyalty scheme Sparks, it will donate a further £1m to charities, including Shelter, Together for Short Lives and a further 35 organisations supported by Sparks. Continue reading  »

Netflix is negotiating a deal to acquire global rights to Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” from Cross Creek Pictures, Variety has learned.

The film follows the Chicago Seven, a group of seven activists who were charged by the federal government with conspiracy, inciting to riot and other charges stemming from anti-Vietnam War protests that broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Intended as peaceful protests, they instead devolved into a violent clash with police and the National Guard. The organizers of the protest included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale, and their trial was one of the most notorious in history. It’s a hot-button story, one that is sure to resonate in a presidential election year and at a time when protests over racial injustice are breaking out across the country. Cross Creek financed and produced the film.

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” has a starry cast that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, William Hurt, Michael Keaton and Mark Rylance. Sorkin, best known for penning the scripts to “The Social Network” and “A Few Good Men” and creating “The West Wing,” directed and wrote the film. He previously helmed “Molly’s Game,” the story of the woman behind an underground poker empire. Jessica Chastain starred and Sorkin picked up an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. He previously won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for “The Social Network.” Continue reading  »