Oliver Hardy

Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is August 16, 2023 and it's time to catch up on all of the theatrical happenings you may have missed in the last 24 hours: 

Over 100 years after Stan & Ollie were first paired on screen together, Jeffrey Holland celebrates the lives and laughs of two of Hollywood's funniest men.

Lake Como, Northern Italy, 1944. Partisan Sordi (Fellini’s THE WHITE SHIEK and I VITELLONI, etc.), on the run from the Germans, is sheltered, nursed and romanced in an abandoned mill by local innkeeper’s daughter Massari (L’AVVENTURA, MURMUR OF THE HEART, CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI), whisking her to Rome after the war to share his shabby flat.

Inspired by real life events intertwined with a fantastical reimagining, Told by an Idiot's acclaimed production about comedy legends Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel is to return in 2023. Bringing to the stage the remarkable story of the greatest comedy double act that nearly was, Charlie and Stan is a homage to two comedy legends, looking at the two year period they spent touring together before either became famous.

At a time when we're getting too many words, words, words from a bumbling Prime Minister and his cronies, what a relief to discover a charming, kind and life-affirming silent movie-style production that harks back to simpler times. The enticing live piano score by composer Zoe Rahman, is the dialogue, aided by the odd ditty (song arrangements by Sophie Cotton) and clever projected captions taking you back to the heydays of Victorian music hall and Hollywood silent pictures.

Told By An idiot's hit play The Strange Tale Of Charlie Chaplin And Stan Laurel will hit the road in the UK this year, including a stop on the West End. 

What happens to all that stuff seen on America’s favorite antiques show once the cameras leave town?

In 1910 the unknown Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel set sail for New York as part of Fred Karno's famous music hall troupe. On the journey, Charlie and Stan shared a cabin and then spent two years together touring North America, with Stan as Charlie's understudy.

Performed in Told by an Idiot's trademark visual style, The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel looks at an unknown period in comic history when two maverick imaginations collided for a brief time. Playing fast and loose with the facts, the show is no nostalgic bio-drama, but an hilarious and deeply moving homage to two English men who changed the world of comedy forever. The show includes an original piano score played live each night, composed by MOBO Award-winner Zoe Rahman.

For 2020, the 44th year of London's annual festival of contemporary visual theatre, 10 overseas companies join 8 British groups, including 4 LIMF co-commissioned productions: This Time, a tender take on relationships and ageing from aerial theatre company Ockham's Razor; Romancing the Apocalypse from multi award winning dance duo Thick & Tight; Dead Good, a funny and poignant story of dying from full mask theatre company Vamos Theatre; and the story of one of showbiz's long overlooked partnerships, The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel performed by Told by an Idiot at new festival venue, the iconic Wilton's Music Hall.

The show will pay a beautiful tribute to Roberto Gomez Bolanos and his most famous creation, our dear El Chavo, in a great production in the best Broadway style. The staging promises to surprise fans of the show - and the general public - with original choreography by Gabriel Malo, unpublished libretto by music director Fernanda Maia and direction by Ze Henrique de Paula. Chaves - Um Tributo Musical has its premiere scheduled for August 23 at Teatro Opus (Shopping Villa-Lobos), in Sao Paulo.

Actress Fay McKenzie Waldman passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of April 16th at the age of 101. She was born February 19, 1918 into a show business family where she was the youngest of two sisters and an actress cousin, and made her screen debut at only ten weeks old in "Station Content" (1918) in which she was carried in the arms of Gloria Swanson. Her parents, Eva & Bob "Pops" McKenzie were already veteran performers and apparently wanted their daughter to get an early start in films. She nearly stole the show from Oliver Hardy as "the baby" in the Alice Howell short "Distilled Love" (filmed in 1918 but released two years later). By the time she was six, Fay was considered an old hand, having played diverse parts in her father's stock company. Among her early films was the 1924 Photoplay Medal Winner, "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln." 

The Growing Stage, The Children's Theatre of New Jersey kicks off the holiday season with its original musical production of 'Babes in Toyland' from November 23 to December 16.The show was conceived by the company's Founder and Executive Director, Stephen L. Fredericks. TGS Artist-in-Residence, Perry Arthur Kroeger wrote the adaptation and song lyrics that are set to Victor Hugo's music. It is directed by Lori B. Lawrence, with musical direction by Stephen Fox, and choreography by Jillian Petrie.

Joe's Pub at The Public presents the North American premiere of Murray Hill: About To Break, a new comedy and theatrical event, running September 20-22 and 27-29. About To Break is written and performed by Hill and directed and developed with Tony Award-winning lyricist, writer, and director Scott Wittman. Renowned as a comic host around the world, this new show is a departure, putting Hill center stage in the first major dedicated solo show of his long, storied career. Musical direction is by Paul Leschen with original music by Hill with Wittman, Marc Shaiman, Kyle Forrester, Eric Kornfeld, Jesse Elder, and Leschen.

Joe's Pub at The Public presents the North American premiere of Murray Hill: About To Break, a new comedy and theatrical event, running September 20-22 and 27-29. About To Break is written and performed by Hill and directed and developed with Tony Award-winning lyricist, writer, and director Scott Wittman. Renowned as a comic host around the world, this new show is a departure, putting Hill center stage in the first major dedicated solo show of his long, storied career. Musical direction is by Paul Leschen with original music by Hill with Wittman, Marc Shaiman, Kyle Forrester, Eric Kornfeld, Jesse Elder, and Leschen.

Sony Pictures Classics has released the first trailer for Stan & Ollie, starring John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan as legendary comic duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. 

Joe's Pub at The Public presents the North American premiere of Murray Hill: About To Break, a new comedy and theatrical event, running September 20-22 and 27-29. About To Break is written and performed by Hill and directed and developed with Tony Award-winning lyricist, writer, and director Scott Wittman. Renowned as a comic host around the world, this new show is a departure, putting Hill center stage in the first major dedicated solo show of his long, storied career. Musical direction is by Paul Leschen with original music by Hill with Wittman, Marc Shaiman, Kyle Forrester, Eric Kornfeld, Jesse Elder, and Leschen.

The Tony Award-winning musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum hits the Garry Marshall Theatre stage, following Ovation Recommended play Master Class.

???????The moving story of a much-loved cricketer whose career was ended when he lost an eye in a car crash will be told in a critically acclaimed one-man show at Greenwich Theatre on Tuesday, March 14.

Never mind those two scoundrels... vote for THIS scoundrel! It's time to consider W.C. FIELDS FOR PRESIDENT.