Lionel Barrymore News

The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre opens a monumental new season with the triumphant Billy Elliot: The Musical through October 16. The Tony Award-winning musical features infectious music by the incomparable Sir Elton John including "Shine," "Solidarity,"  "Electricity," and many more!   

The Fulton Theatre continues to experience unprecedented growth. Under the leadership and guidance of Artistic Director Marc Robin and Managing Director Aaron Young, the theatre's audience has increased from 60,000 to well over 130,000 and box office revenue has increased by 300%. The future is brighter than ever for the Lancaster and National treasure, as the Fulton makes plans for future expansion. Part of the expansion includes a reorganization of the Fulton administrative structure, redefining responsibilities throughout the organization. The role of Managing Director has been eliminated and will be replaced by a more focused financial position. The Fulton's Artistic Director, Marc Robin, has been promoted to Executive Artistic Producer and will lead the Fulton through its next phase of growth.

Netflix, the world's leading Internet TV network, will exclusively launch worldwide in 2017 the new comedy series SANTA CLARITA DIET, from writer Victor Fresco

In a departure from traditional seasonal fare, two local theater companies are bringing us back to the simpler days of yesteryear, staging live radio productions of Christmas shows set in the 1940s. Stoneham Theatre offers the frothy, musical bagatelle CHRISTMAS ON THE AIR while Merrimack Repertory Theatre presents an adaptation of the holiday film classic, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY. Replete with evocative sound effects and on-air commercial messages, both plays invite audience participation for applause and a range of emotional reactions, to replicate a live studio broadcast.

Just in time for the Holiday Season, Tampa's very own Larry Alexander reinvents the Christmas Classic 'It's a Wonderful Life' with 'This Wonderful Life', a heartwarming one-man adaptation written by Steve Murray of the classic film which opens at Stageworks Theatre tonight, Dec. 3 and runs through Dec. 20.

Just in time for the Holiday Season, Tampa's very own Larry Alexander reinvents the Christmas Classic "It's a Wonderful Life" with "This Wonderful Life", a heartwarming one-man adaptation written by Steve Murray of the classic film which opens at Stageworks Theatre on Dec. 3 and runs through Dec. 20.

The Fulton Theatre kicks off the holiday season with the musical comedy and treat for the entire family, Elf, November 17th through January 3rd. As 'Buddy' says in the script, 'The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear,' there are many joyful tunes throughout the production, including 'SparkleJollyTwinkleJingley,' 'A Christmas Song,' 'The Story of Buddy the Elf,' and more!

Fulton Theatre congratulates Heidi Kettenring for receiving the award for Best Actress in a Principal Role - Musical, at the gala 47th Annual Jeff Awards held at Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook, IL, on Monday, October 5, 2015, for her role as Anna in THE KING AND I at Marriott Theatre. 

On Thursday, June 25, Fulton Theatre named Lancaster Mennonite High School as the 2015 Beth Bash Award recipient for their production of William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest.'  Play director Danielle Hofstetter will accept the award plaque prior to the evening performance of "The Wizard of Oz".  The student actors and crew were awarded complimentary tickets to the performance, and will be recognized and hailed with praise. 

New Hampshire Theatre Project just announceed the 2015 Intelligent Theatre Festival. The festiabl will run through the month of June and features some knockout new work.

'Tis the season for lots of laughter and Chrisley holiday cheer! Fans can join their favorite reality family of USA's CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST, in an all-new original hilarious holiday special, 'A Very Chrisley Christmas' tonight, December 17 at 10/9c.

As my hand was turning to mincemeat while writing personal notes in Christmas card after Christmas card, I persevered, knowing that at the end of my travails there would be a reward: A much anticipated performance of Theatre Memphis' annual 'gift' to Memphis, Charles Dickens' venerable A CHRISTMAS CAROL. I must admit: I have not attended every performance of that classic since its inception. I have, however, infrequently stopped to hang my wreath at its door; and I've seen some fine 'Ebeneezers' over the years (I recall a former teaching colleague, Tom Ford, offering a tight, clipped interpretation and, of course, one of the best and most frequent of the actors donning those tattered gloves, Memphis acting favorite Barry Fuller). As I wrote card after card, I began to think about all the other interpretations of A CHRISTMAS CAROL that I have encountered through the years - Seymour Hicks; Reginald Owen (in the role MGM intended for an ailing Lionel Barrymore, who had become famous for his radio performance and who would have, no doubt, been superior; a not-all-that-bad consolation prize was his equally tight-fisted 'Mr. Potter' in Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE); Orson Welles (in a Mercury Theatre radio performance); Sir Ralph Richardson (a beautiful audio recording); Alastair Sim (in the early 1950's British film and offering my favorite interpretation of the role; Danny Peary, in his fascinating ALTERNATE OSCARS, selects him as Best Actor for that performance); and, certainly, George C. Scott, in what was considered to be the version to end all versions. (And does anyone recall Jim Backus' 'Mr. Magoo' in a delightful animated musical television special back in the 1960's?)

The Garden Theatre presents a Holiday Movie Series as a part of What The Dickens Orlando, a celebration of the life and times of Charles Dickens, Tuesdays and Thursdays, today, December 9 - 18, 2014 at the Garden Theatre (160 West Plant Street).

The Garden Theatre presents a Holiday Movie Series as a part of What The Dickens Orlando, a celebration of the life and times of Charles Dickens, Tuesdays and Thursdays, December 9 – 18, 2014 at the Garden Theatre (160 West Plant Street).

'Tis the season for lots of laughter and Chrisley holiday cheer! Fans can join their favorite reality family of USA's CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST, in an all-new original hilarious holiday special, “A Very Chrisley Christmas” on Wednesday, December 17 at 10/9c. Additionally, the entire Chrisley family will host a special broadcast of the classic holiday film, “It's A Wonderful Life, onSunday, December 14 at 8/7c.

'Tis the season for lots of laughter and Chrisley holiday cheer! Fans can join their favorite reality family of USA's CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST, in an all-new original hilarious holiday special,

At the end, the audience for this show is pulled not merely into the studio but into Bedford Falls, as the stage snow falls not only on the characters in the story set there but on the performers in the studio and on the audience as well. It is a perfectly magical double fourth-wall violation. Indeed, to state what must already be obvious, this whole show is perfectly magical.

Marc Robin, the Artistic Director of the historic Fulton Theatre in downtown Lancaster, has announced the company's lineup for its 2014/2015 Mainstage Season and the first fully produced play of the Ellen Arnold Groff Studio Series. The lineup includes a hilarious farce, a holiday hit based on a classic Irving Berlin film musical, an Agatha Christie thriller, a Broadway hit that's a sexy game of cat and mouse, the Mel Brooks musical that took home the most Tony® Awards in history, a feel-good musical based on a Best Picture Oscar® Nominated Film, and perhaps the most magical musical of all time.

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU opens tonight, September 28, 2014, at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street), after 32 previews. The production is directed by six-time Tony Award-nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Scott Ellis (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Twelve Angry Men, 1776) and will play a 19-week limited engagement.

Skip E. Lowe, the comic, raconteur and perennial TV host whose weekly public access cable program has been airing in Los Angeles, New York and other major markets for more than 35 years--the longest in television history--and is generally credited as the inspiration for the Martin Short character “Jiminy Glick,” died in his home at Kingsley Manor Apartments in Hollywood on Monday, Sept. 22. He was 85 and had been suffering from emphysema and other respiratory ailments, though he never smoked, but blamed years of working as a comic in smoke-infested nightclubs. Lowe had conducted more than 6,000 interviews, often two a week, with guests that included Orson Welles and Bette Davis.