B'way Update: MTC Season Includes Sondheim, Vladimir, Eureka

Lea Salonga and Bernadette Peters
in Old Friends, transferring to
Broadway in 2025.
Credit: Danny Kaan

Manhattan Theater Club has announced plans for its 2024-25 season on and Off-Broadway, which will include the Broadway premieres of Eureka Day and the London Sondheim revue, Old Friends starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga who will repeat their London performances. The Stephen Sondheim tribute ran in London's West End in 2023 and will begin previews at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theater on March 25, 2025 with an opening date TBA. The show will have a pre-Broadway run at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theater from Feb. 8--March 9. The production was devised by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie. Additional cast members will be announced. 

SAG Noms Announced; Plus AFI and DC Crix

Dame Maggie Smith reacting to her SAG nominations: "Only four?"

Award season continues with the announcement this morning for the SAG Awards and just for giggles, I added the results of the Washington DC Film Critics Association voting and the American Film Institute Awards which only go to the best picture. The biggest SAG snubs were probably Joaquin Phoenix being overlooked for The Master and Emmanuelle Riva getting a cold shoulder for Amour, but that latter is probably understandable since its a little-known foreign film adored by critics and not seen by as many thousands of members of the randomly selected SAG nominating committee.For once, Zero Dark Thirty did not dominate, garnering fewer SAG noms than Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Les Miz. New contenders who have not shown up in other award lists are Helen Mirren in Hitchcock, Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy (huh?, that last one came and went really quickly in October according to imdb). Smith is also nominated as part of the Marigold ensemble and for Downton Abbey (individually and as part of the ensemble) in the TV categories. The tightest race for the Oscars look like best actor with only six credible candidates emerging from all the critics and SAG awards. 

Another interesting thing: We saw The Sessions last night and to me Helen Hunt is the leading actress of that movie, not supporting. The Golden Globe nominees are announced tomorrow.

Picture: Argo (AFI, cc)
Amour (LAFCA)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (AFI, cc)
The Dark Knight Rises (AFI)
Django Unchained (AFI, cc)
Les Miserables (AFI, cc)
Life of Pi (AFI, cc)
Lincoln (AFI, cc)
The Master (cc)
Moonrise Kingdom (AFI, cc)
Silver Linings Playbook (AFI, cc)
Zero Dark Thirty (AFI, Bos, cc, DC, NBR, NYFCC, NYO) 

Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook (cc, NBR, sag)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (Bos, cc, DC, NYFCC, NYO, sag)
John Hawkes, The Sessions (cc, sag)
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables (cc, sag)
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master (cc, LAFCA)
Denzel Washington, Flight (cc, sag)

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty (cc, DC, NBR, sag)
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone (cc, sag)
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (cc, LAFCA-tie, sag)
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour (Bos, cc, LAFCA-tie, NYO)
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock (sag)
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild (cc)
Naomi Watts, The Impossible (cc, sag)
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea (NYFCC)

Supp. Actor: Alan Arkin, Argo (cc, sag)
Javier Bardem, Skyfall (cc, sag)
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook (cc, sag)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained (NBR)
Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild (LAFCA)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master (cc, DC, sag)
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln (cc, NYO, sag)
Matthew Maconaughey, Bernie and Magic Mike (cc, NYFCC)
Ezra Miller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Bos)

Supp. Actress: Amy Adams, The Master (cc, LAFCA)
Judi Dench, Skyfall (cc)
Ann Dowd, Compliance (cc, NBR)
Sally Field, Lincoln (Bos, cc, NYFCC, sag)
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables (cc, DC, NY, sag)
Helen Hunt, The Sessions (cc, sag)
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy (sag)
Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (sag)

Director: Ben Affleck, Argo (cc)
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master (LAFCA)
Katheryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty (Bos, cc, DC, NBR, NYFCC)
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables (cc)
Ang Lee, Life of Pi (cc)
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook (cc)
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln (cc)

AFI=American Film Institute Bos=Boston Society of Film Critics; cc=Critics Choice Award nomination; DC=Washington DC Film Critics Association; LAFCA=Los Angeles Film Critics Assoc.; NBR=National Board of Review; NYFCC=New York Film Critics Circle; NYO=New York Film Critics Online; sag=SAG Award nomination