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Crowning Achievement In ‘The Audience,’ Helen Mirren revives an Oscar-winning role: Queen Elizabeth II
On Monday, Sony unveiled the Playstation 4 gaming console for the first time.
Stage
Console Wars Heat Up JOHAN PERSSON
Helen Mirren is a star of stage and screen — and now stage on-screen. Mirren’s award-winning performance as Queen Elizabeth II in “The Audience” will be beamed Thursday from London’s Gielgud Theatre to hundreds of movie theaters around the world in a live broadcast (see box for local screenings, which will occur this summer). Live theater broadcasts have become a surprise hit since Britain’s National Theatre launched its NT Live program four years ago with — fittingly enough — a production of “Phedre” starring Mirren. “The Audience” is the latest step in Mirren’s glittering regal procession as the monarch. She won an Academy Award for playing Elizabeth in the 2006 movie “The Queen,” and gained an Olivier stage trophy in April for her reprise in boxoffice hit “The Audience.” But she had to be persuaded to wear the crown a second time. “I really didn’t want to play the role again,” Mirren says. “I was very resistant.”
Helen Mirren portrays Queen Elizabeth II again in the play “The Audience,”which will be broadcast to movie theaters this week and later this summer.
Mirren was won over by the quality of the creative team, which includes director Stephen Daldry and playwright Peter Morgan, who also wrote “The Queen.” “It was just an amazing team, and I thought, ‘If you walk away from this, you’re an idiot,’ ” she says. “The Audience” imagines the private weekly meetings between the monarch and Britain’s prime ministers — 12 in all — over her six-decade reign. Mirren gives a delicately nuanced performance,
Video Games Sony broke out the heavy ammunition Monday against Microsoft, announcing PlayStation 4 will cost $399, cheaper than Xbox One. The price announcement wasn’t
Local Screenings While “The Audience” will be simulcast live Thursday, locally, it will screen this summer. Visit Ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk for more details.
June 27 & 30: Angelika Mosaic in Fairfax. June 29 & 30: Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema in Bethesda. July 22-27: Shakespeare Theatre’s Sidney Harman Hall in D.C.
both regal and vulnerable, in which the queen grows from a tentative 20-something to wise octogenarian while retaining a core of solitude. Mirren felt there was more to explore about the queen, an intensely private and uniquely public figure. “She’s at the same time completely known and completely unknowable,” Mirren says. “So there’s this extraordinary dichotomy of a very familiar person who is a complete mystery at the same time.” JILL L AWLESS (AP)
Today’s Top Stops JOAN MARCUS
$399
The amount Sony’s Playstation 4 will cost — $100 less than Xbox One.
the only shot fired at Microsoft during the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Sony says the company would not try to restrict used game sales, nor will PS4 require a persistent online connection. Microsoft has been vague about whether or not Xbox One will play used games, or require the Internet to function. (AP)
COMPILED BY FIONA ZUBLIN
It’s Showtime Half the songs in “Anything Goes” have gone on to become standards (“You’re the Top,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” etc.), but the stage show isn’t just an excuse for pretty tunes. It’s also an excuse for some truly impressive tap-dancing sequences and crazy cruise-ship high jinks. Broadway vet Rachel York stars in this national tour. Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; through July 7, $25$115; 202-467-4600, Kennedycenter.org. (Foggy Bottom)
Feel Like a Better Parent in Contrast Jeanette Walls got famous as the author of “The Glass Castle,” an exquisite (and horrifying) memoir about her childhood. Now she’s finished a novel, “The Silver Star,” which is also about children who are abandoned — in this case, two teenage sisters left on their own together by a mother who goes off to find herself. Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW; Wed., 7 p.m., $12; 202-408-3100, Sixthandi.org. (Gallery Place)
Listen Up Who is our generation’s Joan Baez? It’s still Joan Baez. As a lifelong musician and activist, Baez has used her celebrity (and gorgeous voice) to bring attention to causes including poverty, human rights and anti-war efforts. She started as a ’60s folkie, but has the staying power of a true legend. Wolf Trap, Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna; Wed., 8 p.m., $28-$42; 703-255-1868, Wolftrap.org.