Film & Stage Reviews

’Mary Poppins’ Writer Embraces Posh, Likes Hollywood Sucking Up Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes has found success late in life, and only after abandoning a modest acting career to chronicle the foibles of Britain’s upper class.

Apollo ‘Dreamgirls’ Sparkles With Sequins, Stars: Jeremy Gerard “Dreamgirls,” revived at the Apollo Theater in New York’s Harlem, introduces a hot new star named Moya Angela as the indomitable heartsick singer, Effie White.

Ruhl’s Flighty ‘Vibrator Play’ Lives Up to the Buzz: John Simon Wonders will never cease. Sarah Ruhl, whose previous work I execrated, has written a smart, charming, iridescently funny-serious jewel, “In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play.”

‘Twilight’ Heroine Woos Werewolf; Homeless Football Star: Film Poor Bella Swan. The heroine of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series can’t catch a break with her favorite monster men.

Saudi Films Defy Ban on Movie Theaters, Scoop Awards (Update1) Waleed Osman, a 21-year-old Saudi film director, almost got arrested when he shot his award- winning movie “The Revenge” on the seafront corniche in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

Cruz’s Hooker Sports Audrey’s Hairdo; Cage’s Corrupt Cop: Film Though she won an Oscar playing a tempestuous artist in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” Penelope Cruz’s directing muse has always been fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodovar.

Alan Bennett’s Play ‘Habit of Art’ Is Tosh: Review (Update1) At the end of Alan Bennett’s new play, a character mentions all the “purgatorial and preposterous” works that have been performed at London’s National Theatre. Rarely can a grateful reviewer have been handed such a primed revolver to point back at an author.

King Charles Threesome Sparks Play About Aphra Behn: John Simon Liz Duffy Adams’s “Or,” from New York’s Women’s Project, is a quasi-historical farce about the bisexual 17th-century English playwright, novelist and adventuress Aphra Behn.