Bedford Playhouse Re-Opening Weekend

Bedford Playhouse Re-Opening Weekend: The Bedford Playhouse celebrates its reopening with this Celebrate the Classics weekend. On the lineup are four classics from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Celebrate the Classics weekend will kick off with a screening of The Philadelphia Story, George Cuckor’s 1940 romantic comedy starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart on Friday, May 21 at 5pm. This big screen adaptation of the 1939 stage play follows a socialite’s wedding plans as they are complicated by the arrival of a magazine photographer and her ex-husband. The movie, which has been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry was selected to the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 movies (#51), 100 Years… 100 Laughs(#15), 100 Years…100 Passions (#44) and Top Ten Romantic Comedies (#5), was nominated for six Academy Awards. Winning for Best Actor for Jimmy Stewart and Best Screenplay, Donald Ogden Stewart. Philadelphia Story will also be show on Sunday, May 23 at 4pm.

Next up on Friday, May 21 at 8pm is George Roy Hill’s 1973 classic The Sting. This 1930’s era portrayal of how two flat on their back con men, Henry Gondorf and Johnny Hooker (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) take down big time racketeer Studs Lonegan (Robert Shaw) in an elaborate and meticulously planned race track betting con. Set to the period music of Scott Joplin’s ragtime, its hard to pick the film’s strong suit, the acting, the script or the soundtrack. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Set Direction, Costume, Editing and Music. The movie will also show on Saturday, May 22 at 1:30pm.

Another Library of Congress National Film Registry winner, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 mystery thriller Rear Window starring Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr will be screened on Saturday, May 22 at 4:40pm and again on Sunday, May 23 at 7pm. Based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story It Had To Be Murder. Rear Window is widely considered one of Hitchcock’s best films and is ranked #42 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies list. It was nominated for four academy awards including Best Director and Best Screenplay but just got crickets from the Academy.

To celebrate the sixties, The Bedford Playhouse will screen Mike Nichols’ 1967 anti-hero romantic comedy The Graduate starring Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross. This one, about a directionless college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, who has an affair with an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and whose affections then migrate to her daughter, rang true twice for many boomers who experienced their own rootlessness and than their child’s. The Graduate was nominated for seven Academy Awards, Mike Nichols won for Best Director. And it was name #15 on AFI’s best pictures of all time list.