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About Pantages Theatre

In the heart of Hollywood, on Hollywood Boulevard, right down the block from Vine Street, stands the Pantages Theatre. It's a fitting location: The Pantages has become one of the greatest landmarks of Hollywood, signifying both the glorious past and adventuresome future of the world's entertainment capital.

The Pantages has a history as grand and diverse as the stage and screen far... Moree which audiences have flocked to enjoy there for half a century. These days it's one of Los Angeles's leading homes of legitimate theatre (the five highest-grossing weeks in L.A.'s theatrical history were all shows at the Pantages) and a favorite "location" for Television shows, movies and music videos. In the past, it has been a movie house, with live vaudeville acts between features as well as the site of many gala premieres and "spectaculars." For ten years the Pantages Theatre was the home of the glittering Academy Awards Presentations.

The Pantages, first to last, was designed for maximum audience comfort, with over 40% of the interior space devoted to public areas, lobbies, lounges and restrooms. It offers modern comfort in a spectacular historic setting still today. Less

An all-star cast headed by Oscar-winners Anjelica Huston and Sir Ben Kingsley will perform in a staged reading of Billy Wilder's classic film Sunset Boulevard to benefit the Actors' Fund of America.

The reading, at the historic Pantages Theatre, is the second annual installment of "Screenplays on Stage." Last year's reading of "All About Eve" featured an all-star cast headed by Stockard Channing, Angela Lansbury and Kirk Douglas.

Huston will read the role of Norma Desmond -- the silent film star who immortalized the line: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." Kingsley will play her devoted butler, Max von Mayerling.

Patrick Wilson -- a Golden Globe nominee for "Angels in America" and a Tony nominee for "The Full Monty" and "Oklahoma!" -- plays Joe Gillis, the screenwriter who hooks up with Desmond and loses his life. Lauren Ambrose of HBO's "Six Feet Under" plays Betty Schaefer, the secretary who actually wants to be a writer.

The cast also includes Stanley Donen (as Cecil B. DeMille), Ed Begley Jr., Steve Guttenberg, Wilmer Valderrama ("That '70s Show") and Charles Durning. Stefanie Powers will introduce the evening and play legendary Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper.

The 1950 black comedy earned 11 Oscar nominations -- including Best Picture, Best Director for Wilder, Best Actor for William Holden and Best Actress for Gloria Swanson. It won three statuettes -- including one for the screenplay by Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marshman Jr.