Free Republic

Mike Nichols, one of America’s most celebrated directors, whose long, protean résumé of critic- and crowd-pleasing work earned him adulation both on Broadway and in Hollywood, died on Wednesday. He was 83. His death was announced in a statement by the president of ABC News, James Goldston. Dryly urbane, Mr. Nichols had a gift for communicating with actors and a keen comic timing, which he honed early in his career as half of the popular sketch-comedy team Nichols and May. He accomplished what Orson Welles and Elia Kazan, but few if any other directors have: He achieved popular and artistic...

You know you're in for a grand odyssey when you embark on "Angels in America." The epic six-hour flight is composed of two parts, the first showing on HBO at 8 p.m. Sunday and the second set for Dec. 14. The first view is intoxicating. You sail above cotton-candy clouds drifting over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge; it feels like heaven, until the clouds clear and we're staring down at the gray Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. We cruise next past the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and end up in New York City, where we meet the five...

And now for something completely different on Broadway, that is. Mike Nichols, legendary director of both stage and screen, has signed on to helm Spamelot, a musical adaptation of Monty Python's wacky 1975 cult film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The project is the brainchild of Python alum Eric Idle, who wrote the book for the musical based on the script he did with fellow Flying Circus members John Cleese (news), Michael Palin (news), Terry Gilliam (news), Terry Jones (news) and the late Graham Chapman (news). And according to Idle, the musical's moniker is about as permanent as the...