Comedy

Eric Sykes, 89, a widely acclaimed British comedy actor and writer, died Wednesday at his home after a brief illness, manager Norma Farnes said. Mr. Sykes was one of the most popular British comic actors of his generation, appearing in shows in London's West End into his 80s. He began his career writing scripts for BBC shows, co-writing 24 episodes of the classic radio comedy The Goon Show with Spike Milligan. He appeared in the Sykes and a sitcom about a brother and sister living together in west London, which ran in the 1960s and 1970s.

It's difficult to describe The Sarah Silverman Program for the uninitiated. Cocreated by and starring the brilliant comic, the surreal, oddball sitcom ran for three seasons, from 2007-10, on Comedy Central. A day-in-the-life story similar to Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, the show starred Silverman as an emotionally stunted, immature collection of personality disorders who lives a carefree, unemployed life thanks to her housemate and sister, Laura (played by Sarah's real-life sister, Laura Silverman)

Just in time for Father's Day, Adam Sandler delivers That's My Boy, a father-son bonding movie that's also his first hard-core R comedy. I'd say hold out for getting the ugly tie as a gift instead. Laugh-wise, That's My Boy occupies the same general place on the sliding Sandler scale as Jack and Jill, which set a record last year for Golden Raspberries, coming both as a sloppy comedy and a cry for help. Years from now, film historians may look back at J&J as Sandler's Jekyll-and-Hyde psychodrama, in which the comedian wrestles with the id-like creature inside him that compulsively surrenders to the first flatulence joke that springs to mind.

One's enjoyment of The Fairy depends a lot on knowing why it's worth seeing. It's a comedy with two or three big laughs, but it's not side-splitting. Nor does it have a particularly compelling story. Its appeal is rather in watching people who have devised their own original style of comic performance and have taken it to a rare level of refinement. The romance of a hotel clerk (Dominique Abel) and a mental patient (Fiona Gordon) - she thinks she is a fairy who can grant wishes - becomes the clothesline for a series of methodically planned and meticulously executed comic bits.

In France, James Cameron's Titanic stands as the No. 1 movie in box office history.   Second is a 2008 Provencal farce, Welcome to the Sticks. And third on the list of all-time biggest cinema draws? Well, that would be The Intouchables, the indigenous buddy comedy that opened quietly last fall and quickly earned $166 million within Gallic borders. Outside of France, it has earned $173 million, for a blockbuster tally of $339 million. Harvey Weinstein, the man who acquired another French title, The Artist, and rode it all the way to five Academy Awards this year, is releasing The Intouchables in U.S. theaters on Friday.

Al Gordon, 90, an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer who spent much of his career working for legendary comic Jack Benny has died. His son, Neil, told the Los Angeles Times that Mr. Gordon died Wednesday of age-related causes at a Los Angeles hospital. Mr. Gordon began his comedy-writing career after World War II and teamed with Hal Goldman. They shared two Emmys with fellow Benny writers and a third with Sheldon Keller for a Carol Channing special. Mr. Gordon also wrote for the TV shows of the Smothers Brothers, Flip Wilson, Carol Burnett, Tony Orlando, and Barbara Mandrell.

Here's the funny thing about Art, Yasmina Reza's much-produced comic drama about three men and a painting: It's truly a matter of perspective. A director can go serious with it, or sharp, as Act II Playhouse's Bud Martin did earlier this season, or, as is the case with Hedgerow Theatre's Penelope Reed, she can blunt its edges and treat it as a light comedy. And it will still suit the room. It's handy that this script yields so willingly to a company's point of view. Translated from the original French by Christopher Hampton, its catalyst is a white-on-white canvas purchased for 200,000 francs that reflects all the colors and shades in the longtime friendship among three men: Marc (Tom Teti)

UPDATE, 4 p.m. Monday, May 14, 2012: On Monday, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt announced that next season would, after all, be the last for "30 Rock," apparently contradicting what he'd told reporters only the day before.   SO MAYBE NEXT season won't be the last for NBC's "30 Rock," after all? Following days of online reports that the network had given the sitcom created by and starring Upper Darby's Tina Fey 13 episodes to wrap things up, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said Sunday that "we haven't definitively said that" to the people at "30 Rock" or to those at "The Office" or "Community," both of which will also return.

Sunday Antic farm Shostakovich wrote three ballets from 1929 to 1935, each getting him deeper in trouble with the Soviet authorities, each banned shortly after it premiered, each eventually contributing to his falling out of favor with Stalin and the denunciation of his work in 1936. The finale of the trio, The Bright Stream, despite being set on a collective farm (and having a comic plot in which a troupe of sophisticated dancers are shown up by the bumpkin workers), was the subject of a pointed and threatening article in Pravda (even more to the point, one co-librettist, Adrian Piotrovsky, was sent to the gulag and disappeared)

Theater 1812 Productions: Boston Marriage David Mamet comedy about 2 women whose romantic entanglements lead to trouble. Closes 5/20. Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Pl.; 215-592-9560. www.1812productions.org . $20-$36. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum A slave in ancient Rome tries to win a beautiful courtesan's hand for his master. Closes 5/19. Ritz Theatre Company, 915 White Horse Pike, Oaklyn; 856-858-5230. $25-$35. A Grand Night for Singing Tribute to the composing team of Rodgers & Hammerstein.