We’re getting the full Streep treatment for the past week with dual (virtual) promotional tours for both “Let Them All Talk” (releasing today) and “The Prom” (releasing tomorrow). On Tuesday, Meryl Streep was a guest on her co-star’s talkshow “The Late Late Show with James Corden” while yesterday she was joined by Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen on “The Today Show” to promote “Let Them All Talk”. Both appearances can be watched in the video archive, with screencaptures being added to the photo gallery.

Three new video clips have been added to the video archive. Yesterday, Meryl Streep attended “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote both “The Prom” and “Let Them All Talk”. In the interview, she remembered a particular story from one of her own prom visits and pointed out the error that Barack Obama wrote about her in his memoir. Additonally, clips from Entertainment Tonight and the segment from the Equality Now virtual gala have been added as well. Enjo the new videos. Screencaptures from all recent virtual appearances have been added to the photo gallery.

This Summer, I have challenged myself to research Meryl Streep’s theatre performances during her time at Vassar and Yale, since information on this topic has always been limited. We have all read about her celebrated debut as “Miss Julie” at Vassar and then countless performances at Yale – but in order to understand her theatrical training, or awakening if you will, I wanted to find all the roles and playwrights that have shaped her acting in her forming years and made her such a sought-after talent during her training years that made her an instant star at the New York stages after her graduation. I’m happy to announce that I have succeeded with a comprehensive list of 46 plays that Meryl Streep participated in between 1969 and 1975, accompanied by cast lists, reviews and pictures. Among the great finds is the fact that “Miss Julie” was indeed a celebrated performance at Vassar, but not her only one. She performed in two plays at Dartmouth College during her exchange program in 1971, and we have even more information from her Summer stock jobs with the Green Mountain Guild and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Also, did you know Meryl participated in a Wendy Wasserstein play in 1984? You’re about to find out on the career pages. Many thanks to Michael for his generous help and contributions. Below is a complete list of pictures that I have found during my research. Enjoy all the new additions.

Hello and welcome to the latest version of Simply Streep. I have used most of this year’s unexpected free time to work behind the scenes and make the site easier to access with all the material we have been able to collect and archive over the years. I must say it doesn’t feel like I’m fullly done with all the new changes – but then, the site has never felt finished, it probably never will be. But I wanted to present you all the new look in time for next week’s releases of “Let Them All Talk” and “The Prom”. I have come close to present “the archives” in the best possible way to include all essential information on Meryl Streep’s work with easy-to-browse links to related articles and appearances. And there have been lots of additions to the career pages, with much new material to be added within the next updates. There are also many new articles waiting to be added, so look forward to more updates this weekend. Until then, enjoy your stay on the new and improved Simply Streep.

A couple of new videos have been added to the archive, including virtual appearances on “Good Morning America” alongside James Corden to promote “The Prom”, a first news segment from Extra TV and a lenghty press junket with the cast and crew of the film. More videos will be added as they arrive.

As we’re simultaneously covering “Let Them All Talk” and “The Prom” for their December 10 and 11 releases, reviews for the latter have been released as well, and so far the Steven Soderbergh dramedy is sitting relaxed on a 100% at Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s a collection of top critics reviews:

Anthony Lane, The New Yorker: The first half of “Let Them All Talk” is barely there as a movie. Soderbergh seems to be sketching out ideas for a plot, and gingerly feeling his way into its moral possibilities, as if he were clinging to a rail, beside a heaving sea. And yet the Atlantic stays calm. Most of the action was filmed on the Queen Mary 2, during a crossing in August, 2019, and you’re never entirely sure to what extent the resident mortals are aware of the stars who have descended among them. Does the helpful member of the ship’s crew, giving directions to a lost and elegant lady, even realize that she is in the frame with Meryl Streep? “Let Them All Talk” belongs to the gang of speedy, shot-from-the-hip movies—like “Bubble” (2005), “Unsane” (2018), and “High Flying Bird” (2019) – that Soderbergh likes to fire off now and then, using the lightest and least obtrusive tools for the job. One of his legacies will be the encouragement of younger filmmakers, who will watch his no-frills ventures and say to themselves, “We may not have a Streep, but we’ve got a coffee machine, a script, and an iPhone 12. Let’s do it.”

Peter Debruge, Varity: As everyone from Robert Altman to Judd Apatow to the Duplass brothers have shown, some actors respond better to the demands of improvisation than others: That invitation to invention can make a film come alive, but it can also create a kind of pressure to be “on” — to do or say something memorable in the moment — and this cast is hugely variable in its aptitude for off-the-cuff brilliance. Streep is always a pleasure to watch, and her character is so much in her own head that her somewhat distracted-sounding delivery seems entirely plausible coming from a woman who overthinks everything.

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap: It’s a fascinating performance from Streep, even though Alice is the hardest character to get to know, between the secrets she’s keeping and the hauteur she has developed over the years. (“When did she start talking like that?” wonders Susan.) Even with all the walls the character throws up around her, Streep always lets the audience into the core of this woman, whether she’s relaxing around Tyler or trying to interpret Roberta’s mixed signals.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: Always the intrepid storyteller, Steven Soderbergh proves an excellent match for brilliant short fiction writer Deborah Eisenberg in her first produced screenplay, Let Them All Talk. Much like the author, the main character here is a celebrated novelist who publishes infrequently and pays punctilious attention to every word, providing a succulent role for Meryl Streep. Her interplay with Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest as the college friends she hasn’t seen in 35 years is enlivened by extensive improvisation, which gives this HBO Max original the enthralling spontaneity of vintage Robert Altman.

David Ehrlich, Indie Wire: This story, like the people in it, wouldn’t have held together on dry land, and there’s something wonderfully indulgent about surrendering to the undercurrents that swirl beneath Alice’s friendships. But the run-and-gun approach that makes this movie possible is also what ends up shooting it in the foot, as the clock is always ticking and Soderbergh never has time to get out of the shallows. There are moments where this threatens to crystallize into a shrewd portrait of how people ebb and flow out of each other’s lives over the years, but the film always falls back on its more frivolous pleasures, and the cringe-inducing “romance” between Tyler and Karen ends up becoming the sturdiest of its subplots.

“The Prom” is coming to Netflix next week, and the first review are in, as compiled by Broadway World. The feel good Broadway musical, adapted for the screen, will arrive on December 11th. Find out what the critics had to say about the Ryan Murphy-helmed film, starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Kerry Washington, Ariana DeBose, Andrew Rannells, and Jo Ellen Pellman, below. Many thanks to Glenn for the heads-up.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: “Whenever [Streep is] center-screen, this Netflix adaptation of the disarming 2018 Broadway musical sparkles with campy humor. Elsewhere, the starry casting and heavy hand of director Ryan Murphy do the featherweight material few favors, with inert dramatic scenes and overblown musical numbers contributing to the general bloat. The movie’s most undeniable value is in the representation it provides to LGBTQ teens via a high school dance that is every emotionally isolated queer kid’s rainbow dream.”

Mary Sollosi, Entertainment Weekly: “The Prom is narratively sloppy, emotionally false, visually ugly, morally superior, and at least 15 minutes too long (a strong case can be made for 30). It has good intentions, though; or at least it wants to have good intentions. Obviously – and positively! – the film preaches tolerance and inclusion, both of which the world needs more of.”

Owen Gleiberman, Variety: “There’s no denying that “The Prom,” like “Glee” and the “High School Musical” films, is on some level a knowingly assembled package of shiny happy film-musical clichés. Yet Murphy, working with the cinematographer Matthew Libatíque, gives the movie an intoxicating visual sweep, and there’s a beguiling wit to the dialogue.”

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair: “There’s little good elsewhere in The Prom, save for newcomers Jo Ellen Pellman and Ariana DeBose as the winsome young couple at the center of the prom-troversy. They add dashes of bright theater-kid moxie to the film, conjuring up a bit of what it feels like to sit in a Broadway house and watch a bunch of lovable goobers belt their hearts out.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: “The Prom is an outrageous work of steroidal show tune madness, directed by the dark master himself, Ryan “Glee” Murphy, who is to jazz-hands musical theatre what Nancy Meyers is to upscale romcom or Friedrich Nietzsche to classical philology.”

Ben Travis, Empire: “In recent years, there’s been a spate of musicals that you’ll enjoy ‘even if you don’t like musicals’, like Hamilton with its astonishing word-wizardry, or the retro-cool La La Land. The Prom is no such musical. It is intensely, unabashedly, razzlingly, dazzlingly Broadway, a musical for people who love musicals, in which many of the songs are about musicals. Anyone allergic to such things need not apply.”

Tim Robey, The Telegraph: “The whole thing drips with garish insincerity and preaching to the choir. Irony of ironies, that a show about out-of-touch luvvies swanning down to wave their magic wands at red-state intolerance has become… the spitting image of that, as a home cinema offering from Murphy and team.”

Lewis Knight, Mirror: “With glitz and glamour, Ryan Murphy offers a fun and lightweight musical that will certainly not win over the sort of people who detest the genre but will likely entertain those who do.”

Three remarkable actress – Academy Award-winners Meryl Streep and Dianne Wiest, and Emmy Award-winner Candice Bergen – share the screen in a new film by director Steven Soderbergh, “Let Them All Talk,” an exercise in improvisation, in which its actors were required to create much of the dialogue themselves. Correspondent Rita Braver talks with the trio about the rarity of starring in a major Hollywood film about three women in their 70s.

Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman James Corden, and Andrew Rannells are prepared to be “the biggest thing to happen in Indiana” in the star-studded trailer for Ryan Murphy’s Netflix film, The Prom. Murphy released the first full trailer for the movie musical on Thursday, announcing that “everyone is invited to the celebration of a lifetime!” The movie follows the story of high school student Emma Nolan, played by Jo Ellen Pellman, who’s been banned from attending the prom with her girlfriend Alyssa (Ariana DeBose). Once Emma shares her story on Twitter, stars from Broadway (Streep, Corden, Rannells and Kidman) head to small-town Indiana to help Emma find a solution – in an attempt to gain good press following their Broadway show flop. The Netflix film also includes a supportive high school principal, played by Keegan-Michael Key and the PTA head, played by Kerry Washington. “The Prom” arrives on Netflix on Dec. 11.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, quality Now is mounting the Make Equality Reality Gala, a virtual event scheduled for Dec. 3 to support the organization’s mission of fighting for an equal world for women and girls. The event’s program will feature a tribute written by Gloria Steinem and read by Meryl Streep in honor of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose work for legal equality has inspired Equality Now’s global work, per the organization. Other honors include the activists and filmmakers of On the Record, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s documentary exploring the sexual assault allegations against Russell Simmons, and a third annual Changemaker Award presented by Gucci and Chime for Change that will be accepted by Egypt #MeToo activist Nadeen Ashraf. Confirmed to appear during the gala are Jane Fonda, Kate Hudson, Jameela Jamil, Karamo Brown, Margaret Atwood, Marisa Tomei, Alicia Vikander, Paul Reiser, AnnaSophia Robb, Rob Reiner, Carmen Ejogo, Aasif Mandvi, Karen Robinson, Jess Glynne, Heather McMahon, Linda Perry, Christine Lahti, Scarlett Curtis and V, who was formerly known as Eve Ensler. “This has been an incredibly challenging year for women and girls worldwide — from the clampdown on reproductive rights in Poland and the United States to the rising rates of child marriage in Kenya and India, 2020 has had a profound impact on the status of gender equality,” said Yasmeen Hassan, global executive director of Equality Now. “These setbacks mean the work of human rights advocates and activists around the world is more crucial than ever. Equality Now is inspired by the incredible cohort that is participating in our first-ever virtual gala, and look forward to working with them to help ensure that women and girls have access to justice regardless of what stands in their way.” More information about the event can be found here. Many thanks to Alvaro for the heads-up.