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Off-Broadway Run of Girls Day, with Harris and Saltzberg, Canceled

The Off-Broadway production of Girls Day, or Britney and Tara Stare Into the Void and the Void Stares Back, which had been scheduled to begin performances May 11 at Ace of Clubs, has been canceled.

"Due to last-minute scheduling conflicts with playwright Steven Levenson," a press statement reads, "the premiere production of Girls Day, or Britney and Tara Stare Into the Void and the Void Stares Back . . . has been canceled. The producers apologize for any inconvenience. The producers are now looking at fall dates for the production, schedules permitting."

Theatre World and Lortel Award winner Jenn Harris had been cast as Britney Spears with Drama Desk Award winner Sara Saltzberg as Tara Reid.

Steven Levenson's "tragi-comedy" was described as such: "Dateline: Los Angeles, California. March 21, 2007. Britney Spears checks out of Promises Treatment Center after a one-month stint in rehab. So what's next for the derailed pop princess? GIRLS DAY, natch! Britney calls up gal pal Tara Reid to join her for one special, unforgettable day. An American tragedy, with special guest appearances by Jayden James, Sean Preston, a publicist, a social worker and, of course, K-Fed."

Ace of Clubs is located at 9 Great Jones Street. For more information visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com or call (212) 352-3101.

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Passing Strange's Domingo Helms Single Black Female Off-Broadway

Passing Strange's Colman Domingo – known for his work as the musical's flamboyant choir director Franklin – will stage the New York return of Lisa B. Thompson's comedy Single Black Female.

Soara-Joye Ross (Jerry Springer: The Opera, Dessa Rose) and Riddick Marie (A House with No Walls) will co-star in the comedy that is scheduled to begin performances June 10 at The Duke on 42nd Street. The limited Off-Broadway engagement is presented by the New Professional Theatre.

Single Black Female, according to press notes, looks at "the pleasures and perils of being a single middle class black woman who's got everything she wants and needs except more R-E-S-P-E-C-T -- and a man! The play mines topics such as dating (on the Internet and the old-fashioned way!), gynecology, family gatherings, shopping, racial bias, white folks and, poignantly, the odd sense of loss a black woman feels when she does find a man and leaves her single sisters behind."

The creative team for Single Black Female includes scenic design by Tim Mackabee, costume design by Raul Aktanov, lighting design by Russell Phillip Drapkin and sound design by DJ Crystal Clear.

In addition to his numerous roles in Passing Strange, Domingo has appeared in Henry V at the Public and MCC's Bright Ideas. His directorial credits include productions  at the Geva Theatre and Berkeley Rep.

The limited engagement of Single Black Female runs through June 29. Tickets, priced $30, are availably by phoning (646) 223-3010 or by visiting www.dukeon42.org.

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Pearl's Importance of Being Earnest Extends Off-Broadway Run

The Pearl Theatre Company has extended its production of The Importance of Being Earnest through June 8.

The Oscar Wilde comedy has played to sold-out audiences since performances began April 15. Originally scheduled to run through May 25, Earnest will now offer an additional two weeks of performances through June 8. The production officially opens April 27.

Sean McNall and Bradford Cover appear as Algernon and Jack, respectively, with a cast that also features Ali Ahn, Rachel Botchan, Joanne Camp, Bradford Cover, Dominic Cuskern, TJ Edwards, Sean McNall and Carol Schultz.

In Wilde's familiar comedy, "Jack Worthington and Algernon Moncrieff both lead busy double lives in the highest of style: creating false identities, avoiding family obligations, wooing well-bred young ladies, visiting imaginary invalids and (equally imaginary) wayward brothers. But now their carefully constructed 'alternate universe' is crumbling at the edges, and they will have to decide whether being 'Ernest' or 'earnest' will get them what they want," production notes state.

J.R. Sullivan directs the production with a creative team including Harry Feiner (scenic design), Devon Painter (costume design), Stephen Petrilli (lighting design) and Mark Huang (sound design).

Tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest are available by calling (212) 598-9802.

The Pearl Theatre Company is located at 80 St. Marks Place (at First Avenue) in the East Village. For more information visit www.pearltheatre.org.

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The Pearl Theatre Company's artistic director Shepard Sobel explained the mission of the troupe as such: "The Pearl produces a classical repertory because the great plays of the last 2,500 years provide a context, a perspective, by which we here in America in 2007 may see ourselves more clearly. We can — and have an obligation to — design the strength and character of the future only by knowing the character of the past."

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Amin Fantasy, Steve & Idi, Begins Off-Broadway Run April 23

             

David Grimm
photo by Aubrey Reuben

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater presents the world premiere of David Grimm's comedy Steve & Idi, which begins performances Off-Broadway April 23.

Eleanor Holdridge (Cycling Past the Matterhorn) directs the production, which is scheduled to officially open May 5 for a run through May 24.

In Steve & Idi, according to an announcement, "Steve's life is spinning out of control. His work is going nowhere, his lover dumps him, his friendships are strained and, as if that's not enough, the ghost of General Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, bursts through his window with a very strange demand." The work was developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab and appeared in Rattlestick's "DirtyWorks" reading series.

Grimm himself is featured in a cast that also includes Michael Busillo (Henry & Mudge), Greg Keller (The Seagull), Zachary Knower (Pericles) and Evan Parke (The Lion King).

The design team features Kris Stone (sets), Jessica Ford (costumes), Les Dickert (lights), Scott Killian (sound) and Mary Robinette Kowal (props). Emily M. Arnold serves as production stage manager with Jacqueline Prats as assistant stage manager.

Playwright Grimm has also penned Measure for Pleasure, Kit Marlowe, The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue, Sheridan or Schooled in Scandal, The Savages of Hartford, Once In Elysium and Chick, The Great Osram, among others.

Tickets to Steve & Idi at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place (between West 11th and Perry Street), are available at (212) 868-4444. For more information visit rattlestick.org.

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Evan Parke and David Grimm in Steve & Idi.

Drama Desk Nominees Announced

Tony Award winners Bebe Neuwirth and Len Cariou announced the nominees for the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards April 28 at the New York Friars Club. A Catered Affair, the new musical penned by composer John Bucchino and librettist Harvey Fierstein (who co-stars), earned 12 nominations, the most of any show of the 2007-2008 season.

Others showered with multiple nominations: The acclaimed Off-Broadway musical Adding Machine received nine nominations, while both the revival of South Pacific and the new Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein nabbed eight nominations a piece. Four shows received seven nominations each: August: Osage County, Passing Strange, Sunday in the Park with George and The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island.

The Drama Desk is an organization of theatre critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and not-for-profit.

The following awards were voted by the nominating committee and will be presented by the Drama Desk at its awards ceremony:

Outstanding Ensemble Performances
The Dining Room
The Homecoming

Special Awards
Edward Albee in his 80th year, "whose provocative plays, including this season's Peter and Jerry, enrich the American theater."

James Earl Jones, a "commanding force on the stage for nearly half a century."

59E59 Theaters, whose "imaginative curatorial vision has created a stimulating environment to nurture a diverse range of artists."

Playwrights Horizons for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work."

Nominees for the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards follow:

Outstanding Play:
Alan Ayckbourn, Intimate Exchanges
Rinde Eckert, Horizon
Liz Flahive, From Up Here
Horton Foote, Dividing the Estate
Tracy Letts, August: Osage County
Tom Stoppard, Rock ’n’ Roll

Outstanding Musical:
A Catered Affair
Adding Machine
Passing Strange
The Glorious Ones
The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Xanadu

Outstanding Revival of a Play:
Boeing-Boeing
Happy Days
Macbeth
The Country Girl
The Dining Room
The Return of the Prodigal

Outstanding Revival of a Musical:
Black Nativity
Gypsy
South Pacific
Sunday in the Park with George
Take Me Along

Outstanding Revue:
Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening
Fugitive Songs
Make Me a Song

Outstanding Actor in a Play:
Bill Champion, Intimate Exchanges
Kevin Kline, Cyrano de Bergerac
Bill Pullman, Peter and Jerry
Mark Rylance, Boeing-Boeing
Tobias Segal, From Up Here
Rufus Sewell, Rock 'n' Roll

Outstanding Actress in a Play:
Sinead Cusack, Rock 'n' Roll
Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County
Frances McDormand, The Country Girl
Amy Morton, August: Osage County
Fiona Shaw, Happy Days
Julie White, From Up Here

Outstanding Actor in a Musical:
Daniel Breaker, Passing Strange
André De Shields, Black Nativity
Daniel Evans, Sunday in the Park with George
Cheyenne Jackson, Xanadu
Matthew Morrison, 10 Million Miles
Paulo Szot, South Pacific

Outstanding Actress in a Musical:
Sierra Boggess, The Little Mermaid
Patti LuPone, Gypsy
Kelli O’Hara, South Pacific
Faith Prince, A Catered Affair
Alice Ripley, Next to Normal
Jenna Russell, Sunday in the Park with George

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play:
John Cullum, The Conscientious Objector
Conleth Hill, The Seafarer
Francis Jue, Yellow Face
Arian Moayed, Masked
Jeff Perry, August: Osage County
Michael T. Weiss, Scarcity

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play:
Elizabeth Ashley, Dividing the Estate
Johanna Day, Peter and Jerry
Zoe Kazan, 100 Saints You Should Know
Linda Lavin, The New Century
Rondi Reed, August: Osage County
Marisa Tomei, Top Girls

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical:
Danny Burstein, South Pacific
Christopher Fitzgerald, Young Frankenstein
Boyd Gaines, Gypsy
Shuler Hensley, Young Frankenstein
Bobby Steggert, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Tom Wopat, A Catered Affair

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical:
Laura Benanti, Gypsy
Leslie Kritzer, A Catered Affair
Andrea Martin, Young Frankenstein
Mary Testa, Xanadu
Amy Warren, Adding Machine
Mare Winningham, 10 Million Miles

Outstanding Director of a Play:
David Schweizer, Horizon
Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County
Leigh Silverman, From Up Here
Jonathan Silverstein, The Dining Room
Matthew Warchus, Boeing-Boeing
Deborah Warner, Happy Days

Outstanding Director of a Musical:
Christopher Ashley, Xanadu
Sam Buntrock, Sunday in the Park with George
David Cromer, Adding Machine
John Doyle, A Catered Affair
Bob McGrath, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Bartlett Sher, South Pacific

Outstanding Choreography:
Karole Armitage, Passing Strange
Rob Ashford, Cry-Baby The Musical
Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider, Traces
Dan Knechtges, Xanadu
Peter Pucci, Queens Boulevard (the musical)
Susan Stroman, Young Frankenstein

Outstanding Music:
John Bucchino, A Catered Affair
Stephen Flaherty, The Glorious Ones
Tom Kitt, Next to Normal
Mark Mulcahy, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Joshua Schmidt, Adding Machine
Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Passing Strange

Outstanding Lyrics:
Lynn Ahrens, The Glorious Ones
Mel Brooks, Young Frankenstein
John Bucchino, A Catered Affair
Ben Katchor, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt, Adding Machine
Stew, Passing Strange

Outstanding Book of a Musical:
Douglas Carter Beane, Xanadu
Harvey Fierstein, A Catered Affair
Ben Katchor, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt, Adding Machine
Stew, Passing Strange
Eric H. Weinberger, Wanda's World

Outstanding Orchestrations:
Doug Besterman, Young Frankenstein
Jason Carr, Sunday in the Park with George
Michael Starobin, The Glorious Ones
Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Passing Strange
Jonathan Tunick, A Catered Affair
Tim Weil, 10 Million Miles

Outstanding Set Design of a Play:
Beowulf Boritt, Spain
Scott Bradley, Eurydice
David Korins, Hunting and Gathering
Santo Loquasto, Trumpery
Scott Pask, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Clint Ramos, The Return of the Prodigal

Outstanding Set Design of a Musical:
David Gallo, A Catered Affair
Takeshi Kata, Adding Machine
Derek McLane, 10 Million Miles
George Tsypin, The Little Mermaid
Robin Wagner, Young Frankenstein
Michael Yeargan, South Pacific

Outstanding Costume Design:
Mara Blumenfeld, The Glorious Ones
Michael Bottari and Ronald Case, Jessica Jahn, Die Mommie Die!
Ann Hould-Ward, A Catered Affair
Ana Kuzmanic, August: Osage County
Katrina Lindsay, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
William Ivey Long, Young Frankenstein

Outstanding Lighting Design:
Kevin Adams, The 39 Steps
Ken Billington, Sunday in the Park with George
Maruti Evans, Slaughterhouse-Five
Donald Holder, South Pacific
Natasha Katz, The Little Mermaid
Keith Parham, Adding Machine

Outstanding Sound Design:
Adam Cork, Macbeth
Jorge Cousineau, Opus
Joseph Fosco, The Conversation
Scott Lehrer, South Pacific
Mic Pool, The 39 Steps
Tony Smolenski IV, Adding Machine

Outstanding Solo Performance:
Kris Andersson, Dixie's Tupperware Party
Laurence Fishburne, Thurgood
Stephen Lang, Beyond Glory
April Yvette Thompson, Liberty City

Outstanding Projection and Video Design:
Paul Barritt, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Timothy Bird and The Knifedge Creative Network, Sunday in the Park with George
Zachary Borovay, A Catered Affair
Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Lorna Heavey, Macbeth
Tal Yarden, The Misanthrope

Unique Theatrical Experience:
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Cut to the Chase
Fabrik
The 39 Steps
Traces

Shows with multiple nominations:
A Catered Affair, 12
Adding Machine, 9
Young Frankenstein, 8
South Pacific, 8
August: Osage County, 7
Passing Strange, 7
Sunday in the Park with George, 7
The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, 7
Xanadu, 6
The Glorious Ones, 5
10 Million Miles, 4
From Up Here, 4
Gypsy, 4
Boeing-Boeing, 3
Happy Days, 3
Macbeth, 3
Rock 'n' Roll, 3
The 39 Steps, 3
The Dining Room, 3
The Little Mermaid, 3
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, 2
Black Nativity, 2
Dividing the Estate, 2
Horizon, 2
Intimate Exchanges, 2
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, 2
Peter and Jerry, 2
Next to Normal, 2
The Country Girl, 2
The Return of the Prodigal, 2
Traces, 2

The Drama Desk, organized in 1949, presented its first awards in 1955.

Elevator pushes buttons with 'Fury'

NEW YORK -- If a production gets aborted in Manhattan, and the public never sees it, can it still make a splash?

It can if it's the Elevator Repair Service's "Gatz," a stage version of "The Great Gatsby" that made it all the way to the end of rehearsals before being shut down by the Fitzgerald estate (which decided to endorse a different adaptation).

When he attended an open rehearsal of the ill-fated production, New York Theater Workshop a.d. Jim Nicola was so impressed with the five-hour show he sealed a deal to bring a similarly ambitious (but fully authorized) ERS adaptation to NYTW's mainstage. A 12-actor performance of the opening quarter of the notoriously difficult William Faulkner novel, "The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928)" opens April 29.

"I decided to go easy on myself this time," jokes ERS a.d. John Collins.

The literary-minded, New York-based company has a history of making theater the hard way: Collins loves the great writers as much as he loves messing with them, and it's gotten him into trouble in the past.

"We already had a sort of performance arrangement with HERE (Arts Center) before we thought, 'We'd better get permission for this.' " says Collins of "Gatz," which incorporated the entire text of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. "We had never bothered to do that before."

Collins recalls another performance that had the troupe teetering on the edge of hot water: ERS mounted "Cab Legs" at P.S. 122, a production of Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke" in which the actors threw out the text entirely, paraphrasing as they went along.

"P.S. 122 did get a call about it, because there was something in one of the papers on the show," Collins recalls. The Williams estate called then-a.d. Mark Russell (who now runs the Under the Radar Festival) about the "Summer" connection, but Russell covered for ERS. "He said, 'I have no idea what you're talking about,' " Collins laughs.

In the 27 years since Collins founded ERS, the company has had a number of protective figures, of whom Nicola is the latest: Like other New York theater programmers (including the Public's Oskar Eustis), he's been pressuring the Fitzgerald estate to free up "Gatz" for a New York run. Nicola has also gone a step further, giving ERS its first official Off Broadway home.

.Though Collins' company is on the verge of growing up and getting respectable, the director is still hoping to challenge his audience. "The Sound and the Fury" incorporates plenty of stage combat, as well as music and dancing, but it's about as far from a CliffsNotes-like version as you can get. "We had to subject ourselves to Faulkner's insanity, and ultimately the audience as well," Collins says.

Like "Gatz," "The Sound and the Fury" uses dozens of continuous pages of text, with the actors rotating between roles. Collins admits that the complicated staging will require close attention from the aud, but he says he felt obligated to be as faithful to the novel as he could.

"Otherwise, what are you doing?" Collins asks. "Why are you bothering with Faulkner?"

Actually, that's a question not many companies would set out to answer. By trying, Collins and his actors are getting plenty of attention for their offbeat adaptations.

And if there was ever a time for the 25-year-old NYTW to take a gamble on a company that deserves support, that time is now. This summer, the nonprofit Off Broadway house will lose the income generated by its Broadway transfer of "Rent" when the long-running hit closes, and NYTW has cushioned the blow by recently laying off its entire inhouse production staff.

Legit pundits have decried the move as evidence of poor money management, pointing to the fact that NYTW is still expanding its physical facilities, "Rent" or no "Rent." If the scrappy "Sound and the Fury" is well-received, it may help NYTW repair some damage.

REVIEW: The Importance of Being Earnest

One of the pluses of a resident company is consistency, but the perils include complacency. The Pearl Theatre Company's rendering of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest droops into the latter state. Director J. R. Sullivan's staging of this classic farce is mostly humdrum -- the kiss of death for so frothy a confection -- and the cast is wildly uneven.

The very set (by Harry Feiner) doesn't augur well. Are we to believe that young London gadabout Algernon Montcrieff (Sean McNall) commissioned a very clumsy copy of Whistler's famous Peacock Room paneling for his bachelor pad? And whence the country-rustic chairs? (Painting them gold doesn't fool anyone.) A more minimalist and less literal approach could have suggested the caste in a few deft strokes. As for costumes, Devon Painter has the women suitably attired, the men less so; at one point, Algernon (Sean McNall) appears to be sporting Dockers and a pink Brooks Brother shirt.

Still, such shortcuts might fade into the background had the actors taken more care to brush up on their British diction. For example, it's horribly jarring to hear the imperious Lady Bracknell (Carol Schultz, a veteran of 29 Pearl productions) giving a hard American 'R' to the word "girl." As for the totemic "handbag," the company's pronunciation hovers somewhere over the Atlantic.

Bradford Cover is well cast as urbane John Worthing, but McNall seems a bit green and overly impish as Algernon. Rachel Botchan gives us a Gwendolyn Fairfax who appears more bluestocking than fashionplate: she doesn't really come into her own -- nor does the production take flight -- until the Act II appearance of Ali Ahn (who is not a company member) as Worthing's clever country ward, Cecily Cardew. She finds the music in Wilde's words, and finally the repartee achieves lift-off.

Even so, the pivotal tea scene, which ought to be a high point in terms of hilarity, is awkwardly staged. Instead of settling into a seething tete-a-tete with Gwendolyn, Cecily hovers behind her back, directing the majordomo Merriman (Dominic Cuskern, who relentlessly overacts the servant roles) in the dispensation of sugar and provisions -- a cross-class collaboration that would never have occurred, even in the boondocks.

It's also a terrible error to present a Miss Prism (Joanne Camp, red hair refulgent) who looks like a contemporary of "Uncle Jack": Was she nannying and novelizing in her infancy? TJ Edwards does a fine job with Reverend Chasuble's flirty-academic overtures; if only he didn't hobble about as if firewalking.

Fortunately, Wilde in top form is pretty much impervious to even such unimaginative interpretations as these.

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Soldiers of Rabe's Streamers Will March Again Off-Broadway; Ellis Directs

             

Streamers director Scott Ellis
photo by Aubrey Reuben

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced details of its fall Off-Broadway revival of David Rabe's Vietnam-era play, Streamers, directed by Scott Ellis.

Performances will begin Oct. 17 toward a Nov. 11 opening at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 W. 46th Street. Performances continue to Nov. 11.

The cast will include Hale Appleman (Richie), Larry Clarke (Sgt. Cokes), Ato Essandoh (Carlyle), Brad Fleischer (Billy), Charlie Hewson (Martin), John Sharian (Sgt. Rooney) and J.D. Williams (Roger).

This production of Streamers is based on the 2007 Huntington Theatre Company production directed by Ellis. A majority of the Huntington cast resurfaces here; additional casting to be announced.

According to the Roundabout, "In this powerful American masterpiece, four young soldiers fresh from boot camp wait anxiously in 1965 Virginia, watching the Vietnam conflict escalate. As they struggle to make sense of their new life in the army, tensions rise over race, sexuality, and class, culminating in an explosive act that changes them forever. Streamers is an unflinching exploration of the turmoil and confusion facing young men threatened by forces beyond their control."

The design team includes Neil Patel (sets), Tom Broecker (costumes), Jeff Croiter (lights) and John Gromada (sound).

Roundabout's associate artistic director Ellis recently staged Roundabout's hit Tony-nominated Broadway production and subsequent two-year national tour of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men. Ellis returns to the Laura Pels stage following the recent production of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane starring Alec Baldwin.

Streamers premiered Off-Broadway, in a Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival production uptown at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, in April 1976 and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. Streamers was eligible for the Tony Awards in 1977 and was nominated for Best Play. Mike Nichols directed; Joseph Papp produced.

Rabe's plays include The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (first produced in 1971 by Joe Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival), Sticks and Bones, The Orphan, In the Boom Boom Room, Streamers, Goose and Tom Tom, Hurlyburly, Those the River Keeps, Cosmologies, A Question of Mercy, Gilgamesh the Prince and The Dog Problem.

His plaudits include Tony Award nominations (for Hurlyburly, Streamers and Boom Boom Room) and Obie Awards.

He won the 1972 Best Play Tony Award for Sticks and Bones, and received the Hull Warriner Award for playwriting three times. He recently received the Helen Merrill Award for Distinguished Playwriting. Rabe's screenplays include "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can," "Streamers," "Casualties of War," "The Firm," "Hurlyburly" and the upcoming "The Untouchables: Capone Rising."

Rabe also wrote the novel "Recital of the Dog" and a collection of short stories entitled "A Primitive Heart."

His newest novel "Dinosaurs on the Roof" is scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster in the summer of 2008.

Streamers will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 7:30 PM with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 PM.

Tickets will be available in summer 2008 by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th Street.

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Productions playing in Roundabout's 2008 spring season include Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George starring Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell, directed by Sam Buntrock; Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Laura Linney and Ben Daniels, directed by Rufus Norris; Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo, directed by Walter Bobbie.

Roundabout's hot production of The 39 Steps transfers to the Cort Theatre beginning April 29.

Roundabout Theatre Company's upcoming 2008-09 season also includes Rodgers & Hart's Pal Joey, directed by Joe Mantello; Lisa Loomer's Distracted, starring Cynthia Nixon, directed by Mark Brokaw; and Bob Fosse's Dancin', directed by Graciela Daniele.

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Ato Essendoh, Hale Appleman, JD Williams, Charlie Hewson and Brad Fleischer.

Cynthia Nixon to star off-Broadway in 'Distracted'

NEW YORK — Cynthia Nixon may be best known for her role as the ever-striving Miranda Hobbes on television's Sex and the City, but she never stays away from theater for too long.

In 2006, Nixon won a Tony for her performance in David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole and later that year starred in an off-Broadway revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Off-Broadway will see her again next season, starring in the New York premiere of Lisa Loomer's Distracted. The play, which had its world premiere last year at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, will begin performances next February at the Roundabout Theatre Company's Laura Pels Theatre. Mark Brokaw will direct. Production dates and other cast members will be announced.

Distracted concerns a mother trying to deal with her son's Attention Deficit Disorder.

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Jenn Harris & Sarah Saltzberg to Play Britney Spears and Tara Reid Off-Broadway

Sarah Saltzberg

Jenn Harris will play Britney Spears and Sarah Saltzberg will play Tara Reid in the upcoming off-Broadway premiere of Steven Levenson's Girls Day, Or Britney and Tara Stare into the Void and the Void Stares Back. Billed as a "tragi-comedy," the new show is directed by Evan Cabnet will begin performances on May 11 at the Ace of Clubs. The limited engagement is scheduled to run through June 2.

Rounding out the cast are Patch Darragh (Crimes of the Heart) as Kevin Federline and Kathy Searle.

Girls Day begins as Spears checks out of rehab after a one-month stint and hooks up with her friend Reid for one memorable afternoon that involves encounters with sons Jayden James and Sean Preston, a publicist, a social worker and her ex-husband, K-Fed.

Harris' off-Broadway credits include New Jerusalem, Modern Orthodox and Silence! The Musical. Saltzberg was an original cast member in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and is currently appearing off-Broadway in Junie B. Jones. She is a creator of the popular late-night revue Don't Quit Your Night Job.

The real Britney Spears made her off-Broadway debut in 1991 in the play Ruthless, as the understudy for actress Laura Bell Bundy.

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