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Stagefright

Happy New Year dahhrling! The fabulous Joanna Lumley (pictured) of Absolutely Fabulous fame made her Broadway debut this season in David Hirson’s verse comedy La Bete. The production arrived on Broadway in October after a successful summer run in London. Also starring David Hyde Pierce, the show is scheduled to close this Sunday.

Lisa Vitrano’s one-woman play Bitch Bares All will have its official world premiere at Road Less Traveled on January 28, directed by Kristen Tripp Kelley. An earlier workshop production of the play was seen at the 2009 Buffalo Infringement Festival. Bitch Bares All evolved from Shedding the Shadows, an earlier Vitrano piece that was produced by Pandora’s Box Theatre Company (the predecessor to Alleyway’s Theatre Plus) in 2001. Next June, Road Less Traveled will bring back Ibn Shabazz’s play Insidious. The play made its debut last summer, directed by Doug Zschiegner, starring Greg Howze, Xavier Harris, Adrienne Lewis, Carlton Franklin, and John Vines. The entire original cast will be reunited for this revival, which is scheduled to open June 10.

Red Carpet Theater Productions returns to the Lancaster Opera House with Tuesdays with Morrie, the play based on the book by Mitch Alborn. The production will star Ray Boucher and Norm Argulsky and is scheduled to open on January 21.

Nunset Boulevard, one of the many sequels to the popular Nunsense, will have its Western New York debut at O’Connell and Company, January 20-February 13. Directed and choreographed by Joey Bucheker, the show will star Susana Breese, Erin Brignone, Mary Craig, Mary Moebius, and Mary Kate O’Connell as Mother Superior, a part she has played several times before to great acclaim. The original Nunsense celebrated its 25th anniversary by performing a limited, six-week engagement in New York last summer.

American Repertory Theater of WNY will present Sam Shepard’s Cowboy Mouth, January 28-February 12 at Buffalo East, which is located at 1410 Main Street, near Utica. Directed by Larry Smith, the production will star Aaron Krygier, Tilke Hill, and Jacob Albarella.

The production of Vivien, a collaboration of the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park and Red Thread Theatre, has been postponed. Originally scheduled for a January 13 opening, the production was set to star Josephine Hogan as Vivien Leigh. The New Phoenix is now concentrating its efforts in its upcoming co-production with Subversive Theatre Collective, the classic Inherit the Wind. Directed by Kurt Schneiderman, the production will star Greg Natale as Matthew Brady and Gary Darling as Henry Drummond, with Richard Lambert as E. K. Hornbeck and Keith Elkins as the Judge. Inherit the Wind is scheduled to run March 17-April 16.

In the meantime, Subversive continues it season with the docudrama I Am a Man by African-American playwright Oyamo (a.k.a. Charles F. Gordon). The play had its New York premiere at the Working Theatre in 1993 and its Chicago premiere at the Goodman in 1994, starring Buffalonian actor/director Ron OJ Parson. The local production will be directed by Annette Daniels-Taylor. It opens January 13.

The Geva Theatre in Rochester will be presenting Tom Dudzick’s very popular comedy Over the Tavern. Set in Buffalo, the play had its world premiere at Studio Arena several years ago and has become one of the most performed plays in regional theaters all over the country. The Geva production will run February 15-March 13.

Artpark will present the musical Fame in August. Based on the 1980 movie of the same name, the musical premiered in 1988 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami and, despite several attempts, never made it to Broadway. The closest was a production off-Broadway at the Little Shubert Theatre in the 2003-04 season.

Save the dates! On Friday, February 11, the Irish Classical Theatre will hold its annual The Wake at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, 7-11pm. On Saturday, March 19, Shakespeare in Delaware Park will hold its 17th annual Fabulous Feast.

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