The hilarious Marin Hinkle (pictured left), best known to TV audiences for playing Alan’s ex-wife in the comedy Two and a Half Men, is back on the New York stage appearing in Kate Fodor’s new comedy, Rx. The production, directed by Chautauqua Theater Company’s artistic director Ethan McSweeney, opened last week at Primary Stages, off-Broadway. Fodor’s new play Fifty Ways will have its world premiere at CTC this summer, July 20-29.

Speaking of world premieres, up next at the Irish Classical Theater, the winner of the company’s McGuire International Playwriting Competition, the comedy Fish Out of Water by Gillian Grattan. Set in a rural Irish village, the production is directed by Fortunato Pezzimenti and stars Christian Brandjes, Beth Donohue, and Diane Curley. The show will run March 1-25. Prior to that, the company will have its annual fundraiser The Wake (a party to die for!) on Friday, February 24, beginning at 7pm at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum on Porter Avenue. And planning for its next season, the company will present Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa. The play was just revived in New York at the Irish Repertory Theatre to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

And Torn Space continues its season with a world premiere adaptation of Ibsen’s Emperor and Galilean, adapted by local playwright Neil Wechsler. Directed by David Oliver, the production stars, among others, Adriano Gatto, Lisa Vitrano, Brian Zybala, Kurt Guba, and David Lundy. Rarely performed because of its length (two parts, five acts each), Wechsler aimed to cut as much as possible of the text while maintaining the core drama. The production opens March 1. Torn Space plans to open next season in September with Tennessee Williams’s classic A Streetcar Named Desire.

Yet another world premiere, Darryl Schneider’s Clean Break, is coming to Road Less Traveled Productions. First presented as a reading in Fall 2010 as part of the company’s Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop, the production will run March 9-April 1. Clean Break will be the fourth world premiere of a Schneider play to be produced by the company following Two to the Head, Twice Around, and War Room, which won the 2007 Artie for Best New Play.

While the Public Theater will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in New York city with productions of As You Like It and Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Shakespeare in Delaware Park will be turning 37. The annual fundraiser Fabulous Feast will be held on March 31, 6-10:30pm, at Buffalo’s own medieval castle, the Connecticut Street Armory. For tickets, visit www.shakespeareindelawarepark.org.

Cameron Mackintosh’s new 25th anniversary production of Les Misérables arrives at Shea’s, February 28-March 4. The tour celebrated its 500th performance this past Sunday in Tampa. By the way, the highly anticipated movie version of Les Miz is set to be released later this year, with an all-star cast including Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and a cameo appearance by Colm Wilkinson (the original Jean Valjean on Broadway). Reportedly all stars sing live in the film.

Pictured below: David Granville, Lisa Ludwig, Jonathan Young (as Andy Lipman, a smart ambitious young man dreaming of a career on Broadway), Jimmy Janowski (as theater legend Martin Kerner), and Matthew Crehan Higgins will star in the upcoming BUA production of Secrets of the Trade by Jonathan Tolins, directed by Drew McCabe. By the way, the Niagara University Players will present an entirely student-run production of Tolins’ earlier play The Twilight of the Golds, February 24-26. BUA presented Twilight back in 1995.