TV and movie star Zachary Quinto (pictured above) might be heading to Broadway this season in yet another revival, The Glass Menagerie. Quinto is now starring in the classic Tennessee Williams play opposite Cherry Jones at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston. The production has been very well received and there seems to be quite a bit of interest for a Broadway transfer. Quinto played Spock in the 2009 Star Trek prequel, and reprises the role in the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness. He was last on the New York stage in the off-Broadway revival of Angels in America.

Rebecca Elkin (now officially Rebecca Elkin-Young) returns to Buffalo this summer to play Ophelia in Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s production of Hamlet. Lisa Vitrano will appear as Gertrude, and Tom Loughlin as Polonius. The cast will also include, among others, Richard Hummert, Adriano Gatto, John Profeta, Adam Yellen, Adam Rath, and James Wild. These actors join the previously announced Shaun Sheley as Hamlet and Tim Newell as Claudius.

Raices continues its play reading series with La Luz De Un Cigarillo by Buffalo State alum Marco Antonio Rodriguez. The play was a hit off-Broadway, winning several HOLA and ACE awards including one for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting. Directed by Rolando Gomez, the Spanish/Spanglish reading will star Mariana Cole-Rivera, Smirna Mercedes-Pérez, Victoria Pérez, Josué Rosario-Cáliz, and Ingrid Cordova. Admission is a suggested $5 at Road Less Traveled Theatre on Sunday, March 17 at 6pm.

Coming up next for the Irish Classical Theatre, Being Behan, Jim Sheridan’s play about notorious Irish playwright Brendan Behan. Directed by Irish director Peter Sheridan (the playwright’s brother), the production opens March 21 and it will star Vincent O’Neill as older Behan, and Joe Liolos as younger Behan. Peter will also perform his own one-man show Break a Leg, based on his recent memoir, on March 10 & 17 at 7pm. The company plans to open next season with Moliere’s School for Husbands.

The musical revue The Wonderful Wizard of Song: The Music of Harold Arlen will be coming up next at 710 Main Theatre on April 26 & 27. The date coincides with Shea’s Performing Arts Center Black Tie Gala, which takes place on April 27. Speaking of Shea’s, tickets for The Book of Mormon went on sale on Monday and now there are only a limited number of single tickets available. Tickets will also be available by lottery, details closer to the engagement.

Ring of Fire, the Johnny Cash revue which premiered at Studio Arena in 2005 and then went to a short Broadway run, just opened at Milwaukee Rep in a newly reconceived version.

It was many, many years ago when I first met the fabulous Bonnie Franklin, as you probably can tell from the picture below. I was a big fan of TV’s One Day at a Time, a big hit from 1975 to 1984, in which Franklin starred as single mom Ann Romano. The show had a long list of great performers including Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli as Ann’s daughters, the legendary Nanette Fabray as Ann’s mother, and Boyd Gaines as Ann’s future son-in-law. Today, Gaines is a big Broadway star, having won Tony awards for both musicals and plays. Franklin made her Off-Broadway debut in a 1969 production of Dames at Sea, stepping into the role of Ruby, which was created by Bernadette Peters. Franklin made her Broadway debut and received a Tony nomination for her performance in Applause, the musical version of All About Eve. After her TV show ended, Franklin returned to the stage. I first saw her in Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, when she took over for Kathy Bates. As soon as I mentioned Buffalo, she brightened and reminisced about her work at Studio Arena. She had played the title role in Peter Pan back in 1972, and appeared in Jerome Kern’s Roberta, that same season. After Frankie, I saw her several times including as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in the late 1990s in Pittsburgh. Every time, she was most gracious and asked about Buffalo. Franklin died on March 1 at age 69 of pancreatic cancer.