After nine seasons, the TV hit show How I Met Your Mother will air its final episode on March 31. Josh Radnor (pictured above), who played Ted all these years, said he’s known part of the finale from the very beginning. Now Radnor is looking for other projects, possibly a return to the stage. He made his Broadway debut in 2002 in the stage version of The Graduate. His TV co-star, Neil Patrick Harris, is now back on Broadway in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which begins previews this week.

And speaking of The Graduate, Alleyway Theatre will present the play as part of its 2014-15 season. Directed by Todd Warfield, the production will start Constance Caldwell as the iconic Mrs. Robinson. The company will kick off the season with the winner of the 2013 Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition, the comedy Tropical Heat by Rich Orloff. Buffalo Quickies is also in the lineup and, of course, the annual presentation of A Christmas Carol.

In 2014-15, American Repertory Theater of WNY will present Michael John LaChiusa’s musical Hello, Again, Arthur Miller’s classic The Crucible, and Billy Horn’s original musical Fall. Hello Again is based on Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde and premiered at Lincoln Center in 1994 with Donna Murphy as part of the 10-member cast.

Local celebrity Doug Smith will co-star with former Lackawanna Councilman Bob Lohr in the upcoming production of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys at Desiderio’s Dinner Theater, directed by Jay Desiderio. The play premiered on Broadway in 1972 and was revived in 1977 starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. Last year, Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch starred in a production in Los Angeles that was aiming for Broadway. The Sunshine Boys, which marks Smith’s 78th production (he is also 78 years old), opens on April 10.

Up next for Theater Jugend, The Adventures of Jett Bettington, a new sci-fi comedy written by Jacob Albarella and Jason Kaiser, directed by Drew McCabe. The show opens April 24 at the ALT Theater. The company is taking its noir/crime-themed show Click Chamber from the Infringement Festival this past summer to New York City next month. Written and directed by Aaron Krygier and Justin Karcher, the show will run in the all new Festival of the Offensive from April 28 to May 4.

While Les Miserables is back on Broadway (it officially opened on Sunday, March 23 for an open-ended run), UB’s Department of Theatre and Dance will present its own production directed by Nathan Matthews. The show will run April 24-May 4 at the Drama Theatre in UB’s Center for the Arts.

Jon Elston’s one-act play The Elliptical will be staged together with David Ives’s short comedy Time Flies at Niagara County Community College as part of a double-bill titled Lost Time. Directed by Roger Keicher, the production will open on April 2. The Elliptical was originally presented by Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) in 2008 as part of Triangles, an evening of short plays. Elston is an instructor at NCCC’s Theatre Department.

Niagara University Theatre will end its 50th anniversary season with Kander and Ebb’s murder mystery musical Curtains (April 24-May 4), directed by Steven Braddock. On May 3, the Friends of Niagara University Theatre will celebrate the institution’s landmark anniversary and the contributions of the theater program’s late co-founder, Brother Augustine Towey, at the 29th annual Friends of Niagara University Theatre Gala.

Shea’s Performing Arts Center will hold its 24th annual Black-Tie Gala on Saturday, April 12. The evening includes dinner on stage at Shea’s, and a performance of The Nobodies of Comedy: Tomorrow’s Comedy Stars, Today at 710 Main. All proceeds benefit the restoration and education programs at Shea’s. For tickets, call 716-829-1170.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber seems to be a favorite at Shea’s. Still to come this season, his musical Evita (June 10-15), and announced for next season Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (October 7-12), and The Phantom of the Opera (March 18-29). The Stephen Schwartz musical, Pippin, which will not make it to Buffalo this season, will play in Rochester.

She’s always depended on the kindness of strangers. Jimmy Janowski (pictured above right) will play Blanche DuBois in the one-man show Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire. Presented by BUA, the play opens April 5 at Alleyway’s Main Street Cabaret.