Screen and stage star Scott Bakula (pictured above) is back on TV starring as special agent Dwayne “King” Pride in NCIS: New Orleans. Previous TV credits include Quantum Leap (four Emmy Award nominations) and Star Trek: Enterprise. Bakula made his Broadway debut (as an understudy) in the short lived musical Is there Life after High School? in 1982. In 1983 he played baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1988 for his performance in the musical Romance/Romance. Happy birthday! He turns 60 on October 9th.

And speaking of legends, Lombardi, a play about legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, set to open in November at 710 Main, produced by Musicalfare, has found its leading lady. Susan Drozd will play Lombardi’s wife, a role that got Judith Light a Tony Award nomination.

Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions skipped Curtain Up this year, but they will be back in February 2015 with the musical Spring Awakening.

Jewish Repertory Theatre of WNY will start its 2014-15 season in October with the recent off-Broadway hit Old Jews Telling Jokes. Co-directed by Saul Elkin and Tom Loughlin, the production will star our dear Saul, Robert Rutland, Chistina Rausa, Todd Benzin, and Josie DiVincenzo. In the most fabulous news, Rebecca Elkin-Young will be back in Buffalo to star in the company’s second show, Beau Jest, directed by Steve Vaughan. Neil Simon’s classic The Odd Couple opens in April with Loughlin and Tim Newell as Oscar and Felix. Lisa Ludwig and Michelle Benzin will play the Pigeon sisters.

Over The Tavern has been extended at the Kavinoky. The 20th anniversary production of the Tom Dudzick comedy will now run through October 12th.

Anne Hartley Pfhol and Brian Riggs return to BUA to star in Terrence McNally’s Mother and Sons, set to open in February. Directed by Jessica Rasp, the production will also star Michael Seitz.

Road Less Traveled Productions kicked off the 2014 Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop readings this past Monday with Donna Hoke’s Brilliant Works Of Art, directed by Katie Mallinson, featuring Paul Todaro, Genevieve Lerner and Geoff Pictor. The series continues on September 29 with Apple Of My Eye by Tracy Snyder, directed by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin. Future readings include Bitter Muse by Courtney Frances Fallon; Curse Of The Puerto Ricans by Rosa Fernandez; Our Dearly Depetted by Winifred M. Storms; and Dissonance by Joy Scime. All readings are on Mondays at 7:30 at the Road Less Traveled Theater, at the now soon to be gone Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre. Doors open at 7 p.m.; latecomers will be admitted after 7:30 p.m.

The reading series Bloody Sunday & Then Monday starts on Sunday October 5th at 4 p.m. and Monday, October 6th at 7 p.m. with Frank Canino’s The Swan Queen and The Radical Faerie. Readings at Rust Belt Books, no admission charge but donations accepted.

The Paul Robeson Theatre will premiere two plays by Paulette Harris in the 2014-15 season. Simply Annette, a story about a single mother’s determination to achieve her goals opens in March. How I Got Over, a joyous musical, opens in May.

Richard Lambert of the New Phoenix Theater issued an announcement on Wednesday, that after two months in the newly created position of director-in-residence, Robert Waterhouse and The New Phoenix Theater have decided to part ways, effective immediately. Lambert wished Waterhouse the very best in his future.

The fabulous Angela Lansbury turns 89 in October! She will be touring the country in Blithe Spirit this season! The closest she will be to us is at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, February 10th—March 15th.

Back in 1995 Artvoice inaugurated the Buffalo Theater Walk of Fame in the sidewalk on Chippewa Street—the same block where the Calumet Arts Café and the Irish Classical Theatre Company used to be. Stars included Buffalo born national celebrities (such as Christine Baranski and Michael Bennett) and very influential people on the local theater scene. Chippewa has changed a lot since then, and you can still see the original stars on that block, but now the Theatre District Association has relocated the tribute to the median in front of the former Studio Arena, now 710 Main Theatre. The Theatre Hall of Fame was inaugurated on CurtainUp last Friday. Previous inductees were on hand to help celebrate. Pictured below are inductees David Lamb, Neal Radice, and Saul Elkin.