The fabulous Lucie Arnaz (pictured above) is back on Broadway (through this weekend only) starring as grandma Berthe in the revival of Pippin, which just announced its closing date, January 4th 2015. By the time of closing, the Pippin revival will have played 709 regular performances and 37 previews. The original production opened in 1972 and ran for almost 2000 performances. After her Broadway turn, Arnaz re-joins the national touring company in Costa Mesa, California. For now, she is booked through January 11th in Hartford, Connecticut. The tour will play Rochester January 13th-18th.

It will be a busy week in Rochester in January. Audra McDonald will appear in concert at the Kodak Hall, Eastman Theatre on January 17th. McDonald kicks off her 2014-15 32-city tour on December 2nd in Los Angeles. Stops include Carnegie Hall on December 3rd.

Dame Edna has also announced her upcoming (and so she says, final tour) Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye—The Farewell Tour, beginning in January in Seattle. The closest to Buffalo she will play is at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theater, April 9th-19th.

Subversive Theatre will present the world premiere of a new play by Gary Earl Ross, The Guns of Christmas: The Truce in the Trenches, 1914. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the historic “Christmas Truce” during World War I. Directed by Ross, the production will feature J. Tim Raymond, Thorin Vallentin, Rick Vogt, Jacob Sauer, Murry Galloway, Justin Fiordaliso, John F Kennedy, Michael Mottern, Ryan Filer, Lucas Lloyd, and Lawrence Roswell. The production will run December 4th-20th.

Tom Zindle, PJ Tighe, Kathleen Denecke, and Genevieve Lerner will join Lisa Ludwig in the WNY premiere of A.R. Gurney’s Family Furniture, which opens at the Kavinoky on January 9th, directed by Peter Palmisano. Gurney’s popular Love Letters continues its very successful run on Broadway with its rotating casts. Alan Alda and Candice Bergen step in on November 9th. Stacy Keach and Diana Rigg will take the stage for the holidays, December 6th—January 9th.

Toni Smith Wilson will direct the Brazen-Faced Varlets upcoming production of Jean Betts’s Ophelia Thinks Harder, in which the renowned Shakespearean character is reborn as a modern and freethinking woman. The play will feature a large ensemble cast including, among others, Rosa Fernandez, Elizabeth Oddy, Jenny Gembka, Brittany Kucala, Kelly Beuth, Kate Olena, Kerry Alsheimer, and Caroline Parzy- Sanders. Ophelia opens in December at ART in the Box on Linwood.

On November 13th 1989, Theatre for Change made its debut with the domestic violence awareness play Father Knows Best, written by the company’s artistic director Darleen Pickering Hummert. The performance took place at Desiderio’s when it was located on William Street. The company will now celebrate its 25th anniversary this November with a dinner at Desiderio’s current location in Lancaster. Part of the proceeds of the event will be donated to Child and Family Services Haven House.

Speaking of Desiderio’s, the court room drama Nuts has been held over through the end of November. Coming up next, Ray Cooney’s comedy There Goes the Bride.

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) will have its third annual summer event, BLUE: New York’s West Coast Party 2015 on Wednesday, June 24th, 5:30-10 p.m. at The Shores Waterfront Restaurant on Tonawanda Island. The company has also just announced an elaborate partnership with Saginaw Valley State University for the development of new plays. The first play selected for this program is Donna Hoke’s Safe, which was developed in the 2013 Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop. Safe “examines social intolerance (including high school bullying) and its impact upon two suburban households.”

And speaking of Hoke, her daughter, Niagara University theater major Sabrina Kahwaty will be making her professional debut in BUA’s April production of Harbor. Chad Beguelin’s comedy is about a gay male married couple and the manipulative sister who visits with her teenage daughter (Kahwaty). Matthew Crehan Higgins will also star. Beguelin wrote the book for Disney’s current megahit Aladdin.

Save the date! Second Generation Theatre will hold its first annual Ugly Sweater Holiday Party on December 4th from 6-9 pm at Pettibones Grille. There will be food, live music, and plenty of local vendors to help you with your holiday shopping!