The fabulous Rosie Perez (pictured above) is back on Broadway starring as Googie Gomez in the revival of Terrence McNally’s The Ritz. The play first opened back in 1975 with Rita Moreno earning a Tony award for her performance as Googie. Perez made her Broadway debut in 2003 in another McNally play, when she took over for Edie Falco in the acclaimed production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair the Lune. An Oscar nominee for her role in Fearless, Perez was also nominated for a NAACP Award for her performance in the HBO film Lackawanna Blues, based on Ruben Santiago Hudson’s one-man play.

Speaking of McNally, Some Men, his latest exploration of the lives of gay men, premieres in Buffalo on October 5 at the Alleyway Theatre. Presented by BUA, the production stars Tray Ballard, Frank Cannata, Dave Haefner, Matthew Crehan Higgins, Matthew Hurley, Jimmy Janowski, Chris Kelly, Bill Schmidt and Doug Weyand. The show opened in New York last April after an earlier version had its world premiere in Philadelphia last year.

The Federation of Italian-American Societies of WNY turns 100 this October. Part of the weekend-long celebration (October 5-7) will be Italian Serenade, a new musical by Neal Radice, that tells the story of Italian immigrants settling in Buffalo. The musical will premiere on October 6 at 8pm at Rockwell Hall with a cast that includes Mike Starzynski, Matthew Mooney, Leah Schneider, Wendy Hall, Stephanie Bax, Christopher Parada and Diane Cammarata. The production will also play on Sunday at 3pm and then move to the Alleyway Theatre, November 1-17.

Paul Todaro will direct the Kavinoky production of A.R. Gurney’s Crazy Mary, which is set to star Norm Sham. The show opens November 9.

Rodney Appleby (currently in the Kavinoky’s Lost Highway) has joined the cast of A Brief History of White Music, which Carlos Jones is directing for Musicalfare and is set to open November 7.

Rebecca Elkin returns to TOY in the company’s season opening production, The Phantom Tollbooth. Directed by Meg Quinn, the production will also feature Christopher LaBanca, Matthew LaChiusa and Rolando Gomez. The company will be holding its Fourth Annual Wine Tasting and Silent Auction on Thursday October 25, 6-8:30pm at the Allendale Theatre.

Semi-recluse Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, made a rare public appearance recently at a ceremony inducting four new members into the Alabama Academy of Honor. The acclaimed stage version of her beloved novel will be presented at Studio Arena next January in a production by Road Less Traveled and directed by Scott Behrend, which will feature, among others: Dan Walker, Dee Perry, Robert Rutland, Verniece Turner, Arlene Clement, Greg Natale, Tim Klein and Eileen Dugan.

By the way, Dugan was just named Theater-Artist-in-Residence by Canisius College’s Department of English, where she serves as adjunct professor coordinating the Theater Arts Minor in the department.

Master of mime Marcel Marceau (pictured below) died this past Saturday. He was 84. Irish Classical Theatre Company’s Vincent O’Neill was a student of his when he attended Marceau’s International Mime School in Paris. A few years ago, Marceau visited the Irish Classical Theatre Company here in Buffalo, where he was presented with a Career Lifetime Achievement Award.