Movie star Steve Guttenberg was not so lucky in the popular TV show Dancing with the Stars, where he was eliminated in the second round. Guttenberg made his Broadway debut as a replacement cast in the original 1990 production of Prelude to a Kiss. His first film as director/producer/co-screenwriter/star was the adaptation of James Kirkwood’s play P.S. Your Cat Is Dead. Theater fans should now probably root for Marissa Jaret Winokur, who remains a contestant in the popular TV show. Winokur won a Tony award for her performance in Hairspray, beating Bernadette Peters, who was nominated for her performance in Gypsy. It was the first time (and probably the last) that an actress playing Rose in a revival of Gypsy did not get the award. Patti LuPone is a favorite for this year’s Tony. By the way, a touring production of Hairspray plays this week at Shea’s.

Road Less Traveled Productions will have its Spring 2008 Gala on April 23. The evening begins at 7pm with a special showing of Eric Bogosian’s Humpty Dumpty, which now also stars Tom LaChiusa. A reception hosted by the playwright, Mr. Bogosian, will take place 9:30-11:30pm at Shea’s Intermission Lounge. For tickets, call 629-3069.

Steve Guttenberg

The Infringement Festival 2008 will be held July 24-August 3. This year’s submission deadline is May 9. Apply on line at infringebuffalo.org.

Father and daughter Gerry and Eliza Maher will be sharing the stage in the Irish Classical Theatre Company production of the hilarious Charley’s Aunt, which opens on April 18. Directed by Fortunato Pezzimenti, the production will also star Andrew Kenneth Moss, Neal Moeller, and David Autovino.

Coming up for BUA, the comedy My Deah!, a re-working of the tragedy Medea, directed by Chris Kelly and starring Jimmy Janowski in the title role. The production will also star Kelly Jakiel, Eric Rawski, Kevin Kennedy, Matt Bova, and Caitlin Coleman.

Meredith A. Jones, a student at Hamburg High School, is the winner of this years’ student playwriting competition The Write to Be Heard. Her play, Being What We Are, will premiere on May 4 at Shea’s Smith Theatre at 3pm. Runners-up were Squirrel by Alex Fultz from Hoover Middle School and Take Not in Vain by Charlene Miller from Alden High School.

The Geva Theatre (Rochester’s regional theater company) has announced its 36th season, which opens in September with the musical Ella, conceived by Rob Ruggiero and Dyke Garrison, with book by Jeffrey Hatcher, and musical direction and arrangements by Danny Holgate. The season will also include Frost/Nixon, A Christmas Story, August Wilson’s Fences, and the musical Sweeney Todd.

Michele Ragusa will be starring as Lilli Vanessi/Kate in the Paper Mill Playhouse upcoming production of Kiss Me Kate. Ragusa was last seen there in She Loves Me! It was not even a year ago when the theater’s financial troubles put the venue in threat of closing. The theater will present its 70th anniversary season in 2008-09.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Steve Henderson will be involved in New York’s Signature Theatre 2008-09 season. The season will feature work from the Negro Ensemble Company’s collective of writers. Santiago-Hudson, who will serve as associate artist for the season, will direct Leslie Lee’s The First Breeze of Summer. Henderson will direct Charles Fuller’s Zooman and the Sign.