Ashley Brown, who was the original Mary Poppins in the Broadway musical of the same name, will re-create her performance in the national touring company, kicking off in Chicago in March 2009. That touring production will be part of Cleveland’s Playhouse Square Broadway series, where it will play July 17-August 9, 2009. The Cleveland season will also include the touring productions of the 2007 Tony award-winning musical Spring Awakening (March 3-15) and Peter Morgan’s play Frost/Nixon starring Stacy Keach (January 13-25). The Geva Theater in Rochester will be mounting its own production of this fascinating play October 21-November 16. By the way, the Rochester Broadway Theatre League will present the touring production of the 2006 Tony award-winning musical Jersey Boys, February 25-March 15, 2009. Jersey Boys will also play the Main Stage of the Toronto Centre for the Arts (formerly Fords Centre) later this year, August 21-October 5. The Toronto venue, which was closed for several years, will bring major touring productions to the area starting in May with the National Theatre of Great Britain’s new production of My Fair Lady.

Ashley Brown

Speaking of tours, the touring production of Twelve Angry Men just won the Broadway League Touring Broadway Award for Best Touring Play. The tour played Toronto this past January (almost at the same time as the Kavinoky was presenting its own very successful production) and will be returning to the Princess of Wales Theatre June 3-15, starring Richard Thomas, and Julian Gamble.

Buffalonians will remember Julian Gamble from his many Studio Arena performances and for his compelling curtain speeches each spring, encouraging audiences to buy red ribbons in support of the Artvoice Artie Awards effort to raise funds for AIDS organizations in our community. Red ribbons are currently on sale in participating theaters. The Artie Awards will be held June 2 at the Town Ballroom.

David Lamb will be sharing the Kavinoky stage with Saul Elkin and Vincent O’Neill in Heroes, Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of a French play set in 1959 at a French military hospital. The play is part of the 2008-09 Kavinoky line-up along with the Tony winning Doubt, Theresa Rebeck’s brilliant 2007 play Mauritius, and the Cole porter revue Hot’n Cole. Joseph Demerly has just been appointed the theater’s managing director and Jennifer Morley will work as his assistant.

Michael Hunsaker, who played Radames in last summer’s Artpark production of Aida, will return this summer to play Beast in the musical Disney’s Beauty and the Beast ,which will be directed by Randy Kramer, with choreography by Lynne Kurdziel-Formato, and music direction by Eric Alsford. The production will also star Lisa Ludwig, Loraine O’Donnell, Doug Weyand, and Keith Ersing as Cogsworth. The part was created in the original 1994 Broadway production by the late Heath Lamberts, beloved Canadian actor and Shaw Festival regular. The Artpark production will open on August 14.

Rebecca Elkin will return to Shakespeare in the Park this summer to play Cordelia opposite Saul Elkin’s Lear. The production will also star Eileen Dugan as Goneril, Marie Hasselbach as Regan, and Tim Newell as the Fool. Joining Norm Sham’s Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor will be Susan Drozd as Mistress Page, Chrissy McDonald as Mistress Quickly, and Paul Todaro as Ford. The 33rd season kicks off with King Lear June 16.

The Playhouse of American Classics continues its season with James Gow and Arnaud d’Usseau’s 1943 Broadway play Tomorrow…The World, starring David Butler, Ryan Berkun, Tia Piotrowski, Erin Crowell, Katy Clancy, Arlene Clement, Linda Stein, William Laurie, Caleb Lee, Lennon Sulzbach, and Jerrod Miner. The production runs April 25 at 8pm, April 26 at 3 and 7pm, and April 27 at 3pm in the auditorium of the Historical Society Museum at 25 Nottingham Court at Elmwood Avenue.

The American Repertory Theater will present a staged reading of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer on Friday, May 2 at 8pm at TheaterLoft. Directed by Chris Standart, the reading will star Jeanne Cairnes, Christan Brandjes, Ann Roaldi, Alaina Miller, Robert Tucker, and Kathleen Betsko-Yale.

The Paul Robeson Theatre will close its 40th anniversary theater with a remount of the very popular comedy Steal Away. The play was first produced by the theater in 1988, and then in 1997. Directed by Paulette Harris, the new production will star Renita Shadwick, June L. Saunders Duell, Cynthia Maxwell, Beverly Crowell, Catherine Horton,Valencia Chase-Hill, and Candace Whitfield. Maxwell has appeared in all three productions.

Stephen Henderson is directing a staged reading of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom which will be presented on May 5 at 7:30pm at the Geva Theatre in Rochester. Tickets are free but must be reserved by calling the box office at (585) 232-4382.

The Lottie & Bernice Show by local playwright L. Don Swartz will have its world premiere on May 1 at the Ghostlight Theatre. The play is about two old Polish ladies, played by Joann Mis and Debby Koszelak Swartz, who conduct WNY’s TV morning talk show Buffalo Yak.

Buffalo’s Jeffry Denman just received an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for Best Actor in a Musical for two of his performances in the Boston area: Crazy for You and White Christmas. Denman is currently at the Alley Theatre in Houston in rehearsals for the Gershwins’ An American in Paris, a new musical inspired by the popular 1951 MGM film. The show has a book by Ken Ludwig, who also wrote the book for the 1992 Broadway musical Crazy for You, a reworking of the Gershwins’ musical Girl Crazy.