Theater	Stagefright by Javier

Former Dukes of Hazzard star, Tom Wopat (pictured) was nominated this year for a Tony award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in the new musical A Catered Affair. Wopat was previously nominated in the same category in 1999 for his performance in the revival of Annie Get Your Gun, in which he starred opposite Bernadette Peters. His last Broadway appearance was in 2005 in the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross. The Tony Awards will be broadcast live on Sunday June 15 on Channel 4.

Lou Colaiacovo, Wendy Hall, Eric Rawski, Maggie Zindle, Sheila McCarthy, and Tom Owen are set to star in Musicalfare’s summer production Mid-Life, The Crisis Musical! Directed by Doug Weyand, with musical direction by Phil Farugia, the show will open on July 16.

Paul Maisano returns to Buffalo to star in Bada Bing! Bada Bong!, a show that he also conceived, which features great Italian music made famous by the likes of Dean Martin, Perry Como, Jerry Vale, and others. The show will have its world premiere next season, at Musicalfare as part of the company’s Jack Cullen New Musical Series.

Speaking of new musicals, Sammy & Me, which was presented at MusicalFare in January 2006, has been getting readings in New York city with commercial producers already attached to it, hoping for a Broadway bow in 2009. The show was co-written by Wendy Dann and Buffalo’s Eric Jordan Young, who also starred as the legendary Sammy Davis, Jr.. The show was presented at the National Black Theatre Festival in August 2007.

Michael Walline will make his Kavinoky directorial debut next season with the musical revue revue Hot ‘n Cole: A Cole Porter Celebration. With musical direction by Michael Hake, the production will star John Fredo, Kathy Weese, Kelly Meg Brennan, Matthew Mooney, Katy Miner, and Marc Sacco. The show will run March 6-April 5. By the way, the Kavinoky 2008-09 season will include three plays which were all on Broadway this past season: Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius (to be directed by Anne Gayley), the “new” Mark Twain comedy Is He Dead? and The Farnsworth Invention, a fascinating play about deceit, treachery, and the invention of television by Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote A Few Good Men.

O’Connelll & Company’s Diva by Diva will now play its final performance on June 4. The production was supposed to have closed on May 21, but due to overwhelming demand, two shows had to be added.

Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions will bring back the very popular musical revue I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! June 6-21 at the Marie Maday Theatre on the campus of Canisius College. The production will star Beth Gerardi, Keith Wharton, Tom LaChiusa, and Lona LaChiusa. The original New York production, which opened in August 1996, will play its final performance on July 27. When it closes, the show will be the second longest-running musical in off-Broadway history. The Fantasticks holds the number one spot.

American Repertory Theater will present the classic Kaufman and Hart comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner opening next November. The production will be directed by Jeanne Cairns.

Following The Rabbit Hole (which now will also star Pamela Rose Mangus playing the mother to the previously announced Joyce Stilson), the Alleyway Theatre season will include Tromping on Second Ground, directed by Tom Dooney; On the Way to Heaven, directed by Kim Piazza; and the world premiere of the musical Hell Hole Honeys, directed by Todd Warfield. Dooney will also be conducting the Alleyway’s Playwrights Workshop.

Roz Cramer will be back in town to co-star with Kelly Jakiel in the Jewish Repertory Theatre production of Collected Stories, which will be directed by Saul Elkin. The company’s production of Awake and Sing will star Ellen Horst, Susan Drozd, Peter Jaskowiak, and Tom Zindle, with Elkin playing the Grandfather. Directed by Greg Natale, the classic Odets play will also feature Patrick Cameron, Don Gervasi, and David Butler.

Don Gervasi, and David Butler.