Stagefright	by Javier

After the original opening date was delayed due to the Broadway stagehands strike last year, Disney’s The Little Mermaid officially opened on January 10, to not-so-good critical response. Sierra Boggess (pictured above) is making her Broadway debut playing the little mermaid, Ariel. The show is running at the Lunt Fontanne, which was home to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast until it closed last July, after having run for 5,461 performances. Disney’s two other Broadway shows, The Lion King and Mary Poppins, are still going strong. As a matter of fact, the lavish Mary Poppins has recovered its investment and has already announced a national tour, which will kick off in Chicago in 2009. The London production just closed after a three-year run.

The fabulous Christine Baranski will return to Broadway in the upcoming production of the British sex farce Boeing Boeing. The play was a recent smash hit in London’s West End. This 1960s farce concerns a swinging bachelor and his three stewardess fiancées who, don’t you know it, turn up all at the same time in his apartment. Baranski won her second Tony award for her work in Neil Simon’s farce, Rumors.

New York’s Primary Stages 2008-09 season will kick off July 22 with the New York premiere of A.R. Gurney’s Buffalo Gal. The play was produced at Studio Arena a few seasons ago starring Betty Buckley.

Nathan Matthews will be the music director for Studio Arena’s upcoming production of Side by Side by Sondheim. Kathleen Gaffney and Mary Kate O’Connell will alternate as the narrators.

Joe Demerly, Anne Gayley, Eileen Dugan, Victoria Perez and Donn Youngstrom will join Mary Kate O’Connell in the upcoming Kavinoky Theatre production of Glorious!, a comedy based on real-life opera singer (albeit the worst singer in the world) Florence Foster Jenkins. The show opens February 29. Costumes will be designed by Tessa Lew.

Timothy Finnegan and Katie White have joined the cast of Frank Canino’s The Angelina Project, which opens at the Alleyway Theatre on January 31, directed by Tom Dooney. The play deals with the long-term effects of abuse and prejudice as it chronicles the lives of three generations of Italian women.

Mary McMahon, Philip Knoerzer, Kathleen Betsko Yale and Susan Leist are among the 14 actors scheduled to appear in the Playhouse of American Classics production of All the Way Home, which will run February 15-17 at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. The play by Tad Mosel won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and was also nominated for a Tony Award (Jean Anouilh’s Beckett won that year). Colleen Dewhurst was in the original cast and got a Tony award as Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Down in My Soul Productions and Ujima Theater Company will present the musical revue Anyone Who Had a Heart, February 8-17 at TheaterLoft. Directed by Joyce Carolyn, with choreography by Carlos Jones, the production will star Kerrykate Abel, Sandra Jilliam and Joyce Carolyn.

After its current co-production of Waiting for Lefty with the New Phoenix Theatre, Subversive Theatre Company will present Nickel and Dimed, a play adapted from Barbara Ehrenreich’s award-winning book. The production will run April 10-May 3 at the Alt Theatre located in the Great Arrow Building.

Speaking of Alt Theatre, January 31-February 9, Theater Helden will present the world premieres of two one-acts: Buzz by Nick Hirsch and The Orangutan-Man Knocks at Midnight by Drew McCabe.

After a month of restoration, the Riviera Theatre will re-open on February 1 with the O’Connell & Company production of Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues, a musical revue starring Mary Craig. The show will run through February 10 with musical director Dan Schroeder at the piano.

The musical Hairspray will make a return engagement to Shea’s, April 11-13.

Save the dates! On March 14, the Irish Classical Theatre Company will hold their annual fund raiser The Wake (a party to die for), from 6-9pm at the Town Ballroom, and on March 29 at 6pm, Shakespeare in Delaware Park will hold The 14th Annual Fabulous Feast at the Connecticut Street Armory.