The touring production of A Chorus Line arrives at Shea’s on May 5. Conceived, directed, and choreographed by Buffalo’s Michael Bennett, the show opened on Broadway in 1975 and closed in April 1990. The fabulous Donna McKechnie was the original Cassie and received a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical. McKechnie, who is now 66, is still very active in regional theaters appearing both in musicals (Gypsy, Follies) and straight plays (The Glass Menagerie). A Chorus Line had a very successful Broadway revival, October 2006-August 2008.

Donna McKechnie

Speaking of A Chorus Line, the show’s original lighting designer, Tharon Musser, died this week at the age of 84. Her work on the show was considered revolutionary, as she was the first ever to use a completely computerized lighting console on Broadway. Her design was used in the 2006 Broadway revival. Musser won Tony Awards for Follies, Dreamgirls, and A Chorus Line.

Neil Garvey, Doug Crane, Jim Mohr, Gerry Maher, Steve Peterson, and Tom Loughlin will be joining Saul Elkin in Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s production of The Tempest, which opens on June 18. Julius Caesar opens July 23 with Dan Walker in the title role, joined by Adriano Gatto, Doug Zschiegner, Tim Newell, Chris LaBanca, Katie White, David Bondrow, and Ross Hewitt.

RSDP Productions will present A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Room May 29-June 7, at the Lancaster Opera House. Directed by Peter Palmisano, the production will star Dolores Mendolia, Ron Swick, Susan Toomey, Jennifer Toomey Starr, Andrew Starr, and John Buscaglia.

The Subversive Theatre Collective will present a staged reading of Bertolt Brecht’s drama The Days of the Commune on May 1 at 8pm at the Manny Fried Playhouse. The presentation is part of the company’s annual May Day Staged Reading Series. Brecht’s son, Stefan Sebastian Brecht, died on April 13 in New York at the age of 84. During the 1960s, he became a theater historian and chronicled the avant-garde theater of that period.

Kelly Bishop

Musicalfare has extended the run of its current offering Bada Bing! Bada Boom! through May 31. The production stars Louis Colaiacovo, Paschal Frisina III, Lisa Ludwig, and Paul Maisano. Rumor has it that next season’s Man of La Mancha will reunite Ludwig with her Sweeney Todd co-star John Fredo.

The New Phoenix will now present Macbeth in the March slot with Kelli Bocock-Natale directing and Brian Riggs in the title role. Riggs will now star opposite Loraine O’Donnell in the Irish Classical Theatre production of Blood Brothers in September.

Director Derek Campbell is elated to have found his leading players for next season’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, the play by Edward Albee that Road Less Traveled will present April 16-May 16. Maggie Zindle and Tom Zindle will be portraying the married couple originated on Broadway by Mercedes Ruehl and Bill Pullman. The play opened on Broadway in March 2002. The leads were later replaced by Sally Field and Bill Irwin.

The fabulous Kelly Bishop was also in the original cast of A Chorus Line, playing the part of Sheila, for which she won the Tony for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. Known to TV viewers for Gilmore Girls, Bishop was back on the New York stage this year appearing in Becky Shaw (2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist). Her last Broadway appearances were in 1997: Neil Simon’s Proposals and Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997 Pulitzer Prize finalist). By the way, the Jewish Repertory Theatre of WNY present Uhry’s play as part of their next season.