Jeffrey Donovan (left) with author Javier

TV and movie star Jeffrey Donovan is currently in Chicago (through January 11) appearing in the sex farce Don’t Dress for Dinner at the Royal George Theatre. No stranger to the theater, Donovan has appeared on Broadway in An Inspector Calls and A View from the Bridge. He is currently featured in the movie Changeling. The third season of his hit TV show Burn Notice will premiere January 22 on the USA network.

Steve Copps, Amy Jakiel, Anne Roaldi, Leah Russo, and Doug Crane have joined the cast of Musicalfare’s upcoming production of Sunday in the Park with George. The show, which opens March 4, will be directed by Randy Kramer, with musical direction by Eric Alsford, and Allan Paglia.

Brazen-Faced Varlets will present Wendy Kesselman’s drama My Sister in this House, January 15-24 at the ALT Theatre in the Great Arrow Building. Directed by Lara Haberberger, the production will star Katie White, Heather Fangsrud, Jessica Rasp and Kelly Beuth. Kesselman’s play is based on a famous 1930s French murder case, in which two sisters, working as maids, were convicted of murdering their employer and her daughter. The case also inspired Genet’s The Maids. The Irish Classical Theatre presented My Sister in this House back in 2003 with Kristen Kos, Abby Huston, Kelly Feguson, and the remarkable Bess Brown Kregal.

Next at TOY, The Secret Lives of Girls, opening January 30. Originally commissioned and produced by Dallas Children’s Theatre, the play is based on interviews with girls on the subject of bullying. The production will star Mary McMahon, Dechen Dolkar, Mary Keenan Brown, Amy Mings, Claire Cannon, Marisol Torres, Mahalia McCrayer, Sara States, and Kaila Rose Proulx. By the way, good luck and best wishes to TOY’s former communications director Taunee Grant, who will be relocating to Washington, DC.

Kim Piazza will be directing Carolyn Nelson’s On the Way to Heaven which opens at the Alleyway on February 5. Presented by Theatre Plus, the production will star Roger Vandett, Joy Scime, Jeanne Vuich, and Mike Seitz. In the mean time, the company kicks off 2009 with Beth Geyer’s Real Fantasy, directed by Victoria Perez, January 15-31 at the Main Street Cabaret.

Eartha Kitt (right) pictured with author Javier

O’Connell & Company’s production of 4 Guys Named Jose and Una Mujer Named Maria, scheduled to run February 5th-15 at the Riviera Theater, has been postponed to a later date. Later in the year, the company is also scheduled to perform The Bible: The Complete Word of God and Tintypes.

Subversive Theatre Collective will be presenting an original work, Ouroboros, imagined and directed by Brian Zybala. According to the company’s notes, “this ensemble piece will incorporate movement and music to explore the cyclical nature of man”. The production will run January 21-February 8. Incidentally, congratulations to the company’s founder/artistic director Kurt Schneiderman and wife Jenny on the birth of their son Zev on December 24!

We mourn the passing of the fabulous Eartha Kitt who died on December 25 at the age of 81. Kitt received a Tony nomination in 2000 for her performance in Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party. Her last Broadway appearance was in 2003 when she took over for Chita Rivera in the revival of Nine. Back in 1957, when Kitt starred on Broadway in the musical Shinbone Alley, Chita was her standby.