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Stagefright

TV star James Denton , who plays sexy plumber Mike Delfino in Desperate Housewives, recently returned to his theatrical roots, starring in the new play How Cissy Grew presented at a theater in North Hollywood. Denton started as a stage actor in Chicago, where his first role was Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. By the way, Desperate Housewives just celebrated its 100th episode.

TV star James Denton

Up next for the Playhouse of American Classics, the 1945 romantic comedy Dream Girl by Elmer Rice. Directed by Terrence McDonald, the “chamber theater” presentation will star Kelly Ferguson Moore and David Hayes. The production will run February 13-15 at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. Dream Girl was the basis for the 1965 Broadway musical Skyscraper, which starred Julie Harris.

Kelly Beuth will once again direct the Buffalo V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues, February 12 and 13 at 7:30pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 695 Elmwood. The production will raise money for the Crisis Services Advocate Program. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the door.

O’Connell & Company will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Diva by Diva with a special presentation, A Night of a Thousand Divas, on February 11 at 7:30pm at the Riviera Theatre. All proceeds from this special event will benefit Western New York charities. For information, call 692-2413.

The performance of Three Broadway Divas scheduled for February 14 at UB’s Center for the Arts has been canceled.

Nicole Cimato has joined the cast of MusicalFare’s production of Sunday in the Park with George, which opens March 4. After a brilliant turn in Awake and Sing!, David Butler will return to the Jewish Repertory Theatre to star in Hello, Muddah! Hello, Fadduh!, which opens February 26. And Buffalo’s most distinguished baritone, Tom Owen, has joined the cast of the Kavinoky’s Hot ’n Cole, which opens March 6.

Due to some water damage in the building, the opening of the much anticipated Ujima Company production of The Visit has been postponed until February 13. Directed by Phil Knoerzer, and starring Lorna C. Hill and Peter Palmisano, the production also features Susan Toomey, Rob Dziechciarz, Brandon Williamson, Daniel Greer, and Constance McEwen Caldwell.

The Paul Robeson Theatre will continue its 40th anniversary season with August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, directed by Laverne Clay. Set in 1904, the play is part of the 10-play cycle recounting African American lives in the 20th century, decade by decade. The play opened on Broadway in 2004 starring, among others, Phylicia Rashad, and Buffalonian Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The local production opens February 13 starring Cynthia Maxwell (in the Rashad role), Alton Bowens, Roger Lamonte Killian, Ciandre Taylor, Leon Copeland, Kinzy Brown, and Dee LaMonte Perry.

Speaking of Wilson, his play, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, is headed for a Broadway revival beginning this March. Set in 1911, the play opened on Broadway in 1988 featuring an as yet unknown Angela Bassett. Years later, in 2006, Bassett got to star opposite Laurence Fishburne in Wilson’s Fences at the Pasadena Playhouse.

One of Wilson’s foremost interpreters, Buffalo’s Steve Henderson, is currently directing the New York revival of Zooman and the Sign, which opens March 3 at the Signature Theatre Company. The company has dedicated its entire season to plays originally presented by the Negro Ensemble Company. Coincidentally, the previous two productions in the season have also been directed by Buffalonians. Ruben Santiago-Hudson directed The First Breeze of Summer, and Ron OJ Parson directed Home.

The fabulous Roslyn Ruff, who got an Artie Award back in 1999 for her performance in Amen Corner, is currently starring in the world premiere of Athol Fugard’s Coming Home at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. Ruff received an OBIE Award in 2007 for her performance in Wilson’s Seven Guitars. Rumor has it that she will be in Buffalo on June 1 to attend the Artie Award ceremonies.

After starring in the very successful run of White Christmas on Broadway, Jeff Denman will direct, choreograph, and star in The Broadway Musicals of 1924, on February 23 at Manhattan’s Town Hall.

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