April 2006 Archives

The 51st annual Drama Desk Awards, hosted for the third consecutive year by Harvey Fierstein, fresh from repeating his starring role in the Las Vegas edition of Hairspray, take place Sunday, May 21, from 9 - 11 P.M. in the Concert Hall of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center [109 Amsterdam Avenue at West 65th Street].

This year's Awards, which honor Broadway and Off Broadway, will be webcast live by TheaterMania.com and have a delayed telecast on Thirteen/WNET, NYC TV25 and, nationally, over 25 PBS stations. An "Red Carpet" segment will feature Rex Reed interviewing arriving nominees. A reception to honor all nominees will be held Tuesday.

The Awards will feature the stars of nominated plays and the stars and entertainment from nominated musicals.

Nominees for Outstanding Play are : Alan Bennett, The History Boys; David Hare, Stuff Happens; Warren Leight, No Foreigners Beyond This Point; Martin McDonagh, The Lieutenant of Inishmore; Terrence McNally, Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams; and Craig Wright, The Pavilion.

Nominations for Outstanding Musical are: The Drowsy Chaperone, Grey Gardens, Jersey Boys, See What I Wanna See, Thrill Me and The Wedding Singer.

The Drama Desk membership is comprised of more than 130 professional theater critics, reporters and editors.

Robert R. Blume, TheatreSport Ltd., is executive producer of the Drama Desk Awards, which are presented in association with TheaterMania.com and produced and directed by Lauren Class Schneider and Jeff Kalpak. Veteran producer and a former executive producer of the Tony Awards Roy A. Somlyo is consulting producer. The show is being written by Terry Berliner.

Sponsors of this year's awards include: Jack and Susan Rudin, the Smart Family Foundation, Dorothy Strelsin Foundation, Dorothy Loudon Foundation, The New York Times, Variety, PB and J Partners The NY Friars Club, Jamie deRoy & Friends, Jacki Barlia-Florin, Lawrence Fraiberg, Roy Furman, Stewart F. Lane, Richard I. Kandel, Chase Mishkin, Lynn and Lewis Pell, Daryl Roth, Ted Snowdon, Arte CafÈ, Bolla Wines, Grey Goose Vodka and Tony's Di Napoli Restaurant Times Square.

To purchase tickets for the black-tie event at $175 each, which include a pre-Awards reception, call (212) 352-3101 or go online at TheaterMania.com. Tickets may also be purchased at the TheaterMania.com box office at the Virgin MegaStore Times Square from Noon - 6 P.M. For additional information, go to http://www.dramadesk.org/.

For VIP tickets, at $750 each, which include priority seating and private before-and-after cocktail parties at Trump Plaza and John's Pizzeria of Times Square with transportation to and from the concert hall by co-sponsor Gray Line NY Sightseeing, call (212) 354-5124 or (646) 522-5870.

RICE AND WEBBER TOGETHER AGAIN THE FIRST TIME

The Likes of Us was the first musical collaboration between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Written in 1965, when Lloyd Webber was in college, the musical was not produced and never recorded.

Forty years later the show received its first staging at the Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival last summer and was recorded live. Now it's available on CD [Decca Broadway, $25; illustrated book with full libretto and notes from ALW and Rice] with 24 tracks [17 songs, including a new tune "This is My Time"; reprises, overture, entr'acte] on two discs.

Similar in style and flavor to Lionel Bart's Oliver!, The Likes of Us is based on the life of 19th Century philanthropist Dr. Thomas Barnardo, who devoted his life to changing conditions of Victorian London, especially surrounding the impoverished children. His works led to the foundation of children's homes that bear his name today.

The reconstructed musical [the original book was lost] is evidence of what excellent collaborators Rice, an amazingly-gifted wordsmith, and ALW were and has some promise they may work together again.

Rice makes a rare performing appearance in a principal role among the cast of 23. Adam Brazier [The Woman In White] plays Dr. Barnado. There is an introduction and narration by Stephen Fry. Simon Lee conducts.

Selections, which vary from pop and light rock to operetta, include "Love Is Here," "How Am I To Know, "This Is My Time," "Lion-Heart Land," "A Man On His Own," "You Can Never Make It Alone," "You Won't Care About Him Anymore" and "Man Of The World."

As you may have guessed from a couple of the titles, Lloyd Webber went on to use music he composed for Likes in later works.

"When Tim suggested we record The Likes Of Us," says Lloyd Webber, "I was more than a bit cautious. I knew that I'd used melodies from it elsewhere, but how many I couldn't remember."

Part of the fun of the Likes CD is guessing which tune went where! [Hints: Jesus Christ Superstar, Song and Dance, By Jeeves.]

Lloyd Webber and Rice's works include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita. In addition, Rice has worked with Elton John on such projects as The Lion King and Aida.

Lloyd Webber's latest opus was the short-lived The Woman in White, which marked the Broadway debut of Maria Friedman [also on Decca Broadway]. In January, his and Charles Hart's The Phantom of The Opera became the longest-running musical in Broadway history [topping previous champion Cats, also, of course, by Lloyd Webber].

POTO has, of course, been produced around the world; and, beginning June 4, is being presented in a special 95-minute edition, Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular. in a magnificent $40-million theater modeled on the 1862 Paris Opera house in the sprawling grandeur of the Venetian Resort, Hotel and Casino.

Broadway hunk Brent Barrett [Annie Get Your Gun, Kiss Me, Kate, Chicago] and Tony Award-winner Anthony Crivello [Kiss of the Spider Woman] will alternate in the lead role.

To order tickets [$82-$157], call (866) 641-7469 or (702) 414-7469, or visit http://www.venetian.com/. The official website is http://www.phantomlasvegas.com/.

MUSICAL MONDAY DOUBLE BILL

Musical Mondays Theatre Lab presents is presenting a sneak preview of two new musicals from the BMI Musical Theater Workshop tomorrow [May 1] at 6:15 P.M. at the 45th Street Theatre [354 West 45th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues].

Mel Miller, Frank Evans, Anne L Bernstein and Mary Ellen Ashley are the producers for Musical Mondays.

The Dogs of Pripyat, based on the play by Leah Napolin, has music by Aron Accurso and lyrics by Jill Abramovitz, is set against the nuclear explosion in Chernobyl, where a young terrier goes from life as an abandoned pet "to alpha male."

The creative team describes the musical as "a modern fable about hope, survival, and the triumph of the spirit under the most unimaginable of circumstances." The cast includes Steve Routman, Nora Mae Lyng [Into the Woods, Amour], Kate Katherhead [ÖSpelling Bee], Robb Sapp [Wicked, Zanna Don't], Tom Gualtieri [Naked Boys Singing], Adam Overett [The Light in the Piazza], Tim Shew [Wonderful Town, Les Miz] and Gaelen Gilliland [Wicked].

The second part of the bill is Rock City, a 20-minute musical drawn from a full-length collection of short musicals exploring the complexities of modern romantic relationships, each set at a different tourist destination across America.

It has music by Brad Alexander and book and lyrics by Adam Mathias. Mamie Parris, who plays16 different characters in Off Broadway's Bush Wars, and Benjamin Schrader [Dog Sees God and Tom Sawyer in Big River's national tour], star.

Tickets are $10. For reservations, call (212) 989-6706 or go online at [email protected]

SCREEN GODDESS GET DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY

Men literally dropped when she walked by. Even the most gorgeous of babes were jealous of her. Ava Gardner was that beautiful.

The sexually uninhibited to-say-the-least Gardner was not a disappointment to anyone who met her. Especially men.

Onscreen, she was the sex symbol who dazzled all the other sex symbols. She was heat personified. Offscreen, she was the temptress who kept loony Howard Hughes at bay in spite of his lavishing diamonds and autos on her, haunted Ole Blue Eyes to the brink of suicide and drove The Mick to the edge of insanity.

Lee Server, author of the excellent Robert Mitchum bio Baby, I Don't Care, serves up all the dish, and much, much more in Ava Gardner, "Love Is Nothing" [St. Martin's Press; hard, 851 pages; $30; filmography; index, 16 pages of B&W photos].

With hundreds of interviews with colleagues, friends, lovers, Gardner's second husband [former big band leader Arte Shaw] and research [there are 25 pages of references, source material and bibliography], Server details the nitty gritty of one of the top glamour queens of 40s and 50s and her tumultuous private life of lovers, wreckless living, hard drinking and self-imposed exile from Hollywood to a solitary life in London and self-destruction through alcohol, stroke and illness.

It's a bigggg book, but never dull. However, one thing's missing. In spite of the numerous photos, the two-sections of galleries don't have the type of of pictures that define this charismatic, jaw-dropping beauty who launced a thousand affairs.

The former North Carolina beauty, who was born and raised on a tobacco farm, arrived in Hollywood via a photo session in New York. She was shy and, to say the least, unpolished, but even without make-up she photographed beautifully. However, Louie B. Mayer and his Hollywood dream factory, MGM, knew how to create stars. Strangely, though, Mayer focused on sex goddess Lana Turner and failed to capitalize on Gardner. However, on loan-0ut to Universal, she got the type of role that made her sizzle. The Killers [1946], a violent film noir produced by Mark Hellinger, directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Burt Lancaster, put her on the map not merely as a sex symbol but also as an actress. Gardner was more than a hot bod.

Starting in 1941, it took 24 films before Gardner was noticed by the public. It was 1945's Whistle Stop, a gritty potboiler created as a showcase for then megastar George Raft, that first garnered her the sex symbol label.

Gardner had roles in over 65 films, in addition to a TV series. She died much too early in 1990 at the age of 68.

She was only Oscar-nominated once - for her lusty role as Honey Bear in John Ford's African adventure Mogambo opposite her childhood idol Clark Gable. If the fates had been with her, she would have been nominated several more times, especially for her portrayal of lusty, but world-weary Maxine Faulk in the 1964 adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana, for which she took home a Golden Globe [and was nominated as Foreign Actress by BAFTA].

Other notable films were One Touch of Venus, the 1951 Show Boat, The Snows Of Kilimanjaro [based on a Hemingway short story], The Barefoot Contessa, Bhowani Junction, The Sun Also Rises, The Naked Maja, On the Beach, 55 Days in Peking and Seven Days In May.

Best-selling author Edward Z. Epstein met Gardner when he was a press representative for Universal Pictures [the movie was The Sentinel]. "She was fifty-four - a precipitous age for a ëlegend' - but still beautiful," he says. "I thought, 'If she looks this good in her fifties, no wonder she drove powerful men berserk in her twenties and thirties! Ava might have been a country girl at heart, but she'd grown accustomed to the perquisites of stardom. She was restless, demanding, sweet and spoiled. But also highly likable, and her energy level was awesome."

Asked about Gardner's sexuality, Epstein didn't hesitate: "She was intensely feminine and provocative. What was amazing, however, was that she seemed totally oblivious to the commotion she caused."

Epstein became so intrigued by Gardner that, after writing 20 books, he's written a one-woman play about her. "But," he says, "casting the role of Ava won't be easy!"

In Ava Gardner, Server's account of the lusty courtship and stormy marriage of Gardner to Sinatra and their life-long bond is the most detailed yet and has new information about their passionate but violent relationship.

In hindsight you have to wonder what Gardner was thinking when it came to marriage. Hollywood kept many secrets from the public in that era, but none among industry insiders and colleagues. It was well-known that Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Sinatra were champion womanizers. Yet love, or what sometimes passes for it, is blind. Headstrong, Gardner leaped in with eyes wide shut.

Her marriage to Sinatra is the stuff of legend. It was especially doomed for he and Gardner were cut from the same cloth. Both were jealous and possessive. They came close to killing each other a few times, but through all the on and off again and ups and downs there was an intense bond until the day she died.

Love or infatuation really was blind when it came to Gardner's first marriage. She was 19, Rooney was 21. Notes Epstein, "They were kids! She wouldn't get her break on screen for several years. He was the Number One box office star and an insatiable womanizer. It's amazing he married at all."

How could a simple Southern gal resist Hollywood royalty? Gardner couldn't, but she had a ploy. She was a virgin. The Mick had women throwing themselves at him. He took whatever he wanted. Incredible specimen though she may have been, she also had a brain. If Rooney wanted her, they had to make it legal. Mistake Number One. After he enjoyed the marital bed, he seemed to prefer golf to Gardner.

Two more mistakes followed, but Shaw, when interviewed by Epstein for a biography on Lana Turner, who he'd been married to, had interesting insight. "He said that being with Lana was like being in the room with a beautiful vase, but that Ava was the total opposite. She was great fun and had many dimensions to her personality. She was opinionated, curious about everything and highly intelligent."

It didn't help in her marriage to Sinatra that his career was literally dead in the water and hers at its zenith. To help him out of his depression, Gardner lobbied Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, at first through his elegant, powerful wife Joan, to get Sinatra the role of Private Maggio in the film adaptation of James Jones' From Here To Eternity. It became a box office blockbuster and led to what many consider the greatest comeback in entertainment history.

Then the tables turned. Sinatra went on to win an Oscar for the role. He became so full of himself that he actually lost interest in the woman he literally drove nuts until she married him [this was a theme that ran through all three marriages].

Those mistakes were marital, but lusty Gardner made many more. She just didn't marry them. She had an especially strong attraction to strong egos or they to her - such as Hemingway, bad boys and bullfighters. It would not be an understatement to say - old or young, tall or short, handsome or not so handsome, exotic or plain, star or bit player, there was hardly a male of her acquaintance that she didn't bed.

Ava Gardner was one of a handful of screen beauties whose life was grander and more colorful than any movie. Servers' biography is a telling memento of it all, covered in quite intimate and graphic detail - much more so than in Gardner's posthumously-constructed autobiography Ava: My Story. Sadly, it lacks a happy ending.

OVER THERE TO OVER HERE

British playwright Samuel Adamson's critically-acclaimed 1996 play Clocks and Whistles is having it's American premiere in a production by the Origin Theatre Company, the cross-cultural group "dedicated to the development and interpretation of emerging European playwrights" by offering American premieres of their work.

The play centers on three London 20-somethings "involved in a sexually-ambivalent triangle that blurs the boundaries between friendship, love and sexual identity."

Featured in the cast are Meghan Andrews [Lortel Award nominee, The Trip to Bountiful; Steppenwolf Theatre's The Grapes Of Wrath], Christopher Randolph [the Christopher Plummer King Lear], Guthrie Theatre veteran Catherine Eaton, Jerzy Gwiazdowski and David Mawhinney. Talya Klein is directing.

Sheridan Morley, in The Spectator, called the London production "far and away the most accomplished first play I have seenÖCoward, Isherwood and Rattigan would have recognized and applauded [this] character study of clenched despair [and] subtle sexual, social and professional betrayal." he prestigious Kennedy Center and the Dublin Festival.

Performances are May 4-21 at Chashama Theatre [217 East 42nd Street]. To book $18 general admission tickets, go to http://www.smarttix.com/ or call (212) 868-4444.

NOW FOR SOMETHING PINK

The 2006 Back Stage Bistro award-winning and Nightlife Award-nominated vocal trio, the Fabulous Pink Flamingos, are presenting a religious pageant, but one filled with their trademark humor, in The Gospel According to the Pink Flamingos. The trio notes that the show is "appropriate for people of all creeds, colors and gender."

If you wish to join the zany fun and guests, the Taffy Sisters, for what the Pink Flamingos are calling "an all-out, shake-your-shoes, lose-your-blues, hand-clappin', foot-stompin', hell raisin' time for the gentile in all of us," they're at Don't Tell Mama [343 West 46th Street] tomorrow night and subsequent Mondays and Tuesdays through May 16 at 9 P.M.

Admission is a $12 cover and two-drink minimum. For reservations, call (212) 757-0788.
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The unique collaboration between Tony Kushner and illustrator Maurice Sendak, Brundibar, an operatic co-production of Berkeley and Yale Reps, is having its New York premiere at the New Victory Theater [42nd Street, West of Broadway] through Sunday, May 21.

First composed by Hans Kr·sa in the years leading up to World War II, Brundibar still maintains its original score, but Tony and Drama Desk Award and Pulitzer Prize-winner Kushner has done a new adaptation of Adolf Hoffmeister's libretto.

For years, the original piece has been presented to inspire audiences with its message of good overcoming evil. But it also has a place in history for how it was used by the Nazis for propaganda purposes.

Euan Morton, Olivier, Tony and DD-nominated for his portrayal of Boy George in Taboo and the recent star of Measure for Pleasure at the Public, repeats the title role he created late last year at Berkeley.

"I'm feeling a lot more comfortable about the New Victory run," says Morton, "because at Berkeley I played Brundibar on stilts. I've been sort of cut down to size, and there's new choreography. It's going to feel like I'm doing the piece for the first time."

The cast of 11 also features two-time Tony and Drama Desk nominee Martin Vidnovic [who won the 1984 Featured Actor Tony for Baby] and William Youmans [Wicked, La Boheme, Titanic, Big River] [he's also the grandnephew of Broadway composer and sometime producer Vincent Youmans, best known for No, No, Nanette and Hit the Deck].

The chorus is made up of 20 young performers from Rosie O'Donnell's arts education organization Broadway Kids. Lori Klinger is artistic director of Rosie's Broadway Kids.

Tony Taccone, Berkeley Rep artistic director and director of this production, notes that Brundibar combines "Kushner's skill with language and Sendak's phenomenal imagination."

The Berkeley/Yale production of Brundibar features Sendak's spectacular set design. He was assisted by Kris Stone. Greg Anthony is music director and conductor.

Morton didn't even read the script before saying yes. "I got hooked just reading the synopsis. It's absolutely fascinating and also on how the Nazis used the opera and the children in the death camps."

In its day, Brundibar became a powerful protest against the Nazis, but after the SS discovered the score had been smuggled into the concentration camp at Terezin, Czechoslovakia [now, the Czech Republic], it was also used by the SS to perpetrate an elaborate ruse on the international community and the Red Cross.

Brundibar is described as an allegory of innocence triumphing over evil. It tells of a brother and sister going to town to buy milk for their sick mother, but they don't have enough money. They attempt to take the lead of an organ grinder whom they see people throwing money at. But this fails until they join forces with talking animals and a host of children who bond to outwit the town's sinister organ grinder. Yes, a sinister organ grinder!

Because of what was rumored to be happening at Terezin, the Red Cross came to inspect. The Germans had decorated the camp in festive way and presented it as a spa town especially created for Jews, where they could also have concerts and other entertainment.

Often, the camp children presented Brundibar. The Nazis went so far as to film a performance and present it to the world community as The Fuehrer Presents the Jews with a City. Unbelievably, the Red Cross and others backed away and the death camp continued to operate.

Nearly all of the children who performed in the opera were deported to Auschwitz and died in the gas chambers, a fate also met by composer Krasa.

For the New Victory run, Kushner has written a "kids and family-friendly" curtain raiser based loosely on how Brundibar's score was sneaked into the Terezin camp by its conductor and Jewish music teachers.

Brundibar, recommended for ages eight up, runs 95 minutes with intermission. Showtimes vary, with several two-a-day performances. Tickets at $10, $20 and $30 are available the New Victory box office or through Telecharge, (212) 239-6200, and Telecharge.com. For more information, visit http://www.newvictory.org/. For more information on Rosie's Broadway Kids, visit www.rosiesbroadwaykids.org.

IT'S RAINING MORTON

Euan Morton will appear in concert Monday, May 15 at Birdland [315 West 44th Street, off Eighth Avenue] at 7 P.M., presented in association with Jim Caruso and TheaterMania.

Morton will be singing original songs, Broadway standards and, perhaps, a song or two from the Carpenters. What?

"I've always wanted to sing the Carpenters," says Morton, "which sounds a little weird. They were my favorite group growing up, but I'm not sure it's what audiences want to hear in the 21st Century in a New York jazz club."

He is finding, however, that some of the pop group's songs could actually work with a little bit of reinvention on the arrangements.

There'll be songs from his new CD, NewClear, the initial release from the Lyric Partners label, which he also co-produced. The album's 10 tracks run the gamut from emotional heartbreakers to pop rock and includes two tunes by George O'Dowd [a.k.a. Boy George].

"I'll also be presenting some new material," says Morton, "if I don't get too scared.

Morton explains that though he's been singing all his life, he only occasionally "got brave enough" to step on a stage in a London cabaret and do a couple of songs. "I lacked a lot of confidence," he admits, "so I would sing back-up and, occasionally, the odd solo."

He's also performed here at Joe's Pub, but "appearing in concert is a new experience. I'm still getting my feet wet, so to speak, and I like to have people around me onstage I'm used to working with because it makes me more comfortable. We know each other and they know all my little ticks."

Appearing with him at Birdland are musicians from the album sessions: David Nehls, keyboards, musical director; David Matos, lead guitar; and Paul Davis, percussion.

NewClear will be on sale at Birdland, but you can also order personally autographed copies online from lyricpartners.com and or officiallyeuanmorton.com. It's available at Colony Records and through Amazon.com.

For Morton's Birdland appearance in the Caruso series, there is a $30 cover plus $10 food/drink minimum. For reservations, call (212) 581-3080 or book online at www.InstantSeats.com/Birdland.

Beginning in June, through July 29, at Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theatre, Morton will star in The Who rock opera, Tommy.

A CHORUS LINE RETURNS

After one year of auditions and seeing over 1,700 actors, the full cast has been announced for the revival of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony and Drama Desk-winning A Chorus Line, which will begin performances on Broadway at the Schoenfeld Theatre on September 18, with the official opening set for October 5.

The 19-strong cast was introduced Wednesday at the Hudson Theatre by director Bob Avian, who was co-choreographer of Tony and DD-winning Best Director Michael Bennett's acclaimed 1975 production. They include Michael Berresse [Chicago, Kiss Me Kate, The Light in the Piazza] as Zach the director, Charlotte d'Amboise as Cassie [the role created by Tony-winner Donna McKechnie] and Chicago veteran Deidre Goodwin as Sheila.

Original cast member [Connie] and veteran choreographer Baayork Lee, who made her Broadway debut as Princess Yaowlak in 1951's The King and I, will recreate Bennett and Avian's choreography.

The score is by Tony and DD-winners Marvin Hamlisch and the late Ed Kleban, with book, based on numerous interviews with actors in a theater lab, by the late Tony and DD-winners James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante.

Returning to work on the revival are original costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge, who was Tony-nominated for her creations, and scenic designer Robin Wagner.

Music director/supervisor will be Patrick Vaccariello with orchestrations by the original team of Billy Byers, Hershey Kay and Jonathan Tunick. ACL's music director/supervisor Don Pippin will do the vocal arrangements, which he was also responsible for in the original production.

ACL began with Bennett and team conducting intense interviews on what actors did for love in a theater lab. The production debuted under the auspices of Joe Papp at the Public Theatre. In its move to Broadway and the Shubert Theatre, it played a record-breaking [for that time] 6,137 performances. It closed on April 28,1990.

EIGHT BY TENN

An eight-disc DVD set, Tennessee Williams Film Collection [Warner Home Video, $69], containing adaptations of the unforgettable characters and powerful portraits in the unique vision of the South as seen by one of America's greatest playwrights, debuts May 2.

The stars of these films, which won numerous Academy Awards and nominations, include Judith Anderson, Carroll Baker, Warren Beatty, Ed Begley, Marlon Brando, Coral Browne, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Kim Hunter, Burl Ives, Deborah Kerr, Shirley Knight, Vivien Leigh, Lotte Lenya, Sue Lyon, Karl Malden, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Jill St. John, Elizabeth Taylor, Rip Torn and Eli Wallach.

The package features a newly remastered A Streetcar Named Desire, with a second disc that's a virtual treasure trove with Brando's screen test and six docs, including a profile of director Elia Kazan, plus commentary by co-star Malden and film historian Rudy Behlmer; and a newly remastered Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with a featurette doc and commentary by Donald Spotto, author of The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams.

Also included: the long-awaited DVD debuts of Sweet Bird of Youth [with the screen test of Page and Torn], The Night of the Iguana [with commentary by director John Huston], the rarely shown mucho controversial-in-its-day Baby Doll [denounced at the time of its 1956 release by Time as "just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited"]; and a lesser known title, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, which was adapted from a steamy Williams novella.

Each disc has featurette doc bonuses, some with never-before-seen outtakes. The Streetcar DVD features three minutes of footage deleted to satisfy the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency. Thought lost until rediscovery in the 90s, the excised scenes underscore the sexual tension between Blanche, Stanley and Stella.

Instead of a souvenir booklet, the box set's eighth disc is a rarely seen 1973 feature documentary, Tennessee Williams' South, which is worth the price of the entire package to any film and stage buff.

It includes line readings by the playwright and interviews in which he places his plays in the context of his life. Williams is relaxed and quite informative, quite a bit outside the outrageous persona he began to flaunt as his career went into decline. He also comments on the stage and screen taboos he was not allowed to directly address and on the violence in his works, which, he says, were part of the human condition.

South has scenes from Williams' plays that were expressly shot for the documentary. The highlight: rare footage of Jessica Tandy as Blanche, the role she created in A Streetcar Named Desire; and Maureen Stapleton as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie.

Other stars that are featured include Ives, Cat's stage and screen Big Daddy; James Naughton, co-star of the 1987 TV adaptation of The Glass Menagerie* as Gentleman Caller, Mr. O'Connor; and Michael York, who made his Broadway debut in Williams' 1973 short-lived two-character Out Cry.

* Directed by Paul Newman and starring Joanne Woodward as Amanda Wingfield, John Malkovich as Tom and Karen Allen as Laura.

SHOW WITHIN THE SHOW

It never pays to leave a show at intermission, but at Red Light Winter, the acclaimed Steppenwold Theatre Company production at Greenwich Village's Barrow Street Theatre, that should be amended to you shouldn't leave your seats during intermission.

Not forgetting the riveting raw drama, and sometimes comic relief, in Adam Rapp's controversial play, which he also directed, audiences returning after intermission might think they're in the wrong theatre.

Red Light, co-presented by A-list producers Scott Rudin, Roger Berlind, Stuart Thompson and, among others, Paramount Pictures, boasts a unique set design by Todd Rosenthal.

Between acts, on the thumbnail-sized Barrow Street stage, two prop assistants and a production supervisor do a complete transformation that would be the envy of any much larger Broadway state-of-the-art house.

Without giving away all that goes no, audience members still in their seats and in rapt attention learn how small can be just as big as we see how even a tiny show is equipped with running water and authentic-looking falling snow - and a lot of books!

Surprisingly, neither the play, actors or set design impressed the Drama Desk nominating committee enough to get nods in their respective categories.

The performances by Lisa Joyce, Gary Wilmes and Christopher Benham, soon to be seen in Rapp's film adaptation of Blackbird, are nothing to sneeze at. Benham is nominated for a Lortel Award as Lead Actor in a Play.

Red Light Winter also received a Lortel Best Play nomination. The Awards take place on May 1 at New World Stages on West 50th Street.

EXPLORING SPALDING GRAY

The New Group (naked), a production division of The New Group [which presented Mike Lee's critically acclaimed Abigail's Party which starred 2006 Drama Desk-nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh] now in its second year, will present A Spalding Gray Matter, May 3 - 27 at Theatre Row's Clurman [410 West 42nd Street].

Written and performed by Michael Brandt, the piece explores Gray's illness, disappearance and assumed suicide through the eerily parallel events of the playwright's own experience.

"Melding the theatrical structure of Gray's monologues with my own sense of the ridiculous," says Brandt, "I try to understand what happened to Gray as a way to define what happened to me."

The result," says director Ian Morgan, "is a story about the consequences of illness and recovery on the human psyche."

Brandt has penned several plays as well as the short film Everyday Things, which was an official selection of the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival.

A Spalding Gray Matter tickets are $15 and can be purchased through Ticket Central, (212) 279-4200 or http://www.ticketcentral.com/. For more info, visit www.TheNewGroup.org.

LILY TOMLIN RAIDS THE VAULTS

How far would you travel for intelligent life in the universe or just an unforgettable night of sidesplitting laughter with Lily Tomlin? Is New Jersey too far? If not, tonight's your night.

After two critically acclaimed Broadway shows, Appearing Nightly [1977] and The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe [1985; revived in 2000], memorable film and TV roles, recordings and DVDs, Tomlin is appearing tonight [April 28] at 8 P.M. at the Bergen Performing Arts Center [30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood].

Some tickets [$55-$85] in the 1,367-seat auditorium are available. It should be quite a night because for the first time in ages, Tomlin's opening her comic vault and releasing some beloved characters she made famous some time ago. These will include Ernestine, the irascible switchboard operator; devilish, six-year-old Edith Ann; Truby the Bag Lady and independent, activist housewife Mrs. Beasley.

"These characters are still relevant," Tomlin has said. "They play as strongly today as they did when I first performed them. Maybe that's because the world is still a mess!"

The material is written by Tomlin and her partner of 35 years, Jane Wagner, whose only crime is the horrendously misguided screenplay for the 1978 Tomlin/Travolta romantic potboiler Moment To Moment.

Tomlin's current film project, Prairie Home Companion, coming in June, reunited her with director Robert Altman - the first time she's work with him since 1993's Short Cuts. She was nominated for a 1976 Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for his Nashville.

PHC features a typically-large Altman ensemble that includes Woody Harrelson, Kevin Kline, teen queen Lindsay Lohan, Tommy Lee Jones, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Meryl Streep, Robin Williams and, of course, Garrison Keillor.

For tickets for tonight's Tomlin concert, call (201) 227-1030 or, toll-free (888) 722-7469 after 11 A.M. or visit www.bergenpac.org.

[Photos: 1) KEVIN BERNE; 2) NOELLA VIGEANT; 3) PAUL KOLNIK ]

Did that theater columnist for a major daily forget someone's back on Broadway? That writer was making Tony Awards predictions, and wrote: "There are five slots to fill in the Best Actress in a Play category, and this is not a strong year for leading actresses."

Oh? [as Joan Crawford was fond of saying].

He continued: "The only sure nominees are Cynthia Nixon [Rabbit Hole] and Judy Kaye [Souvenir]. Two other likely nominees are Zoe Wanamaker [Awake and Sing!] and Kate Burton, who starred in the long-forgotten The Constant Wife but who's a beloved figure in the theater world. The fifth slot is up for grabs, the contenders being Lisa Kron [Well], Frances Sternhagen [Seascape] and [Julia] Roberts [making her Broadway debut in Three Days of Rain]."

Of course, as history has proven, there's no way to predict what the Tony Awards nominating committee will do [or, for that matter, the Drama Desk nominating committee], but isn't there another beloved theater figure on Broadway? Three-time Tony-nominee and two-time winner for Best Actress Cherry Jones in Faith Healer, which opens May 4.

The critics and nominators have yet to weigh in, but even though Jones, co-starring with Tony-winner Ralph Fennes and Ian McDiarmid, is only onstage about 40 minutes - seated [and hardly moving a muscle] for the entire time, she's spellbinding.

Taking nothing away from the other incredibly-talented women who gave memorable performances, we shouldn't forget that Jones is known to be a formidable force.

PEACHY ROLES

Audiences and critics have weighed in on Roundabout's revival of The Threepenny Opera, headlined by Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. Two things everyone seems to favorably agree upon in the controversial production are Jim Dale, currently celebrating 60 years in show business, and Ana Gasteyer in the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Peachum.

"This has been the most fun of any show I've ever bee in," says Dale, who reported he'd never seen the musical or heard the complete score. "I'm working with great and quite colorful people." A cast, it might be said, that also adores him. He has established strong bonds with Lauper and co-star recording artist and rights activist Nellie McKay.

Dale and his Mrs. Peachum, Gasteyer [Wicked, Chicago; Rocky Horror Show], who soared to fame on Saturday Night Live, had never met. "We've worked hard to create what I hope audiences think of as a very nice relation. Working with Ana is as comfortable as wearing an old pair of jeans. I admire her so much, indeed. And what a set of pipes she has!"

He and Gasteyer duet on "The ëRather Than' Song" and, with McKay as daughter Polly, "Certain Things Make Our Life Impossible."

Dale says Mr. Peachum was a very attractive role "because I knew I could do lots with it. I get to play the villain, yet explore for a bit of humor, even though it's very dark. That's the joy of it." And for Threepenny audiences, too.

Dale recalled a review of an earlier revival where the critic wrote that all the Bertolt Brecht Threepenny characters could have come from Mac Sennett's [silent film] comedies, "so I'm putting a lot of my own persona and a little bit of English ëmusic hall' into Peachum. Thank goodness [director] Scott [Elliott] and [choreographer] Aszure [Barton] have allowed me that freedom."

We spoke of a successful Portuguese-language adaptation that premiered in Brazil with a distinctive samba beat. "That must have been fun," says Dale. "I also dance to a sort of samba in our production!"

The number is "The Song of Inadequacy of Human Striving" and Dale turns it into a showstopper - with a bit of ad-libbing that brings not only the most thunderous applause but also gales of laughter.

He says that when he comes offstage after that song, McKay is in the wings waiting with a glass of water "with something very fun attached. The shelves in my dressing room are lined with each and every one of them."

Between his acclaimed Drama Desk-nominated role in Off Broadway's Comedians and Threepenny, Dale has provided the voices of several hundred characters on the Harry Potter audio books and received four Grammy nominations [taking home one in 2000] . He also portrayed Scrooge in Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens' A Christmas Carol; and Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's lavish London Oliver! revival.

By his teens in the U.K., Dale was a veteran of amateur shows. After Royal Air Force service, a little known fact is that he became a successful pop singer - even hosting a rock ën roll show on the telly.

He was recently quite taken aback when he came offstage after "Song of Inadequacy" and McKay handed him his glass of water with a 78 R.P.M. record in its original sleeve.

"It was the first tune I recorded forty-nine years ago with producer George Martin [who guided the Beatles to fame], 'Be My Girl.' I have no idea where she got it, and she won't say. But I thought they had melted all these down and shaped them into flower pots!"

In 1970, at the personal request of Laurence Olivier, he joined the British National Theatre and played leads in a host of classics. From there he went to the Young Vic, where he first played the title role in Scapino, which he co-adapted with Frank Dunlop.

That led to movies and his becoming something of a cult film figure for his antics in the popular Carry OnÖ series [now on DVD, with loads of his hilarious commentary].

When Scapino debuted on Broadway in 1974, Dale won Tony and Drama Desk nominations and took home a DD. Other accolades: 1980 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actor in a Musical, Barnum; 1985 Tony nomination for Best Actor in Roundabout's Joe Egg; 1995 Drama DeskAward, Best Actor, Travels with My Aunt; and a 1997 Tony nomination for Best Actor, Musical, for the Candide revival.

And did you know that Dale won an Academy Award nomination for his lyrics to Georgy Girl, which became a monster hit?

With an Outer Critics Circle nomination already announced, it would not be surprising to find that Dale is remembered by Drama Desk and Tony nominators.

DRAMA DESK NOMS

The nominations for the 51st annual Drama Desk Awards, which honors Broadway and Off Broadway, will be announced live from the Friars Club on Thursday [April 27] at 9:45 A.M. Oscar and Tony winner Marvin Hamlisch, composer of 1975's Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning A Chorus Line, and Donna McKechnie, who won a Tony as Cassie in ACL, will do the honors.

The Awards will be presented Sunday, May 21, at 9 P.M. in the LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center. Harvey Fierstein, who's completing his run in Hairspray at Las Vegas's Luxor Casino and Hotel on April 30, will host for the third year. Robert Blume, TheatreSport Ltd., is executive producer.

In addition to the TheaterMania webcast, the Awards will be broadcast on WNET Monday, May 29 at 3 P.M., on NYC TV Channel 25 on May 30 and June 1 and on PBS stations across the nation starting June 2.

STANDOUT PERFORMANCES

The eagerly anticipated Broadway debut of Julia Roberts arrived with Three Days of Rain, but the star-making performance in that play comes from Paul Rudd, who's won a coterie of fans from his appearances in LCT's Twelfth Night and The Last Night of Ballyhoo, not to mention such films as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The Object of My Affection, The Cider House Rules and the TV series Friends and Sisters.

Audiences have been weighing in on Elton John and Bernie Taupin's Lestat for a couple of weeks, but the critics have their say following tonight[April 25]'s opening.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that the show features two of the best voices in theater: Hugh Panaro, a former long-running Phantom who gives a marathon performance [he's offstage less than six of the show's 150 minutes] and Carolee Carmello as Gabrielle, Lestat's mommy and, it would seem, much more. They really sink their teeth into their performances. Well, they do - literally and figuratively!

Taupin has been bravely holding the Lestat vampiral empire down while John's had several sightings in L.A. in the last day or two. Will he be red-eyeing it here for Lestat's opening? Or will he be at the We Are Family Foundation gala tonight honoring him? Maybe, like vampires, he can be in two places at the same time.

Praise is being heaped on the ensemble cast of The History Boys, Alan Bennett's Olivier Award-winning London hit which opened Sunday night, with numerous accolades expectedly going to Olivier Award-winning Best Actor Richard Griffiths in the role of master Hector.

The critics won't be weighing in on Faith Healer until May 4, but Ian McDiarmid's performance will surely be labeled a standout. McDiarmid, in addition to numerous film roles [including later editions of the Star Wars series as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and, most recently, opposite Dame Helen Mirren in HBO's Elizabeth I] is joint artistic director of London's Almeida Theatre.

Jerry Zaks' production of Herman Wouk's stage adaptation of his novel The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial won't come under scrutiny until May 8, but Zeliko Ivanek, who co-starred in last season's The Pillowman, is creating Broadway buzz, as they say, in the electrifying role of Lt. Commander Queeg.

Audiences filing out of The Drowsy Chaperone are all smiles thanks to the over-the-top performances of Tony winner Sutton Foster, Bob Martin, Beth Leavel and Georgia Engel.

Newcomer Stephen Lynch, not to mention Tony Award nominee Laura Benanti and veteran star Rita Gardner, the original Luisa in The Fantasticks, are having a rollicking good time in The Wedding Singer and their good vibes are wafting over to delight audiences.

Jonathan Larson's landmark Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning rock musical Rent will celebrate it's 10th Anniversary with a one-night-only benefit that reunites the original cast on April 24th .

To continue the celebration, the next night, producers Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum and Allan S. Gordon announced that tickets for the regularly scheduled performance will be drastically reduced.

The reunion performance will be followed by a gala at Cipriani 42nd Street, sponsored by Target. Honorary chairs are James L. Nederlander of the Nederlander Organization [Rent plays at the Nederlander Theatre on West 41st Street]; Jonathan M. Tisch, chairman of NYC & Company and CEO of Loews Hotels; and Gordon.

Proceeds from the benefit performance will be donated to Friends in Deed, a center for life-threatening illness co-founded by Mike Nichols; the New York Theatre Worskshop, the East Village theatre where the musical originated; and the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation, which provides financial support to theater composers, lyricist and bookwriters.

Among those who originated roles ten years ago are Taye Diggs, Tony Award-winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia , Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal and Daphne Rubin-Vega.

Tickets range from $1,000 to $2,500; to purchase call (646) 505-5175 or go to http://[email protected]/.

But, wait, there's a way to avoid robbing a bank. Limited in the number of seats though it may be, there's a much less expensive way you can be there, too.

At 2 P.M. on April 24th there will be a registration in the Nederlander lobby for a lottery drawing of $20 tickets for the first two rows of orchestra seats for that night's historic performance. Cash only, of course.

And there's another bargain in store the next day.

On April 25th all tickets for that night's performance, featuring the current cast, will be $20. Tickets will go on sale that morning at 9 A.M. on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a limit of two tickets per person on a cash-only basis.

Rent, a modern-day interpretation of Puccini's La BohËme, tells the story of struggling artists in the East Village - some drug-addicted, some dying of AIDS. It is directed by Michael Greif. The show opened at the Nederlander on April 29, 1996 following a history-making, sold-out engagement at NYTW.

EILEEN HECKART SPOTLIGHTED

Oscar, Tony, Drama Desk and Emmy-winning actress and Theatre Hall of Famer Eileen Heckart, whose theater career began way Off Broadway with the now defunct Roman Catholic theater troupe, the Blackfriars Guild, and spanned from 1943-1990 on Broadway, is being celebrated in a touching memoir by her son, Luke Yankee, a West Coast-based director, actor and director.

Just Outside the Spotlight: Growing Up with Eileen Heckart [Back Stage Books; $25; 304 pages, hardcover; with 60 black & white photographs; Index] has a brief foreword by Mary Tyler Moore, recounting the time Heckart appeared on her show in the recurring role of Aunt Flo.

The gravely-voiced, thin-as-a-rail Heckart was known to be as generous as she was talented.

Besides countless films and TV roles dating back to the time of live, hour-long dramas, she appeared on Broadway in such hits as The Voice of the Turtle, Picnic [an award-winning role she didn't get to recreate onscreen], The Bad Seed [in a role she recreated onscreen], The View from the Bridge, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs [1958, Tony nominee, Featured Actress]; Invitation to a March [1961, Tony nominee, Featured Actress], You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, and Butterflies Are Free [1970, Tony nominee, Featured Actress] .

She was a 2000 recipient of Tony Award Honors for Excellence in Theatre. She died December 31, 2001.

Yankee calls his mother a combination of Auntie Mame and Betty Crocker. The book - part memoir, part scrapbook, part scandal sheet - recounts warm friendships and often hilarious encounters with Marilyn Monroe, who used to baby-sit her children, and such show business royalty as Bette Davis, Ethel Merman, Paul Newman, Marlene Dietrich, Sophia Loren, Lucille Ball, Clark Gable, Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, William Inge, Bob Fosse, Ellen Degeneres [whom, it turns out, she inadvertently outted] - not to mention a Cardinal or two and a president or two, such as LBJ.

The book is a fun and often poignant read, but one thing that's missing is an index of Heckart's hundreds of theater, film and TV roles.

OF THEE I SING, YES, THEE

The first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize, George and Ira Gershwin's 1931 political satire Of Thee I Sing is next up at City Center Encores!, May 11 - 14. Four-time Tony Award-nominee Victor Garber, off for some time in LaLaLand co-starring in prime time TV, returns to once again captivate audiences as presidential candidate Jack P. Wintergreen.

In a forerunner of many presidential runs to come, Wintergreen is side-tracked by scandal. Yes, the female kind.

In its original Broadway run, the show, with one of the largest casts the main stem had ever seen, was a massive hit and played over 440 performances.

"Of Thee I Sing has one of the best overtures every written for a Broadway show," notes Encores! musical director Paul Gemignani. "Gorgeous music by George Gershwin. I'm looking forward to conducting that score with our orchestra."

In addition to the classic title tune and "Wintergreen for President," score highlights include "Love Is Sweeping the Country," "Who Cares?", "A Kiss for Cinderella," "Never Was There A Girl So Fair," "Because, Because," "Jilted" and a tune that received quite a bit of popularity in it's day, "Some Girls Can Bake A Pie."

Gemignani has enjoyed a long-time association with Sondheim musicals and conducted the the American Theatre Orchestra for Symphony Space's celebrated, marathon Wall to Wall Sondheim in honor of the composer's 75th birthday. His introduction to Encores! came in 1999 with Do Re Mi. He's music directed and conducted 35 Broadway shows, including On the Twentieth Century, Evita!, Crazy For You and the Kiss Me, Kate revival. In 2001, he was honored with a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Garber, who made his Broadway debut when he joined the cast of 1977's acclaimed drama The Shadow Box, went on to star in Deathtrap [Tony-nominated, Featured Actor, Play], the original Sweeney Todd, the 1982 Little Me revival [Tony-nominated, Best Actor, Musical], the original Noises Off, Lend Me A Tenor [Tony-nominated, Best Actor, Play], Damn Yankees [Tony-nominated, Best Actor, Musical], LCT's Arcadia and Art.

Of Thee I Sing's performance schedule will be: 8 P.M. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 11-13, with a 2 P.M. matinee on May 13; and at 6:30 P.M. on the May 14.Lead sponsorship for Encores! 2006 season is provided by Newman's Own. Single seats [$90-$25] for this last presentation of the season are available at the City Center box office, through CityTix at (212) 581-1212, or online at http://www.nycitycenter.org/.

FROM BROADWAY TO THE CIRCUS

Chuck Wagner, known for portraying larger-than-life characters on Broadway [Les Miz, Jekyll & Hyde and five years and over 1,200 performances as the beast in Disney's Beauty and the Beast] and in the regionals has run away to join the circus. Through next Monday [April 17], you'll find him arena-center at Madison Square Garden as an Everyman ringmaster of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show On Earth.

"I've gotten to do what most of us only dream of doing," laughs Wagner. "Run away and join the circus."

He says the idea of preserving the past is very important "and Ringling Bros. is one of America's national treasures. That's one of the reasons I was attracted to this job. The other, to be perfectly honest, was the money. With the Special Equity Contract, it was the end of the world as far as making a living on the road for me and many actors."

Right now he's left family behind in Florida, where the kids are in school and his wife is supervising the reconstruction of their hurricane-damaged home, and living in his new home-away-from-home, a not-so-spacious compartment on the RBBB train. He's looking forward to criss-crossing the nation over the 10 months.

"Traveling with Ringling Bros.," Wagner claims, "is not unlike being on the road with a show. It's like a bus and truck tour, but instead of staying in a different hotel room every stop, I've got a train!"

Examing his options, after a visit town to audition for Bosco in The Woman in White and Arthur in the Spamalot tour, "and none of that happening, the opportunity came to audition for the circus. I went for it."

RBBB impresario Kenneth Feld also went for Wagner, saying "Not only does Chuck have acting chops and a commanding presence, but he possesses a voice that can fill and captivate any arena."

"There's never a dull moment," reports Wagner, "with two and sometimes three shows a day. And there's no shortage of traveling companions: artists from all over the world, a herd of elephants; Andalusian, Arabian, quarter and Canadian pacer horses [ridden by the Cossack troupe]; and my little dog."

Wagner, who began his career in 1976 in a production of 1776, co-starred as Athos in the short-lived Tom O'Horgan/Joe Layton The Three Musketeers [produced by Feld's father, Irvin]; as the original Prince in Sondheim's Into the Woods and, most recently, in the Kiss Me, Kate tour.

He doesn't plan to stay with the circus forever. Theater is in his blood. His next ideal option, he says, is to audition for the national company of Disney's Tarzan, when time comes for it to hit the road. He's friends with Olivier, Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning Shuler Hensley [Oklahoma! revival] and says his name is written all over the role of Kerchak.

ANIMATION GENIUS AT WORK

Long, long ago before there was that galaxy far, far away and animator Ray Harryhausen was Hollywood's human CGI genius.

Cinema buffs of a certain age and sci-fi fans who've discovered Harryhausen's brilliant work on DVD have vividly etched memories of his prehistoric creatures, mythological monsters and aliens - especially the fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, the angry T. Rex in Island of the Gwangi. and Joe, the huge, friendly gorilla of Mighty Joe Young.

The Art of Ray Harryhausen by Harryhausen and Tony Dalton [Watson-Guptill; $50; 240 pages, oversized hardcover; 211 color and 75 black & white illustrations], a companion book to 2004's Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life, gives a fascinating frame-by-frame behind-the-scenes look at the fantasy world created by the critically acclaimed master of stop-motion animation.

The book is lavishly illustrated with huge reproductions of film cells and storyboards. Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the King Kong remake, has written a laudatory Foreword tribute.

EXPECT FAN GRIDLOCK UPTOWN AND DOWNTOWN

Look who's in town to act! Has there ever been such a celebrity-studded season? Have there ever been such mobs at stage doors?

Harry Connick Jr. in Pajama Game; Ali McGraw and Julianna Margulies in Festen, Maxwell Caulfield in Tryst; Cyndi Lauper in Threepenny Opera opposite Alan Cumming, Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd in Three Days of Rain and, soon, Ralph Finnes, opposite Cherry Jones, in Faith Healer.

Downtown, in June, in Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s) you'll have everyone's favorite nanny, Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Fran Drescher returning to the stage Off Broadway and joining TV's favorite supposedly-gay [what no Emmy and Golden Globes for that run on Will and Grace?] hunk Eric McCormack and the stunning Maura Tierney [ER].

Over at Festen, audiences have been quite abuzz, buzz, buzz about this adaptation of a cult Danish film - especially abuzz, buzz, buzz about McGraw's Broadway debut.

At Wednesday's matinee, in spite of fight director Terry King's well-rehearsed choreography, in a particular heated Act Two moment [onstage], Michael Hayden banged his head quite badly. After many applications of ice cubes to reduce the swelling, ever the trouper, he went on that night.

[Rent photo: JOAN MARCUS]

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Could anyone play an aspiring Mr. Charm with a hidden agenda better than suave Maxwell Caulfield? He opened last night Off Broadway at the Promenade as Victorian Age George Love in the American premiere of Tryst.

Playing opposite Amelia Campbell, the 46-year-old actor who began his show business career as a male stripper, acquits himself well - displaying powerful acting chops that may surprise you if you only know him as Michael Carrington in Grease 2.

Putting aside the long roster of TV roles he's done and My Night with Reg, his nude romp Off Broadway, directed by his mentor, Tony-winning director Jack Hofsiss, Caulfield did take over the featured role of Gerald Croft in the Royal National Theatre's production of J.B. Priestly's An Inspector Calls [1994]; portrayed John Merrick on tour in Bernard Pomerance's 1979 Tony-winning Best Play The Elephant Man [directed by Hofsiss]; and, 20 years ago, portrayed the demanding role of lustful drifter Sloane in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane Off Broadway.

Tryst marks his return to the New York stage after what he considers a much too-long absence. It's the American title for English author and former actress/director Karoline Leach's play The Mysterious Mr. Love, which had a successful 1997 premiere at London's Comedy Theatre.

"When I saw it on the West End," recalls Caulfield during a break from rehearsals, "it came over as an unconventional thriller. George was a role that fascinated me. Then [producers] Morton Wollowitz and Barbara Freitag approached me out of the blue. Fate! I have to tell you, George and Adelaide are two cherry roles and Amelia and I are mining them for everything in the lode."

He's in wild admiration for his leading lady, who first impressed Broadway with her Tony-nomiated role in the, sadly, shortlived Our Country's Good. "She's a spitfire! I've been a long-time fan, since catching her in Translations [1995; with Brian Dennehy, Dana Delany, Rufus Sewell and Michael Cumpsty] and Waiting in the Wings [1999; opposite Lauren Bacall, Rosemary Harris, Dana Ivey, among others]. In those plays, she was so overshadowed by the stars."

Nor does Caulfield hide his enthusiasm for director Joe Brancato [Cobb, From Door to Door], the founder and artistic director of Stony Point's Penguin Repertory Company [now in it's 28th year]. "He never stops brainstorming, and is so inclusive. There's a wonderful duality to George and Adelaide and Amelia and I were, shall I be polite and just say, pushed constantly by Joe to discover new facets. It was amazing what we unearthed."

An interesting aspect of Leach's play is that in the beginning one character comes over as stronger than the other, then the tables turn and the balance of power between George and Adelaide shifts drastically.

"Not only does George find himself being drawn to Adelaide in ways he didn't anticipate," Caulfield explains, "but they also discover a common bond - parental abuse. It takes a while for Adelaide's penny to drop; but when it does, she's on to George. What George hadn't reckoned on was how this woman would get to him. For the first time, he's forced to confront feelings he's never had."

In charting the course of their characters, explains Caulfield, there were challenges. "It was important for me to maintain a comfortable, charming exterior while still trying to hoodwink Adelaide. In Amelia's case, it was in how she segues from an awkward, innocent shop girl after George does a Svengali thing on her - when he's finally able to exert control over her and make her look at herself in the mirror and see this vibrant woman."

Caulfield says he relishes creating characters far afield from what he's done "and George, this diabolical character, has been fun. I drew on things in my personal life. After all, we all put on a mask of some kind in our daily lives. Maybe we're not necessarily trying to be duplicitous, but just acting that we are in a better mood than we are or that we're more confident than we are.

"In George's case," Caulfield continues, "it's an extreme version. He's not homicidal. He's merely aspiring to be something that he's not - to be in a class that he wasn't born into. That blind ambition brings out this dark personality lurking within that gives him that alter ego he uses to seduce and rob women."

In rehearsal, another challenge Caulfield and Campbell faced was that often, while in the midst of quite intimate conversation and combustible moments, they would break the fourth wall. "That took time to get right. The hardest part was to do it in such a way so that the audience doesn't get comfortable with it and think we're doing some sort of cabaret."

Maxwell Caulfield, born in Scotland, has an American connection in his stepfather, who was a Marine D.I. at Parris Island, SC, and who, when he couldn't stick with the discipline at home, kicked him out at age of 15.

Three years later, he got a Green Card and relocated to the States, where, admittedly, he used his good looks and sex appeal to make money as an "exotic dancer." That somehow led him into acting.

On the road in Elephant Man, he met his wife Juliet Mills, 18 years his senior, who played Mrs. Kendal. They married a year later and he became fiercely devoted to her daughter Melissa. [Mills plays the more than slightly unhinged, wicked and very funny 300-year-old-witch Tabitha Lenox on the NBC daytime drama Passions.]

In 1981, he made his Off Broadway debut in EMS. That netted him the plum starring role in the 1982 sequel to Grease, one of the most successful musical films of all time, playing pposite Michelle Pfeiffer.

Both were being groomed for Hollywood stardom, but in it's initial release, the film took a critical drubbing and was a box office bomb [a bomb that went on to reap great profits on video and in numerous primetime TV showings].

Caulfield's greatest body of work has been on TV: numerous roles in soaps, voice-overs for animated features, guest roles, recurring roles, series and miniseries. Highlights among those are his portrayal of bad boy Miles Colby on Dynasty [1981] and The Colbys [1985]. He also appeared in the first episode of Beverly Hills 90210 as a suitor interested in much younger Shannen Doherty.

He worked Off Broadway in several short-lived plays, then in 1985 he appeared opposite Jessica Tandy, David Strathairn and Elizabeth Wilson in Salonika at the Public Theatre. Other credits include a national tour of Sleuth opposite Stacy Keach, Sweet Bird of Youth at Williamstown, Paradise Lost with Geraldine Page and The Woman in Black with Roy Dotrice.

How much of his new acting chops were influenced by his father-in-law, Oscar winner Sir John Mills who appeared in over 100 films and who began his career on the English stage as a song and dance man in 1929?

"Where do I begin? Sir John [who died in 2095 at 97] was the quintessential English gentleman and the consummate pro. I was always impressed with what an innovative actor he was. His interpretation of working class men and British military officers was groundbreaking. He showed their vulnerability in a way that hadn't been done before. He brought a new sense of realism.

"I recall once Michael Caine, a sort of professor of acting, speaking in reverential terms about Sir John and the influence his work had had on him. He was a true national institution. One reason he was so beloved in England is that he didn't attempt to become an international star. He was loyal to his roots. He never went Hollywood. That really endeared him."

Caulfield says that Mills was not only a true family patriarch but also "one of the most generous-hearted men I've had the privilege to know. Even right at the end, his spirit was absolutely dazzling. He urged me to take care of Juliet, and we had a laugh because, all these years, she's been taking care of me!"

In addition to numerous films, Caulfield caught Mills onstage as the retired general in Brian Clarke's The Petition [1986] at the National, which co-starred Rosemary Harris; Little Lies, an adaptation of The Magistrate; Goodbye, Mr. Chips at the Chichester Festival Theatre [1982]; as Doolittle in Pygmalion [1987]; and he saw his one-man show, An Evening with John Mills, countless times.

"Sir John didn't look too kindly on primetime telly and resisted taking roles on it for years," recalls Caulfield, "but I almost had him talked into doing a guest bit in the hit BBC medical drama, Casualty, which I did for two seasons."

In 2004, Mills, then deaf and legally blind, was invited to do a double episode and Caulfield read him the script. "Even though he was somewhat infirm," says the actor, "he was still mobile as long as someone was on hand. The character he was to play is ailing in hospital and, in the end, dies. I almost had Sir John there. ëYes, yes,' he'd say. ëI can see this working.' I didn't want to read him the ending, but I had to. He said, ëOh, that's in such poor taste, the poor man dying. Tell them I'm not interested.'"

Caulfield sadly concludes, "I only got to watch him. That would have been my opportunity to work with him."

Though he's kept busy the last two years, he hasn't been onstage. "I'd be lying if I didn't say the living isn't easy at home in Santa Barbara. I committed a huge blunder in not coming back [to the New York stage] sooner. I saw how ultra competitive it had become and wasn't fond of all the stunt casting that was going on. But when the script for Tryst arrived, Juliet read it and got very excited. She has great instincts and told me I should do it."

Caulfield says that he and Campbell are so happy to be in such a sumptuous production. "Our producers have pulled out all the stops. David Korins [Bridge and Tunnel; Blackbird] has designed a magnificent set and we couldn't have asked for a better lighting designer than Jeff Nellis. Joe's orchestrated the music really creatively. It's eerie and foreboding, but also pushes the plot forward. The Promenade is one of the sweetest houses I've ever played.

He adds, "I was thrilled the other day when Joe referred to me as a ëNew York actor.' I took that as a very high compliment. And I intend to do more. Lots more. There's nothing better than playing to a live audience!"

Caulfield reports that the original aspiration for Tryst "was to go in for names and to be done on Broadway. Some that have come up are Kevin Bacon and Helen Bonham Carter. It's ended up being Campbell and Caulfield uptown, but we won't disappoint you. Tryst's become quite a sensual piece."

He adds, "Joe's taken this rather conventional type thriller with the handsome bounder and the vulnerable wallflower and given it quite a jolt. and we're kicking the crap out of these roles. We're aiming this show for the matinee ladies and the midnight men!"

STARS SHINE ONSTAGE

There are certainly more than two must-see performances currently on the boards in New York, but two of the most impressive are currently Off Broadway.

Consider Tony Award-winner [42nd Street revival] Christine Ebersole [Steel Magnolias revival; Tony-nominated for LCT's Dinner at Eight revival] in one of the most mesmerizing and all consuming characterizations of her career - and one of the most acclaimed performances of the season, the dual roles of Edith Bouvier Beale and "Little" Edie Beale in Grey Gardens.

The musical on the Mainstage at Playwrights Horizons is by Scott Frankel, Michael Korie and Doug Wright [I Am My Own Wife]. Mary Louise Wilson co-stars in Act Two as the older Beale. The director is Michael Greif [Rent].

Catch GG quickly, as it comes to an end on April 23.

Can that really be Jan Maxwell as loopy Kath in Roundabout's revival of Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Laura Pells Theatre? Since there's only one female role in Joe Orton's black comedy, it must be. But it may take you a while to register that this is the same Maxwell, 2005 Drama Desk Award winner [Outstanding Featured Actress] and Tony Award-nominee for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and, among a llist of memorable portrayals, the icy Elsa Schraeder in the 1998 Sound of Music revival. But this is Maxwell as you've never seen her: lusty, sex-crazed, dizzy, canny.

Alec Baldwin, Chris Carmack and Tony Award winner Richard Easton [Invention of Love], co-star. EMS plays through May 21.

Surely, these are two actresses that will make the nominations cut in the upcoming weeks.

STARS SHINE ON CD RELEASES

Patti LuPone, currently portraying Mrs. Lovett in one of the season's most acclaimed performances in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, has a new CD, The Lady with The Torch [Ghostlight Records] which she developed through a series of East Coast/West Coast concerts and last March's sold-out Carnegie Hall show.

LuPone sings an eclectic array of torch ballads by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, "Ill Wind"; Billy Barnes, "Something Cool";George and Ira Gershwin, "The Man I Love"; Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, "Early Autumn"; and, among several others, Arlen and Truman Capote's "Don't Like Goodbyes" from House of Flowers.

The Lady with the Torch was conceived and directed by Scott Wittman. Orchestrations are by Sondheim musicals veteran Jonathan Tunick with musical direction by Chris Fenwick, who for the studio recording, conducted a 10-piece orchestra. Joel Moss and label prez Kurt Deutsch produced.

+ + + +

All is not lost if you weren't among the lucky 1,000 + at the one-night-only June 2005 Carnegie Hall concert of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic South Pacific starring Reba McEntire as Nellie Forbush, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile de Becque and, in a bit of most unsual casting, Alec Baldwin as Luther Billis. Decca Broadway has released a CD souvenir.

Lillias White as Bloody Mary, Jason Danieley as Lieutenant Cable and Dylan Baker and Conrad John Schuck are among the co-stars.

One of the very positive pluses of the recording, produced by multi-Grammy-winning Jay David Saks, is Sondheim master musical director and City Center Encores! musical director Paul Gemignani conducting the 45-piece Orchestra of St. Luke's. The production boasts the type of ensemble probably only the original production could afford: a chorus of 50. The package contains notes by R&H Org prez and exec director Ted Chapin.

Want more? The concert will be broadcast Wednesday, April 26 on PBS.

+ + + +

Just out from Ghostlight, is Songs From an Unmade Bed, lyrics by Mark Campbell and music by 18 composers - one per track.

Michael Winther starred in the New York Theatre Workshop's innovative song cycle musical as a smart, and ultimately resilient gay New Yorker on a journey through the pitfalls and triumphs of romance and heartache.

For those awaiting the CD of the Public Theatre and Ted Sperling's production of John LaChiusa's two one-act musicals under the title See What I Wanna See, it's here - with original stars Marc Kudisch, Aaron Lohr, Idina Menzel, Henry Stram and Mary Testa. Ghostlight has put together an innovative package with a slightly unusual booklet, that includes a very helpful synopsis and all lyrics.

PARTY

Jim Caruso's Monday night Cast Party at 9:30 P.M. on April 17 at Birdland [315 West 44th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues] will feature Streisand impersonator Steven Brinberg in Simply Barbra! celebrating "the ultimate diva's birthday" with signature songs and special guests from Daniel Reichard, Jersey Boys; David Burnham, Light in the Piazza; and Matt Cavennaugh, Grey Gardens. For reservations, call (212) 581-3080.

UPPER WEST FEST

Symphony Space [Broadway and 95th Street] and its numerous Upper West Side partners will present the First Annual Upper West Fest from Friday, April 28th - Sunday, May 14th. It's being billed as the largest collaborative arts event ever held on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Programs will celebrating music, dance, film, literary, theatre and visual arts. In addition, there'll be numerous family programs.

The more than 50 scheduled events will take place not only at the Peter Norton Symphony Space but also from 59-116th Streets. They include SS's Dance Sampler, a 12-hour marathon on Saturday April 29, showcasing the depth and breadth of contemporary movement, featuring children's dance, world premieres from Sync and the Melting Pot Theatre Company, works in progress by MOMIX and Complexions and a screening of Walt Disney's Fantasia.

The Upper West Fest is sponsored by Zabar's, the landmark gourmet food emporium at 80th Street and Broadway with promotional support from NYC & Company, New York's official tourism marketing organization.

The Fest is offering a $25 pass which entitles holders to purchase one ticket for any Upper West Fest event and receive a second ticket to the same event free. For full programming and event times, visit www.upperwestfest.com.

SYMPHONY SPACE GALA

Alec Baldwin will be among the honorary chairs of the May 1 Symphony Space gala A Celebration in Story and Song, which, among others, will honor Marian Seldes and filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker. Chris Hegedus [Elaine Stritch At Liberty].

There'll be a silent auction, cocktails, dinner and live auction, all starting at 7 P.M. at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers.

Event tickets are $600, if you want to be a Headliner, to $10,000, in case you want to be a Legend, for a table of 10. To purchase or for more information, contact Mary Hedahl, SS's associate director for Development for Individual Giving, at (212) 864-1414 X. 229.

Robert Cuccioli is back from his voyage of self discovery after taking Broadway by storm in Jekyll & Hyde and he's landed in Paris...the Off Broadway one of Jacques Brel.

Though he's been away - and sometimes not that far away - for almost six years, he returned quite invigorated about his life and career. He's starring with Natascia Diaz, Rodney Hicks and Gay Marshall in the revival of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the kinky Zipper Theatre [336 West 37th Street].

Brel's songs have been enthralling audiences for over four decades. The Zipper production, directed by Gordon Greenberg [Floyd Collins; Paper Mill's Baker's Wife], is the first major revival since the acclaimed original in 1968 at Greenwich Village's famed Village Gate nightclub [now the Village Theatre], where such artists as Woody Allen, Nina Simone, South African trumpeter and jazz musician Hugh Masekela and controversial apartheid activist, actress and unique song stylist Miriam Makeba were introduced along with fiery Latin jazz nights.

Cuccioli's sporting a new look with his cropped hair, but the voice hasn't changed. It's still a stellar attraction.

He became the toast of Broadway and a hugely popular matinee idol in 1997 in the starring role in Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse's Jekyll & Hyde.

In recent years, he's spent a lot of time shaking off that image. Other than a brief run in an Off Broadway play, this is New York's first opportunity to see the new Cucc.

"What really attracted me to the production was that it's an ensemble piece," he says. "I'm getting to work with three other actors. The ensemble environment is something I'm drawn to."

The other attraction, he admits, are the Brel songs: "Amsterdam," "Madeleine," "Marieke," "Brussels," "Alone" and, among the nearly 30 tunes featured, "Carousel" and "If We Only Have Love."

"Each song is a gem within a gem," states Cuccioli. "As a singer, I connect with them because they are a challenge. They're perfect for an actor because each one is like a play. They're story songs with a beginning, middle and an end. For that reason, they fit very well into a revue format because, even if taken out of context, they hold their own weight."

The repertory of the Belgian Brel, who made his home and fame in France, are a blend of ballads, tangos, boleros and rock. They examine themes of war, adventure, broken dreams, people from all classes, being young, growing old and, of course, love. With his concentration on scamps, sailors, vagabonds and the complexities of life, Brel's work is also not without its sense of humor.

Thanks to lyricist Mort Shuman, who co-created the original, and poet Eric Blau, the majority of the songs featured are in English.

"Translations are tricky," says Cucc. "You have adjectives, verbs and nouns misplaced, so the ideal is to get the meaning as close as possible to what Brel is saying in French." And Cuccioli and company ran into several different translations. "We looked at lists of them," he explains. "In some, the lyrics just don't flow well; so we kept at it to find phrases that fit better."

He notes that this production can't be called an exact revival. "Songs have been rearranged for dramatic and theatrical context and some new tunes have been added. It's a complete rethinking. As I understand it, the 1978 production was more concert. Everyone stood and sang. Gordon has given the show a through-line to connect the pieces. It's impressive how everything flows."

Many of the tunes Cucc sings, like "Jackie" and "Amsterdam," were performed by Shuman in the original, but there are some changes. "A song that may have been sung by a man is now sung by a woman," he points out and several tunes are brand new."Songs heard here onstage for the first time include "Ca Va," "A Song for Old Lovers" and "Ne Me Quitte Pas" are among the Brel compositions making their debut.

Fans of Brel's work know that some compositions have a lot of lyrics sung at breakneck speed. "Yes," laughs Cuccioli, "some are very wordy. It's a bit of a challenge when you're learning them. You've got to get really grounded in them so that they're totally in your body. You don't have a lot of time to think about them. Once you get in front of an audience, you begin to hear and enjoy them."

Long Island native Robert Cuccioli had appeared as Javert in the long-running Les Miserables, but on April 28, 1997, when J&H finally trucked in to make its New York debut, he was already a matinee idol from one of the lengthy tours.

The type of bedlam, especially after matinees, outside the Plymouth Theatre stage door was the kind that today would greet a member of a charted boy band, American Idol winner or a Brad Pitt.

Fans, mostly female, screamed at the top of their lungs for their Cucc to come out. The commotion, which went on for nearly four years, was so loud it wasn't such a pleasant experience for actors and audiences in longer nearby shows.

"The critics didn't jump to their feet," Cuccioli notes , "but we did get some good reviews. That season we were the longest running show of anything that got Tony-nominated or even won."
He was Tony and Drama Desk-nominated for Best Actor [winning the DD Award], and the show was nominated for Best Musical.

However, in an affront, it didn't receive a nod in the score department. And this was a Frank Wildhorn musical before there were Frank Wildhorn musicals to deride.

"Whatever else," says the actor, "Jekyll & Hyde was a crowd-pleaser. Before we got to New York, several of the songs were pretty much pre-sold. Frank was very smart. He had the music out there before the show came to town. I knew what we had, and certainly the audiences were responsive. In fact, they loved it. Many came back again and again."

J&H gave him many learning experiences. "One thing it taught me," he says, "was how to be a pop singer, which is something I'm more attracted to than Broadway legit. Some singers can naturally go to it because pop's what they've listened to all their lives; but, for me, it was another muscle I had to learn, another ear I had to go to. I listened to rock, but ended up doing Broadway-sound type shows."

Another lesson was the responsibility "of carrying such an enormous show on my shoulders. I hope I did it well."

Robert Cuccioli may have been an overnight sensation, "but," he smiles, "there were a lot of overnights. There were fifteen years of auditioning and working all manner of odd jobs to survive before Jekyll & Hyde."

Ironically, getting into theater was an accident. "I loved music and singing," says Cucc. " I was in the school glee club, had a rock band and played clubs. In college, I majored in finance. I did theater and people would tell me I was good. They would ask if I ever considered doing it as a career. It never occurred to me."

Instead, he became a successful Wall Street trader. When the bug did bite, he started going to auditions, "where it was all trial and error." He came to J&H in 1994, late in the game, after there had been two major regional productions and a New York workshop, which starred Terrence Mann.

After the run, "I had a difficult time finding things to inspire me," explains Cucc. "That led me to the challenge of directing, which I love. After the run, I was exhausted and I didn't want to sing anymore. Every note in my body had been expended. I began learning about myself - what I wanted, what I didn't want."

There was a brief stint Off Broadway in the Enter the Guardsman, then, attempting to take advantage of that blazing hot fame, Cucc became bi-coastal. "No matter how successful you are here, for the most part, the TV folks don't know about it. There are some casting directors who come to town a couple of times a year and check out what's going on onstage. A couple knew who I was and what I'd done; but, the majority, no."

He managed some TV episodic work, but it wasn't satisfying. He always found himself in a New York state of mind: "It's fine out there unto itself, but there's a different mentality. I found it a little destructive. The energy of New York is what I love. It's part of me and I didn't want to give up on me. There was one big negative. When I came back, it meant starting over again. That was hard for someone who'd been in the business twenty years!"

The last few years for this actor, who turns 48 next month, were "eclectic." Cucc's goal was "to shake things up a bit. People had a certain impression of me. For a while there, I was really pigeonholed. I needed to shake that up for the outside world and also for myself.

"I was trying to stretch myself," he continues, "break the stereotypes of what people thought and what I thought of myself." Two years on the road and two years on Broadway in J&H gave him the type of cachet where regional theatres risked hiring him for things they normally wouldn't consider him for. That's worked out pretty well. "I've been doing everything from Shakespeare to drama to comedy to Rodgers and Hammerstein."

There were straight plays in San Jose and at the McCarter, musicals for Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and He musicals at New Jersy's Paper Mill Playhouse and classics the New Jersey Shakespeare Theatre, where recently he portrayed Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar.

Because he grew as an actor in J&H ó "it was the widest range of anything I've been asked to play - dramatically, emotionally, physically, vocally" - things are no longer as difficult. I still find challenges, but if I got through that I feel I can get through anything."

Cucc finds the kinky Zipper, with its variety of car seats and motley array of other types of seating, "perfect for Brel. The atmosphere is very Bohemian and you just might think you're somewhere on the Left Bank."

Tickets are $65. Purchase through Telecharge [www.telecharge.com or (212) 239-6200)]. For more information, www.jacquesbrelreturns.com.

ONE NIGHT ONLY: DIVAS WITH MUSCLE

Les Ballets Grandiva, a troupe that blends the beauty, physicality and grace of classic ballet but with men in tutus and toe shoes, will stage an outrageous evening of dance in honor of their 10th Anniversary at Symphony Space [2537 Broadway at 95th Street] on Monday, April 10, at 8 P.M.

Victor Trevino's comic ballet group, which has played to great acclaim and SRO in Japan and China, is the largest of its kind. The company, which originally consisted of 13 dancers and a repertoire of seven ballets, has grown to 19 dancers and 32 ballets.

Wherever they appear, critics hail Grandiva "as more than dancers en travesti, flitting and floating on pointe. The company transforms the male comedy ballet art form from mere sight gag to the height of technical precision and dramatic excellence."

Grandiva dancers have performed with such companies as the Kirov, ABT, Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Monday's program will include a world premiere: Nightcrawlers, choreography by Peter Anastos and music, performed live, by Chopin [but not performed live by Chopin] and Anastos' Serenadiana, music by Tschaikovsky [who also will not be performing]; as well as these "classics" from their repertoire: Dying Swan, choreography by Dennis after Fokine to music by Saint-Saens; and their most in-demand piece, Marcus Galante's Star-Spangled Ballerina to the music of, of course, John Philip Sousa.

Best of all, tickets [general admission] are only $10. Tickets are on sale online at http://www.symponyspace.org/ or through the box office, (212) 864-5400, through Sunday. For more information, visit http://www.balletsgrandiva.com/.

BROADWAY STAR TO BE EXPOSED IN TIMES SQUARE

Tuesday, May 2, not long after the Drama Desk nominations are announced, Alan Cumming, currently Mack in Roundabout's revival of The Threepenny Opera, will get what's coming to him: at least, on the walls of Times Square bistro Tony's di Napoli.

There he will join theater luminaries Chita Rivera, Hugh Jackman, John Lithgow, Antonio Banderas, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and, among numerous others, Robert Goulet, as his portrait will be unveiled for the Broadway Wall of Fame.

He'll be side by side his recently inducted Threepenny co-star Cyndi Lauper, who graciously paid tribute to her band members "who helped get me where I am," co-stars Cuming [for suggesting she come to Broadway in the show] and Jim Dale [just for being Jim Dale].

A few nights later, Harry Connick Jr. was inducted and, in spite of constant suggestions from Pajama Game cast and crew, resisted taking off his shirt.

He did graciously sign autographs and pose with co-stars Kelli O'Hara, who not only kissed him but his portrait [tinkling the ivories in PJs and an athletic tank, you know, the kind they used to call "wifebeaters"], Michael McKean, Roz Ryan and event host Valerie Smaldone of 106.7 FM Radio.

The Wall of Fame oils, by graphic artist Dan May, are done in a quasi-art nouveau style - sometimes dark, sometimes bordering on caricature.

Connick hasn't just been starring in Roundabout's hit revival of PJ Game. He's busy in the recording studio readying his Columbia two-CD disc Harry On Broadway, Act 1 [in stores May 9] which will include the PJ Game cast in songs from the show and Connick and O'Hara in songs from his Broadway composing debut, Thou Shalt Not.

Connick fans should visit http://www.sonystore.com/ for 25% discounts on a number of his releases, including a pre-order bargain on the new set.

PEGGY LEE AND DISNEY CLASSIC ON DVD

Lady, a golden cocker spaniel, meets up with a mongrel dog - from the wrong side of town, of course. His name is Tramp, so what did you expect?

Disney's brilliant animators turned this fairy tale romance between two dogs into the first wide-screen [Cinemascope] feature, Lady and the Tramp, which enthralled children of all ages.

Now, Disney has brought the 76-minute animated feature back in a limited edition to celebrate the film's 50th Anniversary. It's being released on DVD for the first time [special two-disc edition, $30].

Unless you dig deep into the bonus material, you won't find Peggy Lee's name or the fact that she wrote the lyrics to jazz composer Sonny Burke's exquisite score, which includes five original songs - three of them quite memorable: "Bella Notte," sung over a candlelight spaghetti dinner outside a bistro, "The Siamese Cat Song" and "He's A Tramp."

Lee and Burke had forward thinking agents and their contracts stipulated royalties for reproduction "in any future format." They were at the top of their game and well paid by Disney, but they didn't participate in proceeds from later releases, TV showings and eventually video.

In a case that made show business headlines, Lee sued the studio for breach of contract, claiming she still retained rights. In 1991, after a lengthy, stubborn and puzzling legal battle, the courts awarded her a settlement of $2.3-million.

Now, back to the movie. In addition to Lee voicing four characters, there's Barbara Luddy as Lady, Larry Roberts as Tramp and veteran character actors Verna Felton [Aunt Sarah] and Stan Freberg [Beaver].
The DVD is a pristine remaster from original negatives of the theatrical release and a 1999 video restoration process that incorporated U.S. and international formats of the film. The soundtrack has been enhanced with a dynamic 5.1 Disney theater mix.

Bonus materials include never-before-released deleted scenes and a newly discovered alternate storyboard version of the film. In the doc, Lady's Pedigree: The Making of Lady and The Tramp, there's rare footage of Disney himself. There are games: a DVD-Rom where you can adopt one of the pups seen in the shop window and a 3-D virtual board game that tests knowledge of dogs seen in Disney films.

Walt Disney Records has released Lady and the Tramp and Friends, a nine-track budget CD [$10] that includes the five songs from the film along with Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid and Something There, featuring Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts, from Beauty and the Beast. Two additional soundtrack songs from unidentified 1999 and 2000 films complete the line-up.

CALLING ALL RAY BRADBURY FANS

The limited engagement of Godlight Theatre Company's New York premiere of Ray Bradbury's stage adaptation of his cult classic novel Fahrenheit 451 ends on April 23 in Theatre C at 59E59 Theatres [between Madison and Park Avenues].

Bradbury is no stranger to adapting his works for the stage or screen. He has won an Emmy and been nominated for an Oscar for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright.

Godlight is the company that brought us Bradbury's adaptation of A Clockwork Orange [2003]. Fahrenheit 451 is directed by Godlight's artistic director, Joe Tantalo, who also directed Clockwork.

The 90-minute stage adaptation has met with mixed critical reaction in productions around the country, but fans of the author's sci-fi imagination have flocked to see it.

Titled for the temperature at which book paper burns, Fahrenheit 451 is Bradbury's meditation on censorship and defiance. In a futuristic world where books are banned and TV rules, fireman Guy Montag [Ken King, who starred in Clockwork Orange] learns of a past where people were not afraid, where they were allowed to think.

Performances are Tuesday-Saturday at 8:30 P.M. and Sunday at 7:30. General admission tickets are $25 [$17.50 for 59E59 members] and available from Ticket Central, (212) 279-4200 or online, http://www.ticketcentral.com/.
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In a throwback to Broadway's Golden Years, two shows are offering discounted previews and ticket lotteries.

Tarzan, loosely based, we shall assume on the Edgar Rice Burroughs classics and Disney's own animated blockbuster, is opening cold on Broadway. The much-anticipated musical offers a straight-out, just-walk-up-to-the-box office cut-rate ticket.

Disney Theatricals chief Thomas Schumacher, whose idea the discounted previews were, explains, "As someone who grew up wanting to see as much live theatre as I could, it's such a pleasure to be able to make these reduced-price tickets available. This allows us to share this exciting theatrical experience with audience members who may not otherwise be able to see Tarazan, and that is invaluable to me."

The $111.25 orchestra and front mezz seats are now going for $76.25 - a savings of $35. Other tickets that will be $51.25 after May 10 are $38.75. All prices include a $1.25 facilities fee.

Tarzan, with music by Oscar and seven-time Grammy Award winner Phil Collins and book by Tony Award-winner David Henry Hwang, stars Josh Strickland, Jenn Gambatese, Tony/Drama Desk/Olivier Award-winner Shuler Hensley [Oklahoma!], Chester Gregory II and Timothy Jerome. Daniel Manche and Alex Rutherford alternate as young Tarzan.

Two-time Tony Award-winning set designer Bob Crowley has designed costumes and scenery and is making his directorial debut. Choreography is by Meryl Tankard.

Strickland, as Tarzan, who toured in Rent as Mark and Roger, was seen on CBS' Star Search [2003] performing Collins' "Against All Odds," and was a finalist on the Ruben Studdard/Clay Aiken second season of American Idol.

The Drowsy Chaperone, the musical-within-a-musical which reaped raves in Toronto, here at the 2004 National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals and L.A. arrives to, hopefully, find favor with New York critics and theatergoers. It offers discounted previews, but you won't find them at the Marquis box office. They're offered online via Yahoo and TicketMaster, but there's a catch: you have to purchase with an American Express card.

If purchased soon, tickets for evening performances and Saturday matinees through May 28 are $25, $45 or $65; Wednesday matinees, $25, $40 or $59. This offer excludes Saturday night performances. Go to broadway.yahoo.com, select Shows & Offers from the toolbar, then choose The Drowsy Chaperone, click on Buy Tickets. Under Promotions and Special Offers, pick your date and performance, then enter the discount code YAHOO. Prices include a $1.25 theatre restoration fee [does the Marquis already need restoring?] but not a $6.75 "convenience charge."

Drowsy, with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and a book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, stars Martin, Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, Danny Burstein, Georgia Engel, Edward Hibbert, Troy Britton Johnson, Eddie Korbich and Beth Leavel. Spamalot's Casey Nicholaw is director/choreographer.

Martin, best known for his Canadian TV and film comic roles and from Toronto's Second City, and Leavel won L.A. Drama Critics Circle Best Actor and Feature Actress Awards.

Center Theatre Group's staging of Drowsy Chaperone won Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Production and Best Director nods. The story of a musical theater addict "who chases the blues away" by putting his favorite record on the turntable and - voila! - begins to live as it comes to life, opens May 1.

Tarzan, about that fabled Ape Man in the loin cloth, has the longest preview period. It's the last show of the season to open. It will be eligible for Tony Awards consideration; but since the Drama Desk nominations are to be announed on April 27, the musical will not be seen by the DD nominating committee and so will not be eligible for consideration until next season, when Disney Theatricals has plans to also have Mary Poppins on Broadway.

In the trailblazing path of Rent and Wicked, both new shows have announced day-of-performance ticket lotteries. These seats are more heavily discounted, but there aren't as many of them and, for both shows, they are on the front row.

Ninety minutes prior to each Drowsy Chaperone performance, you can be entered for one of 22 seats at the Marquis boxoffice. Tickets, two per person and on a cash-only basis, are $25. Names are drawn an hour later.

Two and half hours prior to each Tarzan performance at the Rodgers, your name's put into a pithelmet for one of 12 seats. Tickets, two per person and on a cash-only basis, are $20. Names are drawn a half hour later. Be sure to bring proper identification or you will be denied the thrill of seeing Tarzan meet Jane and Tarzan vine-swinging with abandon.

In addition, Tarzan is offering lower prices for obstructed view seats in upper reaches [last four rows] of the Rodgers' stadium-style orchestra [a sort of twin to the Majestic]. Patrons buying these tickets are told they will miss a few moments of action in the upper reaches of the proscenium.

THIS SEASON'S BIGGEST SCENE-STEALER

Lisa Kron's parental memoir, a "one person show with other people," Well, which has opened on Broadway thanks to an incredible list of A-List producers following its successful 2004 run at the Public, to considerable praise and a brickbat or two.

While not at all resembling a conventional comedy or drama, which is a very high compliment in my book, Well has been diagnosed as "the most daring Broadway offering of the season," "often hilarious, always clever and ultimately touching," with "an emotional depth, both murky and luminous, that goes beyond any tidy narrative" and having a "captivating air of reckless spontaneity." To one detractor: it possesses a "cartoonish tone" and being "ludicrous."

Audience reaction is about the same, with almost everyone saying the intermissionless, one-hour-and-45 minute tome would be fare much better shorn of about 15 minutes. But, as is, it's not quite in the ICU.

The one thing everyone agrees on is the breakout performance of Jayne Houdyshell [prounced Howdy-shell] as Mama Ann. Brantley, in the Times, wrote, "embodied onstage with majestic warmth and wearinessÖMom comes to the rescue. Ms. Houdyshell's performanceÖretains an anchoring authenticity that guarantees that Well opens doors of insight and emotion that no other play in New York is unlockingÖ Slovenly in her time-bleached housedressÖshe inspires immense affection and embarrassment at the same time. She pulls you, as well as Ms. Kron, into an inescapable emotional field."

Audiences arrive at the Longacre to find Houdyshell, a respected Off Broadway and award-winning regional character actress making her Broadway debut [as is the entire cast], snoozing in a La-Z-Boy. [Since she's in that recliner, eyes closed for at least a half hour, a backstage visitor the other night asked her if she ever has really fallen asleep and Houdyshell replied, "Not yet!"] When she's awakened, she reacts with some alarm to find she's being observed by an audience. Without skipping a beat, she greets them warmly and graciously begins offering them Cokes and bags of chips.

Has there ever been an actress whose talents and physical statue are so suited to a role? Everyone with a loving, much too smart and horribly irritating mother will find something in Houdyshell's performance that rings terribly true. At the every step of the way, she's the perfect foil for Ms. Kron, who, hardly offstage for even a second, gives a marathon performance.

Several critics are predicting that Houdyshell is a shoe-in for a Tony nomination. For Well's Off Broadway run, she did take home an Obie and a Drama Desk nom.

TALENT ALERT: MUSICIANS AT WORK

Every song Johnny Cash wrote may not have been brilliant; and, just about every one of them [well, 35 of them to be exact] is presented in Richard MaltbyJr.'s Ring of Fire, but you have to marvel at the magnificent musicianship onstage and in the wings. Has there ever been a show with so much incredible talent?

Co-star Jason Edwards, himself a mean-guitarist, says "Every time I step onstage, I'm in awe of these folks. They're amazing!" He's just not referring to co-stars Jeb Brown [Aida], Tony winner Jarrod Emick [the Damn Yankees revival], Beth Malone, Cass Morgan [a former B&B Miss Potts] and Grammy Award-winning gospel/country star Lari White.

He points to the amazing, multi-talented David Lutken, whom you may have caught on Broadway and on tour as Will in The Will Rogers Follies and Off Broadway in Woody Guthrie's American Song. He's adept on acoustic, electric and dobro guitar, banjo, mandolin, washboard, bottles, something called an evoharp and can play one helluva mean harmonica.

Then there's Randy Redd who's a master of keyboards and the mandolin; Jeff Lisenby, keyboards and accordion [he's also conductor]; Eric Anthony, mandolin, electric guitar; Brent Moyer, cornet, guitar; the amazing Laurie Canaan, fiddle and mandolin; Dan Immel, bass; and Ron Karsinksi, percussion.

But, wait, there are more. Standing in the wings, just waiting to go are are country vocalist and songwriter Gail Bliss, vocalist DeAnn Whalen and vocalist/songwriter and award-winning actor Scott Wakefield, who in addition to being a champion trick roper, plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, percussion and electric and upright bass.

VEGAS PHANTOMS

The City of Lights, the one in the Nevada desert, will also have the Paris Opera, but it will be located in the sprawling grandeur of the Venetian Resort, Hotel and Casino. Starting in June, not far from the shops along the all-weather Grand Canal, Broadway hunk Brent Barrett [Annie Get Your Gun, Kiss Me, Kate, Chicago] and Tony Award-winner Anthony Crivello [Kiss of the Spider Woman] will run amock as the stars of Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular.

The stars were hand-picked by multi-Tony and Drama Desk-winning director Hal Prince and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber to head the cast of what promises to be a jaw-dropping, awesome 95-minute edition of Broadway's long-run champ.

Performances begin June 4 with a star-studded, multi-million dollar Opening Night gala on June 24. The Venetian box office officially opens Sunday, April 9, but tickets can be purchased starting today via toll-free phone or website orders.

The musical will be presented in design visionary David Rockwell's breathtaking 1,800-seat replicia of the 1862 Paris Opera. Rockwell is the architect of Hollywood's Kodak Theatre and the man behind the Hairspray sets.

In a city where hyperbole and the word "spectacle" take on new meaning, Rockwell's $40-million theatre will be the buzz for years to come. It has depth, height and enough wing space so you never ever have to go outside to hike; has its very own lake; and the type of state-of-the-art production and special effects capability Broadway can only fantasize over.

Then there's humongous chandelier, which you can expect to do more than just crash! It will have an explosive, fiery descent.

Due to the challenging vocal score and sometime two-a-day performance schedule, Prince noted, other roles are also double-cast. Christine will be portrayed by Sierra Boggess [regionally: Les MisÈrables, West Side Story] and Elizabeth Loyacano [The Woman in White, Oklahoma!].

Broadway's current Raoul, Tim Martin Gleason, will repeat his role in Vegas. The Carlottas are Elena Jeanne Batman, who played the part on Broadway, and Geena Jeffries, who played the role in the San Francisco company.

The Vegas production, says Prince, "is a chance to revisit a work of art years after it was created."

According to Prince, the production will include every song from the West End and Broadway original. But you can expect special effects that weren't even dreamed of 18 years ago, when the show premiered on Broadway [where it continues to break records].

David Ian, chairman of co-presenter Theatre for Live Nation, says, "This will be a truly unique staging. One guaranteed to exceed everyone's expectations."

Phantom performs Wednesday-Monday at 7 P.M. and Friday-Wednesday at 10 P.M. Tickets are sold 90 days prior to the desired performance. [If you wish to go in September, book beginning June 1. ]

Tickets are priced "slightly" higher than on Broadway. There are 25 orchestra rows, with the "chandlier-friendly" first eight center ones, called the Golden Circle, priced at $157 per seat. Remaining orchestra and the first three rows of the mezz are $132. Balcony seating is $107 and $82. All credit cards accepted. To order call (866) 641-7469 or (702) 414-7469, or visit http://www.venetian.com/. The official website is www.phantomlasvegas.com.

DISCO'S BACK

The 1978 glitter and be gay disco cult favorite Thank God, It's Friday is just out for the first time on DVD [Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; $15]; but that's not the only news associated with the release. Broadway will soon be raining men! - more so than the deluge it's getting this season.

Jeff Goldblum, Debra Winger, the Commodores and disco-era diva Donna Summer co-star in TGIF along with Paul Jabara [Hair, Rachel Lily Rosenbloom on Broadway; Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, West End]. The late composer/lyricist's body of work will soon be the basis for a Broadway musical.

Admittedly, no classic, TGIF is fun as it centers around Friday night's big dance contest at an L.A. disco. It has a certain cache in cinema history because Jabara won the Best Song Academy Award for "Last Dance," performed in the film by Summer. He also won a Grammy and Golden Globe.

Jabara, appearing as Carl, also performs the hilarious "Trapped in a Stairway," which he also penned.

The Brooklyn-born songwriter/singer/actor's myriad songbook will be the basis of a Broadway musical, at this time titled Last Dance, which will herald the glory days of disco. Philip McKinley [The Boy from Oz] will direct, with choreography by Tony Stevens [Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life].

Jabara's long song roster includes one of the biggest hits of all time, "It's Raining Men," co-written with Paul Shaffer [of Late Show fame] for the Weather Girls and later for Geri Halliwell; "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)," a blockbuster duet for Summer and Streisand; "The Main Event," sung by Streisand in the film of the same name; "Work That Body," Diana Ross; "Two Lovers," Julio Iglesias; "Something's Missing In My Life," a Jabara/Summer duet; "Eternal Love," Whitney Houston; and the hilarious medley "Disco Wedding/Honeymoon in Puerto Rico/Disco Divorce."

As an actor, Jabara made international news when British Equity refused to allow producer Robert Stigwood to cast him as the lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In protest, he chained himself to 10 Downing Street!

In addition to starring in The Rocky Horror Show in L.A., Jabara was featured in such films as Midnight Cowboy, The Lords of Flatbush, The Day of the Locust and Pasoliniës Medea. Jabara co-founded the Red Ribbon Project in 1991. He was credited with conceiving and distributing the first AIDS red ribbons. He died at age 44 in 1992.

KATE'S BACK AND BUSH HAS GOT HER

Kate Baldwin, an original cast member of Joshua Rosenblum's hit revue Bush is Bad: The Musical Cure for the Blue-State Blues, has re-joined the production at The Triad Theatre [158 West 72nd Street].

Returning to the show after a leave of absence to star in the San Francisco edition of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, she joins original cast members Neal Mayer and Michael McCoy, who's just returned to the company following three weeks in Pittsburgh with the national tour of Phantom of the Opera.

Baldwin's Broadway credits include The Full Monty, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Wonderful Town as well as City Center Encores! Babes in Arms, A Connecticut Yankee and Bloomer Girl. In addition to numerous regional credits, she was also featured in Symphony Space's Wall to Wall Sondheim.

Rosenblum, no novice to theater, has served as conductor and/or pianist for 14 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including Miss Saigon, The Music Man, Falsettos, Wonderful Town and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Bush is Bad, described as a cross between Forbidden Broadway and The Daily Show, features not only songs but also "scathing impersonations of the president and his gang of conspirators." It plays Thursday and Friday at 9 PM, with occasional Monday night shows. Check http://www.theatermania.com/ or call (212) 352-3101 for information. Tickets are $25 with a $12 minimum.

SPEAKING OF SONDHEIM

It was 12-hours that passed by as if it was a 90-minute, intermissionless show. There were more stars saluting Broadway's great composer on his 75th birthday than there are in the sky. Now a souvenir highlights CD of that historic, memorable event, Wall to Wall Stephen Sondheim, is available from Satelite Radio and Symphony Space [$20].

The one hour and 20 minute CD features 17 tracks, including "Losing My Mind," Tony-winner Donna Murphy; "Broadway Baby," Tony-winner Judy Kaye, "I'm In Love With A Boy," Emily Skinner; "Anyone Can Whistle," Michael Cerveris; "No One Is Alone," Chip Zien; "What More Do I Need," Liz Calloway; "Marry Me A Little," Gregg Edleman; and "The Miller's Son," Kate Baldwin. Other artists include Laura Benanti, Carollee Carmello, John Dossett, Danny Gurwin and Sheldon Harnick.

Broadway and Sondheim veteran Paul Gemignani [now Encores! musical director] conducts the American Theatre Orchestra on the overture and five additional tracks.

The booklet has a full-page photo of the Sondheim being congratulated by Angela Lansburg, George Hearn and Michael Cerveris and notes by Frank Rich and SS artistic director Isaiah Sheffer.

To order Wall to Wall Stephen Sondheim, call (212) 864-1414, X. 502 or go online at www.symphonyspace.org.

SPEAKING OF SYMPHONY SPACE

The acclaimed New York cultural arts center at Broadway and 95th Street, Symphony Space is presenting celebrated and award-winning film programmer Fabiano Canosa in a multi-part journey through cinema history, Cinema 360∞.

Canosa terms the series, "A sweeping, unabashedly opinionated, charmingly personal, eclectic, romp through the international world of film."

Remaining programs run Saturdays through May 20 from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M. Content include acknowledged and unsung cinema masterpieces around such themes as "The Silent World," "Surreal Avant-Garde," "Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talkin' - Hollywood Studios" and "The Hollywood Ten."

The next two programs should be exciting, insightful and fascinating to any cinema bufff.

On April 18, "The Magnificent Nine" will spotlight Renoir, Godard, Rossellini. BuÒuel, Ford, Welles, Hitchcock, Mizoguchi and Fassbinder.

On April 15, "The Waves and the Italian Case" covers Italian, Russian, French "waves" and neo-realism with focus on Truffant, Bertolucci and, among others, Italian Western pioneer Leone.

The series takes place in the intimate Thalia Studio. You can book as many programs, on a space available basis, as you wish for $25 each. Call (212) 864-5400 for multiple program pricing. For more information, go to www.symphonyspace.org.

If you attend Cinema 360∞ or other SS programming, such as the center's always-interesting art house classics in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, check out the excellent brunch, sandwiches and soups and snacks offered at extremely modest prices in the Thalia Cafe by Giardino. If you have a sweet tooth, the pies are to die for, but this is one spot where you can leave home without it: cash only.
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