HERE AND THERE, THIS AND THAT: BEATING THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER DOLDRUMS
by ELLIS NASSOUR

The dog days of summer are beating down on us. If you're looking for ways to beat them, here are some suggestions from what's on Off Broadway, free in Central Park, a reading from an erotic page-turner, inexpensive highlights from a theater festival near you and the offerings of a trio of "museums" where you can beat the heat in air-conditioned comfort.

JIM DALE'S (STAGE) ADDRESS IS KNOWNTony Award winner Jim Dale can't believe what he's hearing at the Promenade Theatre where he co-starring with William Atherton in Address Unknown.  �It�s a theatrical outing you�ll long remember,� he says, �a play you�ll be happy you caught. In a nutshell, it�s about friendship, betrayal, murder and revenge against the backdrop of the early days of Nazism. Not sit-com material, to say the least. In fact, it�s quite gripping, so it demands your attention. But I passed up an opportunity to do a Broadway musical to do this. I had a good idea it would find it's audience. However, never anything like the audiences we have. They�re magnificent. Performance after performance of standing, cheering ovations. In my fifty years of stage work I�ve never known anything quite like it. It�s an utter joy to be involved in such a production.�

Address Unknown, adapted and directed by Frank Dunlop [1974�s Scapino, which Dale not only starred in but for which he also adapted the book and composed the music] from the international best-seller by Katherine Kressman Taylor, is set in 1932. It�s the story of two German men who run an art gallery in San Francisco. Max, played by Tony-winner Dale, is Jewish. His friend/partner Martin, Atherton, returns with his family to Germany to educate his children just as Hitler is beginning to gain power.

�We see the gradual disintegration of a long friendship,� observes Dale, �as Martin becomes completely indoctrinated by the Nazi propaganda. Address Unknown is theatrical magic and what an ending. It�s strictly O'Henry."

Dale has also achieved fame outside theater with his amazing repertory of hundreds of voices for the Harry Potter audio books. 

SOMETHING THEATRICAL FOR NOTHINGM-G-M used to boast it was the studio with more stars than there are in the heavens. Well, the NYSF�s 42nd Annual Shakespeare In the Park can boast they have about half in the cast of this summer�s sumptuous and riotous production of Much Ado About Nothing.

Thanks to generous support from JPMorgan Chase and, among many others, Viacom Outdoor, The New York Times, WNYC, the Shubert Foundation, Continental Airlines and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, you can see them for free [through August 8 at 8 P.M.] under a galaxy of heavenly stars -- unfortunately with the occasional roar of jets, helicopters and sirens.

Tickets are distributed day of performance beginning at 1 P.M. at the Delacorte Theatre boxoffice in Central Park [enter from Central Park West and 81st Street or Fifth Avenue and 79th Street], but get there much earlier. Why not make it an occasion for a picnic? And don�t leave the Frisbee at home. [Tickets are also distributed from 1 - 3 P.M. at the Public Theatre, 425 Lafayette Street, just off East 8th Street].
 
Much Ado�s headliners are Jimmy Smits, Sam Waterston [of Law & Order fame, who�s no stranger to the play, having done the 1972 NYSF production], Brian Murray, Elisabeth Waterston [yes, they�re related; father and daughter], Lorenzo Pisoni [late of LCT�s Henry IV], 2004 Drama Desk nominee Jayne Houdyshell [Well] and Dominic Chianese [the Sopranos�s Uncle Junior]. David Esbjornson [The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, The Play About the Baby] directs.

If you only know Smits from films [if you blinked during Star Wars: Episode II � Attack of the Clones, you missed him as Senator Bail Organa in what amounted to a walk-on; maybe there�ll be more of him in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith due in May], and TV work [LA Law, NYPD], you�re in for a surprise. This is a Smits you�ve never experienced. He�s supremely adept at comedy, even slapstick. In two particular moments [hint: he�s all wet], he has audiences in stitches.

Smits and Waterson got their first theatrical breaks courtesy of the late Joe Papp and the NYSF. Flatbush native Smits marked this return to theater in 2002�s Twelth Night in the Park; and in last season�s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna In the Tropics, his return to indoor Broadway.