O'Donnell, Ebersole, Leavel Set for '07/8 Encores! Season

The New York Times reports that Rosie O'Donnell will play Pauline, "the tart-tongued, wisecracking maid" in Encores!' upcoming production of the classic 1925 musical No, No Nanette, while Tony Award-winner Christine Ebersole will take on the role of stage diva Margo Channing in Applause, the 1970 Charles Strouse-Lee Adams musical based on All About Eve.

Applause, with music by Strouse, lyrics by Adam and a book by Comden and Green, will begin the new Encores! season from February 7 through 10, 2008, with Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes (The Beauty Queen of Leenane) directing Marc Blitzstein and Joseph Stein's Juno, based on Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, from March 27 through 30, with No, No, Nanette - directed by Tony-winner Walter Bobbie (Chicago) following.  The latter Vincent Youmans musical (with music by Youmans, book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel and lyrics by Harbach and Irving Caesar) will also star Tony Award-winner Beth Leavel (Thoroughly Modern Millie, 42nd Street, Show Boat) as Lucille Early.  Busby Berkeley and Burt Shevelove's 1971 reconception will be presented rather than the original version.  It will run from May 8 through 12.

"The producers of Grey Gardens in London, in which Ms. Ebersole was scheduled to star, say it remains to be seen how her appearance in Applause will affect that production," states the article.

Ebersole, a Tony Award-winner for her performance in 42nd Street and a Tony-nominee for her work in Dinner at Eight, has won a multitude of awards for her work as both "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale and "Little Edie" Beale in Grey Gardens. She has also appeared on Broadway in Steel Magnolias, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Getting Away with Murder, Camelot, Oklahoma! and On the Twentieth Century, as well as at Encores! in A Connecticut Yankee, Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, Lady in the Dark and Allegro.  Her film credits include My Girl 2, Amadeus and the TV musical version of Gypsy.  She is also a noted cabaret artist.

For almost a year, O'Donnell co-hosted ABC's "The View" alongside Hasselbeck, Barbara Walters and Joy Behar.  She was previously, from 1996 to 2002, the host of ABC's "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," on which she heavily promoted Broadway shows and featured Broadway performers.  O'Donnell is also a performer who most recently appeared as Golde in the recent Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof; she has also been seen on Broadway in Seussical (as The Cat in the Hat) and in Grease (as Rizzo). O'Donnell, who began her career as a stand-up comedian, produced the Boy George musical Taboo, and film and TV credits include Tarzan, Harriet the Spy, Now and Then, Exit to Eden, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, "Will & Grace," and "Queer as Folk."

Photo of Rosie O'Donnell by Linda Lenzi