Carol Rosegg News

There's something very endearing about watching a couple of old pros like Bernie Kopell and Lou Cutell exercise their finely tuned comedic chops as a pair of elderly widowers looking for a night of excitement; especially when that excitement comes in the form of Teresa Ganzel, who displays ample comic skills herself as the shapely blonde goodtime girl with a heart of gold.  Add another actor and this trio could deliver a very enjoyable production of The Sunshine Boys.  But alas, the vehicle they ride into the Little Shubert, Viagara Falls, is an anaemic sex comedy that wastes their talents and the audience's patience.

There are only six more performances to catch 'The Amazing Race' star Reichen Lehmkuhl as ‘Andrew,' one half of the happy couple, in My Big Gay Italian Wedding, the hilarious comedy now playing at St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46th Street. Lehmkuhl will play his final performance on Saturday, July 24th. Beginning Thursday, July 29th, Daniel Robinson (The Big Gay Musical, Hairspray) steps up to the alter to assume the role.

Frank McCourt's THE IRISH...AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY is an irreverent but affectionate history of the Irish in America that mingles laughter and sentiment in a tapestry of classical songs and stories.

I'll be blunt.  I'm not going to go into much detail about the problems with composer/bookwriter Rob Broadhurst and lyricist/bookwriter Brent Black's teenage Faustian musical, I'll Be Damned, since it's a fledgling effort and the Jaradoa Theater Company offers seats for a comparatively low price.  The production will certainly be perking up the interest of Broadway fans with its casting of the broad and belty Mary Testa and popular up-and-comer Kenita R. Miller playing featured roles, but the piece is not ready to be reviewed.

There are only six more performances to catch 'The Amazing Race' star Reichen Lehmkuhl as ‘Andrew,' one half of the happy couple, in My Big Gay Italian Wedding, the hilarious comedy now playing at St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46th Street. Lehmkuhl will play his final performance on Saturday, July 24th. Beginning Thursday, July 29th, Daniel Robinson (The Big Gay Musical, Hairspray) steps up to the alter to assume the role.

AN ERROR OF THE MOON, a speculation of jealousy, madness and the brothers Booth, will begin Off-Broadway performances August 13th at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street. The new play by Luigi Creatore will officially open on Monday, August 30th for a limited engagement through October 10th. Under the direction of Kim Weild, the cast of AN ERROR OF THE MOON features Margaret Copeland, Erik Heger, Andrew Veenstra, and Brian Wallace.

Haylie Duff made her Broadway debut in 2006 as Amber von Tussle in Hairspray. She is now back in New York and starring in Nora and Delia Ephron's production of Love, Loss and What I Wore. Duff earned a Teen Choice Award for her role as Summer Wheatly in the cult classic 'Napoleon Dynamite,' and has also served as an executive producer and mentor to contestants on MTV's reality show, 'Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods.'

I'LL BE DAMNED, a new musical by Rob Broadhurst and Brent Black, will officially open Saturday evening, July 10th at The Vineyard, 108 East 15th Street (between Union Square East & Irving Place).

Producers Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian and Tom Wirtshafter announced today that Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt will join the cast of David Cromer's acclaimed production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, for four weeks only (Tuesday, July 6th to Sunday, August 1st), at the Barrow Street Theatre, succeeding Michael McKean, who will give his final performance on Sunday evening, July 4. Ms. Hunt becomes the sixth actor to assume the iconic role in this record-breaking production.

'I didn't do anything.'

It would certainly be an interesting experience for modern playgoers to travel back in time and see how The Merchant of Venice was first received by Shakespeare's audiences.  Those only familiar with the play's famous, 'Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions...' speech, spoken by the moneylender Shylock, might just assume the author meant it to be a drama attacking anti-Semitic tendencies of the day.

Performances begin July 1st for I'LL BE DAMNED, a new musical by Rob Broadhurst and Brent Black, for a limited engagement through July 18th at the Dimson Theatre at The Vineyard, 108 East 15th Street (between Union Square East & Irving Place). I'LL BE DAMNED is directed by April Nickell, with choreography by Luis Salgado and musical direction by Jason Sherbundy.

New York's SteppingStone Theatre Company presents the world premiere of REFLECTIONS OF A HEART - a new play written and directed by Christopher G. Roberts, based on the true story of Isaac Woodard, Jr., at one time the most highly decorated African-American WWII veteran whose 1946 beating and subsequent blinding by police, hours after being discharged from the US Army, ignited a heated civil rights battle in South Carolina and around the nation - with previews beginning June 11, prior to its official press opening June 17, at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street) in Manhattan.

I will leave it to you, dear readers, if you decide to take in a performance of Jerry Mayer's Dietrich and Chevalier, to determine for yourselves if it's better off being a play peppered with just a few musical moments or a full-out concert with just a smattering of narrative.  As it stands now, the two-act piece with a plot that continually gets halted to present its collection of fifteen musical hits trudges along without much purpose.

The Laguna Playhouse is thrilled to offer the funny, magical and moving theatrical event, JAY JOHNSON: THE TWO AND ONLY!, starring acclaimed actor, playwright and master ventriloquist Jay Johnson, running for an exclusive two week engagement on June 11 - 20 at The Laguna Playhouse.

New York's SteppingStone Theatre Company presents the world premiere of REFLECTIONS OF A HEART - a new play written and directed by Christopher G. Roberts, based on the true story of Isaac Woodard, Jr., at one time the most highly decorated African-American WWII veteran whose 1946 beating and subsequent blinding by police, hours after being discharged from the US Army, ignited a heated civil rights battle in South Carolina and around the nation - with previews beginning June 11, prior to its official press opening June 17, at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street) in Manhattan.

The Laguna Playhouse is thrilled to offer the funny, magical and moving theatrical event, JAY JOHNSON: THE TWO AND ONLY!, starring acclaimed actor, playwright and master ventriloquist Jay Johnson, running for an exclusive two week engagement on June 11 - 20 at The Laguna Playhouse.

FAMILY DINNER, a new play by Michele Willens, will be given its world-premiere Off-Broadway this summer in a production directed by Jamibeth Margolis at the Beckett Theatre On Theater Row (410 W. 42 St.) in Manhattan, with previews beginning June 17 prior to an official press opening June 21.

Melissa Gilbert and the cast of the acclaimed National Tour of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, THE MUSICAL will perform at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, South Dakota from June 1-6, 2010.

Karen & Gabe and Beth & Tom, couples who have been friends for years, participate in all the familiar and comfortable rituals of shared vacations, good conversation and great food. When Tom abruptly walks out on Beth, it threatens more than just their marriage alone. A Pulitzer Prize-winning play that explores the difficulties of divorce, even when it isn't your own.