The staged concert version of Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man schedule to run April

22-27 at Hartford’s Bushnell Center will star Shirley Jones and her son Patrick Cassidy.

Cassidy will play Harold Hill and Joes will play Mrs. Paroo (she also played Marian in the film version of The Music Man).

Shirley Jones made her Broadway debut in South Pacific and later starred in films such as Carousel and Oklahoma!. She is also best known for her role in the sitcom The Partridge Family. 

The Broadway production of the Clifford Odets drama The Country Girl will begin previews at the

Bernard

B.

Jacobs

Theatre on April 3, 2008 and has an opening night set for April 27.

The cast of the revival will stars Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, and Peter Gallagher. Also just announced to join the cast is Remy Auberjonois, Anna Camp, Lucas Caleb Rooney, and Chip Zien.

The play is about a down-on-his luck alcoholic actor, played by Freeman, and his unhappy wife, played by McDormand, whose fortunes look to change when he is offered a role by a hot-shot director played by Gallagher.

The creative team for the production will include Albert Wolsky on costume design, Natasha Katz doing the lighting design, and Tim Hatley doing the scenic design.

The full cast has been announced for the 2008 revival of the Broadway musical Gypsy which will be directed by Tony Award winner and author of the musical Arthur Laurents. The production is schedule to open for previews on March 3^rd with an official opening on March 27^th at the St. James Theatre.

The show stars Patti LuPone as Mama Rose, Laura Benanti as Louise, and Boyd Gaines as Herbie. The rest of the cast includes Bill Bateman, Jim Bracchitta, Marilyn Caskey, Alison Fraser, Sami Gayle, Leigh Ann Larkin, Lenora Nemetz, Bill Raymond, Brian Reddy, Tony Yazbeck and Emma Rowley.

Seven of the current cast members of the hit musical Legally Blonde have all extended their contracts through June 2008. This includes Laura Bell Bundy, Richard H. Blake, Christian Borle, Orfeh, Michael Rupert, Nikki Snelson and Kate Shindle.

Legally Blonde officially opened on Broadway on April 29^th and is based on the popular 2001 movie of the same name about a ditzy sorority girl who decides to go to Harvard Law School in order to win back her great love who is looking for a more serious girl to marry.

On January 31^st there will be a show at Carnegie Hall to benefit the Writers Guild East Strike Fund. The benefit will begin at 8pm and Tony Award winner Patti LuPone will guest star at the event, An Evening of Music and Comedy with Family Guy’s Alex Borstein and Seth McFarlane. There will also be a guest appearance by Janeane Garafolo and the show has been said to be intended for mature audiences.

Tickets are available through www.carnegiehall.org

Wicked will have a new leading man! David Burnham will be taking on the role of Fiyero in the hit Broadway musical Wicked on January 8. The role was played by Sebastian Arcelus who recently left to play Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys. In the interim Derrick Williams will be playing the role.

Burnham’s stage credits include The Light in the Piazza, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstore and On the 20^th Century.

The current cast of Wicked also stars Stephanie J. Block, Annaleigh Ashford, Carole Shelly, Lenny Wolpe, Cristy Candler, Logan Lipton and Steve Skybell.

When Daniel Reichard says goodbye to the role of Bob Gaudio in the hit Broadway musical Jersey Boys, Sebastian Arcelus will take over. Starting on January 10, 2008 Arcelus will be playing the role of Bob Gaudio, one of the members of the musical group The Four Season.

Arcelus is currently staring in the smash hit Broadway musical Wicked as Fiyero and has also appeared on stage in Rent, Good Vibrations, The Full Monty, Aida and Floyd Collins.

The cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot will be getting a new cast members starting December 18, 2007. Brad Oscar who received a Tony Award nomination from his work in the producer will be joining the cast in the role of Sir Bedevere.

Oscar’s stage credits also include Aspects of Love, Jekyll & Hyde, Damn Yankees, Forbidden Broadway and Cabaret.

The rest of the cast includes Jonathan Hadary, Marin Mazzie, Lewis Cleale, Tom Deckman, David Hibbard and Rick Holmes.

Cast members have been announced for the upcoming production of the Tennessee Williams’ revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that will be opening up at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway on Febraruy 12, 2008.

The production will include film actor Terrance Howard (Brick), Anika Noni Rose (Maggie “the cat”), James Earl Jones (Big Daddy) and Phylicia Rashad (Big Mama).

This will be the show’s fifth Broadway production. The play has also been made into numerous film and television versions.

Tonya Pinkins who won the Tony Award for Jelly’s Last Jam, will star in Paul Oakley Stovall’s As Much As You Can. The play will run at the

The cast of the play will also include Wes Ramsey, Yassmin Allers, J. Nicole Brooks, J. Karen Thomas, Andrew Kelsey and Paul Oakley Stovall.

The play is about the character Jesse, who returns home to Chicago for his brother’s wedding, and surprises his family by bringing home his Swedish boyfriend. Jesse’s three siblings have varying reactions to the surprise couple.