The fabulous Julianne Moore (pictured above) is making her Broadway debut in David Hare’s new play The Vertical Hour which opened on November 30 at the Music Box Theatre. Directed by Sam Mendes, the production also stars British actor Bill Nighy of Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead’s Man Chest fame. Moore was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the movie The Hours, which had a screenplay by Hare (his only Oscar nomination). Later in the season, Hare will direct Vanessa Redgrave in The Year of Magical Thinking, a new play by Joan Didion based on her memoir. Moore had very fond memories of Buffalo and Studio Arena, where she made her professional debut in The Dresser back in 1984.

Rumor has it that one of the titles being considered for the Pump Boys slot at Studio is Souvenir, a play with music that tells the story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a Manhattan society eccentric of the 1930s and 1940s who believed herself to be an opera diva but couldn’t hit a single note on key. Souvenir ran on Broadway last season starring Judy Kaye who received a Tony nomination for her performance. Since the show closed last January, Kaye has played it again in Los Angeles last month and is headed for the Arizona Theatre Company this winter. Before it closed down its operations, the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami had also announced Souvenir starring Kaye as part of its 2006-07 season.

Incidentally, CanStage in Toronto (in a co-production with Theatre Calgary) is currently presenting Glorious!, a British play by Peter Quilters about the life of Florence Foster Jenkins. The play, directed by former Shaw Festival artistic director Christopher Newton, had its North American premiere last month at Theatre Calgary, where Newton served as first artistic director back in 1968.

Brendan Powers will be no longer be the artistic director of Niagara University Theatre as of June 1. Powers will be pursuing acting opportunities and will most likely relocate to New York. His last scheduled performance in Buffalo will be in the Irish Classical Theatre Company production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which opens on March 2.

Back in 1996, Josephine Hogan played a delightful Ruth in the Irish Classical Theatre production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit with the superb Anne Gayley as Madame Arcati. This time around Hogan will portray the eccentric Arcati when the show opens on April 20. Co-directed by Vincent O’Neill and Brian Cavanagh, the production will also star Brian Mysliwy, Kristen Tripp Kelley, Dawn Woollacott, Susan Drozd, Kathleen Betsko-Yale and Gerry Maher.

It will be a busy spring for Tripp Kelley, who will also be starring in the Kavinoky production of the delightful Enchanted April. Directed by Paul Todaro, the play will also star Jeanne Cairns, Ellen Horst, Susan Biesinger, Neil Casey, Neal Moeller and John Warren.

Tim Kennedy will be directing James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones for the Paul Robeson Theatre in February 2007.

O’Connell & Company has added a performance of A Big Band Christmas, Sunday, December 17 at 7pm. The company will present a special performance of The Lounge on New Year’s Eve.

Othello, directed by Saul Elkin, and All’s Well That Ends Well, directed by Derek Campbell, will be next summer’s offerings at Shakespeare in Delaware Park. By the way, the company’s fall fund raising event Mark Twain Live! was a huge success, enabling them to meet the John R. Oishei Challenge Grant.

Buffalo native Peter Sham has written the book and lyrics for Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, which is based on the hit comedy by Ken Ludwig that had a very successful Broadway run in 1989 and has since become a favorite in the regional circuit. The musical will premiere in June as part of the Utah Shakespearean Festival summer repertory season. Sham has been a resident principal member of the Festival for the past 10 years. Several years ago, he and Musicalfare’s Randy Kramer co-wrote It’s a Dog’s Life: Man’s Best Musical.

UB alum Ethan Matthews (aka Matthew Erickson, pictured below) is touring all over the country in James Kirkwood’s comedy Legends!, which stars legendary TV actresses Joan Collins and Linda Evans. The tour, which kicked off in Toronto this past September, will come closer to home again in March when it plays the Palace Theatre at Playhouse Square Center in Cleveland. Kirkwood’s hilarious comedy first toured the country in 1986 with legendary stage actresses Carol Channing and Mary Martin. BUA produced the play in the mid 1990s with Jimmy Janowski and Ben Kuhns (aka Lauren Fox).