If you haven’t been watching As the World Turns lately, you have been missing one of the hottest subplots in recent years: Luke and Noah. Van Hansis (pictured above) has been playing Luke Snyder in the soap since December 2005 and he is now making his New York stage debut in Charles Busch’s Die Mommie Die! The New York production, which also stars Busch as fallen pop diva Angela Arden (the part played by Jimmy Janowski in the BUA production), is scheduled to run through February 17.

Kevin Keleher and Marc Sacco will join Caitlin Coleman and Rebecca Elkin in the upcoming production of Douglas Carter Beane’s comedy The Little Dog Laughed.

It seems like Sweeney Todd mania. The much anticipated Musicalfare production with an all-star cast and musical direction by Nathan Matthews is set to open January 9. The touring production of the John Doyle version in which all the actors also play the musical instruments is now playing at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto, starring Judy Kaye, through December 9. The movie version opens nationwide on December 21.

Subversive Theatre Company will hold its first Holiday Party on December 2, 6-9pm at the New Phoenix Theatre. The free event will include holiday foods, live music and a series of vignettes from past productions including A Random Act (with Mary Loftus and Hasheen DeBerry), Patriot Act (with Peter Jaskowiak and Diane Cammarata), Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (with Manny Fried), Mother Dis-Courage (with Mary Moebius and Keith Elkins) and Bury the Dead (with Richard Satterwhite).

Drew Kahn will join Josephine Hogan and Peter Palmisano in Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, Saturday, December 8 at 7:30pm at the Alleyway. This BUA presentation is a benefit for Just Buffalo Literary Center.

Paul O’Hern makes a very welcome return to the stage in O’Connell & Company’s Trailer Park Christmas which opens today at the Cabaret in the Square. And coming up in January, Steel Magnolias, which will star Stephanie Bax, Tess Spangler, Dolores Mendolia, Pamela Rose Mangus, Michele Roberts and Jennifer Toomey.

Mary Kate O’Connell will portray Florence Foster Jenkins in the hilarious comedy Glorious! set to open at the Kavinoky on February 29. Jenkins was an American soprano of the early 20th century who became famous for her lack of pitch, tone and singing ability. I am thrilled to have been given the chance to direct the glorious O’Connell in this project.

John Buscaglia, Lou Colaiacovo and Don Gervasi complete the cast of Twelve Angry Men, which opens at the Kavinoky on January 4. By the way, Gervasi’s the Eclectic Company is celebrating its 10th anniversary season and they are back performing at the Smith Theatre.

If all ends well, David Lamb is set to star in the Studio Arena production of David Hare’s The Vertical Hour, which is scheduled to open March 11. The play ran on Broadway earlier this year, starring Bill Nighy and Julianne Moore.

Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones will perform A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters on December 1 to benefit her AIDS Foundation. The performance will take place at the Paramount Pictures lot and, at the request of la Taylor, striking TV and film writers will briefly put down their picket signs because she refuses to cross the picket lines.

Niagara University conferred honorary doctorates to Broadway veterans Scott Ellis, Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba and David Hyde Pierce (pictured below with Brother Augustine Towey). Ellis directed the current Broadway production of Kander and Ebb’s Curtains for which Pierce received the Tony award. Both Monk and Ziemba were also nominated. Incidentally, due to the stagehands strike on Broadway, most of the shows are dark, so Pierce took the entire Curtains company to see Chita Rivera’s cabaret show at Feinstein’s this past Saturday.