The fabulous Leslie Uggams (pictured above) will be starring later this month as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! at Theatre Under the Stars in Houston. The production will also star Lewis J. Stadlen who appeared last year at Studio Arena in Don’t Talk to the Actors. Uggams was last seen on Broadway in 2005 in the revival of On Golden Pond starring opposite James Earl Jones. That revival was cut short because Jones fell ill with pneumonia.

James Earl Jones will be back on Broadway this season starring as Big Daddy in the revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which will feature an all African-American cast. Directed by Debbie Allen, the production will also star Phylicia Rashad, Terrence Howard and Anika Noni Rose as Maggie. This limited engagement is scheduled to run February 12-April 13. Rose, who got a Tony award for Caroline or Change and was featured in the movie Dreamgirls, will be seen later this year at the Stratford Festival starring opposite Christopher Plummer in Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.

Derek Campbell will direct Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s production of King Lear, which will star Saul Elkin in the title role. Steve Vaughan will direct the second play of the season, The Merry Wives of Windsor.

TOY co-founder Roz Cramer is back in town to star in the company’s upcoming production of The Great Gilly Hopkins, which opens March 14. Directed by Meg Quinn, the show will also star Anne Roaldi, Tim Newell and Joyce Carolyn.

Road Less Traveled Productions New Play Workshop continues with its second new play of the season, Melody Von Smith’s Bonegrinders. The play opens February 22 under the direction of Kyle Conti and will star Joe Wiens, Kate LoConti, Beth Donahue, Arianna Boykins, Tim Eimiller, Bob Grabowski and Peter Jaskowiak. The play is “the story of a war journalist who returns home after his best friend/fellow journalist has been killed.”

David Oliver has joined the cast of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, which opens at the New Phoenix Theatre on February 29. Directed by Kelli Bocock-Natale, the production also stars Richard Lambert, Brian Riggs and Lisa Ludwig.

Heather Violanti was awarded the Brinly-Hardy Fellowship in the area of playwriting from the Mary Anderson Center in Indiana. Violanti and Randy Kramer have co-written the new musical Victory: The Father Baker Story which opens at MusicalFare on March 5 as part of the Jack Cullen New Musicals Series. Directed by Kramer, the production will star Ellen Horst, Norm Sham, Marc Sacco and Lou Colaiacovo as Father Baker.

Chris Standart will direct the American Repertory Theater production of The Rose Tattoo, which is scheduled to run in April at TheaterLoft.

Diane Cammarata has joined the Playhouse of American Classics production of All the Way Home, which opens February 15 at the Historical Society. The production which stars Mary McMahon and Phil Knoezer, will also feature a very welcome appearance by Elsie Robertson.

John Fredo will portray Pablo Picasso in the Kavinoky’s final show of the season, Jeffrey Hatcher’s A Picasso. Directed by David Lamb and starring Lisa Ludwig, the play opens May 2. The Kavinoky annual benefit, Kavinoky Kavalcade will be held on April 12 at the Saturn Club.

Prior to A Picasso, the Kavinoky will present Peter Quilter’s comedy Glorious!, directed by me and starring Joe Demerly, Mary Kate O’Connell, Victoria Perez, Anne Gayley, Donn Youngstrom (pictured below) and Eileen Dugan. O’Connell plays Florence Foster Jenkins, the legendary New York heiress and socialite who was the worst singer in the world. Irv Weinstein, broadcasting icon and retired anchor of WKBW TV’s Eyewitness News, has lent his talent to the production as the voice of the radio commentator. Nathan Matthews is the music director. The show opens February 29.