GRACE NOTES - Wednesday, March 2, 2011

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Today’s highlights:

* Yellowman opens at Trinity Rep.

* Working opens at Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse.

* Agnes Under the Big Top begins previews at Long Wharf.

* The Next Fairy Tale begins previews at Hollywood's Celebration Theatre.

* Selected Shorts, featuring John Lithgow, at 7 PM at Symphony Space.

* Kritzerland at the Gardenia's Unsung Berlin, starrring Dan Callway and Jonelle Allen, at LA's Gardenia. 323 467-7444

* Harry Connick Jr. in Concert on Broadway at 9:30 PM on PBS Great Performances (check local listings).

* Becoming Tennessee reading, starring Bryan Batt, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. Reservations: (212) 246-5877

* Company closes at London's Southwark Theatre.

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The revised revival of the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, once aimed for Off-Broadway, has been bumped to Broadway and will star Tony Award nominee Harry Connick, Jr. The show — as reconceived by Tony-winning director Michael Mayer, with a new book by Peter Parnell — will open this fall.

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York Theatre will present the Off-Broadway premiere of the new musical, Tomorrow Morning, with book, lyrics and music by Laurence Mark Wythe, direction by Tom Mullen, choreography by Lorin Latarro and music direction by John Bell. Performances begin Friday, March 21 for a limited engagement through Saturday, April 23. Opening night is set for Wednesday, March 30

The cast features D.B. Bonds, Autumn Hurlbert, Matthew Hydzik and Mary Mossberg.

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Christopher Sieber, who had been scheduled to play a brief engagement in the Broadway production of Chicago, will instead step into the role of Georges in La Cage aux Folles, replacing Jeffrey Tambor. A starting date will be announced soon.

Jeff McCarthy will replace Sieber as Billy Flynn in Chicago.

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Additional casting has been announced for the Broadway revival of John Guare's House of Blue Leaves. David Cromer directs the production, which will begin previews April 4 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Opening night for the 16-week engagement is scheduled for April 25.

Newly announced for the starry company are Tony nominee Thomas Sadoski as Billy Einhorn, Susan Bennett as Second Nunn and Jimmy Davis as Military Policeman. They join the previously reported Ben Stiller as Artie Shaughnessy, Edie Falco as Bananas Shaughnessy, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Bunny Flingus, Alison Pill as Corrinna Stroller, Christopher Abbott as Ronnie Shaughnessy, Mary Beth Hurt as Head Nun and Halley Feiffer as Little Nun.

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Frank Rich, The New York Times opinion columnist who spent 14 years as the chief theatre critic for that newspaper, is departing after 31 years to join the staff of New York Magazine, according to the Huffington Post.

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Five-time Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard will compose original music for Stephen Adly Guirgis' star-filled Motherf**ker with the Hat, which begins performances March 15 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. TheMFwiththeHat.com

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Video: Priscilla in the recording studio: http://bit.ly/huGsai

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Former Jersey Boys stars Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard, and J. Robert Spencer, who comprise the singing group "The Midtown Men," will offer a one-night-only concert at the Colden Center in Queens on April 9 at 8 PM. The event will be followed by a fan reception. In the show, the group performs hits from The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Temptations, The Jackson 5 and The Four Seasons. Information and tickets here.

In addition to news of the New York City engagement, upcoming engagements in the group's ongoing national tour have been announced, including Troy, NY (May 6), San Diego, CA (May 14), South Orange, NJ (June 4), Saint Paul, MN (Aug. 31 – Sept. 1), and Fort Worth Texas (Oct. 28).

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Jacques Brel Returns will perform at The Triad at 8 PM on Wednesdays, March 16, 23 and 30. Rick Hip-Flores serves as music director for the production. The rotating cast will include Robert Cuccioli, Natascia Diaz, Tamra Hayden, Rodney Hicks, Jim Stanek, Jean Brassard, Karen Kohler, Ereni Sevasti, and Micheline Van Hautem.

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Sheldon Harnick, Bonnie Comley and Frank Cullen are among the winners of the 2011 Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence, to be presented in a ceremony at the New York Players Club on Monday, May 16 at 6 PM. Tony Walton is directing the event.

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The Berkeley Repertory Theatre production of American Idiot -- which transfers to Broadway's St. James Theater later this month -- has received 12 nominations from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. The organization's 34th annual awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Palace of Fine Arts, on Monday, May 3 at 7:30 PM.

Among the SFBATCC's acting nominees are Rene Augesen (November), Leanne Borghesi (Dames at Sea), Hannah Cabell (In the Next Room), Donald Corren (Souvenir), Anthony Fusco (November), Judy Kaye (Souvenir), Maureen McVerry (Wildcat), James Moye (Tinyard Hill), Mark Nadler (My Wife Ira), David Sattler (All Shook Up), and Danny Scheie (You, Nero).

Nominated directors include David Ira Goldstein (The Kite Runner), Loretta Greco (Mauritius), Rick Lombardo (As You Like It), Randal Myler (It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues), Sharon Ott (You, Nero), and Les Waters (The Lieutenant of Inishmore).

Nominated touring productions include The 39 Steps, Brief Encounter, Burn the Floor, Cirque du Soleil's Ovo, Monty Python's Spamalot, and Wicked. Among the nominees for original script are Amy Freed (You, Nero), Matthew Spangler (The Kite Runner), Sarah Ruhl (In The Next Room), and Tony Kushner (Tiny Kushner).

For a complete list of nominations, click here.

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Video: Finding the Motherf**cker in all of us: http://bit.ly/emrk8d

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The new adaptation of the 1978 Broadway musical Working, inspired by Studs Terkel's best-selling collection of oral histories about vocations, opens in Chicago March 2 following previews from Feb. 15 at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. Two new songs by Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda have been added to the score. Performances continue to May 8.

The six-person cast includes Chicago stars E. Faye Butler, Barbara Robertson and Gene Weygandt, along with Michael Mahler, Emjoy Gavino and Juan Gabriel Ruiz, with Demetrios Troy and Genevieve VenJohnson. Gordon Greenberg directs.

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Kate Baldwin, Tituss Burgess and Lauren Kennedy will perform the music of songwriter Jonathan Reid Gealt March 30 at the Upper East Side Barnes and Noble (86th St. and Lexington Ave.). The 5 PM performance will highlight songs from Gealt's album "Thirteen Stories Down," which was released digitially on the on Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records label last December and arrived in stores in January.

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Roundabout Theatre Company's extended Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest will be filmed in high-definition for future screenings at cinemas.

The staging will be filmed live with multiple high-definition cameras during public performances on March 11 and 12, for limited screenings in movie theatres and performing arts centers across the U.S. and internationally on June 2 and varying dates through June 30. A full list of participating cinemas, exhibition dates and ticket prices will be announced soon.

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New Jersey's ReVision Theatre has announced its 2011 season of musicals:

Dreamgirls benefit concert (May 14), Xanadu (July 7-24), Spring Awakening (Aug. 4-28), The Break-Up Notebook (Sept. 8-25) and Little Shop of Horrors (Oct. 6-28).

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Nicola Stephenson and Patrick Robinson will join the West End cast of the National Theatre's production of War Horse at the New London Theatre, beginning performances March 9, to play Albert's mother Rose Narracott and the German soldier Friedrich Muller, respectively. warhorselondon.com

It is also due to begin performances at Broadway's Beaumont Theatre March 15, with a further production due to open in February 2012 at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre.

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Cirque du Soleil's new show, Iris, will have its world premiere at Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre, beginning on July 21. Philippe Decouflé will write and direct the show.

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Legendary shoe designer Manolo Blahnik has designed an exclusive silver patent leather Mary Jane high-heeled shoe with a Swarovski crystal button that will be the official stiletto of the Broadway musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert of the Musical, which is now in previews at the Palace Theatre, with an official opening slated for March 20. A version of the shoe will be featured on the show's set.

The shoe will be sold at Blahnik's flagship store in New York City at 31 West 54th Street. In addition, the designer has created a companion silver necklace with a high heel charm that will be sold at the Palace Theatre.

A portion of the sale proceeds from both items will benefit the New York Restoration Project, which was founded by superstar Bette Midler, who is one of Priscilla's producers.

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Casting for role of Drew in the "Rock of Ages" film:

New Line/Warner Bros and ActorCast have launched a website where aspiring and experienced actors alike are able to submit themselves for this star-making role opposite Tom Cruise. Actors can download instructions from the website and then upload video of themselves auditioning for the part. Auditions will be reviewed by the casting directors, Juel Bestrop and Seth Yanklewitz ("The Hangover," "Zoolander"). The best performances will be reviewed by the director, producers and studio for this lead role. The search has a deadline for submissions of March 31.

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Video: Anne Hathaway and James Franco in a number from "Grease," which didn't air on the Oscars: http://bit.ly/gXrMCG

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Katori Hall, whose The Mountaintop is Broadway-bound, is the winner of the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, honoring female playwrights. The winner receives $20,000 as well as a signed print by renowned artist Willem de Kooning, created especially for the Prize.

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