Four theatres have recently announced world premieres as part of their 2019–2020 season.

Joel Friedman, who was a director, actor, teacher and playwright, died Sept. 29. He was 91.

The Canadian-created hit play with music, 2 Pianos 4 Hands, will be seen anew in three North American engagements featuring American actor-pianists Tom Frey and Richard Carsey in early 2006.

Stephen Klein, the managing director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, has resigned, the Star-Ledger reports.

Heath Lamberts, the character actor and farceur known for many classic roles in major North American theatres, as well as for creating Cogsworth in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast, died in Pittsburgh Feb. 22, according to friends and colleagues.

RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: Overtures Decca Broadway 289 434 932
As part of the Richard Rodgers centennial celebration, Decca Broadway has reissued John Mauceri's album of Overtures from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. Let us assume that most readers of this column are fairly familiar with the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein, the hit shows at least. Is there enough here to make this CD worth your while? Yes, I say.

RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: Overtures Decca Broadway 289 434 932
As part of the Richard Rodgers centennial celebration, Decca Broadway has reissued John Mauceri's album of Overtures from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. Let us assume that most readers of this column are fairly familiar with the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein, the hit shows at least. Is there enough here to make this CD worth your while? Yes, I say.

American actor John Scherer has been living inside the skin of dithery Brit Bertie Wooster since 1996, when the musical entertainment, By Jeeves, by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber, made its U.S. debut at Goodspeed Musicals' Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, CT. It was a Broadway hopeful back then, and went on to play the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC (where Scherer earned a Helen Hayes Award nomination — one of two) and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, aiming for New York. Showbusiness being how it is, By Jeeves did not make it to Broadway until now, and Scherer is again decked out in his tux, and doing double and triple takes as beleaguered Bertie (aided by his manservant, Jeeves, played by Martin Jarvis). Scherer, a Carnegie-Mellon grad, resurfaced with the show in February 2001 at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, and after a delay due to lack of a suitable theatre, Goodspeed Musicals opened it in October at the Helen Hayes Theatre for a limited run. Scherer is not new to Lloyd Webber's work: He played Joe Gillis opposite Betty Buckley on Broadway, and toured in Cats. He recently worked with Harold Prince in the Philadelphia world premiere of the trio of musicals billed as 3hree, also seen in Los Angeles. Scherer talked to Playbill On-Line about working with Alan Ayckbourn, dipping into Wodehouse and keeping up his stamina.

A number of dangling casting questions were answered this week. Perhaps most pressing was who would replace the seemingly irreplaceable Mary-Louise Parker, who is scheduled to leave the Tony-winning Broadway hit Proof on Sept. 9. Many names were bandied about, but Broadway's second Catherine turned out to be Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film star known for her wrenching, melancholy portraits. Leigh was last seen in these parts as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. She will start her stay in Proof on Sept. 11.

A number of dangling casting questions were answered this week. Perhaps most pressing was who would replace the seemingly irreplaceable Mary-Louise Parker, who is scheduled to leave the Tony-winning Broadway hit Proof on Sept. 9. Many names were bandied about, but Broadway's second Catherine turned out to be Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film star known for her wrenching, melancholy portraits. Leigh was last seen in these parts as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. She will start her stay in Proof on Sept. 11.

King Hedley II, the latest drama by Pulitzer-winner August Wilson, about a black man defeated by pride and fate, will close on Broadway July 1. The play opened to mixed-to-positive reviews May 1. It will have played 24 previews and 72 regular performances — the briefest Broadway run a Wilson work has received on Broadway in many years.

Chalk up another Broadway victim of the summer theatrical doldrums: King Hedley II, the latest drama by Pulitzer-winner August Wilson. The bleak tale of a black man defeated by pride and fate opened to mixed to-positive reviews May 1 and will end July 1, after 24 previews and only 72 regular performances.

WINNER: Daniel Sullivan, Proof
What Lloyd Richards had been to August Wilson, Daniel Sullivan has been to Wendy Wasserstein, staging her Heidi Chronicles, Sisters Rosensweig and American Daughter. But Sullivan's skills are prized by a host of American playwrights, from Herb Gardner (I'm Not Rappaport) to John Patrick Shanley (Psychopathia Sexualis) to Jon Robin Baitz (The Substance of Fire and the Broadway-bound Ten Unknowns). Artistic director of Seattle Repertory from 1981-97, Sullivan gave that up to balance directing commercial projects and to teach theatre at the University of Illinois.

WINNER: Daniel Sullivan, Proof
What Lloyd Richards had been to August Wilson, Daniel Sullivan has been to Wendy Wasserstein, staging her Heidi Chronicles, Sisters Rosensweig and American Daughter. But Sullivan's skills are prized by a host of American playwrights, from Herb Gardner (I'm Not Rappaport) to John Patrick Shanley (Psychopathia Sexualis) to Jon Robin Baitz (The Substance of Fire and the Broadway-bound Ten Unknowns). Artistic director of Seattle Repertory from 1981-97, Sullivan gave that up to balance directing commercial projects and to teach theatre at the University of Illinois.

Marion McClinton, King Hedley II
For years, playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards were a powerhouse team, developing the former's dramas at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, CT and then bringing them to Broadway, where almost nothing but acclaim followed. But a new century has brought Wilson a new teammate in Marion McClinton, who has directed, regionally, a production of nearly every drama Wilson ever wrote, including Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, The Piano Lesson, Fences and Jitney. An associate artist at Baltimore's Center Stage and a veteran of such regional venues as Dallas Theatre Center and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, McClinton has specialized in African-American related works (Les Blancs, Thunder Knocking on the Door, The Coming of the Hurricane), leading to two Audelco Awards, as well as Obie and Drama Desk honors.

Marion McClinton, King Hedley II
For years, playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards were a powerhouse team, developing the former's dramas at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, CT and then bringing them to Broadway, where almost nothing but acclaim followed. But a new century has brought Wilson a new teammate in Marion McClinton, who has directed, regionally, a production of nearly every drama Wilson ever wrote, including Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, The Piano Lesson, Fences and Jitney. An associate artist at Baltimore's Center Stage and a veteran of such regional venues as Dallas Theatre Center and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, McClinton has specialized in African-American related works (Les Blancs, Thunder Knocking on the Door, The Coming of the Hurricane), leading to two Audelco Awards, as well as Obie and Drama Desk honors.

August Wilson's latest drama, King Hedley II, will officially open on Broadway May 1, with Brian Stokes Mitchell in the title role. Mitchell missed three performances, April 24-25, owing to his physician's call for "mandatory vocal rest" following a diagnosis of swollen vocal cords. The actor was supposed to return April 26, but another visit to his doctor resulted in Mitchell staying out of the show until Saturday, April 28.

Brian Stokes Mitchell has missed three performances, April 24-25, of Broadway's King Hedley II owing to his physician's call for "mandatory vocal rest" following a diagnosis of swollen vocal cords. The actor was supposed to return April 26, but another visit to his doctor now means Mitchell stays out of the show until Saturday, April 28.

Brian Stokes Mitchell missed last night's performance of King Hedley II, and he'll be out of today's matinee and evening show but is expected back for the Thursday night show, April 26. According to production spokespersons at the Barlow-Hartman press office (reached April 25), the actor is on "mandatory vocal rest," and understudy Keith Randolph Smith is playing the lead for the three performances Mitchell will miss.

King Hedley II, the August Wilson drama, has finally reached New York City after a long and circuitous tour of the nation's regional houses. The play, which stars Brian Stokes Mitchell in his first role since winning a Tony Award for Kiss Me, Kate, begins previews at the Virginia Theatre on April 10. Official opening is April 29. The play finished its month-long stay in Washington, D.C., on March 25.