By Rick Pender

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea

IF THEATRE COLLECTIVE regularly presents productions of material that other theater organizations hesitate to take on. They're at it again this weekend and next with two short works, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER based on an 1892 story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA by John Patrick Shanley. Wallpaper chronicles a woman's mental deterioration as she struggles with a confinement imposed by her husband. Danny explores two loners in a New York neighborhood bar as they confront the past and find forgiveness. IF's company of actors is always worth seeing: Lisa Penning handles the one-woman Wallpaper, while Matthew Pyle and Jessica D. Morgan take on the adult content of Danny. Thursday-Saturday and March 29-31 at the University YMCA (270 Calhoun St.). Info: 513-961-7434. 's To mark Women's Month, the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati is working with Amethyst Ensemble to present LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL, a portrait of legendary Jazz singer Billie Holiday. Jinnerva Shelery, an SCPA grad, is taking on the role, and Luther Gibson is directing. The show is being staged Thursday-Sunday in the Paul Robeson Theater at the Arts Consortium in the West End (1515 Linn St.). Tickets: 513-381-0645 's Our friends at the CINCINNATI OPERA continue to come up with smart, innovative ways to get their product in front of more audiences. This week they're announcing a collaborative venture with WALNUT HILLS HIGH SCHOOL (WHHS), where the 70-year-old, 1,100-seat auditorium will undergo a $1.1 million renovation this summer. The Cincinnati Opera Education Ensemble will become a company-in-residence at WHHS, where 20 performances of its Opera-Cadabra! program will be staged March-May 2002, with support from students constructing sets and handling tasks like ushering. Touring to more than 125 schools will continue (next year's program expands to an offering to grades 7-12 of a version of Rossini's comic Barber of Seville), but the partnership with WHHS will give the Ensemble a more permanent home (better lighting, a more substantial set) and to grow their audience by 25 percent, offering students and -- homeschooled kids -- a chance to see opera performed in a European-style theater with great acoustics. 's Mason's FIREBIRD THEATRE is staging Neil Simon's BILOXI BLUES Thursday through March 31. The play chronicles Simon's basic training with the Army in Biloxi, Miss., at the end of World War II. Performances benefit Mason's Veterans Memorial. Saturday's performance by the young community theater group include an after-show reception with the cast. The program features wartime stories -- funny, sad or dramatic -- from area military veterans underwritten by advertisers. For more info (including a map to find the Western Row Clubhouse where they perform), go online to www.firebirdtheatre. org. Info: 513-336-0372. 's A president is in town for several weeks. He's promised to leave all the furniture behind when he leaves, because he's so honest. Chip Smith is presenting MR. LINCOLN, a one-man show, at Covington's Carnegie Theatre (at Scott and Robbins), Friday-Sunday through April 1 at the Carnegie Theatre. The production is directed by community theater veteran David Edwards. Performance info and tickets: 513-684-4722. 's Well, HELLO, DOLLY! You're everywhere! Right now the classic 1964 musical is in a two-month run at Springboro's LA COMEDIA DINNER THEATER through May 13. Info: 513-746-4554. Another production opens soon at the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON's Kennedy Union Boll Theatre, March 30-April 7. Info: 937-229-2545. If that's not enough, Dolly (brought to life by Cincinnati's own Broadway star, Pamela Myers) will be part of CCM's HOT SUMMER NIGHTS season during July and August. Dolly, you'll never go away again. 's Talk about advance planning: The Broadway Series last week announced that THE LION KING will prowl into the Aronoff Center in March 2003 for a multi-week engagement. The show opened on Broadway in late 1997, won a bushel of Tony Awards (including Best Musical), and it's still a tough ticket to get. The national 12-city tour begins in Denver in 2002. 's When is someone going to bring THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES to Cincinnati? Eve Ensler's provocative one-woman show, one of the most talked-about shows in years, based on interviews with 200 women, is both funny and moving. What began on Feb. 15 as a modest three-week run (16 performances) at THE PHOENIX THEATRE in Indianapolis has now stretched to seven weeks (39 performances in total), concluding on April 15. This extension has necessitated a casting change: Lisa Koch has been replaced by a trio of actresses -- Diane Kondrat, Rhoda Ludy and Kelli Walker. It's also caused the Phoenix to juggle the balance of their season. Info: 317-635-7529. Meanwhile, the national tour of The Vagina Monologues will be in Columbus March 27-April 1, originally set for six performances, has been expanded to eight. It's presented by the WEXNER CENTER at Ohio State University's Thurber Theatre in the Drake Center (1849 Cannon Drive). That production also uses several actresses: Sherri Parker Lee and Starla Benford, who are on tour, and Columbus-based singer-songwriter Sally Fingerett. Info: 614-292-3535 or www.wexarts.org. With this kind of exposure and demand, a Cincinnati theater would surely find an audience for this show.

E-mail Rick Pender

Touching Hearts (March 15, 2001)
All Holes, No Cheese (March 15, 2001)
Another Op'nin, Another Show (March 8, 2001)
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