PLAYBILL.COM'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER With Drew Hodges. SpotCo, the New York City ad agency, shook up the Broadway ad business a little more than a decade ago with contemporary, eye-catching campaigns for shows like Chicago and Rent.

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy' Exits Broadway; Tour Continues. Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy, the family-friendly theatrical, acrobatic and musical adventure that evokes the exotica of untamed places, ends its limited Broadway engagement at the Broadway Theatre Aug. 24.

Cast Announced for New 'Italian Straw Hat' Musical at South Coast Rep. Daniel Blinkoff, a veteran of South Coast Repertory productions, will play a harried bridegroom in SCR's world-premiere musical An Italian Straw Hat: A Vaudeville in Costa Mesa, CA, Sept. 5-Oct. 5.

NYC and Rodgers Family Will Renovate and Rename Bandshell in Composer's Childhood Park. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Aug. 21 a $5 million renovation of a bandshell in Marcus Garvey Park which, known as Mt. Morris Park in Manhattan, had been a favorite spot for Richard Rodgers in his childhood. Rodgers provided the original funding for the performance space 38 years ago, but in recent years the venue has fallen into disrepair.

Track Listing Announced for "Jason Danieley and the Frontier Heroes" Disc. "Jason Danieley and the Frontier Heroes," the new CD from Broadway actor-singer and his pals in the folk-pop band The Frontier Heroes, will be in stores Sept. 16, from PS Classics.

Tyne Daly and Delroy Lindo to Star in Open-Air 'Agamemnon' at Getty Villa in Malibu. Tony Award winner Tyne Daly will play vengeful wife Clytemnestra opposite Tony nominee Delroy Lindo as the returning king in an open-air California production of Agamemnon, directed by Stephen Wadsworth at the Getty Villa.

Philly's Prince Music Theater Revisits 'The World Goes 'Round' This Fall. Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia is planning to expand the revue of Kander & Ebb songs, The World Goes Round, for a new production to run Sept. 20-Oct. 12.

Broadway's 'Phantom' Will Welcome a New Christine. Marni Raab, who previously starred as Christine on both the Asian world tour and the U.S. national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, will take over the role on Broadway starting at the evening performance Aug. 20.

Dvorsky, Gamble, Parker-Namdar, Sherback to Sing Broadway's 'Lost Songs' in VA. Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, kicks off its cabaret season Sept. 3-6 with The Lost Songs of Broadway 1940s-1950s, "a collection of terrific tunes from some of history's forgotten mid-century musicals.".

Chicago Porchlight Season Will Begin With 'Candide', Blending Actors, Musicians and Theatregoers. The 1973 Harold Prince revision of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, which includes contributions by lyricist Stephen Sondheim and librettist Hugh Wheeler, will get a staging by Porchlight Music Theatre at Theatre Building Chicago in Chicago.

Submission Period Announced for Plays and Musicals Aiming for 2009 O'Neill Conferences. Attention playwrights and musical theatre writers: The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT, has announced details of its Open Submissions process for projects to be included in O'Neill's summer 2009 national new works conferences.

NYC's Transport Group Will Stage 'Bury the Dead' and New Musical 'Being Audrey'. Off-Broadway's Transport Group, winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award, has Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead and a world premiere musical about a woman who is inspired by Audrey Hepburn for its 2008-09 season.

Desert Bloom: Las Vegas 'Phantom' Plays 1,000 Performances. Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular played its 1,000th performance Aug. 25 at The Venetian Resort.

Aquila Will Present 'Catch-22' and 'Iliad' Off-Broadway in 2008-09. Aquila Theatre, the Off-Broadway troupe attracted to the classic titles, will resurface in New York City with a world premiere adaptation Catch-22, from the novel by Joseph Heller in fall 2008, plus a spring 2009 production of Homer's Iliad.

PLAYBILL.COM'S THEATRE WEEK IN REVIEW: Teen Spirit. The median age of the Actors' Equity membership just went down by a tiny fraction.

Brian Murray Exits Broadway's 'To Be or Not to Be'; Maloney Steps In. Peter Maloney will replace Brian Murray as Dowasz in the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club's To Be or Not to Be, which starts performances Sept. 11.

Mirvish Productions Buys Toronto's Canon and Panasonic Theatres. Key Brand Entertainment CEO John Gore announced Aug. 26 the sale of the 2,300-seat Canon Theatre and the 700-seat Panasonic Theatre - two major Toronto theatres - to Mirvish Productions.

Ross, Marcovicci, Andreas, Brussell, Bruce Will Play Philly's Prince Cabaret. The 2008-09 Morgan's Cabaret season at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia will include five artists - two Philadelphia favorites and three artists who will make their debuts on the Prince cabaret stage.

Falling for Make Believe: Bell's 'Boys From Syracuse' Opens in Suburban Chicago. David Bell's new production of the classic Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse opens in Chicago Aug. 14 following previews from Aug. 7 at Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook Terrace, in Oakbrook Terrace, IL.

Barbour, Lazar, Burkhardt Sing of Best and Worst of Times in 'Tale of Two Cities', Starting Aug. 19. A Tale of Two Cities, a new musical to quicken the hearts of fans of sprawling romantic historical epics - the kind of show where characters in the shadows sing about the light of tomorrow - begins its Broadway life Aug. 19 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.