Casting Complete for Shanley & Krieger's Musical 'Romantic Poetry'. Jeb Brown, Jerry Dixon, and Emily Swallow have joined the company of Romantic Poetry, the new musical by John Patrick Shanley and Henry Krieger, which Manhattan Theatre Club will give a world premiere this fall.

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.

13' to Offer Tickets at Aug. 25 Box Office Opening. The first 100 people in line for the opening of the box office for 13, A New Musical at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre will be offered a $13 ticket price Aug. 25.

Stratford's 2009 'PhËdre' Is a Co-Pro With A.C.T.; McKenna Will Star. American Conservatory Theater announced Aug. 21 that Jean Racine's play PhËdre will be one of its productions for the 2009-10 season in a first-time co-production with Canada's world-renowned Stratford Shakespeare Festival. In recent days, Stratford announced the title, to be directed by A.C.T. artistic director Carey Perloff, for its summer 2009 slate.

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.

Walsh, Myers and Zimmerman Will Star in 'Much Ado' Musical 'About Face' at NYMF. About Face, the new 1950s college-set musical suggested by Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, playing the New York Musical Theatre Festival, will feature Barbara Walsh and Pamela Myers, veterans of different productions of Broadway's Company.

John Mahoney Will Star in Co-Production of 'Seafarer' in Chicago and L.A.. John Mahoney, best known for playing Martin Crane on the hit sitcom "Frasier," will play a blind, foul-mouthed drunken Irishman in Conor McPherson's The Seafarer for Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

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.

Wild Duck,' Daisey, 'Gatz,' 'the break/s' Will Play MCA in Chicago. Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art has announced eclectic programming for its 2008-09 performance season, which will welcome writer-monologist Mike Daisey, Elevator Repair Service's version of "The Great Gatsby" and more.

Award-Winning 'Scorched' Returns to Toronto's Tarragon Before Playing Dates Across Canada. Casting has been announced for Tarragon Theatre's remount of Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad, to play the Toronto theatre's Mainspace Sept. 2-28. It will play a mini-tour of Canadian resident theatres in fall 2008 and early 2009.

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.

Teen Spirit: Casting Announced for Broadway's '13, A New Musical'. The baker's dozen of teen performers in 13, the new Broadway musical about high-schoolers in Indiana, have been announced. You've probably never heard of them - or the understudies or the on-stage kid musicians - but consider them stars of tomorrow.

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.".

Page, Plunkett, Morfogen, Matthews, Esper to Join Langella in Broadway's 'Man for All Seasons'. Patrick Page's King Henry VIII will face off against Frank Langella's Sir Thomas More, the man who lost his life standing his moral ground before the monarch, in Roundabout Theatre Company's new production of A Man for All Seasons.

Les Miz, Assassins, Bug', Panaro, Irwin, Schoeffler Among 2008 Barrymore Nominees. The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia announced the nominations in 26 categories for the 2008 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre on Aug. 6.

Remains of The Theatre, Shakespeare's Early Stomping Ground, Discovered. Rows of bricks were recently uncovered by archaeologists from the Museum of London, prompting a belief that the foundation of an Elizabethan-era venue called The Theatre, where Shakespeare once acted, had been found.

Christopher Plummer and Nikki James Are 'Caesar and Cleopatra' in Ontario. Tony Award winner and Stratford Festival veteran Christopher Plummer returns to the Stratford stage in Ontario Aug. 7 to play Julius Caesar in George Bernard Shaw's comedy Caesar and Cleopatra, directed by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's artistic director, Des McAnuff.

MTC Names Five Playwrights for Sloan Commissions, Bridging Theatre and Science. Manhattan Theatre Club announced the 2008 recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative commissions to foster plays about science.

PLAYBILL.COM'S THEATRE WEEK IN REVIEW: 'Hair' Today. The Shakespeare in the Park production of Hair got the best sort of critical reception it could have hoped for when it opened at the Delacorte Theatre on Aug. 7.

Banes and Elbrick Star in Feminist Thriller for FringeNYC. Two actresses - Obie Award winner Lisa Banes and Tony Award nominee Xanthe Elbrick - play multiple roles in the world premiere of The Alice Complex, a drama of clashing feminist notions, at the New York International Fringe Festival.