When I was planning a trip to New York to visit playwright Doug Wright, I asked him for some restaurant recommendations. The places he recommended turned out to be not at all where you'd expect an Off-Broadway playwright to eat. My wife and I checked out several of them and none of them were cheap.

Is Jerry Zaks the most beloved director in the history of modern theater? Well, he is if the accolades heaped upon him by such stars as Nathan Lane, Richard Dreyfuss, Kristin Chenoweth and Lewis J. Stadlen at the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life gala (held December 2003), which also honored Tovah Feldshuh, the award-winning and acclaimed star of Golda's Balcony] are any indication. It was a love fest for the three-time Tony Award winner, who obviously has as much of a devilish sense of humor as those who were "roasting" him.

Written 2,700 years ago, Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey" remains arguably the greatest most fantastical tale of all time for the armchair adventurer. Adapter-director Mary Zimmerman agrees. And that is why she has taken the 12,000 lines of verse, which would take 12 to 13 hours to read in one sitting, and put the romance, sea voyage, ship-wreck, seduction, and supernatural doings into one theatrical package lasting a little more than three hours.

Wendy Wasserstein, an uncommon woman among others, left us much too early. She was only 55. As one of our best-loved, best-liked and best-known women playwrights, her unique voice will be missed; and onstage, too. She was literally at the top of her game from the time she left the Yale School for Drama and began her New York career in 1977 with Glenn Close, Jill Eikenberry and Swoosie Kurtz starring in her play about the aspirations of college women, Uncommon Women Among Others.

It is almost impossible to think of Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander without recalling the world premiere of The Texas Trilogy by the late Preston Jones on November 19, 1974, directed by the legendary Paul Baker, founding artistic director of Dallas Theater Center.

The Texas Trilogy began with its first play, The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia, performed at DTCs Down Center Stage on December 4, 1973. Lu Ann followed two months later.

In Legally Blonde, Orfeh, who's stunningly, legally blonde, and the tall, handsome Andy Karl play the irresistible "trailer trash," hopelessly-in-love manicurist, Paulette Bonafonte and the object of her manicured, pedicured lust, Kyle, the UPS guy. Their onstage chemistry is as strong as their offstage chemistry.

The ever-dependable Brian Murray, one of the hardest and always-working actor/directors in the business, is back onstage after a two-year absence. He's playing Scotland Yard Inspector Rough in the Irish Repertory Theater's revival of Angel Street, now known as "Gaslight.

The play is a dark drama about a husband with a mysterious past, who, believing his new wife is being unfaithful, submits her to psychological abuse and manipulative dominance that brings her to the brink of a nervous breakdown.

We're forever hearing about the many loves and marriages among Hollywood stars, but Dallas has its share of stage romances, and three of them have played out over the years on the stages of Theater Three.

It all started in 1960 when a young off-Broadway actress/stage-manager, Norma Young, returned to her home in Dallas in 1960 to care for her ailing mother. I recall Norma telling me the story at intermission one night at Theater Three many years ago. She said there was no place for her to act in Dallas, so
she decided to start her own theater.

 Actors' Equity was one of the first unions to stand up against "Jm Crow."

In 1944, the union created a committee to assist minority actors turned away on the road from segregated hotels. Jose Ferrer, who co-starred with Paul Robeson in Othello on Broadway, was outraged by segregation and announced he'd never perform in front of a segregated audience.

ABC is promoting the heck out of next Monday's much-anticipated telecast of Kenny Leon's production of the three-hour presentation of the new movie adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. It stars Sean Combs and the leads of the Tony and Drama Desk-nominated 2004 Broadway revival that not only brought in a new breed of theatergoers, as Oprah's The Color Purple has these last two seasons, but also broke box office records.

The Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim/Jerome Robbins landmark production of West Side Story opened on Broadway in September 1957. The stars were Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence, Chita Rivera and Mickey Calin. Among the supporting cast were Martin Charnin, Marilyn Cooper, Grover Dale and Tony Mordente.

To celebrate the Tony-winning musical's 50th Anniversary, Decca Broadway assembled a roster of classical crossover artists for West Side Story, a new, state-of-the-art recording of the score.

You may have noticed that some people who have a stake in revivals of classic musicals feel it necessary to trash the stars and other aspects of the original productions. Who can explain it? Who can tell you why? I'd be a fool to give you a reason, but I can tell you that some theater pros are very upset by this practice.

No sooner had the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writers' Project's Festival of New Plays (May 16-18, 2000) ended than two entered the 2008-2009 ASF season line-up: Bear Country and The Furniture of Home. Both were commissioned by ASF and received staged readings, along with three other dramas, one with music. All SWP plays concern Southern topics as well as African-American issues in general, presented by Southern and Black writers.

 Most people seem to agree that the Tony Awards already have enough categories, so don't expect any major additions in the future. (Remember "Best Replacement Actor," or whatever the hell it was called? That one was announced but never happened.) But I do sometimes wish that the award categories were tailored more specifically to the shows and artists of each season.

To be approached in Central Park by someone begging for change isn't always a pleasant experience. But it was fun when it happened to me early last fall because it was during a Public Theater performance of the "American tribal love-rock musical," Hair, at the Delacorte, and the guy who hit me up for a quarter or two was the mega-talented singing actor Will Swenson in the guise of proto-hippie George Berger.

The American Theater Critics Association, which moves around the country for its annual convention, this year spent a recent week in the nation's capital and environs. The area houses 75 theatres – 43 in the District of Columbia, 17 in nearby Maryland, and 15 in the contiguous portion of Virginia. From the many current offerings, the attendees, thanks to two large buses, were able to sample ten presentations.

If you missed 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue during its Broadway run, you are forgiven. The show lasted only 13 previews and seven regular performances at the Mark Hellinger Theater (now a church!) in 1976, although it boasted music by Leonard Bernstein, book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and a cast that included Ken Howard, Patricia Routledge, Emily Yancy, Beth Fowler, and Reid Shelton. Even Michael Lichtefeld was in it!

When the features editor of Opera News praises an opera singer in his monthly column, that's great; but when he goes out of his way to single out someone whose "fach" is musical theater, that's a very special compliment.

In the October 2007 issue of the magazine, Brian Kellow wrote of William Michals' performance in a Town Hall concert titled, "A Night at the Operetta," that the baritone was "nothing short of splendid in 'Indian Love Call' (solidly partnered by Rebecca Eichenberger) and in his solo, Song of Norway's 'Strange Music.'"

Movies indulge in sequels all the time: "Men in Black," begets a second coming, "Rocky" is the gift that kept on giving whether you wanted to open it or not, "Mission Impossible" has become "ending improbable," and only now is "Harry Potter" finally heading toward its last spell.