Loose Lips

MATERIAL GIRL
The York Theatre Company’s “Musicals in Mufti” series has long attracted some of Broadway’s biggest stars but few shine brighter than Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba, who will appear in this weekend’s offering: Alan Menken and David Spencer‘s little-known science-fiction-based musical Weird Romance. “I’ve always wanted to work with Alan and he’s really going to be involved in this production,” says Ziemba. “This score is both funny and lovely, but there are also some sad and tragic songs.” Like some of the show’s other actors — include Darius DeHaas, Marcy Harriell, Brooke Sunny Moriber, Deven May, et al. — Ziemba will play a different character in each of the show’s two acts. “All I can say is that the women I play aren’t exactly what they seem on the surface,” she tells me.

A quest for good material — to sing or to speak — is currently driving Ziemba’s career choices. They include a leading role in an upcoming episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent; an appearance in Scott Siegel‘s “Broadway by the Year” concert The Broadway Musicals of 1949 on April 19 at The Town Hall (to feature songs from such shows as South Pacific, Lost in the Stars, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes); and her recent turn as Mabel Prince in Never Gonna Dance, which could net her a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

“When you get a chance to sing Jerome Kern on Broadway, you jump on it,” says Ziemba of her decision to co-star that short-lived musical. She admits that she had some initial trepidation about taking a supporting role, but soon reconsidered: “It’s nice to be front and center — but I got to play a character I really liked, wear beautiful clothes, and work with a new creative team, although I had danced with [choreographer] Jerry Mitchell years ago in a workshop of Going Hollywood. I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything. I feel like I achieved something really positive.”

Ziemba is coy about rumors that she is set to play Rosie in the City Center Encores! production of Bye Bye Birdie next month, but she says that she’d love the chance to do the role. “It’s another of those great 1950s musicals, like Pajama Game,” she says, referring to her previous Encores! success. “And the fact is, I’ve played a lot of Chita Rivera‘s parts over the years!”

THE RIGHT TIME
In Time After Time, which will play the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room from April 6 through May 15, cabaret chanteuse Karen Akers is going in a new — or should I say old? — direction: the Great American Songbook. “I don’t know what’s come over me this year,” she says, “whether it’s the music my husband Kevin and I have been listening to at home or going to London in February with the Cabaret Cavalcade, but it just hit me that I need to be part of this tradition. I have a real sadness that so much music these days is really lacking in melody.”

While Akers is still putting the show’s song list together, audiences should expect a healthy dose of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Frank Loesser. Of particular note is an inspired pairing of Stephen Sondheim‘s “Loving You” (from Passion) with Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein‘s “Why Was I Born.” Says Akers: “The first time I saw Passion, the song knocked me off my feet. The lyrics are so pure and so complete; there’s no evasion and no pretense.”

Sondheim will also be a part of Akers’ forthcoming CD, If We Only Have Love, which consists primarily of selections from last year’s critically adored Theater Songs. “I recorded ‘Send in the Clowns,’ which I didn’t sing in New York,” says Akers. “And I am really thrilled that I’ve been able to re-record the two songs I did in Nine [‘My Husband Makes Movies’ and ‘Be On Your Own’] the way I always intended. I don’t think I really had the chops for them back in 1982.”

NEWS OF COMPANY, AND OF COMPANIES
Speaking of Mr. Sondheim: Book that flight to LaLaLand right now. The cast of the Reprise! production of his 1970 classic Company will include Christopher Sieber (Bobby), Judith Light (Joanne), Cady Huffman (Kathy), Deborah Gibson (Marta), Sharon Lawrence (Sarah), and Kevin Chamberlin (David) under the direction of Frasier co-creator David Lee. Musical direction will be by Gerald Sternbach and choreography by Kay Cole. This production will use the revised book of the show but the original orchestrations, complete with “vocal minority.” Performances will take place at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse, May 18-June 6.

The just-formed 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.) company will launch with Anne Washburn‘s The Internationalist, which will begin a three-week run at 45 Bleecker on April 17. The group’s 12 other playwrights include Sheila Callaghan (whose Kate Crackernuts debuts at the Flea in July), Ann Marie Healy (whose Now That’s What I Call A Storm is being presented by the Edge Theater Company later this month at the Blue Heron), and Lucy Thurber (who had a major success earlier this season with Where We’re Born).

Apartment 929, another brand new theater troupe, is presenting Motel Blues at the Greenwich Street Theatre through April 11; it’s a collection of new one-acts by Sam Shepard, Adam Rapp, Lee Blessing, Stephen Belber, company co-founder Clark Middleton, and others.

Meanwhile, the well-established Melting Pot Theater, whose previous hits include Cookin’ at the Cookery and Woody Guthrie’s American Song, has created a new series titled “Preludes: New Musicals in Concert.” Its initial offering — Vanishing Point, starring Tony nominees Alison Fraser, Emily Skinner, and Barbara Walsh as Amelia Earhart, Agatha Christie, and Aimee Semple McPherson — will be performed at Symphony Space on April 26. The series will continue there on May 17 with Heading East by Robert Lee and Leon Ko, starring B.D. Wong.

EYES AND EARS
So, how many award winners does it take to celebrate an Off-Broadway play’s opening night? In the case of Ears on a Beatle, the answer is six: Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz (who told me that he may have a new play at Manhattan Theatre Club next season), Tony winner Priscilla Lopez, Emmy winners Chad Lowe and Robin Strasser, and MAC Award winner Alix Korey plus the show’s Tony-winning producer, Daryl Roth. Also celebrating at Shades of Green — just down the block from the show’s home, the DR2 — were stars Dan Lauria and Bill Dawes, Lauria’s former Wonder Years daughter Danica McKellar (who does one of the show’s many voiceovers), and Sex and the City stud Jason Lewis.

TASTY TIDBITS
Frozen will likely move to Circle in the Square this month, in order to be eligible for Tony Award consideration…Carla Gugino (Karen Sisco) will reportedly star opposite Peter Krause (Six Feet Under) in the Roundabout’s revival of Arthur Miller‘s After The Fall in July…Matt Servitto is playing the title role in Magic Hands Freddy through April 11 while star Michael Rispoli is off doing a film.