Lane Changin’

Sharing the stage with Lane in the show are handsome British actor Julian Ovenden, making his Main Stem debut as Butley’s office-mate and lover Joey, and the always glorious Dana Ivey as fellow teacher Edna Sharp.

The play’s author, Simon Gray, was on hand for the festivities.

The opening night crowd included a slew of Tony Award winners, among them Donna Murphy, who is rumored to have been cast as Phyllis in the City Center Encores! production of Follies, slated for February…

…Bill Irwin, who’s about to embark on the national tour of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, set to kick off in January at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C….

…the gifted Andrea Martin, who appeared with Lane in the film version of The Producers…

…playwright Terrence McNally, whose new work Deuce will open at the Music Box this spring…

…and director-choreographer Susan Stroman, who has been very busy workshopping Mel Brooks’ new musical Young Frankenstein.

Another attendee was the lovely Hope Davis, one of the stars of the new ABC-TV series Six Degrees.

On Thursday, October 26, the dance musical The Times They Are A-Changin’, featuring the songs of Bob Dylan, bowed at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Here are the show’s stars, Thom Sesma, Lisa Brescia, and Michael Arden, at the after-party at Roseland.

The show was conceived, choreographed, and directed by the one and only Twyla Tharp.

Kathleen Turner, the female lead of the upcoming Virginia Woolf tour, was among the celebrities who attended the opening performance of The Times…

Also present were two of the theater world’s great director-choreographers, Tony Award-winner Tommy Tune…

…and Jerry Mitchell, who will make his directorial debut next spring with the Broadway musical Legally Blonde.

On Monday, October 23, The Acting Company held its Masquerade benefit at Cipriani Wall Street. A highlight of the event was honoree Patti LuPone being introduced by Angela Lansbury. The Tony-winning stars are both renowned for their portayals of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and both are very busy these days: LuPone will be starring in Jake Heggie’s new opera To Hell and Back in the San Francisco area in November, followed by a number of concert dates, while Lansbury will appear in The Acting Company’s next benefit event, This Is on Me: An Evening of Dorothy Parker, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on November 5.