This just in: The tickets for Christine Ebersole’s April 12 concert at the Emelin Theater in Mamaroneck are now on sale for the bargain price of $45. The theater is so intimate you’ll feel like she’s singing just for you.

And how many incredibly talented Tony winners have sung just for you?

The box office is at 914-698-0098.

Here’s a look at what professional theater companies across the Lower Hudson Valley are planning in the coming months.

After the run of “Phantom,� from Oct. 4 through Feb. 9 — with “A Christmas Carol� Nov. 28 through Dec. 23 — Westchester Broadway Theatre presents “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,� running Feb. 14 through April 19. Next up are two recently closed Broadway smashes: From April 24 to Aug. 2, it’s Alan Menken’s “Beauty and the Beast,� followed by what the dinner theater is only contractually allowed to call “Mel Brooks’ Tony-Award-winning musical hit.� Since Mel Brooks has only had one Tony Award-winner, the 12-Tony juggernaut “The Producers,� it’s safe to say that Bialystock and Bloom are making an appearance at the dinner theater next summer. Next fall, it’ll be the musical retelling of “A Wonderful Life.� Call 914-592-2222 or go to their Web site here.

The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls started its new season Thursday, with the world premiere of “Locked and Loaded� by Todd Susman. The show, about two men who share a wild, unpredictable and surreal night, runs through Oct. 14. The Schoolhouse season continues with “The Crucible,� Nov. 15 through Dec. 9, “Appointment with a High Wire Lady,� Feb. 14 to March 9, and “Lost in Yonkers,� May 8 to June 1. Besides the mainstage season, the Schoolhouse has some special events brewing. The Houston Person Quartet will return for its annual winter concert Jan. 13, and Frank Ferrante, acclaimed as “the greatest living interpreter of Groucho Marx’s material,� will have a benefit performance April 18. The Schoolhouse Theater is at 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls. Call 914-277-8477 or visit the Schoolhouse on the Web at www.schoolhousetheater.org.

Hudson Stage in Briarcliff started out in Croton — and that’s where it’s returning for a staged reading at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Croton Free Library, 171 Cleveland Drive, Croton-on-Hudson. The play, “Fair Game� by Karl Gajdusek, is described as “a highly charged political thriller about a female presidential candidate whose son’s potential scandal lures her campaign into a spiral of compromises and white lies.� The fall mainstage production is Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Murderers,� directed by Hudson Stage co-founder Dan Foster. With one preview performance Oct. 26, the show opens Oct. 27 and runs through Nov. 10. On Dec. 7, Hudston Stage will offer a staged reading of “The Cradle of Man� by Melanie Marnich. “Murderers� and “The Cradle of Man� will be presented at Woodward Hall Theatre of Pace University, 235 Elm Road, Briarcliff Manor. Call 914-271-2811 or go to www.hudsonstage.com.

Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble has a new artistic director and an ambitious slate of theater set for the coming season, with four mainstage plays, a series of one-act readings, four readings of plays by young writers and the company’s fourth annual Young Playwrights Competition. At the helm, since June, is artistic director Forest Hamilton, replacing Cynthia Granville. BPTE audiences saw Hamilton on stage in last spring’s Spring Sampler — in Blueberry Pond founder Jean-Paul DeVellard’s “The Conversation at Choctaw Junction,� a play that will get a full staging this season. He vows that whatever people think of what Blueberry Pond does, “it will never be boring.� Things get under way Nov. 2 with Lloyd Pace’s “Hong Kong,� which runs through Dec. 2. On Dec. 9, things turn musical at Blueberry Pond, with a special reading of Gayle Hudson’s new tuner, “Heartbeat,� which is already on the schedule for a full production next September. On Feb. 23 and 24, the theater will hold its “Teen Playwrights Competition Winners Festival� at a location to be announced. Other dates to watch for in the competition are May 25, when the first round will take place, and June 15, when the finals are held. The spring mainstage production will be DeVellard’s “The Conversation at Choctaw Junction,� May 2 through June 1. For tickets, call 877-FOR-4TIX or visit www.SmartTix.com. Call 914-923-3530 or go to www.blueberrypond.org.

Just as other theaters are opening their seasons, Penguin Rep in Stony Point is wrapping up its 30th anniversary season with a change of plans. Artistic director Joe Brancato had planned to present “Clouds Hill,� a new play that deals with academia and the war on terror, but the play was not quite ready — one of the pitfalls of producing new works. Instead, subscribers will get “Two Pianos, Four Hands,� by Richard Greenblatt and Ted Dykstra. Billed as “a play with music, about two boys’ dreams as they grow to manhood,� “Two Pianos, Four Hands� features two musicians on two grand pianos, playing works from Beethoven to Billy Joel. It will run Oct. 19 to Nov. 11. Brancato says it’s the first time the rights have been given to a small, intimate venue like Penguin. In a related development far from the Penguin stage, last year’s last-minute October replacement — Staci Swedeen’s Holocaust-memory play “The Goldman Project� — opens a one-month run at Off-Broadway’s Abingdon Theatre on Friday.

The Performing Arts Center Purchase College has an ambitious theater series and the Purchase Repertory Theatre to consider. The PAC theater series begins with George Orwell’s “1984,� directed by Oscar-winner Tim Robbins, a production of the Actors’ Gang. Given Robbins’ political stands and the loaded story — of a dystopian world where Big Brother is always watching — you can expect some fireworks Oct. 6, when this production hits the campus on Anderson Hill Road. (The schedule originally had two performances, but now it is just Oct. 6.) On Nov. 10, SITI Company presents “Radio Macbeth.� On Feb. 22 and 23, Classical Theatre of Harlem presents the bard’s “Romeo and Juliet,� set to Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The Purchase Rep season starts Oct. 12-20 with a homegrown piece called “Celebrity� that looks at our society’s search for its 15 minutes of fame. From Nov. 2-10, the Rep takes its crack at Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,� a play that seemed to be all over Westchester this summer. In December, there’s a yet-to-be-named play; Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard� runs Feb. 8-16; Derek Walcott’s spin on “The Odyssey� runs Feb. 29 through March 8; and the Rep season ends with an April 25-May 3 run of Tennessee Williams one acts, “American Blues.� Call 914-251-6200 or go to www.artscenter.org.

Mamaroneck’s Emelin Theatre has a new aristic director — Michael Bush, from Manhattan Theatre Club. Bush comes to the Library Lane space just as the theater sets out on an ambitious $10 million capital program that will expand the theater’s stage, boost seating capacity from 250 to 399, add a film-only theater and add a 60-seat black-box experimental thater. All in all, the complex will go from 9,000 square feet to 36,000 square feet. As for programming, Bush plans a November festival he’s calling “Theatre in Concert,� which will include plays, music and cabaret performances that the new artistic director says will reflect his influences and vision. The slate is still being set, but Bush said it will involve 15 different performances of eight different shows over 21 days. But the first big production on Bush’s watch is the launching of the “Next Stage� capital project, which will take place Oct. 11 at New Rochelle’s Glen Island Harbour Club with a gala honoring Leslie Uggams and Tovah Feldshuh. Call 914-698-0098 or go to www.emelin.org.

In July 1992, at the end of the first matinee performance of “Phantom� at Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford, producers Bill Stutler and Bob Funking watched a euphoric crowd leap to their feet and shout for more. They turned to each other and said, “This is really a hit!�

It turned out they were understating things.

Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit’s “Phantom� — not to be confused with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,� but more on that later — ran for an unheard-of nine months at the dinner theater and was still selling at 95 percent when it closed in April 1993.

That production had as its lead Robert Cuccioli, an actor who went on to star in “Jekyll & Hyde� and “Les Miserables� on Broadway, where this fall he’ll star in “Lonestar Love� with Randy Quaid.

“Many people saw it two or three times, and brought their friends to see it. We really could have kept it going,� says Funking. “People were calling in, wanting to pay more, wanting to buy scalper’s tickets. Some nights we were at 101 percent capacity.�

That production brought “Phantom� to the attention of New York-based producers and, after Elmsford, the musical took off, with productions all over the world.

When Funking and Stutler brought it back in 1996, it ran for 19 weeks, with 85 percent of the seats sold.

Ten years later, with that other “Phantom� now the longest-running show in Broadway history, WBT revives the Yeston-Kopit incarnation, with performances starting Oct. 4.

Tom Polum, who was in the ensemble for that first production in 1992, says, “We knew it was an exciting show, but every night when Bob came up for his bow, the energy from the audience was amazing,� says Polum, who directed and choreographed the second production, and directs this production.

“Phantom� is closer to a traditional book musical, not sung-through as Lloyd Webber’s is.

There’s not much music in the second act, Polum says, besides underscoring. It’s the story that draws these people in and gets them so involved.

Gaston Leroux’s “Phantom of the Opera� story — upon which both musicals are based — is simple: A physically deformed man, Erik, terrorizes the Paris Opera House, living in a lair beneath the house. He falls in love with soprano Christine Daae, and takes her as his protege, training her for her big break, when she replaces the diva Carlotta. When Christine discovers Erik is the phantom, she tries to flee, but is drawn back, pitying him. A love triangle between Erik, Christine and Christine’s friend, Raoul, develops and is resolved in the end, after a tender moment between Christine and Erik.

“The story in the Lloyd Webber version is never explained the way it’s explained in this version,� Polum says. “When you understand the story, there’s this amazing scene in Act 2 where he reconciles with his father and the audience feels an emotional moment. I remember we used to see fathers sitting in the audience getting teary-eyed during that scene. Anytime you can get a man to cry in the theater, that’s a special thing.�

Along with Erik (played by Aaron Ramey), Polum says the key figures in Kopit’s well-crafted story are Erik’s father, Carriere (James Van Treuren), Carlotta (Sandy Rosenberg) and Christine, played by Kate Rockwell, who was one of five finalists from the NBC competition show “Grease: You’re the One That I Want.�

Polum hopes Rockwell’s high profile will bring younger audiences to the dinner theater. He’s confident they’ll like what they see.

“The startling thing,� Polum says, “is that Sandy and Christine are not very similar roles. She came in and started to sing and she has an amazing voice, a beautiful coloratura on top. And I said, ‘Why have you never played these roles?’ and she said, ‘They’ve never cast me in these roles,’ and I said, ‘Well, we’re going to cast you.’ �

“We think she’s going to be fantastic. We’re very excited about her,� he says.
Polum says Ramey has the innate fire, tension, sexual energy and physicality that the part demands.

And audiences will see more of the phantom in this “Phantom,� too.
In Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,� Stutler points out, the phantom spends only 19 minutes onstage.

“They talk about him all the time,� Polum says. “It’s the easiest job on Broadway.�

“Phantom� runs Oct. 4 through Nov. 27, then takes a break while WBT presents a holiday production of “A Christmas Carol� from Nov. 28 through Dec. 23. “Phantom� then resumes its run Dec. 27 through Feb. 9.

Is an extension possible, if seats are still selling well on Feb. 9?

“We may … bend a little,â€? producer Funking says with a gleam in his eye.

Community theaters across the Lower Hudson Valley are gearing up for a busy season. Here’s a sampling of what to expect.

• Nyack’s Elmwood Playhouse is running “The Prisoner of Second Avenue� through Oct. 6. (The show is dark this weekend.) “Urinetown,� the musical about paying to relieve oneself, runs Nov. 16 through Dec. 15. “Room Service,� which became a Marx Brothers movie, runs Jan. 18 through Feb. 9. “The Elephant Man� runs March 14 through April 12. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?� runs May 16 through June 14. And “The Beauty Queen of Leenane� ends the season July 18 though Aug. 9. Elmwood is at 10 Park St., Nyack.
Information: 845-353-1313 or www.elmwoodplayhouse.com.

• The Antrim Players in Suffern are also starting the year with Neil Simon, “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,� which runs weekends through Oct. 7. (The show is dark this weekend.) Next up is the musical “Blood Brothers,� Oct. 26 through Nov. 18. “Snow White� follows, from Nov. 30 through Dec. 9, but it’s not part of the regular season subscription program. In January, it’s “A Few Good Men,� running the 11th through the 27th. Then it’s back to comedy with Carl Reiner’s “Enter Laughing� from Feb. 29 through March 16. Things turn musical again with the classic “West Side Story� April 18 through May 18, and the season ends with a June 13-29 run of Donald Margulies’ “Brooklyn Boy.� The Antrim Playhouse is at 15 Spook Rock Road, Suffern. Information: 845-354-9503 or antrimplayhouse.com.

• Brewster Theater Company presents Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest� at 8 p.m. Oct. 12, 13, 19 and 20 at The Melrose School, Federal Road, Brewster. Information: 845-598-1621 or brewstertheater.org.

• The Harrison Players typically turn their fall over to fundraising dinner evenings and save the show until the spring. The 44-year-old group hosts “La Dolce Vita,� an evening of Italian food with a dance band, at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Harrison Veterans Memorial Building, 210 Halstead Ave., Harrison. For $30, revelers get “a full Italian-style dinner with dessert� and “enjoy entertainment provided by the Ange Rubino Dance Band and the Harrison Players.� Information: 914-937-8427 or email harrisonplayers@yahoo. com.

• Fort Hill Players present Joe DiPietro’s “Over the River and Through the Woods� on Oct. 19, 20, 26 and 27. The Fort Hill Players perform at Rochambeau School, 228 Fisher Ave., White Plains. Information: 914-309-7278 or FortHillPlayers.com.

• The Pound Ridge Theatre Company starts with David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Wonder of the World� on Nov. 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 16 and 17. It plans staged readings in February and will present Donald Margulies’ “Dinner with Friends� in April. Performances are at Conant Hall, 255 Westchester Ave. (Route 137), Pound Ridge. Information: 914-764-1902 or prtc01.org.

• Hand to Mouth Players present their 16th annual Award-Winning Playwright Directors Workshop on Sept. 28, 29 and 30 at Trinity Boscobel United Methodist Church, 275 Church St., Buchanan. Information: 914-734-4336 or htmplayers.com.

• Irvington’s Clocktower Players present “The Sound of Music� on Nov. 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11. A gala benefit Oct. 20 features a staged reading of Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Driving Miss Daisy� with Jane Alexander and her son, Jace. There’s a 6 p.m. preshow reception, a 7:30 p.m. curtain and a post-show reception. Tickets are $250, with a limited number of performance-only tickets set at $100. In the spring, the Clocktowers present “Swing!� on May 16, 17 and 18. They perform at Irvington Town Hall Theatre, 85 Main St., Irvington. Information: 914-591-6602 or clocktowerplayers.com.

• Spotlight Theatre Company presents “Crazy for You,� the Gershwin musical with a book by Ken Ludwig, on Nov. 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18. The shows Nov. 3 and 4 include dinner. At the Tom Thumb Theater, 1949 E. Main St., Mohegan Lake. Information: 845-526-3461 or stpny.com.

• Bedford Community Theatre presents “Fiddler on the Roof� on Nov. 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18 at the Bedford Hills Community House, 74 Main St., Bedford Hills. Information: 914-666-7004 or bedfordcommunitytheatre.org.

• Yorktown Stage presents Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music� from Nov. 10-25 and Dance Theater in Westchester’s “The Nutcracker� on Dec. 15 and 16. Yorktown Stage is at 1974 Commerce St., Yorktown Heights. Information: 914-962-0606 or yorktownstage.org.

• The Armonk Players begin their 10th season Wednesday with a reading of “Savage in Limbo� by John Patrick Shanley. Admission to the event is free, but “voluntary donations are cheerfully accepted.� The season continues with a blast from the group’s past, a performance of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters� on Oct. 13 by Players founder Barbara Simonetti and professional actor Jerry Hilpert — it was the first stage performance at Whippoorwill Hall. There will be another to-be-named staged reading in November, and the fall’s mainstage production will be “Anatomy of a Murder� from Nov. 30 through Dec. 8. The Players perform at Whippoorwill Hall, 19 Whippoorwill Road E., Armonk, next to the North Castle Public Library. Information: 914-234-5457 or armonkplayers.org.

• YCP TheaterWorks presents David Ives’ “All in the Timing� on Nov. 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11. The group performs at Van Cortlandtville School on Route 6 in Mohegan Lake, directly across from the Cortlandt Town Shopping Center.
Information: 914-528-4145 or www.ycptw.org.

• Actors Conservatory Theatre presents “Fiddler on the Roof,� Oct. 25-28, Nov. 1-4. At 20 Buckingham Road, Yonkers. Information 914-391-6558 or actshows.org.

The Brewster Theater Company presents Oscar Wilde’s comedy classic “The Importance of Being Earnest,â€? produced by Ryan Dietzen and directed by Debbie Levin.

Performances are Oct. 12, 13, 19 and 20 at 8 p.m. at The Melrose School, 120 Federal Road in Brewster.

In the cast: Daniel Bayer (Danbury); Rachel Halko (Bedford Hills); Ryan Dietzen (Lake Carmel); (Mount Vernon); Ella Luckett (Yorktown Heights); Regina Sweeney (Mahopac); and Alex Vournazos (Danbury).

Tickets are $13 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Go to www.brewstertheatercompany.org or call 845-598-1621 for reservations and additional information.

(Photo courtesy of Carolyn Adams.)

So sad to hear of the demise of the 32-year-old Asbury Summer Theatre which will close up shop after a November look-back show.

According to a letter from the AST Committee:

“The primary reason for this decision — made by the AST Committee after a great deal of consideration and lengthy discussion — is the continually decreasing number of volunteers. Whether it be with auditionees, set-builders, ushers, or workers in other capacities, fewer and fewer people have been taking part. Other community theatres have been experiencing similar conditions.”

The final bow — AST’s “Our Time” — will be “a retrospective of its productions through the past 32 years.â€?

Show dates are Nov. 2 at 8, Nov. 3 at 2 and 8, and Nov. 4 at 6.

At Asbury United Methodist Church, 16 Scarsdale Road, Crestwood.

Tickets are $20; $15 seniors and children.

Call 914-961-6968.

The newly minted White Plains Performing Arts Center is holding seasonal auditions on Saturday, for Equity and non-Equity actors and actresses, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Interested folks should bring a picture and resume and be prepared to sing 32 bars of a song.

Artistic director Jack W. Batman says they’ll be looking to fill the fully stage d”Man of La Mancha” cast (production dates: Nov. 29-Dec. 16) — and find talent for “Ragtime,” the concert version which will be staged Feb. 1-3.

Just got back from an interview with Jack W. Batman and Bruce Harris, the minds behind the newly revived White Plains Performing Arts Center in City Center, downtown.

They have some amazing things cooking at the new Equity regional theater next to the movie theater on the top floor of the City Center mall. “Equity” means professional actors in the intimate 410-seat space.

Things kick off Oct. 19 at 8 and Oct. 20 at 2 and 8 with “Irving Berlin’s I Love a Piano,” a national tour on its way to Broadway.

Then the mainstage season begins:

“Man of La Mancha” — Don Quixote, Dulcinea and Sancho Panza. Nov. 29 through Dec. 16. Directed by Luke Yankee and sponsored by HSBC Premier.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’â€? — Fats Wallers’ great music kicks off at the end of Black History Month. Feb. 28 through March 16, directed by Jerry Dixon.

“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” — Oh, I believe in you…. April 24 through May 11. Directed by Joe Leonardo and sponsored by Westchester County Business Journal.

Added in is a three-night concert version of “Ragtime,” Feb. 1-3, directed by Sidney J. Burgoyne. If this concert version goes well, and Harris and Batman think it will, they’re already thinking of doing a series of concert versions, like the “Encores!” series at that other City Center, in Midtown Manhattan.

More on this later. For now, go to their sleek new Web site, here.

Amadeus Conservatory of Music and Theater in Chappaqua will hold auditions for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Catsâ€? on Saturday, Oct. 13 from noon to 1 p.m. at 201 King Street, Chappaqua, N.Y.

Auditioners should bring a song of their choice and a short monologue. The show will be the culmination of a musical theater workshop directed by Lin Snider.

Rehearsals will take place from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays in Chappaqua. Production dates are Feb. 2 and 3.

Interested? Call 914-238-0388 to schedule an audition time. For more information, visit www.amadeusconservatory.com.

I went to Monday night’s Cab Calloway Lifetime Achievement Awards at Westchester Broadway Theater, where the creme de la creme of Westchester community theater gathered to honor their own:

• Asbury Summer Theatre and technical guru Andrew Gmoser;

• Dotti Pustola and Ann Wurzburger of The Harrison Players;

• Vinny Lopreto, a director and choreographer;

• Mara Mills, the driving force behind the now-defunct Herbert Mark Newman Theater at the Pleasantville Y;

• Composer, conductor and musical director Donna Cribari;

• Actors Dick Nagle and Jeanne McCabe; and

• Dance teacher and choreographer Selma Rothstein.

It was a lovefest, to be sure. I chatted over dinner with Bob Funking, the co-founder of Westchester Broadway. Nice man, Bob.

The most difficult thing was to try to coax all these theater people into their seats to get the show started, and to get them back from intermission: It was a schmooze-a-thon, with everyone seeming to know everyone else.
—Nellie O’Brien chatting with longtime “phantom” Craig Schulman (who delivered two powerhouse performances). The night’s 50/50 drawing was held to benefit his Jenna’s Dream scholarships.
—Yorktown Stage impresario Barry Leibman surrounded by a cabal of friends, after he used the time he was given to introduce McCabe and Nagle as an opportunity to call for all theater groups to work together for sheer survival.
—Ray Arrucci, fresh from a summer spent in stock in Amish country, looking bushy-bearded but happy to be back.
—Rose Norton, holding forth in a private box with a dozen friends, and welcoming longtime Mount Pleasant Theater musical director (and honoree) Cribari.
—Christine Pedi, a longtime star of “Forbidden Broadway,” told some hilarious stories about honorees Pustola and Lopreto and brought the house down with spot-on impersonations set to the tune of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” (Words can’t possibly do it justice: Bernadette Peters, Carol Channing, Christine Ebersole, Katherine Hepburn and others singing this song!)
—Robi Hager, the Rye Country Day School graduate who is appearing in “Spring Awakening” (though I hear he’s headed back to school soon), was in fine voice, singing “Left Behind” from “Spring Awakening” and accompanying himself on the piano. Later, Hager appeared with his brother, John, and sister Daniele to sing a medley of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. Talented kids, those Hagers.

Mark your calendars for next September. This is really the theater event of the year. No matter the nominees, it’s just pure fun. If you’re into theater, it’s the only place to be.

I met with Michael Bush, the new artistic director at the Emelin, today.

We talked about the season, about his hopes for his new home — including a major capital campaign to turn the 9,000-sq.-foot facility into a 36,000-sq.-foot facility.

I’ll have a big story on it next week, but the news is this: With Ann Hampton Callaway performing at Purchase this week, Bush and Callaway’s people got together and decided to push her Emelin appearance from April or May of 2008 to September 2008, to coincide with the new Telarc album she’ll record in December.

How do you replace Ann Hampton Callaway?

With Tony-winner Christine Ebersole, fresh from “Grey Gardens”! She’ll be at the Emelin on April 12, Bush says.

Keep checking here for details on when tickets will go on sale. They’re sure to sell out in a heartbeat.

Tonight, after the dessert plates have been cleared and everyone’s had their coffee, the lights will go down at the Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford and the spotlight will shine on some remarkable members of the Westchester arts community.

The seventh annual Cab Calloway Lifetime Achievement Awards are the brainchild of the dinner theater’s George Puello. Years ago, Puello found himself going to the funerals of pillars of Westchester’s artistic community and hearing glowing tributes.

“And I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to be saying all this things to them instead of about them?’� he recalls.

The name was a no-brainer: Cab Calloway, the hi-de-ho jazz singer and bandleader, lived in Elmsford for 34 years, until his death in 1994.

This year’s black-tie-optional event honors:

• Asbury Summer Theatre in its final season, with the award going to longtime AST member and technical guru Andrew Gmoser;

• Dotti Pustola and Ann Wurzburger, founding members of The Harrison Players;

• Vinny Lopreto, a director and choreographer whose work has been seen across Westchester for years;

• Mara Mills, whose Herbert Mark Newman Theater at the Pleasantville Y was a haven for new and classic works before closing in 2004 after a 13-year run;

• Composer, conductor and musical director Donna Cribari, one of the founders of the Port Chester Council for the Arts;

• Dick Nagle and Jeanne McCabe, who have shared their lives and the stage for more than 30 years;

• Dance teacher and choreographer Selma Rothstein, who has taught dance in Westchester for 60 years. Now she directs “The Tapettes,� a group of tap-dancing senior citizens at the Y in White Plains.

Rothstein, Cribari, McCabe and Nagle gathered at the theater recently to talk about their lives in the arts.

SELMA ROTHSTEIN has been teaching dance at the Y in White Plains for 39 years.

When she was 3 years old, the Yonkers native began studying dance, under Helen Lissauer. She was hooked after the first class.

“When I walked out of that place, I never wanted to do anything else,� she says.
“She saw something in me that gave me a lot of confidence,� Rothstein says.

Rothstein turned pro at 15, a career that ended three years later when she married. Soon she had two kids running around the house — and she was looking for an outlet.

A friend watched the kids, freeing Rothstein up, in 1947, to teach dance to tots at the Jewish Community Center in Yonkers.

“I started the classes and I said, ‘This is what I have to do.’ That started it, and I never stopped.�

Not for 60 years.

She gave them lessons. They gave her “joy, fulfillment, inspiration,� she says.

Some of her former students will be there tonight.

“One started when she was 7. Now she’s 63,� says Rothstein.

Her current students — “The Tapettes� — range from age from 58 to 83, including Sharon Field, who’s been with Rothstein for 18 years.

“I’ve had four back surgeries, somebody else has a new knee, somebody else has new hips. We’ll drag ourselves to that class in casts and on crutches just for what she gives to us. Not just the dance steps, but something that comes from her.�

The Tapettes will perform at Monday’s celebration, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Selma’s Girls.�

A former student, Marlene Furtick, became a choreographer and the great Judith Jamison danced her “How Long Have It Been� with the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble.

Furtick, who now leads the Westchester Youth Bureau, says Rothstein is “one of those special people that really had the ability — and still has the ability — to make each and every person who comes to her class feel special.�

DONNA CRIBARI had her light bulb moment — the one that convinced her that she could compose music — in Quebec, when she was asked to compose music for frogs.

Cribari was working at a school where every class — from kindergarten to eighth grade — was required to take ballet and it was her job to play for them one day a week, all day.

“I would play the dance curriculum and creative movement for this ballet teacher� she says.

“At the end of the class, she’d turn to the class and say, ‘We’re going to do improv. So be witches or be frogs.’ Then she’d look at me and say, ‘Play music for the frogs and witches.�

“I played something. I have no idea what. Years later I wrote to her� — Sonia Chamberlain, of the Royal Academy of Dance — “and said, ‘You made me a composer because on the spot I had to create something that was expressive of that.’

“It was a thousand years ago, but it’s something I use every day that I’m still working as a composer.�

If writing music touches her heart, the “community theater thing,� as she calls it, is the “mainstay and joy of my life.�

“The family you make with all these different groups is incredible,� she says.

Cribari makes family at theaters across Westchester, but it all started with her family: Port Chester’s Colangelo-Linen-DelBianco theatrical “syndicate.�

These are the people who started the Port Chester Council for the Arts, which produces shows throughout the summer and brings theater and the arts into classrooms.

Theater is in Cribari’s blood: Her parents met doing community theater in the 1920s — with a Mrs. Tompkins in Mount Vernon.

“In our family, the funny thing is, you have to audition if you’re going to marry one of the people,� she says.

JEANNE MCCABE knew theater was her thing when she played Fidelity Marston in the seventh-grade production of “Father Talks Turkey� at Mount Vernon’s Wilson Junior High.

“When I would say something, everybody laughed. I loved that. I felt everybody was with me. I didn’t know why they were laughing.�

But she was hooked.

She acted in school shows and started studying guitar under Jerry Silverman, who taught her folk music and gave her great advice, McCabe recalls.

“He said, ‘You are a terrible guitarist. Give it up. But you have a great voice and your range is good.’�

She studied voice at Juilliard on weekends and studied theater and psychology at Ithaca College.

Theater and psychology remained mainstays of her life.

She recently retired from a 20-year career as a social worker at an alternative high school in Yorktown, where she found it hard to leave her theater life at the school door.

She began teaching theater and music electives at school, as a way of “helping kids who — like many of us in theater — are not like everyone else.�

She also set up internships for high school students to work at theaters, including Westchester Broadway Theatre. Some of them have gone on to careers in the technical aspects of theater.

When she wasn’t at school, she was in a show.

“The joy I’ve gotten out of doing theater in Westchester is you do something for a few weekends and then you’re somebody else. There’s a whole other life you can live for a while.�

McCabe, who has played leading roles across Westchester in professional and community theater productions, downplays her impact.

“I’ve gotten so much more than I contributed,� she says.

DICK NAGLE, McCabe’s partner of 30 years, also has had two tracks in his life, albeit less compatible ones: theater and fighting fires.

Like Cribari, his parents met doing theater — “parish theater� at St. Simon Stock Parish in the Bronx.

When he was 7, his dad dragged him along to the Tarrycrest Players production of “A Christmas Carol,� where he played Marley and young Dick played Peter Cratchit.

“Years later, when I got to play Scrooge, I thought back and I teased the little guy playing Peter and said, ‘You know what, kid? Stick with it long enough and you can play Scrooge, too.’�

In the 1970s, Nagle co-founded the Mahopac Farm Playhouse and the LaPino Dinner Theater, one of the first dinner theaters in the region, and helped form the Archbishop Stepinac Alumni Theater, which helps to fund the excellent theater program at the Catholic boys school in White Plains.

Nagle credits his mentor, Stepinac’s Rev. Jim Cashman, with encouraging him “as a performer, director and just to be involved in theater on different levels.�

He studied theater at Catholic University in Washington, but left after two years to become a firefighter.

He spent 20 years with the FDNY and was chief in Ridgefield, Conn., for 11 years. He also commuted to his job at the New York State Fire Academy in the Finger Lakes, returning to Westchester on weekends.

When he returned to theater after working as a firefighter, it was at Marymount Manhattan College, where he holds the distinction of being the first male graduate of the previously all-female school.

His two loves, theater and firefighting, converged in 2002, when he did a production of “The Guys� — a play about a firefighter writing the eulogies of his fallen 9/11 comrades — at the Herbert Mark Newman Theater, which was led by Mara Mills, another Calloway honoree on Monday night.

Nagle and McCabe have shared their lives — and the stage — for 30 years, but it was with Ed Shanaphy that Nagle started two theater companies: Mahopac Farm Playhouse and LaPino Dinner Theater, Westchester’s first.

The dinner theater, in Vista, sat 99 people in a space that was so close that actors were practically dancing on the baked potatoes.

“You could smell the pasta,� McCabe quips.

(Top photo: From left, Donna Cribari, Jeanne McCabe, Dick Nagle and George Puello chat at the Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford Sept. 12, 2007. Photo by Stuart Bayer.)

(Second photo: Selma Rothstein at the Westchester Broadway Theatre on Sept. 12, 2007. Photo by Stuart Bayer.)

When she saw the movie “The Little Mermaid� in 1989, 7-year-old Sierra Boggess was like nearly every other girl her age: She wanted to be Princess Ariel.

Now, at 25, the Denver native is Princess Ariel — or will be — eight shows a week at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway. Previews begin Nov. 3 for a Dec. 6 opening.

Most girls outgrow that want-to-be-Princess-Ariel phase. Boggess (pronounced BOG-iss) took it to a whole new level.

When she got older, Boggess wanted to be like Jodi Benson, the woman who sang the role of Ariel in the movie. She went to the same college Benson did: Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. (Boggess’ mom earned her zoology degree at Millikin and her grandmother a teaching degree there.)

Two mermaids from the same landlocked school 800 miles from the sea?

“Decatur, the soybean capital of the world. Who knew?� Boggess says with a laugh.

“I remember being obsessed with Jodi’s voice because I couldn’t find where the break was in her voice, where she went from her belting voice to her legit,� she says. “When I met Jodi, when she came to Denver for a concert, I was like, ‘I’m going to Millikin because of you, because I knew you graduated from there and your voice is amazing.’ �

Soon, outside the Lunt-Fontanne on West 46th Street, little girls will be lining up to get a glimpse of Boggess. Is she ready for that?

“I got a little taste of it in Denver� this summer during the seven-week pre-Broadway tryout at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Boggess’ hometown.

“We had people lined up at the stage door every night,� she says. “PR people in Denver say that never happens. It’s not the same as New York in that way.�

Then again, how often does a mermaid come to life on stage?

“The Little Mermaid� stars Boggess as Ariel, Norm Lewis (“Les Miserables�) as King Triton, Sherie René Scott (“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels�) as the wicked sea witch Ursula, Sean Palmer (“The Apple Tree�) as Prince Eric, and Tituss Burgess (“Jersey Boys�) as Sebastian the crab.

Director Francesca Zambello creates an undersea kingdom where performers don’t swim as much as glide. To make their movements fluid, choreographer Stephen Mear (“Mary Poppins�) puts the cast in Heelies, sneakers with a wheel in the heel.

“We’re constantly in Heelies,� Boggess says. “When we go to rehearsal, the first thing we do is to put them on. Stephen wore them for a month to figure out what we could do in them.�

There are a dozen new songs from composer Alan Menken, a New Rochelle native who now makes his home in northern Westchester.

“Alan Menken is so incredible,� Boggess says. “The new songs he’s written flow seamlessly from the ones he wrote years ago to these new ones and people love the new ones as well. You don’t even know where the movie left off and he began again.

“It’s ‘The Little Mermaid.’ We don’t want that messed with, because we love it so much� she says protectively. “And he does justice to his own movie.�

Based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of a mermaid who dreams of trading her tail for legs and joining the human world, “The Little Mermaid� won Menken two Oscars — for best original score and for best original song (“Under the Sea�), an award shared with his longtime collaborator Howard Ashman, who died in 1991.

Boggess says the new songs, with lyrics by Glenn Slater, add dimension to key characters who didn’t sing in the original film. Ariel’s friend Scuttle, the sea gull who was voiced by Buddy Hackett in the movie, is played by Eddie Korbich (“The Drowsy Chaperone�).

“He has two new songs written for him and they’re so funny and they set his character up so well,� the actress says. “Scuttle is one of my favorite characters because he’s so positive and he’s not really all there.�

Boggess and her sisters — Summer and Allegra (“our parents were hippies�) — never much cared for Prince Eric, the object of Ariel’s affections.

“What they’ve done with Prince Eric for the show is made him much more human and so much more believable as a guy that Ariel would fall in love with,� she says. “Now, when we get to the second act, I’m like, ‘Yes! I get to fall in love with my prince now!’ �

Then there’s the song.

“He has one of the most beautiful new songs in the show,� Boggess says. “It’s called ‘Her Voice’ and he sings it in the first act after I’ve rescued him.

“The other day, I was watching him from the wings when he sang it and I turned to Eddie and I said ‘Eddie! That is my prince!’ �

Some might look at Ariel as a girl who chases a boy. Boggess takes a longer view.

“She’s a universal character, but she’s such an independent woman and, even though the second act is about getting the prince, I think it’s more about getting to where she belongs and not being afraid to break out of the mold of her family. I’ve always had that spirit with me.

“The fact that she’s 16 years old, it’s kind of fun and wonderful that I can go back to that place in my life when I was 16 and really yearning to be someplace else and wondering what else was out there. So I get to walk my 16-year-old self through this,� she says.

Where was that 16-year-old yearning to be?

“Broadway was always what I wanted to do,� she says without hesitation. “I never wanted to be a movie star. It was always singing and dancing on Broadway.�

She played Christine in “Phantom of the Opera� in Las Vegas, opposite Brent Barrett, and understudied the role of Cosette in the national tour of “Les Miserables,� alternating with Pleasantville’s Ali Ewoldt, who now plays Cosette on Broadway.

Soon enough, Boggess will be part of the Broadway world.

“The best compliment I get is when people say that I’m doing her justice,� she says. “I want to do her justice because I believe in her.�

Then Boggess stops and shouts, “Isn’t that so weird? She’s not real, but she is.�

Boggess knows that part of Broadway is facing the critics. Is she nervous that Ariel will be like chum in a sea of sharks?

“The best advice I’ve gotten is not to read reviews and I don’t think I could read them,� she says. “I love Ariel so much and I don’t want to see her put through that.�

Ann Hampton Callaway is sure to be spending more time in Westchester.

On Saturday night, she and a trio will be half of Purchase College Performing Arts Center’s unique split-bill gala with Itzhak Perlman. Audiences for both shows will party together and then split up to see either the violin virtuoso or the cabaret great.

In the spring, she’ll go solo at the intimate Emelin Theatre, accompanying herself on the piano.
Consider it her way of getting to know her new neighbors. After living in Manhattan for seven years, Callaway is moving back to Croton-on-Hudson.

“Yes, I’m about to become a Westchester resident again,� she says. “Barbecues, late-night drinks, baking cookies at Christmastime, harassing my nephew.� (Her sister, Liz, lives in Croton with her husband, director Dan Foster, and their son, Nick.)

I love living in New York City, but space, nature and peace called and I answered,� she says. “It’s very exciting to be coming back.�

Not that she spends a lot of time at home: “A lot of travel, a lot of gigs, a lot of cities,� she says.

Callaway may be best known for singing the theme to “The Nanny� on TV, but if you just know her for that, it’s like knowing Sinatra only for “My Way� or Elvis only for “Blue Suede Shoes.� There’s much more to Ann Hampton Callaway than “The Nanny� theme.

For starters, she sings the heck out of a song.

Listen to her rendition of “Blue Moon� on her 2006 CD “Blues in the Night,� and you’ll never hear the song the same way again. She holds notes longer, sings them purer and phrases lines better than a person has a right to.

Callaway also plays the piano, even though piano great George Shearing encouraged her to step out from behind the ivories to stand front-and-center and sing.

She composes.

For the past few months, she’s been getting ready to record a CD of “heavily Ann Hampton Callaway material� for Telarc in December.

“The kinds of songs I’ve been writing are anywhere from beautiful lush love songs to kind of fun — I wrote a new song called ‘Don’t Save Your Kisses Like Fine China,’ that I’ll be doing in some of my shows in Westchester this autumn.�

She also has a great sense of humor, which you’ll hear in her lyrics.

Asked what an Ann Hampton Callaway song sounds like, she doesn’t miss a beat, saying: “If Moms Mabley and Fred Astaire had a child, this is what their child would have written. I am a contradiction, with green eyes.�
Check out the lyrics to her “I’m-Too-White-To-Sing-the-Blues Blues�:

“Disregard the name
Ann Hampton Callaway.
English, Scottish, Irish:
A honky all the way.
Lionel wasn’t pappy;
Neither was ol’ Cab.
Every day I curse the way
My life is dull and drab.
Go on and spread the news:
I’ve got the I’m-Too-White-To-Sing-the-Blues Blues�

The “too-white� thing was born of the fact that Callaway is a scat singer of the first degree, from the Ella Fitzgerald class.

“When you’re scatting, you’re making up stuff as you go along. However, when you’re scatting with someone else — for instance, I have arrangements I’ve done with my sister, Liz — I remember distinctly, on a Metro-North train, a scatting argument we had. I was writing on the scat solo and Liz was saying ‘Why does it have to be “dwee-ba�? Why can’t it be “da-ba�?’�

Sisters.

When she was in the Broadway show “Swing!� — for which she was a 2000 Tony nominee and a Theater World Award winner — Callaway had to write down the scat lines because everyone had to sing the same syllable.

“It was very funny to try to write scat, which for me is always a very spontaneous thing.�

When she’s on her own, she says the scats just flow, which keeps the mood in the hall kinetic and electric.

“If I want to keep myself interested, I try to keep it as loose as possible. It’s fun for me to keep my musicians amused by being fresh and spontaneous.�

“I like to let the moment guide me. That’s how I live my entire life. It’s how I cook,� she says. “It’s how I do everything.�

“I’ll make up a soup and I’ll make up whatever I have and I’ll throw something together. The problem is that when you make an improvisational dish, you can never duplicate it. If it’s great, it’s the only time you’ll ever have it.�

Of course, having your sister in the neighborhood means you can always pop over to borrow an ingredient or two.

At Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, the spring musical is a seniors-only affair: Last spring, director Chris Schraufnagel led something like 130 soon-to-be graduates through “Once Upon a Mattress.”

Greeley’s all-school musical is done in the fall. This year they present “Urinetown,” on Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 16 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. The school is at 70 Roaring Brook Road, Chappaqua, a stone’s throw from Reader’s Digest.

To purchase tickets, which are $10, call 914-861-9425 or download order form, under “Box Office,” at www.chappaqua.k12.ny.us/hg/faculty/theater/index.htm. For additional information, contact chschraufnagel@ccsd.ws.

Incidentally, the play-reading committee has narrowed down the contenders for the spring musical to:

A) “Pippin,” the musical version of the story of Charlemagne’s son who’s in search of his own corner of the sky;

B) “Good News,” a Roaring Twenties musical involving a high school football star in need of tutoring; or

C) “Annie Get Your Gun,” Irving Berlin’s anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better musical about a gun-toting, sharpshootin’ female.

Greeley seniors vote next month.

Which show would you like to see? Leave a comment below.