Pleasantville’s Axial Theatre Company, the 9-year-old troupe of actors, directors and playwrights based on Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre — puts a premium on collaboration.

What sets Axial apart is that the collaboration really involves the audience as well, and that’s not just talk. There are Q&A’s with the playwrights and, starting this year, audience members will be able to attend rehearsals and offer their two cents.

The folks behind Axial are giving people an opportunity to pitch in more than two cents at tomorrow’s gala benefit at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Pleasantville.

The celebration will mark the Westchester debuts of two up-and-coming performers: singer-songwriter Katy Pfaffl and magician Eric Walton, the star of Off-Broadway’s “Esoterica.”

Food will be prepared by restaurateur, Neil Mautone of Tribeca’s Dylan Prime and Devin Tavern.

It’s appropriate that St. John’s should be the venue, as that’s where last spring’s critically acclaimed production of Linda Giuliano’s “Two Hearts” was moved when ticket demand exceeded supply.

The troupe’s growing profile has prompted them to seek a permanent home. That’s where tomorrow’s benefit comes in: Moneys raised there will go into a fun to find just such a place.

True to Axial’s mission and nature, the evening is all about collaboration, as the audience can hear Pfaffl’s music, watch Walton’s up-close sleight-of-hand, and bid on auction items. Everybody does their part.

Axial’s annual 10-minute play festival is slated for the end of January and start of February and the mainstage production will be Howard Meyer’s “Angel Beast,” set for April.

But first, there’s that auction to go to. For the paltry sum of $25, you can hear great music, watch some cool magic tricks and, hopefully, help a new space to appear for a worthy theater group.

St. John’s Episcopal Church is at 8 Sunnyside Ave. in Pleasantville. Tickets are $25 at the door, including dinner. Reservations are strongly suggested, at 914-286-7680. And check out their Web site: www.axialtheatre.org.

Mario Cantone interrupts his shooting of the “Sex and the City” film for a one-night stand at Peekskill’s Paramount Center for the Arts on Dec. 1.

As part of the refurbished movie palace’s “Comedy @ The Paramount” series, Cantone will bring his one-man show, an updated version of his Tony-nominated “Laugh Whore” stint on Broadway a few years back, with a band and a full-tilt version of the comedy of outrage.

Cantone is at his best when he’s angry and there seems to be nothing he won’t talk about. Except, of course, the storyline and any details from the “Sex and the City” set.

Cantone has been busy this fall, with benefit performances in New Orleans and one coming up in St. Louis. He’s also shot two episodes of the Anne Heche series “Men in Trees” in Vancouver, did a weekend for the Comedy Festival in Manhattan, a few dates at the Borgata in Atlantic City, and the “Sex and the City” shoot.

Upcoming comedy shows at the Paramount include Paula Poundstone on Dec. 14 and Sinbad on Feb. 2. Both shows are at 8 p.m.

Where: The Paramount Center for the Arts, 1008 Brown St., Peekskill.

When: Dec. 1 at 8 p.m.

Tickets: $28 to $38.
Call: 914-739-2333.

Web: paramountcenter.org

Here’s the latest “In the Wings” television segment. You can also see it tonight, between 5 and 5:30, on RNN.

Download:

The first time Bill Irwin performed in an Edward Albee play – “The Goat” on Broadway – he was in love with a goat.

“And Sally Field,” he says.

The next time – in a Tony-winning turn as George in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” – he was in love with a character who could easily be described as an angry pit bull.

“In the person of Kathleen Turner, aka Martha,” he says with a laugh.

On Saturday, Nyack’s Irwin shares the stage with the playwright himself, at a benefit for Riverspace Arts.

What does Irwin expect this go-around?

“I’ll be in love,” he says, “but I’ll be every bit as wary, you can quote me on that. He is the most amazing guy to trade words with, whether in conversation or debate in rehearsal.

“When we were in rehearsal for ‘Virginia Woolf,’ the agreement was always ‘Don’t say anything with Edward in the room, unless you’re content with it being a setup line,’ ” he says.

Irwin says Tyne Daly is just getting a taste of the sharp Albee wit.

Starring in “Me, Myself and I,” the Pulitzer-winner’s newest work gearing up at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J. – a show that deals with twins – Daly, a Suffern native, sent the playwright a small token: two acorn caps that had grown together, twins of a sort.

Albee sent back a note, saying “Yes, they’re twins. They’re also, as I note, both nut cases.”

Irwin, in sharing the story, shares a knowing laugh.

“You have to sit back and embrace the fact that he will always have the topper,” Irwin says.

Irwin will, at least, have company on the Riverspace Arts stage: Marian Seldes, a Tony—winning Albee interpreter, will venture to Nyack and play scenes with Irwin to illustrate some aspects of Albee.

All three of the evening’s participants – Albee, Irwin and Seldes – were on hand last month for another Rockland County event: the storytelling gala Irwin hosts at Rockland Country Day School. Getting a three-time Pulitzer-winner to come to a second benefit in a month is a testament to Irwin’s power of persuasion.

Irwin enticed Seldes to Nyack by promising the grand dame a visit to Toma Holley’s fashion shop on Burd Street. Holley and Seldes struck up a conversation at the storytelling gala and hit it off. When Irwin mentioned that Holley’s shop is a stone’s throw from Riverspace, he says Seldes said “My darling, I’ll be there.”

Albee is considered by many the greatest living American playwright. Irwin takes it a step further.

“I prefer to always think of him as one of the greatest playwrights of any time. And Marian is a renowned interpreter of his work.”

Albee appears to have lost not a single step. He’ll turn 80 in March and has no fewer than four shows appearing in the metropolitan area in coming months: “Peter & Jerry” now at Manhattan’s Second Stage; “Me, Myself and I” in January in Princeton; “The American Dream,” set for the Cherry Lane in March; and “Occupant,” coming to the Signature Theater Company in May.

“When I came into ‘The Goat,’ I didn’t know much about his work, but it’s fascinating,” Irwin says.

“If I read his biography correctly, he chooses a style first and then gets to writing. His new play, ‘Me, Myself & I,’ is written in a totally different style than ‘Virginia Woolf’ or even ‘The Goat.’ It’s like he is two or three different writers.

“A lot of us call him ‘the alchemist,’ because he takes normal ingredients and somehow something more than the sum of its parts comes out,” Irwin says.

Still, an Albee play can be thorny territory, with plenty unwritten and subject to an actor’s interpretation. Is there a secret handshake or a manual that unlocks the key to performing Albee?

“Not to my knowledge,” Irwin says. “If so, I haven’t gotten it yet.”

Irwin says the playwright has an affinity and an admiration for playwright Samuel Beckett. Having performed Beckett, “Waiting for Godot” and “Texts for Nothing” might have “let me into a certain circle,” Irwin says.

Saturday’s event gives Irwin’s Nyack neighbors a glimpse into that circle.

Irwin is a regular at Riverspace, as regular as his schedule will allow.

He caught a screening of “No End In Sight” there recently, and “Jimmy Carter Man from Plains,” by his neighbor, Jonathan Demme, with whom Irwin just finished filming “Dancing with Shiva.”

“There was Jonathan, our neighbor, on stage along with Hendrik Hertzberg, who writes for The New Yorker and who was on Carter’s staff. They’re both Nyackers and I thought, ‘Woo! This is pretty cool. This is the reason to save this ugly building.”

Saturday’s event promises to be another.

“Conversations at Riverspace: Edward Albee interviewed by Bill Irwin”
Where: Riverspace Arts, 119 Main St., Nyack
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $25. $15 for students. $50 premium seating and post-show dessert reception with Bill Irwin.
Call: 845-348-0741
Web: www.riverspace.org
Who: Legendary American playwright meets Tony Award-winning actor. Tony-winner Marian Seldes will perform some Albee scenes.

In a week that has seen a strike on Broadway, they’re opening a laugh-out-loud funny play by Neil Simon.

In a week that includes a strike by television writers, this play deals with television writers.

It’s like “Ripped from the Headlines: Greenville Community Theater.”

The play is “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” Simon’s valentine to the place where he got his comedy start, in the writers’ room of Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows.”

That room – which earned the nickname “The Harvard of Comedy” – was the workplace of Larry Gelbart (“M*A*S*H,” “Tootsie”) Mel Tolkin (“All in the Family”), Mel Brooks (“Young Frankenstein,” “The Producers”), Carl Reiner (“The Dick Van Dyke Show”), Selma Diamond (“Night Court”), Danny Simon (“The Carol Burnett Show”) and, eventually, Woody Allen (“Annie Hall”).

Oh, and a fellow named Neil Simon (“The Sunshine Boys,” “Plaza Suite,” “The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “Lost in Yonkers,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues,” “Broadway Bound,” “The Good Doctor.”)

At the center of the action in “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” is Max Prince, a larger-than-life, blustery comic genius who is talented beyond belief but tortured, too. The sad clown.

Greenville’s “Laughter” director, Janice Fay Hanges, cast Antonio D. Soares Jr. to play Max. She lovingly calls Soares “a nut case who’s up for anything.”

“He gives it his all and is very brave about it. And that’s what we need in Max” the director says.

“It’s so much fun. You find out the background of all those guys who were writing for Sid Caesar. And you see there are little bits of those famous people – and their stereotypical neuroses – in the characters here.”

Hanges loves the moment in the second act when the team is working on an actual sketch for “The Max Prince Show.”

“Since ‘Julius Caesar’ with Brando has just opened, they’ve decided that that’s going to be their parody of the week. It’s pretty funny. Tony does a really good Marlon Brando. Another guy does a great John Geilgud, another does a great James Mason.”

Greenville does two main-stage shows a year, fall and spring, at Edgemont High School. They also present eight half-hour workshops throughout the year at Greenville Middle School. Last month, they read scary stories.

But the ghosts are gone. This weekend and next, for five performances, it’s all about the laughter coming from that room on the 23rd floor.

“Laughter on the 23rd Floor”
Where: Edgemont High School Theater, White Oak Lane, Scarsdale.
When: 8 tonight, tomorrow and Nov. 24; 2 p.m. Nov. 24 and 25.
Tickets: $18; $15 for seniors, students; $12 for groups of 10 or more. Nov. 24 matinee is $10.
Call: 914-636-2863.
With: Ray Eckerle, Peter Gehn, Stewart Hanges, Ed Herman, Jean Kadela, Greg McCormack, Frank Orlando, Cathy Romanovitch and Antonio D. Soares Jr. Directed by Janice Fay Hanges.

Michael Bush is about to launch the new and improved Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck with a huge undertaking – 20 days of theater and music that he calls “Theater in Concert.”

So has he been burning the midnight oil on Library Lane, thinking and planning?

Nope.

He hasn’t had time.

Bush has been in Pittsburgh, mounting a production of “Murderers,” Jeffrey Hatcher’s laugh-out-loud comedy about three people who take lives in a Florida retirement community.

What he’s doing in Pittsburgh this fall will bear fruit in Westchester in the spring, when “Murderers,” which just received an excellent production from the Croton-on-Hudson-based Hudson Stage Company, comes to Mamaroneck. The woman playing Lucy in Pittsburgh, Jennifer Harmon, will reprise the role at the Emelin.

“Murderers” opened Wednesday in Pittsburgh. Yesterday, Bush came back to New York. Tomorrow, it’s time for “Theater in Concert.”

A busy week, to be sure.

Bush has said the festival will introduce his aesthetic to theatergoers in Westchester. He has called it a tasting menu of things he’s been involved in while working at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn., where Bush is an artistic adviser and oversees the theater’s popular Cabaret and Performance Conference.

There’s cabaret in the festival and plenty of theater.

But don’t expect lavish sets.

“It’ll be a bare stage, with maybe the Steinway concert grand,” says Bush.

It’s not about the sets, he says. It’s about the work, which he guarantees will be of high artistic quality.

“If I can get them in the door, everyone will leave happy,” he says.

Some theatergoers haven’t been happy this week, with the strike by stagehands canceling performances.

Bush, ready to satisfy, is even trying to please those folks.

“I don’t want to sound like a carpetbagger, and say ‘Hey, you can’t go into New York, why not come to the Emelin?’ – because I’m a member of the league,” he says via phone from Pittsburgh.

“The situation is horrible no matter how you look at it, but I would say to anyone in Westchester, that there’s some really exciting stuff going on at the Emelin … ”

To make the point even finer, Bush says that if the strike extends into the weekend, he’ll offer patrons holding tickets to canceled Broadway shows a 50 percent discount at the Emelin.

“The people who are really suffering and have nothing to do with this standoff are the audiences,” Bush said. “It’s the least I can do for someone who was planning to go to the theater and because of the strike cannot,” he says.

The show goes on in Mamaroneck.

If you go
“Everyone Expects me to Write Another Streetcar” - Jeremy Lawrence as Tennessee Williams in a one-man show about the playwright in the 1970s. 8 p.m. Saturday ($35); 2 p.m. Sunday ($32).
“Try to Remember: A Look Back at Off-Broadway” - Rita Gardner from “The Fantasticks” reminisces. 8 p.m. Sunday ($35); 8 p.m. Nov. 28 ($35).
“Friends in Deed” - Emmy-winner and Tony-nominee Penny Fuller, straight from New York’s Metropolitan Room. 8 p.m. Nov. 23 ($35); 2 p.m. Nov. 25 ($32).
Joel Silberman in “Politics and Poker” and Gretha Boston in “Familiar Love” - Acclaimed pianist and award winning Cabaret singer Joel Silberman was Leonard Bernstein’s protege before becoming a political consultant; Gretha Boston celebrates her personal journey through musical theatre.Two fascinating shows on one bill. 8 p.m. Nov. 24 ($35); 5 p.m. Nov. 25 ($32).
“The Kleinbort Collection: Songs of Barry Kleinbort” - Penny Fuller, Rita Gardner and Karen Mason sing the theater songs of Barry Kleinbort. 8 p.m. Nov. 29 ($35); 8 p.m. Nov. 30 ($35).
“A Tribute to the Bluebird Cafe: The Sounds of Nashville” - Grammy-winner Marcus Hummon, Sherrie Austin, Roxy Dean and Don Henry sing country’s latest and greatest. 8 p.m. Dec. 1 ($35); 2 p.m. Dec. 2 ($32).
“Becoming Tennessee” - A staged reading of a world premiere musical about a young Tennessee Williams and his first visit to New Orleans, played by Brian Charles Rooney, featuring Gretha Boston and others. 2 p.m. Dec. 1 ($25); 5 p.m. Dec. 2 ($25).
“Emelin’s Broadway Cabaret” - Stars from the festival return to sing seasonal songs. 8 p.m. Dec. 6 ($40)

Packages: Combine any 4 shows and get a 10 percent discount; combine any 8 shows and get a 15 percent discount.

Call: 914-698-0098.

Web: www.emelin.org.

Luke Yankee grew up a “showbiz kid,” the son of actress Eileen Heckart, an Oscar-winner for “Butterflies Are Free.”

As such, he rubbed elbows with big stars and heard his mother tell wonderful insider stories.

Eileen Heckart could dish.

So, it turns out, can her son. For the past five years, Yankee has been touring with a one-man show he calls “Diva Dish!” – a loving tribute to his mother, who died Dec. 31, 2001.

Yankee brings “Diva Dish!” to the White Plains Performing Arts Center on Friday. It’s a benefit for the theater, which has been reimagined as a home for professional musical theater. Later in the month, Yankee will direct the theater’s first mainstage production, “Man of La Mancha,” starring Broadway’s Robert Cuccioli.

But first, it’s time to dish.

“After my mother passed away, I was looking through all of her memorabilia and realized that I was the only one who knew all of these stories,” Yankee says.

The stories include tales of working with Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren and Bette Davis, among others.

“I realized that if I didn’t do something with this, an incredibly important piece of theater and Hollywood history would be lost forever,” Yankee says.

He put together a PowerPoint presentation with slides from his mother’s photo collection, and showed it to friends. That presentation became the multimedia show “Diva Dish!”

Yankee sings a few songs and tells plenty of stories, in which a son is added to the constellation: There’s Heckart talking with LBJ, and Ethel Merman teaching a young Luke how to mix a martini.

Yankee grew up in Fairfield County. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward – friends of Heckart’s from their time working together on “Picnic” on Broadway – stopped in regularly.

It was in Heckart’s New Canaan living room that Newman gave the 14-year-old Yankee an important acting tip.

“He taught me how to upstage my co-star in children’s theater. I loved him forever for that,” Yankee says. “That was so cool of him.

“He taught me how to stare the guy down if he went up on his lines and make him look like a jerk. Of course, when I did it, it didn’t have the same impact as when Paul Newman did it.”

There are so many stories, Yankee can’t tell them all in the 90-minute intermissionless show. So in the show’s program, he prints a list of about 25 names of people he’s ready to talk about.

“After the scripted part, we bring up the house lights and I say to the audience: ‘Shout out a name and I’ll give you the dish’ and rattle off stories about Martha Stewart, Bob Fosse, Mae West. Just on and on,” he said.

“People get a charge out of it and every show is different.”

Celebrities flit through the performance, but Yankee says the show is really about a loving mother-son relationship.

“It’s not all about gossip,” he says. “My mother was a larger-than-life character, and I talk about saying goodbye to her for the last time, when she died of lung cancer, and it goes to some intimate places as well. It’s funny and heartfelt and touching.”

Still, with the time constraints of live theater, some stories went undished at some performances, so Yankee compiled them in a book, “Just Outside the Spotlight,” with a foreword by Mary Tyler Moore. He’ll sign copies of the book at Friday’s benefit performance in White Plains.

That’s a dish that won’t get cold.

Apparently, there’s nothing like an allegory for McCarthyism.

There are three productions of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” playing in Westchester this weekend: at the professional Schoolhouse in Croton Falls, and at two local high schools, Archbishop Stepinac and Blind Brook.

The Schoolhouse Theater, a professional troupe in Croton Falls, is starting a long-run of the show, weekends through Dec. 9.

“We are very excited about the cast,� said Pamela Moller Kareman, artistic director for The Schoolhouse and director of the production. “Many in the cast have appeared in Schoolhouse productions in the past often acting together, and the dynamics should be very special.�

The cast includes: Walita as Tituba; Lauren Currie Lewis as Betty Parris; Keith Barber as Rev. Parris; Sherry Stregack as Abigail Williams; Stephanie Bayliss as Susanna Wallcott; Cheryl Orsini as Ann Putnam; Bruce Smolanoff as Thomas Putnam; Jennifer Hildner as Mercy Lewis; Sari Caine as Mary Warren; Simon MacLean as John Proctor; John Tyrrell as Giles Corey; Terry Ashe-Croft as Rebecca Nurse; Kevin Albert as Rev. Hale; Sarah Bennett as Elizabeth Proctor; George Kareman as Ezekiel Cheever; David Rigo as Willard; David Licht as Danforth; David Olan as Hawthorne, and Virginia Barber as Sarah Goode.

Performances are at 8 Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and at 4 on Sundays.

Tickets are $25 on Thursdays and Fridays, and $29 on Saturdays and Sundays. The Schoolhouse is at 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls. It’s not a huge house, so best to call ahead, at 914-277-8477.

Archbishop Stepinac High School Drama Club presents “The Crucible,” its 91st production, in the 60th anniversary year of the school. The show runs this weekend only, Nov. 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 18 at 3 p.m.

“The talent of the young men and women in our club is inspiring. They constantly challenge our creative team and each other to realize their full potential” said director Frank Portanova. “With Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the students have a great opportunity to perform a timeless masterpiece.”

But it’s not just Stepinac’s students who’ll be on stage. As an all-boys Catholic school in White Plains, Stepinac regularly features students from other local schools. This play includes girls from Good Counsel Academy of White Plains and Maria Regina High School of Hartsdale.

General seating tickets are $10 and $8 for senior citizens and children under twelve. Tickets can be purchase in advance at 914-946-4800×268 or at the door. The school is at 950 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains.

Contact: Christina Colangelo, (914) 494-7496, cmcolange@aol.com

Blind Brook High School presents “The Crucible” on Nov. 16 and 17 at 8 p.m.

The cast includes: Andrew Benowich, Zack Bodinger, Elaine Chandras, Kelsey Crandall, Alyssa Davis, Blythe Duckett, Steven Fisher, Matthew Goldwater, Prince Gauran Jain, Christine Joyce, Tyler Ketchbaw, Lauren Konigsberg, Elana Levy, Stacey Lurie, Kyle Maclean, Jacqueline Mamorsky, Cody McKinney, Sean McKinney, Samantha Park, Ally Oberrotman, Gabi Schiz, Corinne Segal, Stephanie Sherry and Alex Woychowski.

Tickets are $10 for all performances can be reserved by e-mailing BBHSTKT@AOL.COM

Christina Colangelo directs the production with the assistance of Student Assistant Director Jordan Drutman, Stage Manager is Eddie Licitra and Jason Kaye is on the light board. This production will feature original music by Donna M. Cribari who, incidentally, is one of my favorite people in the world.

The response to Bedford Community Theatre’s fall production, Fiddler on the Roof, has been so overwhelming that they’ve added a performance to the run.

Remaining performances are Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. (The extra show is at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18.)

All tickets are $15, reserved seating.

Box office opens one hour before each curtain.

Performances take place at the Bedford Hills Community House, just up the hill from the Bedford Hills Train Station.

“Fiddler on the Roof,� BCT’s sixth annual musical production, is directed by Laurie Lewis with musical direction by Kirk Ehrenreich and choreography by Karla Diamond. Peter Green, starring as Tevye, joins Marci Stearns-McCormick as Golde and a cast of more than 40 community members to transform the Bedford Hills Community House stage into the 1905 Russian village of Anatevka.

For more information about the production, including directions to the theater, visit www.bedfordcommunitytheatre.org.

I am a Christmas music freak.

I listen to Handel’s “Messiah” year-round. You should hear my 7-year-old son sing the “Hallelujah Chorus.” So I’m pleased to pass on the news that “Bending Towards the Light – Jazz Nativity” is coming to Nyack’s Riverspace on Dec. 21 at 8 p.m.

And even more pleased to tell you that Anne Phillips and Bob Kindred — the writer/producers of the piece — are looking for a boy soprano to sing the title song “Bending Towards the Light.”

On Monday, Nov. 19, they’ll audition for a 7- to 12-year-old male soprano to play the shepard boy who will sing the title song.   The rest of the cast for this wondrous mix of theatre and jazz will be top New York jazz cats and singers.

Auditions will be held at Riverspace, 119 Main St., Nyack on Nov. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m.

John Gwardyak is a great guy and I hate to disappoint him.

The Eastchester High School drama lord pitched me this weekend’s production of “Rumors,” which I’ll have to miss, owing to the fact that I’m just overbooked.

Still, I wish I could be there. He’s a great guy and deserves the support. He’s opening the show with a 10-minute festival piece called “The Celebrity” which deals with “rumors” that a major celebrity is coming to town.

Then it’s “Rumors,â€? latter Neil Simon.

Tickets are $6 for students and $8 for adults. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and is Nov. 16 and 17.

The cast includes: Rebecca Fix, Camilla Sanchez and Bekka Dowdle in the pre-show show. Julia Ribeiro as the Narrator. In “The Celebrity,” it’s Michelle Leone, Max Rogers, Gabrielle Filiberti, Lisa Farkas, Dana Celestino, Jessica Reed, Emily Mereghin,  and Charles Russo. “Rumors” will star Genn Tyler, Steven Solano, Lindsay Pike, Sam Brown, Lyle Selsky, Liz DeVito, Rio Ruess, Gabriella Carr, Simone Norman, and Madyson Spano.

Did I mention Gwardyak’s a great guy?

For “Enchanted,â€? the new Disney animation-live-action hybrid film, Westchester’s own Alan Menken teamed with Stephen Schwartz (“Wickedâ€?) to write five new songs.

I think it’s going to be great,� Menken says.

“The first one is your classic, in the period of ‘Snow White’ very comfortable break-into-song song. There’s nothing ironic about that, other than the fact that we’ve all culturally moved on from there. It’s very sweet.�

“The second one is a pure break-into-song moment — she calls the woodland creatures to come and help her clean this apartment — but of course, the woodland creatures that come are not quite the same. But the song itself is very funny, tongue-in-cheek.�

“There’s one moment, in the song ‘That’s How You Know,’ a Central Park number, where Prince Edward is trying to call to her and the bicycle riders knock him over. She breaks into song, much to the embarrassment of the Patrick Dempsey character, but it’s a really exuberant song, the centerpiece of the score, called ‘That’s How You Know.’

“There’s a ballad in the ball when they change partners and they dance together. It’s sung at the ball by this performer on stage and it’s a classic ballad called ‘So Close.’�

“And then there’s a final number called ‘Ever Ever After.’�

It’s a film musical in a modern sense, much more break-into-song than most any original musicals have been,� he says.

Sounds like fun. My kids — and their dad — can’t wait to see it.

Kathryn Faughnan and Delaney Moro have gotten a spoonful of sugar from Mary Poppins and have stood alongside a proscenium-walking chimney sweep named Bert, on Broadway.

Marissa O’Donnell has been chased by onstage cops and matched wits with the evil Miss Hannigan (including Kathie Lee Gifford) in a national tour of “Annie” that spanned nearly two years.

But all three will snap to attention at the sound of Captain von Trapp’s whistle starting this weekend, in Yorktown Stage’s production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music.”

For the next three weekends, Faughnan and O’Donnell will alternate as Brigitta, and Moro will alternate with her sister Regan Moro as Louisa.

What’s it like to return to community theater having tasted life on Broadway and in a national tour?

“It’s amazing,” says O’Donnell, a 13-year-old Westchester native. “It also takes a lot of stress off of you and you get to do what you really love.

“There’s definitely not as much pressure,” she says. “You come back to the stage and just have fun. On the road or on Broadway you have to work really hard. You have to work hard here, too, but you’re surrounded by people you love.”

And Brigitta is a different kind of character to play.

“Annie was kind of a sweet little girl who was charming,” O’Donnell says. “This one is a bit of a smart aleck and kind of a know-it-all. She tells Maria what’s right and what’s wrong. She tells her the truth, even when she doesn’t want to hear it. It’s a very different kind of role.”

While she says some of the other von Trapp children might look up to her, “they’re very confident kids.”

“They really can do it,” O’Donnell says. “I think, ‘Wow! They’re here, but I know they’re going to go somewhere else, just like I did.’ I was here and then I went on to great big things.”

When she was “here” before, O’Donnell played a royal child in the Yorktown Stage production of “The King and I” in 2002. She says “Annie” taught her a lot about focus.

“You have to be the character the whole time,” she says, “because when you’re onstage you have to forget if you were crying before the show or if you were having a birthday party before the show.

“It’s extremely hard. What Brigitta might be feeling when she’s living in that moment isn’t what Marissa’s feeling. She’s a whole different person.”

Asked what she misses about being on the road, she first mentions Lola, the dog who played Sandy in the show. And she says she misses playing Annie, even though she knows she needs to move on.

“When you do a part for two years, it becomes part of you,” she says.

When Kathryn Faughnan was first on Yorktown Stage, she was the back end of a horse in “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

Then came Broadway.

“The commute is a lot better, and I get to see my friends,” says the Westchester native. “I feel like I’m home.

“Even though being in ‘Mary Poppins’ for a year was amazing – and it felt a bit like home when I was there – it’s nice that a lot of my family can come to see me here. And the tickets are cheaper here,” she says with a laugh.

“I tell my friends I’ve been on Broadway, and they don’t treat me any differently,” she says. “I’m the same kid. I just got to my dreams quicker than usual.”

The 13-year-old still goes on auditions, but she wants to take a break to focus on eighth grade.

She says every time people got close to Gavin Lee, who plays Bert, “we would speak in a British accent.”

“He and Ashley [Brown] are my role models,” she says. “They’re older than me and more experienced. I’d like to follow their footsteps because they’re really successful.”

Delaney Moro, who played Jane Banks in “Mary Poppins” for nine months, says working at Yorktown Stage is “definitely a change, but I enjoy it because I enjoy performing.

“It was weird not having something to do after ‘Mary Poppins,’ so it’s nice to go back.”

Moro, who lives in Rockland County, is still working in the city, appearing in the American Girl shows.

The 12-year-old seventh-grader says she learned “you definitely need to be mature enough to be on Broadway. To know what to do and when to do it and what not to do.”

Her work in “Mary Poppins” came after years of training. She has taken dance lessons since age 3 and voice lessons since age 6.

Moro plays Louisa, alternating with her older sister, Regan.

“There are a few little kids in ‘The Sound of Music’ and they want to know what it’s like. They aspire to do other things. For older kids who’ve done Off-Broadway or Broadway or regional things, they look up to them.

“When you tell them what it’s like, they tell their parents, and they’ll get more excited and influence them to take more classes.”

Moro says she’s excited to be working with Faughnan and O’Donnell again.

“We’re really good friends,” she says. “I was in shows with both of them. Kathryn and I almost lived together for nine months. We had sleepovers and tutored together. And Marissa and I have done ‘Annie’ and American Girl together.”

“Sound of Music” director Greg Baccarini says the girls came to him with a performing background.

“Usually when I work with kids, I have to teach them the basics of being onstage, then blocking the show. These girls come with that already. You’re freer to do more things with them. They know how the process works.”

The director says their professionalism sets a great example.

“All those girls are spot-on. They’re always prepared and they’re always listening and they’re always giving 100 percent, even at a rehearsal with no scenery or props.

“When you’re on with someone who’s really good, it makes you want to work harder,” Baccarini says. “It makes you want to rise to meet their level. So I think it’s great for the kids for whom this is their first show.”

PHOTO: Stars of the Yorktown Stage production of “The Sound of Music,” from left, Delaney Moro, Marissa O’Donnell and Kathryn Faughnan are not newcomers to the stage. Moro and Faughnan performed in “Mary Poppins” on Broadway and O’Donnell played the title role in a national tour of “Annie.” (Photo by Mike Roy/The Journal News)

“The Sound of Music”
Where: Yorktown Stage, 1974 Commerce St., Yorktown
When: Nov. 10, 11, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 at 2 p.m.; Nov. 10, 17 and 24 at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $25; $23 for Yorktown residents; $21 for seniors (over 62) and for students 12 to 22; $19 for children under 12
Call: 914-962-0606
With: Jennie Berson, Bill Reilly, Jessica Best, Kyla Kerrigan, Lucas Kane, Joe Fanelli, Kathryn Faughnan, Marissa O’Donnell, Paige Simunovich, Kayla Vanderbilt, Delaney Moro, Regan Moro, Zach Landes, Kyle Brenn, Olivia Berkson, Lexie DeBlasio, Kathleen Hart, Barry Liebman, Deb Mengert, Monica Robinson, Chris Schulze, Maureen Thaler, Brianna Vaccaro, Lauren Wagner, Tom Berta, Nancy Jane Blake, Pauline Bruno, Kevin Cannon, Chelsea Derby, Karen Derby, Nan Gologny, Abbe Harkavy, and Kristina Koller. Directed by Greg Baccarini, with musical direction by Steve Saari and Jennifer Bauer-Conley as associate choreographer.
Also, in Irvington:

“The Sound of Music”
Where: Irvington Town Hall Theatre, 85 Main St., Irvington
When: Nov. 9 and 10 at 8 p.m., Nov. 10 and 11 at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $20 and $28
Call: 914-591-6602 for tickets
With: Bonnie Rofé, Arnie Mazer, Grace Clary, T.J. Larke, Molly Gallagher, Isabel Garcia, Nicholas Barasch, Meghan Gallagher, Ruby Reilly, Caroline Harty, Paige Harty, Madelyn Gallagher, Kathy Wolf, Barbara Salant, Joe Zeolla, James Landrum, Tina Fairweather, Jessica Huff, Lea Richardson, Lee Richardson, Heather Steinberg, Janet Accurso, Eddie Bernabei, Miriam Bernabei, Charles R. Colwell, Penny Cassar, Jake Cunningham, Ed Decker, Alicia Fine, Brooke Harty, Elaine Healy, Leslie Lafayette, Rich Le Buhn, Judah Shapiro, Marti Stewart and Craig Vogel. Directed by John McDonald, with musical direction by Kinny Landrum and choreography by Sandy Evangelista.

Catherine Hurlin, an 11-year-old White Plains sixth-grader, has been studying dance since she was 3.

Her family has gone to many recitals.

Last year, she danced the part of Clara in Purchase College’s “Nutcracker ‘06,” a huge undertaking with hundreds of other dancers from across the Lower Hudson Valley. But even that pales in comparison to her latest project: Starting today, she plays Clara in the 75th anniversary production of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

It’s not the entire “Nutcracker,” just a little scene, she says. “We learned it really fast and now we’re doing tech, and that’s basically rehearsals onstage with the lighting and the spacing.”

“Clara is this girl who basically, here, is in this big, big room that has humongous boxes in it,” she explains. “And in the boxes are teddy bears and all the teddy bears come to life and dance around.”

She dances pointe – one of those ballerinas who spin and move on tiptoes – a skill she learned two years ago.

“It can hurt your feet,” she says, adding that it’s harder to move around when she’s not on her tiptoe than when she is.

She studies at Westchester Dance Academy, and she has also studied at Scarsdale Ballet Studio. She takes jazz and ballet but hasn’t tried tap yet.

At Radio City, there are two Spectacular casts – the blue and the gold – with two Claras (Catherine alternates with Allie Parsons, from North Carolina) and two separate groups of Rockettes.

So what’s it like to stand next to a Rockette?

“They’re really tall,” Catherine says with a laugh. “When they come off the stage, they’re sweating and dripping.”

There is one wrangler to chaperone the show’s six boys and two girls, taking them to rehearsals and tutoring and to the stage door to be picked up.

When she’s in rehearsal, Catherine studies what her classmates in White Plains are studying, only faster. “There’s a lot less time,” she says.

Having danced on the huge stage at Purchase College, Catherine says she was surprised by the size of the Radio City stage.

“I thought it was going to be a bigger stage,” she says, “but the Christmas tree is huge and it takes up a lot of room, with the big boxes, too. But I like … that Clara gets these big presents in this gorgeous room.”

This year’s Spectacular has several new elements, one of which is the opening to the Live Nativity scene, where animals are brought out onto the stage. Just before the scene, Catherine and two boys playing her brothers read the Nativity story from the Bible and then it comes to life, she says.

“In real life, I have a little brother,” Catherine says. “His name is Henry and he’s 7, but he doesn’t dance. He’s a gymnast. He does backflips all the time.”

As Clara, Catherine doesn’t flip, but she did flip over some of the trappings of her new holiday home.

“I get my own dressing room and my own table and mirror,” she says. “And I get to decorate it.”

PHOTO: Catherine Hurlin, a White Plains native, has won the role of Clara in the 75th anniversary production of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Manhattan. (Photo by Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News)

Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Where: Radio City Music Hall, 50th Street at Avenue of the Americas.
When: Today through Dec. 30.
Tickets: $40 to $100.
Call: 212-307-1000.

In Lloyd Pace’s “Hong Kong,� having its premiere at Ossining’s Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble through Dec. 2, Philip Bradley is a white corporate attorney assigned to Hong Kong — a “foreign devil,� as the natives call them.

He’s surrounded by sharks, and not just the ones in the bay near his home.

There’s his manipulative wife, Anne, played by Elena Zazanis, who tells Philip that if he loses his job in Hong Kong — which is all but a certainty — he’ll lose her, too.

There’s Michael Kim, her lover, played by Dinh Q. Doan, who carries on his seduction under Philip’s nose.

And there’s Will Lehman (Michael C. O’Day), an up-and-coming partner in Philip’s firm, who wears his ambition like a badge of honor and will go to any length to get what he wants.

For his part, Philip, played by Nick Raio, is a sad sack, a man who is acted upon and doesn’t act. He’s Charlie Brown, convinced that the football will always be pulled out at the last minute. And he seems to be OK with that.

At least Charlie Brown had Lucy as a psychiatrist. Philip’s therapist doesn’t even speak the same language.

Is it any wonder he’d rather spend his days in the park, where he meets Will’s wife, Patty, played by Catherine Nastasi?

Patty, stuck in an equally dysfunctional marriage, is seduced by her new surroundings.

“Hong Kong� has a lot to say about love, loss and ambition, and it says it all in rapid-fire fashion.

Pace’s characters ping-pong lines back and forth, scarcely waiting for them to land before moving on to the next thought. People don’t listen to each other much in “Hong Kong.� They’re too consumed by the pursuit of their own happiness, even if it comes at the expense of others.

Pace has structured “Hong Kong� cinematically, with what seem like dozens of quick scenes, each preceded by the sound of a gong. As the evening goes on, the fast-paced chatter and the repeated gongs become a swirl of sound and dialogue that makes one wonder if this isn’t all something Philip is dreaming while in therapy or sitting in the park.

There is a film-noir quality to their speech, a certainty to these characters that makes it possible for them to declare “Good people don’t make it� and “It’s never a sin to love� without an ounce of irony.

Having established that tone, director Forest Hamilton, the new artistic director at Blueberry Pond, has Judy W. Chen pull the show in a different direction.

It is Chen who bangs the gong and Chen who embodies several mostly comic characters: She’s the bubbly cocktail waitress, a karaoke-singing bar patron, the bullying boss with a piggish snout and a cowboy hat, a stewardess, a DMV clerk, and one of the girls used as a pawn in a game of seduction Anne plays with Michael.

Since she’s the person responsible for setting the scene, it twice falls to Chen to parade a toy plane across the stage to let the audience know that the action has moved to an airplane. It gets laughs and breaks the tension — and Chen, to her credit, is fully committed to everything she does and every character she plays — but it seems at odds with the rest of the show.

Later, Raio joins in on the frivolity, blurring the line even further.

The menace that hangs over the proceedings — you must keep your eyes open, with all the sharks — carries the day and Pace gives things a refreshing twist while resisting the urge to tie up all loose ends.

The production values at Blueberry Pond — in a 49-seat theater on Cedar Pond — are uneven.

The single set, designed by Hallie Flanagan Wolfe, is an effectively utilitarian mix of platforms and boxes, with a touch of Asian red. Melanie Smock’s lighting creates several playing areas to make the most of the tiny stage.

Sound designer Greg H. Hennigan’s effects are well-chosen but mistimed on occasion. A scene at the beach was well under way when we began to hear the waves.

Things are different in “Hong Kong.� Even love is different in “Hong Kong.�
When Patty finds herself captivated by Michael, there’s this exchange:

Patty: “I don’t trust you, Michael.�

Michael: “That’s how you can be sure it’s love.�

Some might love “Hong Kong.� Some might not.

Love it or not, Blueberry Pond audiences are the first to see this brand-new play.

And there’s something to be said for that.

PHOTO: Nick Raio and Judy W. Chen star in the world premiere of Lloyd Pace’s “Hong Kong” at Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble in Ossining. (Photo by Paul J. Magliari)

‘Hong Kong’

Where: Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble, 235 Cedar Lane, Ossining
When: Today through Dec. 2. 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. No performance on Thanksgiving Day.
Tickets: $30; $25 for seniors, students and military
Call: 877-FOR-4TIX
Web tickets: www.SmartTIX.com
Theater Web site: www.blueberrypond.org