After a week's delay while Terry Donnelly stepped in to replace Pamela Payton-Wright, Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire, will begin previews at Off-Broadway's Irish Repertory Theatre Oct. 1. Olivier Award winner and Broadway veteran Pauline Flanagan stars in the drama, set to open Oct. 10 and playing through Nov. 24.

Flanagan won her Best Supporting Actress Olivier for Frank McGuinness' Dolly West's Kitchen. She most recently appeared on Broadway as Madge in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Philadelphia, Here I Come!. Other Broadway credits include the original companies of Lost in Yonkers, Corpse! and Under Milkwood.

Every night Mommo (Flanagan) tells the story of Bailegangaire, literally a town without laughter. As she starts to recount the tale, however, the senile old woman always loses her place, so that the telling never ends. One night, Mommo's granddaughter Mary (Donnelly), sick of hearing about Bailegangaire, decides the only way the family will ever escape their past is for Mommo to finally finish telling the story. As a playwright, Murphy has written A Whistle in the Dark, The Gigli Concert, She Stoops to Folly, The Wake and Conversations on a Homecoming. P> Joining Flanagan and Donnelly in the cast are Babo Harrison as Dolly. Patricia O'Connell will play the role of Mommo on Saturday nights.

The Irish Repertory Theatre is located at 132 W. 22nd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. For ticket information, call (212) 727-2737. Irish Repertory Theatre is on the web at http://www.irishrep.org.

— By Christine Ehren