The Drury Lane family was shaken over the summer by the death of executive producer Diane Van Lente. She was 57 and the daughter of Anthony DeSantis, the late founder of the Drury Lane group of live Chicago-area theatres. Her nephew Kyle is now executive producer.

The 2008 season in Oak Brook, IL, kicks off with the musical comedy Sweet Charity by Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon, March 13-May 18, 2008, under the direction of Jim Corti.

The rock 'n' roll musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, a celebration of the legendary singer/songwriter Buddy Holly, who shot to stardom in 1957 and died in a plane crash two years later, will run May 22-July 27, 2008. The show has been an international hit.

David Bell’s "adaptation" of the classic Rodgers & Hart musical comedy The Boys from Syracuse, based on Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, will play Aug. 7-Sept. 28, 2008.

Jerry Herman, Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence's musical comedy Mame will run Oct. 9-Dec. 21, 2008, followed by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's Miss Saigon Dec. 31, 2008-March 8, 2009. For more information phone (630) 530-0111 or call TicketMaster at (312) 599-1212 or visit www.drurylaneoakbrook.com.

*

Closing out the current 2007 season are Meet Me in St. Louis, directed by Jim Corti, Oct. 18-Dec. 16; and director Gary Griffin's revival of The Goodbye Girl, Dec. 27, 2007-March 2, 2008. Griffin is the Jeff Award-winning director who made his Broadway directing debut with The Color Purple.