Lillian Hellman's dark family drama, The Little Foxes, had a well received Broadway revival last season, starring Stockard Channing and Brian Murray. Cincinnati Playhouse hosts Gordana Rashovich as Regina in a revival that opens Apr. 9. Previews began Apr. 7 for a run through May 8.

Hellman's 1939 drama tells of a Southern clan battling for control of the family fortune. Previous Reginas have included Tallulah Bankhead, Anne Bancroft, Elizabeth Taylor, and (on film) Bette Davis.

Channing told playwright John Guare (in a New York Magazine interview), "Because of the movie [of Little Foxes] I thought I knew the play, but the play surprised me. I knew it was about sex and money, but Regina wasn't this villainess out of some outdated melodrama, twirling her mustaches. I loved her gusto, her ability to think on her feet, to turn on a dime... She's a woman who wants the one thing she never had -- freedom. And her own money. What's the price of that?"

Said Channing, "Little Foxes is set in this time when America was ready to break open on the world scene. If it was written about today, it'd have to take place in Australia -- no, South Africa. A society ready to declare itself."

Joining Rashovich in the Ohio production are Phyllis Bash, Randy Frazier, Carol Schultz, Patrick Husted, Aaron Harpold, Wesley Stevens, Richard Russell Ramos, Debra Funkhouser and Joneal Joplin. Designing the show are Joseph P. Tilford (set), Elizabeth Covey (costumes) and Kirk Bookman (lighting). For tickets ($20) and information on The Little Foxes at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Robert Marx theatre, call (513) 421-3888.