Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire, set to star Olivier Award winner and Broadway veteran Pauline Flanagan, will delay its previews at Off-Broadway's Irish Repertory Theatre from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1. The play also changes its opening to Oct. 10 from Oct. 3 and will play through Nov. 24.

The reason for the delay is the replacement of Pamela Payton-Wright (Brian Dennehy's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Hartford Stage's Seascape) with Terry Donnelly (The Irish...and How They Got that Way). Donnelly will play Flanagan's granddaughter Mary.

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 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, 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