Ruben Santiago-Hudson's well received solo drama, Lackawanna Blues, which was extended twice at Off-Broadway's Public Theatre, will end on May 27. The play began previews April 6 and opened April 14 at LuEsther Hall, first shifted its closing date from May 6 to May 20, and finally extended to May 27.

Blues picked up to OBIE awards along the way, one for Santiago Hudson and one for guitarist Bill Sims, who performs his own accompanying music nightly. Loretta Greco, who piloted Two Sisters and a Piano at the Public last season, directs.

Santiago-Hudson won a Tony Award for August Wilson's Seven Guitars, in which he played a gentle and comical philosopher-musician. He has, however, rarely been seen on the New York stage since. He was featured in Henry VIII in Central Park in 1997, and starred Off Broadway in 1998 in Deep Down, a play by Doug Grissom. The following year, he performed in A Raisin in the Sun at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.

Blues takes place in 1956 in Lackawanna, New York and centers on Miss Rachel's boarding house, a gathering spot for "would-be philosophers, petty hustlers, lost souls, and abandoned lovers."

For more information, call (212) 239-6200. —By Robert Simonson