Auditions, scheduled for Saturday, August 26, are open to all body types over 5'2" tall, though classical and/or contemporary dance training is preferred, as is acting experience. Potential candidates are alerted that "the choreography may include topless and/or partially nude sequences."

It's hardly surprising when you think about it: if staged more or less as written, Richard Strauss's setting of Oscar Wilde's overheated Orientalist extravaganza would seem to cry out for Little Egypt and Fatima. (Remember them?)

One can't help wondering if the dancers selected will be coaching their newly-svelte colleague Deborah Voigt ...