To San Francisco actor Ray Reinhardt, Urinetown must be a special place. Thanks to the new satirical musical comedy, which managed to transfer from the New York Fringe Festival to Broadway, John Cullum was unable to fulfill his obligation to play King Lear in the City by the Bay, ceding the honor to Reinhardt. A production of the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, King Lear plays Sept. 15-Oct. 7.

Reinhardt's Bay Area stage credits include American Conservatory Theatre's Cyrano De Bergerac (Cyrano), Berkeley Repertory's Long Day's Journey Into Night (James Tyrone) and San Jose Repertory's Death of a Salesman. He can be seen in the films "The Hunt for Red October" and "The Tie that Binds" as well as on TV's "L.A. Law" and "Hill Street Blues."

Joining Reinhardt in the cast are Julian Lopez-Morillas as Gloucester, Tony nominee Gerald Hiken (Strider) as the Fool, Robert Sicular as Kent, Kay Kostopoulos as Goneril, Jonathan Rhys Williams as Edgar, Will Springhorn, Jr. as Edmund, Jenny Lord (The Green Bird at Berkeley Rep) as Regan, Robert Weinapple as Albany, Allen McKelvey as Cornwall and Shannon Barry as Cordelia. The company includes Peter Heitmann, Bijan Aimi, Tom Vegh, Doyle Ott, Stephen Pawley, Paul Silverman, Amir Talai, Randal Wung, Lucinda Serrano and Courtney Shropshire.

New Jersey Shakespeare Festival founder Paul Barry directs. With some 72 Bard productions under his belt, he is the only American to have directed the entire Shakespeare canon.

Opening night is Sept. 21. Tickets are $26-$34. The Ira and Lenore S. Gershwin Theatre is located at 2350 Turk Boulevard. For reservations, call (415) 392-4400. The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival is on the web at http://www.sfshakes.org. — By Christine Ehren