While Sean Connery heads up 10,000 bagpipers and drummers in the Tartan Day Parade in New York, Off-Broadway celebrates Scotland's independence with a little less ado. Tovah Feldshuh appears in the American premiere of Jonathan Wilson's Kilt at The Directors Company. The production, helmed by Jack Hofsiss (who staged Broadway's original The Elephant Man), will begin performances on Tartan Day (April 6) and open April 10 for a run schedule through May 4.

Kilt centers on a young Scottish lad — with go-go dancing talents — who learns a slew of family secrets as he travels with his ailing mother to his grandfather's funeral in Scotland. The play premiered in Toronto in 2000 and has enjoyed many productions across the provinces.

There has been talk of possibly transferring the show to a Broadway house providing reviews are positive. The hopes of producers Chase Minkin, Leonard Soloway — who have teamed up previously on The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Waiting in the Wings and Dame Edna: The Royal Tour— and Martin Massman would be to open prior to the May 1 deadline for the Tony nominations. A production spokesperson confirmed that the transfer is a "possibility" but no official moves are being made as of yet.

Hofsiss directs with a lauded group of designers behind him. Among the creative team are set designer David Jenkins (The Music Man, James Joyce's The Dead), costume designer Ann Hould-Ward (Beauty and the Beast), lighting designer Ken Billington (Chicago) and sound designer Peter J. Fitzgerald (42nd Street, 45 Seconds From Broadway and the upcoming Movin' Out).

Feldshuh has been busy as of late, recently featured as Richard Dreyfuss' sister in the CBS series "The Education of Max Bickford," as the Jewish mother Judy Stein in the film "Kissing Jessica Stein" — based on the play Lipschtick by the same writers — and will play the title role in the upcoming world premiere musical, The Lady in Penthouse B — if a Broadway transfer does not occur. A three-time Tony Award nominee for her work in Yentl, Sarava, and Lend Me A Tenor, Feldshuh has also appeared in her first playwriting venture, the Off-Broadway play with-music, Tallulah Hallelujah! Joining Feldshuh in the cast are Herb Foster (Kiss Me, Kate, Amy's View, The Herbal Bed), Chris Payne Gilbert, Jamie Harris and Kathleen Doyle.

For tickets to Kilt at The Directors Company, 311 West 43 Street, call (212) 206 1515 or visit www.smarttix.com. For more information on The Directors Company, visit their website at www.thedirectorscompany.org.

— by Ernio Hernandez