Tony-winning musical star Karen Ziemba plays Beatrice in Hartford Stage's new mounting of Shakespeare's comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, only through Oct. 6. But that doesn't mean she's through sparring with her rival (and secret love), Benedick.

Ziemba will begin performances in the same production at Washington, DC's Shakespeare Theatre on Nov. 5. That mounting will run through Jan. 5, 2003. The DC run is a co-production with the Hartford Stage and will again feature direction by Lamos. The Hartford run began on Sept. 5.

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Since winning a Tony for her repressed housewife in Susan Stroman's dance musical, Contact, Ziemba's been branching out, starring in Alan Ayckbourn's interlocking farces, House and Garden, at Rochester's Geva Theatre, and workshopping a new, experimental, two-character musical with Polly Bergen.

Dan Snook who plays Benedick has a host of regional credits and appeared Off Broadway at the Rattlestick Theatre. Also in the cast are Peter Rini as Don Carlo, Glenn Fleshler as Don John, Kathleen Early ( The Play About the Baby) as Hero, Barrett Foa as Claudio, Marsh Hanson as Balthasar, Rebecka Jones as Ursula, Nafe Katter at Antonio, Edwin C. Owens as Friar Francis, Michael Polak as Borachio, Peter Rini as Don Pedro, Michael Santo as Leonato, Jordan Simmons as Margaret, Michael Tisdale as Conrade and Richard Ziman (Epic Proportions) as Dogberry.

For more information on Hartford Stage, in CT, call (860) 527 5151. Also, visit them on the web at www.hartfordstage.org.

—By Robert Simonson