By Andrew Gans
24 Jul 2009

	Ellen Greene in "Pushing Daisies"
	photo by ABC

Greene admits that Guys and Dolls couldn't have come at a better time, adding that she was quite blue following the cancellation of "Pushing Daisies." "It was my family," Greene explains about the ABC series, which also featured fellow theatre stars Kristin Chenoweth and Swoosie Kurtz. "I loved these characters. I loved living inside [creator] Bryan Fuller's brain. I loved these actors, and not just the actors — the set designers, the makeup, the hair, everybody. It was such a collaborative group of people. Everyone was proud of his or her mark. Everyone together, the cumulative creation stemming from Bryan's vision… it was just amazing. . . It was so creative from the beginning to the end. And I loved my family, and I haven't been able to say goodbye to them. Certain stories you want to go on."

"I feel like God decided," Greene continues, "'Okay, now you've waited. You're gonna get something.' Whether I'm good or bad, I don't know. That's up to everybody else. The thing is, am I thrilled, am I unbelievably grateful [about playing Adelaide]? Did I come into my house last night, and get down on my knees and say, 'Thank you God.' . . .I love the process of creating. I love being an artist. . . . I'm just beside myself. I am in a great musical with a great book with a great arc."

[Guys and Dolls in Concert with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra will be presented July 31 and Aug. 1 at 8:30 PM and Aug. 2 at 7:30 PM. The Hollywood Bowl is located at 2301 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood, CA. For tickets call (323) 850-2000. Visit www.hollywoodbowl.com for more information.]

	Christine Pedi

**

The following two items I posted earlier this week on the new PlayBlog, which is updated throughout the week. Check it out at PlayBlog.

THE LADY IS A TROMP!
Last month singer, actress and all-around funny gal Christine Pedi presented a nearly month-long run of her one-woman show Great Dames at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London.

"The past year I've [also] been to South Africa doing Great Dames three times," Pedi recently told me. "If I do the math, my pianist Matthew Ward and I have spent something like seven-and-a-half days in cabs, trains or planes getting to and from South Africa. It's a travel day (door to door) of over 30 hours each way! Going to London's Jermyn Street Theatre after that was like hopping on the Times Square shuttle by comparison."

Pedi said she had a wonderful time performing for London audiences and was also thrilled to be part of the free theatre festival West End Live while she was abroad. "I went on right after the blockbuster Thriller — Live's performance — this was the Sunday before [Michael Jackson] passed away. I was impressed and intimidated by the various and assorted singer/dancers re-creating Michael Jackson routines from 'I Want You Back' to 'Billy Jean.' They had booming tracks, and the Leicester Square audience was rocking out. Then I tiptoe on with my little electric piano accompaniment — no crazy lights or smoke, thumping bass or infectious drum machine. Just l'il ole me and a few show tunes, but the audience was awesome! When I sang 'Lady Is a Tramp,' I got to 'won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls...that's why the lady is...' and decided to point the mike to the crowd indicating that they should finish the line. They did so right on cue, but I forgot that they talk funny over there, so what my American ears heard was a thousand voices singing, 'a tromp!'"

Pedi, who will perform a solo concert Sept. 28 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre — part of the "Voices of the Great White Way" series — will also return to that West 42nd Street venue in December with her acclaimed Holly Jolly Christmas Folly show. And, for now, she adds, "I'm totally enjoying the fact that I have no travel plans on the horizon for a change."

	Stephanie D'Abruzzo
	photo by Meredith Zinner

ON Q
With the recent announcement that Avenue Q will end its Tony-winning run at the Golden Theatre in September, I thought it a good time to check in with Stephanie D'Abruzzo, the singing actress who was Tony-nominated for creating the roles of Kate Monster/Lucy the Slut. "It's staggering to think that the show opened an entire first-grader's life ago," D'Abruzzo says. "The show has had a great run — about six years longer than most people thought it would have had — and certainly this closing is hardly the end. I am sure that we'll soon be seeing regional and college productions, and it's an honor to know we got that ball rolling so very many years ago."

About whether she had thought about returning to the show for its closing weeks, the actress and puppeteer said, "There were rumors of reuniting the original cast to close the show, but apparently they turned out to be just that, rumors. I never heard anything directly. It would have been great to bookend the run, but I'm really happy to be back at 59E59 this August doing the 'Summer Shorts' again. I had an absolute blast last year, and this year I actually get to do something where I don't have to sing! John [McCormack] and J.J. [Kandel] are great at gathering exceptional artists and quality people by creating these two rotating evenings. The piece I am in is incredibly short, perhaps ten minutes, and while I haven't met the playwright or the director, and I don't even know who my acting partner is yet, I trust the team and know it will be another fun summer."

As for future plans, D'Abruzzo said that "in September it looks like I'll be part of a developmental reading for a new children's musical at the Kennedy Center based on Mo Willems' 'Knuffle Bunny' book."

Well, that's all for now. "Diva Talk" will be on vacation next week and will return Aug. 7. E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.