As a large feature in the New York Times this week illustrated, even extremely well-reviewed shows like Fela! are having a hard time filling seats. As for shows that got only O.K. reviews, like the Broadway debut of David Mamet's Oleanna,, they end up posting early closing notices. Despite having two recognizable actors in Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles, and decent notices, the provocative college-set drama about a female student and her professor will end even earlier than expected, closing Dec. 6 rather than the previously announced Jan. 3, 2010. By close, the production will have played 15 previews and 65 performances.

Superior Donuts, the new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts, got even better reviews than Oleanna, but the ticketbuyers couldn't be made interested, even though they loved Letts' August: Osage County to death. The comedy will end its Broadway run at the Music Box Theatre on Jan. 3, 2010, the producers announced on Nov. 26, after just three months of performances.

Closing this weekend (on Dec. 6) are two plays that did find an audience and a profit: A Steady Rain and Hamlet. Three men can be thanked for this outcome. Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in the first and Jude Law in the second. These days, theatregoers let the names above the marquees do the thinking for them.

Perhaps seeing the writing on that wall, producers have gone ahead and given the nod to Kelsey Grammer starring in the upcoming Broadway revival of La Cage aux Folles, despite the fact that the show had a Broadway production only five years ago. The production will be an import of London's critically acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's 1983 musical. It will open April 18, 2010, at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Grammer will play the role of Georges, the owner/emcee of the St. Tropez nightclub. Douglas Hodge will recreate his London work as Albin.

	Cate Blanchett
	photo by Lisa Tomasetti

Cate Blanchett keeps coming to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and knocking down those classic roles. In 2006, she brought her Hedda Gabler to Brooklyn. In 2009, it's time for her Blanche DuBois. The Sydney Theatre Company production is directed by screen veteran Liv Ullmann. Critics were a bit split on Hedda, but this time the huzzahs were more in evidence. Reviews praised Blanchett, and called the play powerfully rethought, stunning and fierce. The reviews were all the more remarkable since this American classic is often held to a greater standard by critics, and thus very rarely is it well-reviewed.

Meanwhile, Playwrights Horizons presented This, the new work by Melissa James Gibson. In the past, Gibson's quirky, lyrical tales of urban ennui had been well-reviewed by some, but remained stubbornly a cult favorite, an acquired taste. With This, critics indicated she had achieved a work of broader appeal. The tale of five New Yorkers facing middle-age with less than grace, it was called beautifully written and acted, insightful and witty.

***

Off-Broadway's Primary Stages gets a gold star this week for finishing its assignment early.

Well ahead of time, the nonprofit has announced its upcoming 2010-11 season. It will present works by A. R. Gurney, Jonathan Tolins and a world premiere musical by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russell M. Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth.

Tolins' new dramatic comedy Secrets of the Trade,, about the hopes of Long Island kid with Broadway dreams, will open the season (July 27-Sept. 4, 2010). Anderson-Lopez, Ford, Kaplan and Wordsworth team on the new musical In-Transit (Sept. 21-Oct. 30, 2010), inspired by the rhythms and sounds of life on the subway. And Gurney will conclude the season with the new comedy Black Tie (Jan. 25-March 5, 2011), about a father of the groom trying to preserve traditions.