Philip Bosco, a blustery Boss Mangan in that production, has been upgraded to the graybeard who now lords over the manor in a dithering, indifferent sort of way. And, because Shaw permits a field day for those self-involved underlings about him, Roundabout has rounded up a colorfully eclectic cast: Swoosie Kurtz and Laila Robins as the captain's daughters, Byron Jennings and Gareth Saxe as their respective (although not necessarily) spouses, Lily Rabe as a relative innocent in the house and Bill Camp as her wannabe-suitor—all playing Shavian musical beds, blithely oblivious that they're all skating on the brink of disaster.

This cast is catnip for other actors, and Roundabout wisely remembered its own in inviting former favorite employees to the opening and the party afterwards, held at the Marriott Marquis. Most of the Roundabout cast rehearsing Suddenly, Last Summer, opening Nov. 15 at the Laura Pels, took the night off and gave some glitter to the event—Blythe Danner, Carla Gugino, director Mark Brokaw, Becky Ann Baker, Wayne Wilcox, Sandra Shipley, Karen Walsh and the lobotomist in reluctant residency, played by Gale Harold, whose only previous New York theatre work was an Austin Pendleton play waaay Off-Broadway called Uncle Bob. This, he has discerned, is different.

There was a smattering of Twelve Angry Men, no doubt in support of their Tony nominee (Bosco): Robert Clohessy and, arriving late from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, John Pankow. The doubting Juror #8, Boyd Gaines, came with news: "I'm in negotiations for Journey's End," he said. "It's the same production that was done on the West End about two years ago. It will have the same director, David Grindley. It's for Broadway, and they're looking for a theatre. At first, it was going in in late February, but now there's some chance it may go sooner." R. C. Sheriff's 1929's largely autobiographical World War I drama will co-star Samuel Barnett, the gay (and Tony nominated) History Boy, and Hugh Dancy, the British film actor (Galahad in 2004's "King Arthur" and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, in 2005's "Elizabeth I"). "I've just started doing my research on World War I," Gaines said, but the 1930 movie of Journey's End—James Whale's first film—with Colin Clive and David Manners, continues to elude him.

Also arriving late, making the party only, but having earlier seen the show: mother-of-the-star Jill Clayburgh ("I cleaned my house before I came, I did"). She's the compulsive house-cleaner in The Clean House, the Sarah Ruhl play now previewing for an Oct. 30 opening at the Mitzi E. Newhouse. It's the fourth play she has starred in this season, three on Broadway, one off. When was the last time an actor has pulled that hat trick off? Has one? A year ago this week, Clayburgh was making her first Broadway appearance in 20 years at the American Airlines Theatre. Now it is her daughter, Darling Lily, starring in that very same theatre.

Arriving, all-smiles—and with cause—was Elizabeth Wilson, who has been among the beloveds for a long time, but now it's official: On Jan. 29, she will be inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, along with Patti LuPone, Wendy Wasserstein, Willa Kim, Eugene Lee, August Wilson, Brian Friel and George Hearn.

Jennings and Camp both have working-actress wives. Mrs. Jennings (gorgeous Caroline McCormick) is momentarily "at liberty," playing wife and mother, but Mrs. Camp (marvelous Elizabeth Marvel, last seen as a lizard in Edward Albee's Seascape) starts rehearsals Monday on Dark Matters a new play by Roberto (Based on a Totally True Story) Aguirre-Sacasa, directed by Trip Cullman, co-starring Justin Chatwin and Michael Cullen. "It's at the Rattlestick, two blocks from our apartment. We just got a new baby so I gotta work near home." He's three months old, and he'll be the only Silas in his class.

Robert Cuccioli, looking like your garden-variety dreamboat stagedoor-johnny in his blue blazer and white turtleneck, stood off to the side while Robins flitted with friends and fans and met her public at the party. He was proud but not surprised. "She knows how to do these parts." (He saw the show: Jacques Brel is alive and well and dark on Wednesdays.)

Heartbreak House is one of four plates which dialogue coach Stephen Gabis has been spinning of late. The others: The Hairy Ape and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which have opened, and David Mamet's adaptation of The Vorsey Inheritance which director David Warren will open Dec. 6 at the Atlantic with Michael Stuhlbarg and Judith Roberts. "It has been seven days a week," sighed Gadis. "I get on my bicycle and go from rehearsal to rehearsal. People who know me know I'll be there, but I insist on getting started before rehearsal. I worked with Cynthia [Nixon] getting her ready for Jean Brodie—and the little girls as well for the Edinburgh accents. That's the way they do it on film. You work in advance so it's not on-the-job training. That's the best of all possible worlds if it works out that way so you get at least a leg up. They don't walk into the first rehearsal totally flumuxed by an accent."

The Vorsey Inheritance has now moved to the top of Gadis' priorities. "Mamet loves to play around with old Victorian/Edwardian things," he said. "Mamet loves scam stories. In The Winslow Boy, the kid's a bit of a scam artist in that, and this is a scam story as well."

Dylan Baker said he had to pull out of The Cartells: A Prime Time Soap . . .LIVE!, which the Drama Dept. is doing at Comix Oct. 16, 23 and 30 because he "got a job"—a film, with Richard Gere: "It was called `Spring Break in Bosnia,' but I think it's called `Flakjacket' now. It shoots in Bosnia so I'm headed over there in about a week and a half. It's just a week, but I've never been there. I'm a CIA guy who comes to the rescue of some people."

Simon Jones, who has done some Roundabout Shaw with Bosco, said his TACT group will be going extra innings with a fully staged version of David Storey's Home Dec. 2-23 in its new home away from home, the Samuel Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row.

""I love Shaw," Bosco declared, pushing back his plate at the party. "I've done 11 of his plays—four of them more than once. I've done You Never Can Tell twice, Major Barbara twice, The Devil's Disciple twice and this one twice. When I played it at Circle in the Square with Rex Harrison, that was a good production—Rosemary Harris, Dana Ivey, Amy Irving. This is a wonderful cast, too, and the director was superlative—one of the best I've ever worked with." Continued...