Sarah Ruhl, a darling in recent years of certain critics, had her Broadway debut In the Next Room or the vibrator play, a seriocomic, Victorian period play about one Dr. Givings and his magical, electrical, vibrating machine, which seems to do wonders for female "hysteria." Les Waters, a man with a long resume who is also making his Broadway bow, directed stars Laura Benanti and Michael Cerveris, who have had plenty of Broadway bows.

Critics called the Lincoln Center Theater production smart and funny. And the new work, which Ruhl champion Charles Isherwood called the playwright's most conventional, converted some critics who never cared for her talent, such as John Simon.

If I were Tarell Alvin McCraney, I'd be blushing. What else to do when critics say you're "capable of anything" and "a possible heir to August Wilson" who has "a new, authentically original vision"? That was the reaction to the 29-year-old playwright's bayou-set, family-oriented trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays Part 1 & Part 2, which opened this week at the Public Theater, and, based on the reviews, will play an additional week of performances through Dec. 20.

The plays are co-directed by Robert O'Hara and Tina Landau, a Chicago-based director with an uneven resume who is currently having the season of her career, having recently received fine notices for her work on the Broadway production of Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts.

Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts and Lily Dale comprise the first installment of Foote's sprawling family drama, directed by the playwright's frequent collaborator Michael Wilson. Wilson staged the world premiere of Orphans earlier this fall at Hartford Stage, where he serves as artistic director. The Off-Broadway mounting is a co-production between Signature Theatre Company and Hartford.

Also no longer around to enjoy his good reviews is Sidney Howard. The rare New York City revival of Howard's 1932 comedy The Late Christopher Bean, a satire of greedy small-town folk (something Foote could well appreciate) and corrupt art-world personalities, will get six extra performances Off-Broadway after winning a clutch of handsome reviews. The show is staged by TACT/The Actors Company Theatre.

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Also opening this week was the new Broadway production of the 1998 Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens-Terrence McNally musical Ragtime. While critics largely liked director Marcia Milgrom Dodge elemental staging, saying it brought the people in the tale into sharper relief, they had more critical words for the work itself than they did a decade ago, saying the piece lacked subtlety and depth.

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	Josh Hamilton
	photo by Aubrey Reuben

Actor Ethan Hawke is back Off-Broadway, and whenever Hawke does Off-Broadway, he gathers up two things: his heart-on-his-sleeve passion and his famous friends.

Josh Hamilton, Marin Ireland, Deirdre O'Connell, Alessandro Nivola, Maggie Siff and Frank Whaley will star in the upcoming Hawke-directed staging of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind. Previews will begin Jan. 29, 2010, in advance of a February opening for a limited engagement at The Acorn Theatre in The New Group's home in Theatre Row.

Hawke and Hamilton, in particular, have long been joined at the hip, working together on projects such as Hurlyburly, Things We Want and The Coast of Utopia.

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The Shubert Organization usually doesn't seek headlines; it's happier quietly ruling over Broadway. So, it was an unusual moment when Philip J. Smith, chairman of the Shubert Organization and Robert E. Wankel, president of the Shubert Organization, announced Nov. 19 that they have entered into a development and production agreement with Broadway producers Robert Cole and Frederick Zollo. The agreement has a three-year duration and is effective immediately.

Some years ago, the Shuberts were actively interested in nurturing and producing new Broadway works, but more recently the landlords have been content with simply giving producers a roof over their heads. This is the first development deal that the Shubert Organization has had with producers in more than 25 years.

"The focus of Cole and Zollo's work with the Shubert Organization will be on developing and producing both new plays and revivals as well as on collaborating with notable actors and directors — with the possibility of also bringing musicals and special events to the stage," according to the partners.

Smith and Wankel said the collaboration was partly in response to the tough economic times.

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Billy Joel. Went well! Bob Dylan. Not so much. Now, Twyla Tharp's going to give Frank Sinatra a spin, bringing her Chairman-of-the-Board-inspired dance piece Come Fly With Me to Broadway in spring 2010, according to a casting notice.

Come Fly With Me played its world premiere engagement at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta this past September, where it received encouraging reviews, including a nod from the New York Times.

With the blessing of Frank Sinatra Enterprises and the Sinatra family, Come Fly With Me features original masters of Sinatra's voice, which are backed by a live on-stage band. The Alliance Theatre production previously stated that producers were planning a 2010 American tour, with Broadway also on the horizon. Come Fly With Me, according to Alliance press notes, "follows four couples over the course of one night falling in and out of love."

Unlike the Joel and Dylan shows, Come Fly With me finds its glue not in the work of one singer-songwriter, but a singer solely.

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It was a good-news-bad-news kind of week for David Mamet. Broadway performances of his new play, Race, which stars James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington and Richard Thomas, began Nov. 16. On Nov. 17, he got news that the Broadway run of his Oleanna, the provocative college-set drama about a female student and her professor, will end Jan. 3, 2010.

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The work the late lyricist Fred Ebb left behind continues to find a life. The Vineyard Theatre announced dates for the upcoming world premiere of John Kander & Ebb's The Scottsboro Boys, directed by Susan Stroman. The musical, previously announced for a developmental run, will instead enjoy a fully-staged production by the Off-Broadway not-for-profit.

The Scottsboro Boys, according to an announcement, "explores the famous 'Scottsboro' case of the 1930s — in which a group of young African American teenagers were unjustly accused of attacking two women — and the boys' attempts to prove their innocence." Billed as a "new musical," the work was one of the final collaborations from the famed songwriting team before Ebb's death.

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Finally, soon you'll be able to type "Jay-Z" into the Internet Broadway Database and credits will come up.

Film stars Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and rapper Jay-Z have joined the producing team of Broadway's Fela!, which will open at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Nov. 23.