Starting sometime this fall, Say Goodnight, Gracie, the steady, Tony-nominated Broadway hit by Rupert Holmes, and its star, Frank Gorshin, will begin a national tour. No exact start date or city has been set at this point, said a spokesperson for Gorshin. Also, the tour does not necessarily mean the end of the show's Broadway life. It may continue at the Helen Hayes Theatre with a new star.

On May 12, Say Goodnight, Gracie was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Play, in a category that also includes Take Me Out, Enchanted April and Vincent in Brixton.

The show opened on Oct. 10, 2002, following previews from Sept. 17. Gracie was the first new play to open in the 2002-03 Broadway season and is the longest-running play currently running on the Rialto. John Tillinger directs the work, which previously played at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. It won Florida's Carbonell Award for Best New Play of 2000. Didi Conn provides the voice of Gracie Allen. John Lee Beatty is scenic consultant, lighting design is by Howard Werner, sound is by Kevin Lacey.

In Say Goodnight Gracie , comedian George Burns finds himself caught in limbo, unable to enter heaven until he plays his last performance, thereby preserving his perfect record of having never missed a curtain. Beginning with Burns' poverty-stricken youth on the Lower East Side of New York City, Gorshin recreates the great comedian's life, from his success in vaudeville and on the radio to his marriage to the love of his life, Gracie Allen, and her tragic death; finishing with Burns' late-in life, Academy Award-winning success on the silver screen and his establishment as a 20th-Century entertainment and comedy icon.

Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre is at 240 W. 44th Street. For ticket information, call (212) 239 6200.