Josh Hamilton, J. Smith-Cameron, T. Scott Cunningham and Ross Gibby will hear Music From a Sparkling Planet this summer at the Drama Dept. They are the most of the company (one role has not been cast) of the new Douglas Carter Beane play set to make its world premiere June 20-Aug. 12 at the Greenwich House Theatre. Sparkling Planet was chosen for the time slot instead of the Douglas J. Cohen musical, The Big Time, which had also been an option.

In Music From a Sparkling Planet, three friends go off in search of the retired host of a Philadelphia children's show, but they find a lot more in the Wildwoods of New Jersey. Beane's last play to debut at the Drama Dept. was The Country Club. Other works include the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award-winning As Bees in Honey Drown and "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar."

Last Off-Broadway in Fuddy Meers, Smith-Cameron's recent work has included As Bees in Honey Drown and Broadway's Night Must Fall. Hamilton starred in This Our Youth, Sexual Perversity in Chicago at the Atlantic and as Homer Wells in The Cider House Rules. Cunningham was seen in Love! Valour! Compassion! and two Nicky Silver world premieres, Pterodactyls and Fit to be Tied. Gibby played Young Dr. Larch in The Cider House Rules. All four actors are Drama Dept company members.

Mark Brokaw directs. Brokaw currently has a hit Off-Broadway with Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero. He was also at the helm for Lonergan's This Is Our Youth, The Dying Gaul, the Drama Dept's As Bees in Honey Drown and the Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning How I Learned to Drive.

Designing Music From a Sparkling Planet are Allen Moyer (sets), Michael Krass (costumes), Kenneth Posner (lighting), Janet Kalas (sound design) and Lewis Flinn (original music). Tickets are $35. The Greenwhich House Theatre is located at 27 Barrow Street. For reservations, call (212) 239-6200. The Drama Dept is on the web at http://www.dramadept.org.

— By Christine Ehren