A HOUSE DIVIDED
The 47th Street Theatre has gone into ethnic double time, splitting its space between two one-man shows: Guillermo Reyes's Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown (executed by Felix A. Pire under Joseph Megel's direction) and Joseph Gallo's My Italy Story (executed by Daniel Mastrogiorgio under Joe Brancato's direction). . . . The critic-shy Naked Angels troupe marked its tenth anniversary by having reviewers in for Easter, Will Scheffer's eccentric white-trash opus. Some nice notices came from that--especially Peter Marks's in The New York Times--and the show has extended to May 11. . . . Reed Birney's doing some very involving moral-wrestling as the lawyer in Bruce Graham's Minor Demons, which launched a brand-new Off-Broadway house, the Century. . . . Critic David Spencer put on his composer cap and did the songs for a Theatreworks/USA Phantom of the Opera. . . . The fella tapped by Frederic B. Vogel's Commercial Theatre Institute to get the fifth annual Robert Whitehead Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Producing" is a producer of Tap Dogs, Marc Routh. His partner, Richard Frankel, provided introductory notes at a big Tavern on the Green do. ATTENTION MUST BE PAID
There was no function to announce this year's winner of the George G. Nathan Award, but the late critic's business investments did well during the year, so the money accompanying the award for Critic of the Year was higher than usual. The glory and the gold both went to The Village Voice's longtime aisleman, Michael Feingold, who last May celebrated his 25th birthday. "I didn't say it happened that year--I just celebrated it then," clarified Feingold, who, in point of fact, has already put in a quarter of a century reviewing for the Voice. "Ross Wetzsteon found me under a cabbage leaf," he explained. . . . Anne Bancroft opted not to do Off-Broadway after all, so the role of the aging writer in Donald Margulies's Collected Stories at Manhattan Theatre Club was snapped up in a second by Maria Tucci. . . . In case you missed it the first time around, The Peccadillo Theater Company recently presented the first New York revival of Philip Barry's In a Garden since it opened in 1925 with Laurette Taylor. (Forgotten/overlooked plays are a happy specialty with Peccadillo.)

-- By Harry Haun