When Elaine Page takes a break from playing Sunset Boulevard's Norma Desmond, Oct. 28-Nov. 6, cabaret star Karen Mason will step back into the role. John Barlow, spokesman for the show, notes that Mason has been part of the Sunset company since the show opened on Dec. 9, 1993 in Los Angeles. She's played the role more than 125 times. Mason will spend New Year's Eve in Osaka performing with the New York Pops Orchestra.

Among the theatre songs scheduled for her concert, (Dec. 31 in Osaka's Festival Hall, Jan. 2-Jan. 5 at Tokyo's Orchard Hall), are "This Nearly Was Mine" (South Pacific, "Memory" (Cats), "Send In The Clowns" (A Little Night Music), "With One Look" (Sunset Boulevard) and the title song from The Sound Of Music. She'll also duet with Keith Buterbaugh on 42nd Street's "Shuffle Off To Buffalo" and the title tune to Disney's Beauty And The Beast.

This information comes to Playbill On-Line courtesy of reader Koji Aoshika, copyright agent of Broadway musicals in Japan, as a sole Asian representative for Music Theatre International in New York.

Mason will tour Japan early next year with Skitfch Henderson and the New York Pops, but is scheduled to return to New York in March for a three-week gig at Rainbow & Stars.

-- By David Lefkowitz