The final offering of the New York-Milan Theatre Festival will be an unusual one: Carlo Goldoni's La Locandiera ("Mistress Of The Inn"), performed in Italian by Il Palchetto Stage Dec. 2-3 at the Kaye Playhouse (the dates were recently moved up from Dec. 1-2). For tickets, call (212) 772 4448.

Starring in Inn are Anita Caprioli, Giovanni Casadei, Allexandello, Giancarlo Gobbi, Allexandro Cremona, Stefania Gerini and Tiziana Colla. Designing the show are Alberto Caprioli (set) and Philip Engleheart (costum  What's unusual about this production is the choice of recorded background music: songs by Madonna, the Eurythmics, Cindy Lauper, James Brown, Van Halen and Shaggy.

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What's the significance of the New York-Milan Theatre Festival? According to a 1996 statement by Giorgetti, "Italian theatre deserves to be promoted and known throughout the world because both our classical and contemporary literature are...rich in themes, language, content and values. [We want] to encourage actors, directors and writers to be directed towards Italian Theatre. [We want] to commercialize our theatre, to promote it throughout the world."

Of the program itself, Giorgetti wrote that he wanted to produce two contemporary plays, one referring back to ancient Greece, another to everyday life. He also wanted to incorporate the costume exhibition, plus conferences and debates. Of his adaptation of the Atreus plays, Uberto Paolo Quintavalle wrote, "I realize that I have engaged in an extremely ambitious project...depicting the horrors of war, of public and private hatred, in a world where violence and cruelty extend over everything... I can only humbly re-echo the words of Newton when he declared, `If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.'"

-- By Rebecca Paller and David Lefkowitz