After 15 months and 450 performances, Paula Vogel's comedy/drama, How I Learned To Drive, ends its acclaimed Off-Broadway run Apr. 19. The show first opened at the Vineyard Theatre Feb. 26, 1997 and then moved to the Century Theatre across the street, May 6.

Since then, Drive has nabbed Best Play awards from the NY Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel (1997) and Village Voice Obies.

Currently in the cast are Cotter Smith (Uncle Peck) and Deirdre Lovejoy (Li'l Bit). Smith, who took over the wheel from Bruce Davison Jan. 20, starred on Broadway in An American Daughter and Off-Broadway in Walking The Dead and El Salvador. Lovejoy was most recently in The Water Children at Playwrights Horizons. In Drive, Lovejoy replaced Molly Ringwald, who took over for Ivanov's Jayne Atkinson, Oct. 7. The roles were originated in NY by David Morse and Mary Louise Parker.

Drive's director Mark Brokaw went on to stage the still-running As Bees In Honey Drown. The play had its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep (a co-production with San Francisco's Magic Theatre), Jan. 9-Feb. 27.

For tickets ($45-$47.50) and information on How I Learned To Drive at the Century Theatre, 111 East 15th St, call (212) 239 6200. -- By David Lefkowitz