Syncopation, a romantic drama by Allan Knee, had been on the fast track for an Off-Broadway mounting in spring 2000, but a theatre logjam scotched those plans, and there's been no word on a New York launch since.

However, the project is still very much alive, albeit facing the same problem it had over a year ago: finding a theatre. According to author Knee, reached July 5, the show has its producers, Ted Tulchin and Kenneth Waissman, and even its director, Pamela Berlin, but not a venue. Name actors are being sought for the two leads.

Director Berlin, reached July 5, confirmed that the show was eyeing a fall 2001 OB berth and that casting was currently underway.

A two-person romantic drama set in 1911 Manhattan, Syncopation is the story of Henry and Anna, unlikely lovers drawn to one another by dance. As they practice their skills together, the two fall in love. Knee is the author of The Man Who Was Peter Pan, Late Nite Comic, Second Avenue Rag and Shmulnik's Waltz. He's currently also hoping for the overhauled musical, Little Women, to reach Broadway next season.

Syncopation had a successful, two-city world premiere in 1999 at Connecticut's Long Wharf Theatre and New Jersey's George Street Playhouse, followed by a 2000 staging at Chicago's Apple Tree Theatre. The play had been slated for Jewish Repertory Theatre's 1999-2000 season but was replaced by Love in a Thirsty Land. -- By David Lefkowitz