It's certainly been a duplicative time for theatre. Side Show, a Broadway musical about real-life Siamese twins, is up for a best musical Tony Award; The Mineola Twins, about equally anomalous twin sisters, will play at the Roundabout Theatre in early 1999; and now Triplets, The Diva Musical, comes to NJ's TheatreFest. Actually, the "triplets" idea here is little more than a marketing term -- and an excuse to gather three powerhouse singers doing standards and several original songs by creator and librettist Mark John Richard and composer Gerry Muller.

Appearing in the show are blues-singing Tony Award-winner Ruth Brown (Black & Blue), Broadway veteran Carol Woods (The Goodbye Girl), and newcomer Angela Robinson (Eartha Kitt's understudy in the recent Wizard of Oz). Brown is also a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and won a Grammy Award for her album, "Blues on Broadway."

Running June 24-July 12, Triplets opens the summer season at TheatreFest, an Equity house on the campus of Montclair State University. The Diva musical will be followed by La Cage aux Folles (July 16-Aug. 2), and a new play by Mary Fengar Gail, Carnivals of Desire (July 23-Aug. 9). Ironically (and bringing this article full-circle) the latter work takes place in a carnival sideshow.

For tickets ($25 per show) and information on TheatreFest at Montclair State University call (973) 655-5112.

-- By David Lefkowitz