>> Hits ‘Lion King,’ ‘Wicked’ return in ‘08-’09 Gammage season (East Valley Tribune)
Stage musical versions of television’s “Happy Days” and Disney’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” plus returns of hit musicals “The Lion King,” “Rent,” “Cats” and “Wicked,” headline the 2008-’09 Broadway Across America season at Tempe’s Gammage Auditorium.

>> 9 Parts of Desire: a story of Iraqi women searching for freedom (Phoenix New Times)
...Raffo's remarkable one-woman show unfolded before me, moved not only by the depth of emotion she brought to each of her nine characters but by the subtlety with which she led me (and, I'm guessing, much of the audience) to...

>> Innovative band keeps Basie's jazz alive, fresh (The Arizona Republic)
What a difference a day makes. Very little if it's the Count Basie Orchestra. William "Count" Basie has been dead for 23 years, but it would be difficult to tell from the group's performances

>> Through 4/20: 'Jekyll & Hyde' is a macabre spectacle (The Arizona Republic)
Fans of such macabre musicals as Phantom of the Opera and Tim Burton's latest big-screen bloodletter, Sweeney Todd, will want to head over to Arizona Broadway Theatre for Jekyll & Hyde. Frank Wildhorn's hit Broadway musical is running at the Peoria dinner theater through April 20.

>> Joanna Settle on directing 9 Parts of Desire and what she refuses to ask an actor to do (Phoenix New Times)
Director Joanna Settle is the other woman behind playwright/actor Heather Raffo's acclaimed 9 Parts of Desire as well as...

>> 'Merry Wives’ of whimsy (Get Out)
Dressed up in the fat suit and fineries of bloated grifter Sir John Falstaff in Southwest Shakespeare Company’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Ben Tyler is so much more than the funniest sight gag this season. He’s a source of architectural wonder.

>> Sirens of Song will sing for Opera's benefit (The Arizona Republic)
The Sirens of Song, three East Valley sopranos, will fill Steinway of Scottsdale's hall with music in a fundraising concert April 4 for the Phoenix Metropolitan Opera. The concert, from 6 to 8 p.m., is one of a series of community events for the Phoenix Metropolitan Opera, which was founded in 2006 by Metropolitan Opera star and mezzo soprano Gail Dubinbaum and her husband, John Massaro, an award-winning arranger, conductor, composer and producer of North Phoenix.This community fundraiser will feature...

>> Cyber sins – dark play weaves a dangerous web (Echo Magazine)
Director Jonathan Bellar is about to take audiences on a scary ride through the secret worlds of the Internet when his production, dark plays or stories for boys opens at ASU’s historic Lyceum Theatre.

>> 'Kissing' leaves emotional mark (The Arizona Republic)
Theatre Artists Studio bills itself as a workout space for actors and directors, rather than a producing company in competition with the dozens of others in the Valley. But with its onstage offerings, this "co-op" is aggressively staking out a prominent place in the theater scene.

>> As WGA Nears Deal, Is SAG Next? (Backstage.com)
The timing of a potential resolution -- less than five months before a potential actors walkout -- means there will be no immediate greenlights based on the work of returning writers....