Billy Joel will play in last concert at Shea

Billy Joel will play
in last concert at Shea

NEW YORK — Billy Joel will make “The Last Play at Shea” in a final concert at Shea Stadium on July 16. The Piano Man will perform the night after baseball’s All-Star game at Yankee Stadium, the Mets announced Thursday. “It’s an honor to help throw Shea the ultimate concert farewell party,” said Joel, 58. “As a sports fan and a music lover, I will always have a place for Shea Stadium in my heart. I thank the Mets for giving me and my fans a chance to rock Shea Stadium one last time for the ages.” A new stadium, Citi Field, is to open for the 2009 season.

‘Farnsworth’ to end
Broadway run in March

NEW YORK — “The Farnsworth Invention,” Aaron Sorkin’s play about the birth of television, will close March 2 after a run of 104 performances, its producers, Dodger Properties, announced last week. The $4 million production, which stars Hank Azaria as broadcast pioneer David Sarnoff and Jimmi Simpson as boy genius Philo T. Farnsworth, opened Dec. 3 to mixed reviews at the Music Box Theatre. The drama’s preview period had been interrupted by the 19-day stagehands strike. “I am pleased that audiences have four more weeks to catch this exceptional new American play and we are looking forward to new productions which are in development for London and a national U.S. tour,” said Michael David of Dodger Properties. “The Farnsworth Invention” was one of five plays to open in the eight days after the strike ended in late November. Besides “Farnsworth,” three others are still running: “August: Osage County,” “The Homecoming” and “Is He Dead?” The fifth, a production of “Cymbeline,” was a limited engagement at the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater.

Today’s birthdays

Opera singer Leontyne Price is 81. Actor Robert Wagner is 78. Singer Roberta Flack is 71. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 68. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 58. Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 48. Movie director Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) is 47. ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 47. Actress Laura Dern is 41. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 36. Actress Elizabeth Banks is 34. Pop singer Rosanna Taverez (Eden’s Crush) is 31. Country musician Jeremy Baxter (Carolina Rain) is 28. Rock singer Eric Dill (The Click Five) is 26. Rock musician Ben Romans (The Click Five) is 26. Actress Emma Roberts is 17. Actress Makenzie Vega is 14. Actress Chloe Moretz is 11.