Wopat will join cast of ‘Sondheim on Sondheim’

Wopat will join cast of ‘Sondheim on Sondheim’

NEW YORK — The cast of the Broadway-bound “Sondheim on Sondheim” has grown.

Tom Wopat will join co-stars Barbara Cook and Vanessa Williams in the Roundabout Theatre Company production, which takes a look at the composer through his music and through film and videotape interviews with him.

Roundabout artistic director Todd Haimes says the cast will also include Leslie Kritzer, Norm Lewis, Euan Morton and Matthew Scott.

“Sondheim on Sondheim,” directed by James Lapine, opens April 22 at Studio 54. Previews begin March 19.

Wopat has numerous stage credits and two Tony nominations, but may best be known for playing Luke Duke in the TV series “The Dukes of Hazzard” three decades ago.

Tenor plans comeback

VIENNA — Star tenor Rolando Villazon says he will make his comeback at the Vienna State Opera next March after recovering from throat surgery.

The singer announced in April that he needed surgery to remove a cyst on his larynx and has been resting his voice in order to make a proper recovery.

Villazon said on his Web site Monday that he will perform the role of Nemorino in Gaetano Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” — known in English as “The Elixir of Love” — in the Austrian capital March 22. It is his first public appearance after surgery.

Pacino doing Shakespeare? It’ll be in Central Park

NEW YORK — Al Pacino meets William Shakespeare next summer in New York City’s Central Park.

The 69-year-old Pacino will portray Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice,” one of two offerings by the Public Theater’s 2010 Shakespeare in the Park series, running June 9-Aug. 1.

Artist director Oskar Eustis says the series will also include “The Winter’s Tale,” which will alternate in performance with “Merchant.” Pacino will only appear in “Merchant.”

Today’s birthdays

Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 84. Actor Christopher Plummer is 80. Singer John Davidson is 68. Actress Kathy Garver (“Family Affair”) is 64. Singer Ted Nugent is 61. Actor Robert Lindsay is 60. Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 60. Actress Wendie Malick is 59. Country singer John Anderson is 55. Singer-actor Morris Day is 53. Actor Steve Buscemi is 52. Actor Johnny Whitaker is 50. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 42. Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 28. Country singer Taylor Swift is 20.