Lincoln Center Theater, under the direction of Andre Bishop (Artistic Director) and Bernard Gersten (Executive Producer) will move its critically acclaimed production, Contact, to the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Performances will begin Thursday, March 9 at 8 pm.

Contact, which was conceived by Susan Stroman and John Weidman, written by Mr. Weidman and directed and choreographed by Miss Stroman, opened Thursday, October 7 at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, where it will continue through Sunday, January 2. Lincoln Center Theater's next production in the Newhouse Theater will be Arthur Laurent's The Time of the Cuckoo, featuring Debra Monk and directed by Nicholas Martin, beginning Thursday, January 27.

Contact will follow Lincoln Center Theater's production of Marie Christine, the new musical with words and music by Michael John LaChiusa, directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, in the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Marie Christine, currently in rehearsals, begins performances Thursday, October 28, opens Thursday, December 2 and is scheduled to play an eighty threee performance run through Sunday, January 9. The current scheduled move of Contact to the Beaumont allows for a four-week extension of Marie Christine's run, should demand warrant such an extension.

Tickets to Contact beginning March 9 in the Vivian Beaumont Theater are available now at the Lincoln Center Theater box office (150 West 65 Street) or by calling Tele-Charge at (212) 239-6200. The current run of Contact at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater is sold out.

Tidbits: Beginning Tuesday, October 26 Mamie Duncan-Gibbs takes over the role of Velma in Chicago for 12 weeks at the Shubert. Mamie's portrayal had the crowds on their feet when she performed the role in Las Vegas earlier this year. She'll get to play opposite Sandy Duncan's electric Roxie and everyone's favorite Matron Mama, Marcia Lewis. If you'd like to see this trio of talent head over to the Box Office now. Those are my girls!

Conor McPherson's The Weir, directed by Ian Rickson, welcomes three new cast members Niall Buggy, Jarlath Conroy and David Herligy. The Weir, called a "beautiful and devious new play" by The New York Times, is the only new play of the 1998-99 season still running on Broadway. It plays at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Tickets at the box office, 219 West 48th, or Tele-Charge (212) 239-6200.

Likened to the performance style of Eric Bogosian, Tracy Ullman, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Hoch, Sarah Jones will star in Surface Transit a new show opening November 17 on the main stage at Off Broadway's American Place Theatre. Previews begin November 8th with the run going through Jan 2nd. Info and tickets (212) 239-6200. Order your tickets before November 17th and receive $15.00 (reg. $30) tickets for any performance in the run!

Ann Hampton Callaway, star of the upcoming Broadway musical Swing, will be featured, along with Olympic Gold Champion Dorothy Hamill, at the opening of the Rockefeller Center Ice Rink. Dorothy will skate to Ann's live rendition of the jazz standard "I'll Be Seeing You," which is featured in Swing! The Skating Rink opening will be live at 12:30 pm, and will air on NBC-TV on Sunday, October 24 at 11:30 am.

Elizabeth Ashley will star in Jonathan Tolin's If Memory Serves, directed by Leonard Foglia, at the Promenade Theater, 2162 Broadway, beginning November 26. If Memory Serves will be designed by Michael McGarty (sets) and Russell Champa (lights). Charles H. Duggan and Jennifer Manocherian are producers, in association with Richard Frankel and Marc Routh. Opening night for this dark comedy about show business, the media and celebrity scandal is scheduled for December 8. Tele-Charge (212)239-6200.

See you Sunday!

Wanna' talk to others about this column or anything else theatre related? Check out All That Chat