Broadway Friday

- The Broadway test run at Carnegie Hall of London smash Jerry Springer: The Opera was well received by most. But not by gossip columnist Cindy Adams: "Jerry Springer - the Opera is filth. The dregs. Despicable, debasing, disgusting, degrading, dehumanizing, revolting, repugnant, repulsive, frightful, awful, disgraceful, discreditable, shameful, terrible, horrible, horrendous, horrific, nauseating, offensive, depraved, loathsome, vile. It is taking a roll in a sewer. It is the pits. The lowest. The slimiest. You not only need a bath after, you need an exterminator. This puke played a two-nighter at Carnegie Hall? Carnegie Hall?"

- Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand will star in Clifford Odet's The Country Girl, set to play a limited engagement on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre beginning Thursday, April 3rd. Mike Nichols will direct.

- The surviving original cast members of A Chorus Line (1976) have reached an agreement with the estate of director Michael Bennett. They will now receive a portion of the proceeds from the current Broadway revival of the show and all future productions by the company. "The artists who were in the forefront of these discussions include Tony Award-winning actresses Kelly Bishop (the original "Sheila") and Donna McKechnie (the original "Cassie"), as well as Priscilla Lopez (the original "Diana"), Robert LuPone (the original "Zach"), Tony Stevens and Michon Peacock."

- Broadway bound: a revival of Brigadoon. It's almost like being in love.

- Bernadette Peters' book Broadway Barks is due April 28th. The book includes a CD featuring a reading of the story and an original tune written and performed by two-time Tony winner Peters. Via Amazon: "In a park in New York City lives a lonely little dog. He remembers when he used to get taken for walks, fed dinner every night, and told he was a good dog. Now, he's all alone and must fend for himself. But everything changes one day when he sees a lady reading in the park and decides to follow her—all the way to a place where he might become a star!" Broadway Barks is the annual pet rescue fundraiser founded by Peters and Mary Tyler Moore.