Broadway Friday

- Glory Days closed on opening night, May 6th, after 17 previews. The last Broadway show to close on opening night was 2003's The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Glory Days received "kind but dismissive reviews that largely sought to protect and encourage its 24-year-old librettist James Gardiner and 23-year-old songwriter Nick Blaemire."

- Curtis Holbrook [right] will step in for Cheyenne Jackson as Sonny in Xanadu from July 1-27 while Jackson performs in the Encores! production of Damn Yankees.

- Top guns: A Chorus Line stunt castee Mario Lopez is reportedly "going diva" and won't let a fellow cast member with larger biceps appear next to him in a short sleeve shirt. Lopez also refuses to wear his character Zach's long-sleeved sweater, a bit of iconic costuming that has been worn by countless Zachs over the last 30 years.

- Whoopi Goldberg has been announced as the host of this year's Tony Awards. Goldberg is one of very few people who have won the "Big Four": Tony, Grammy, Emmy, and Oscar. Her Tony came as one of the producers of Thoroughly Modern Millie.

- In other Tony news, the Tony Awards committee has ruled on 11 shows' eligibility for this year's awards. Among their decisions: Glory Days - which opened and closed on the same night (see top item) - is not eligible for Best Musical. Tony winner Arthur Laurents is eligible for Best Director of a Musical for Gypsy - even though he has previously directed two other incarnations of the show on Broadway. Other decisions here.

- Broadway's 2007-2008 season came to an official end on Wednesday night in a year that saw 35 new productions hit the Great White Way - 8 new musicals, 10 new plays, 4 musical revivals, and 13 play revivals. That's 35 new productions with only 39 Broadway houses. War horses like Wicked, The Lion King, Mamma Mia, and Jersey Boys continue to take the lion's share of the grosses.

- Tony winning costume designer Alvin Colt died of natural causes on Sunday at age 91. Colt created the costumes for more than 50 Broadway productions in his career, winning his Tony for Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1955 show Pipe Dream. He received Tony nominations for five other shows. For the last 15 years Colt had costumed the spoof show Forbidden Broadway. Costuming legend Bob Mackie, who considered Colt his mentor, said upon Colt's death, "Alvin could do a costume that would walk on stage and get a laugh before the actor even opened his mouth." Colt was preceded in death by his partner of 47 years, Broadway actor Richard Tone, who died in 2004.