Broadway Friday

-Marni Raab takes over for Jennifer Hope Wills as Christine in Phantom Of The Opera, beginning August 20th. Wills is going on maternity leave and is expected to return to the show next June.

- Casting has been announced for 13, A New Musical, set to begin previews on September 16th. The show tells the story of a 13 year-old NYC boy who moves to Indiana and tries to fit in with the "in-crowd."

- New father Clay Aiken returns to Spamalot on September 19th.

- Cheap things to do in NYC including registering for the nightly Broadway ticket lottery which can win you front row seats for as low as $22. Enter at each participating box office for that show only. Lots of other free and cheap entertainment is here.

- Musical A Tale Of Two Cities begins previews on Tuesday, August 19th. Advance word is very good.

-Off-Off-Broadway:

Internationally acclaimed performance artist Karen Finley honors the 7th Anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center with an encore engagement of her critically acclaimed piece MAKE LOVE. This cabaret-driven, lounge-style act co-starring drag performer and artist Chris Tanner, pianist Lance Cruce, and a rotating roster of Liza Minnelli impersonators will run September 10 & 11 at The Cutting Room. It will be updated and slightly modified to reflect current events.

In MAKE LOVE, Finley channels Liza Minnelli in song, dance, glamour and glitter. Liza's tragicomic life is the backdrop as one New Yorker grasps to make sense of post-9/11 America. The "Divaness" of Liza as an icon and symbol of New York becomes the place to throw pathos, hilarity, mockery and taboos. With piano, torch singing and Karen Finley as the narrator, MAKE LOVE is a complex amalgam of humor, pain and compassion.

Karen Finley suggests coming to the show as your own "inner Liza."