Broadway News Update

Here are some of the headlines from the Great White Way people are talking about this week...

• 13 to play final performance on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009 after 22 previews and 105 regular performances.
• Irving Berlin’s White Christmas opens at the Marquis this Sunday.
• American Buffalo opened at the Belasco this past Monday.
• Dividing the Estate opened at the Booth last night.
• Jersey Boys celebrates three years on Broadway Thursday, November 6.
• Performances for Shrek the Musical began on Saturday, November 8 at The Broadway Theatre . The official opening night is Sunday, December 14.
• Oscar & Emmy Award winning screen legend Jane Fonda will return to Broadway in Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations. The play marks Fonda’s first time on Broadway in 46 years.
• The North American touring production of Dreamgirls will kick off at the Apollo Theater in November 2009.
• Marissa Jaret Winokur, who picked up a 2003 Tony for her perf in the original cast of Hairspray, will return to the tuner next month to play the show's final weeks.
• As rumored a number of months ago it looks like Hugh Jackman might be planning to make his return to the Broadway stage in A Star Is Born.
• Richard Chamberlain will reign as King in the National Tour of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT . beginning Tuesday January 20th, 2009 in Chicago and will perform role for a limited time.
• Jonathan Groff, the Spring Awakening Tony nominee who had originated the role of Claude in the Public Theater's recent stagings of Hair, will not reprise that role when the production arrives at Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre in February 2009
• Clive Barnes, who as a critic in Britain and later for The New York Times died this week. He was 81.