Odds & Ends: Broadway-Bound Carousel Star Renee Fleming to Be Honored by Metropolitan Opera Guild & More

Here's a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today.

Renée Fleming to Be Honored at Metropolitan Opera Guild's Annual Luncheon
This ought to be a real nice clambake! Opera star Renée Fleming, who is set to return to Broadway in Carousel in 2018, has been named the honoree for the Metropolitan Opera Guild's 83rd Annual Luncheon. The noontime celebration will take place on December 7 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City, with a large contingent of Fleming’s colleagues expected to be present. We're super glad to see the silver-voiced Fleming honored...but how do we fast-forward to 2018 to hear her luminous rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone"?

Full Casting Is Set for Sam Shepard's Simpatico, Starring Michael Shannon
McCarter Theater's production of the late Sam Shepard's Simpatico, starring Tony nominee Michael Shannon, has announced full casting. The previously announced production, which was just extended at the Princeton, NJ theater, will run from September 8-October 15 under the direction of Dado. In Simpatico, when a simple phone call causes Carter and Vinnie’s shady past to resurface, fierce loyalties that were once hot-blooded begin to run astray. Shannon will star as Carter alongside Guy Van Swearingen as Vinnie, with Mierka Girten as Cecilia, Jennifer Engstrom as Rosie, Kristen Ellis as Kelly and John Judd as Sims.

New Musical It Happened in Key West to Receive Developmental Lab
It Happened in Key West, a new musical comedy created by Jill Santoriello (Broadway's A Tale of Two Cities) with Jason Huza and Jeremiah James, will hold a developmental lab at Lancaster, PA's Fulton Opera House! It Happened in Key West follows Carl Von Cosel, who after nearly four decades of searching for the dream girl, finds his love on a tiny island only to lose her to tuberculosis. Wicked alum Wade McCollum will star as Carl alongside Elena Ramos Pascullo, Dave Droxler, Courtney Warford, Roxanne Daneman, Anna DeBlasio, Connor McGiffin, Spencer Micetich, Anson J.H. Woodin, Ryan Neal Green, Michael Fisher and Casey Furlong. The labs will take place on August 25 at 7:30pm, August 26 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm, and August 27 at 2:00pm.

Annie Golden & More Set for Concert of Tom O'Horgan's 1971 Musical Inner City
Broadway favorite Annie Golden will lead the cast of a one-night concert presentation of Tom O'Horgan's controversial 1971 Broadway musical Inner City, based on Eve Merriam’s poetry compilation The Inner City Mother Goose, which became one of the most banned books in America. Michael Boyd will direct the concert, set for August 17 at 9:30pm at Feinstein's/54 Below. Joining Golden will be original cast member Allan Nicholls alongside Yolanda Wyns, Ray Shell, Cheryl Pepsii Riley, Lauren Elder, C.E. Smith and Dionne Carole. The original production of Inner City was associate-produced by Harvey Milk.

London's Other Palace Theatre to Present Starlight Express in Concert
Skate on out to London's Other Palace Theatre next month for three concert presentations of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe's cult-favorite musical Starlight Express. The renowned theater will present the rock musical that follows a nine-year-old boy's dream of his toy trains coming to life on September 14, 15 and 16 at 7:30pm. Starlight Express opened in the West End in 1984 and ran for more than 7,000 performances. That mounting was followed by a Tony-nommed 1987 Broadway run with a cast that featured future Tony winner Jane Krakowski in her Broadway debut.