Odds & Ends: Rosie O'Donnell to Make Stage Return in David Rabe's New Play & More

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

Rosie O'Donnell Set for Stage Return
Broadway veteran and beloved theater advocate Rosie O'Donnell is returning to the stage! O'Donnell will join Ed Harris and Amy Madigan in David Rabe's previously announced New York premiere play Good for Otto, set to run at the Pershing Square Signature Center in 2018. Scott Elliott will direct The New Group's production that is scheduled to begin previews on February 20 with an opening night slated for March 8. Good for Otto centers on Dr. Michaels (Harris), his colleague Evangeline (Madigan) and their clinic as it teeters between breakdown and survival. O'Donnell will play Nora, the foster mother to Frannie (played by Rileigh McDonald), a patient in the clinic. The cast will also include F. Murray Abraham as Barnard and Michael Rabe as Jimmy, with additional casting to be announced at a later date. Good for Otto will play a limited engagement through April 1.

Western Musical Desperate Measures Extends Off-Broadway Run
Yeehaw! The new musical comedy Desperate Measures has received an extension through November 26 at off-Broadway's York Theatre Company. Lauren Molina leads the cast of the new show about a hot-tempered cowboy and his sister (a novice nun) in their adventures out West. Featuring a book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg, music by David Friedman and direction/choreography by Bill Castellino, the 1890-set Desperate Measures also stars Emma Degerstedt, Gary Marachek, Conor Ryan, Peter Saide and Nick Wyman. Desperate Measures began previews on September 19 and opened on October 1.

Lorna Luft Set for Holiday Inn at 5th Ave Theatre
Lorna Luft, the beloved performer and daughter of music icon Judy Garland, has been cast in a new production of Holiday Inn, set to play Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre from November 24 through December 31. Luft will play Louise in the Irving Berlin-scored musical that made a splash on Broadway in 2016. Holiday Inn follows Jim, who leaves the bright lights of show business to settle down on a farm in Connecticut but finds the simple life is not as simple as he thought. The 5th Avenue Theatre production, co-directed by David Armstrong and James A. Rocco and choreographed by Rocco, will also star Eric Ankrim as Jim, Taryn Darr as Lila Dixon, Sarah Rose Davis as Linda Mason, Matt Owen as Ted Hanover and Richard Gray as Danny Reed, with Caden Brauch and Kristoffer Holtan alternating in the role of Charlie Winslow.

P.S. Check out William Petersen in this chilling trailer for Tracy Letts' Broadway-bound play The Minutes.