Premiere Theatre

Pulling back the curtain for the first time, the architect of the $94-million theater that will house the Academy Awards beginning in March 2002 describes its vibe as a grand opera house with shimmering film imagery, high-tech amenities and a lobby walled on one side by glass that will afford a panoramic view of the Hollywood sign.

Pulling back the curtain for the first time, the architect of the $94-million theater that will house the Academy Awards beginning in March 2002 describes its vibe as a grand opera house with shimmering film imagery, high-tech amenities and a lobby walled on one side by glass that will afford a panoramic view of the Hollywood sign.

Book of Days: The idiomatic voice of Lanford Wilson buoys "Book of Days," receiving its local premiere by Theatre Tribe in North Hollywood. This 1998 seriocomic reverie on America's religious-political devolution is a riveting achievement. "Book" has been likened to the works of Thornton Wilder in its direct address, vivid imagery and bucolic darkness. But Wilson's choral techniques, ripe wit and murder-mystery trappings form their own enthralling animal.

WHEN August Wilson wrote his breakthrough success, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," in 1984, he had no idea he had embarked on a cycle of plays that would take more than two decades to complete. It wasn't until he was writing "The Piano Lesson," three plays later, that it dawned on him that by setting his plays in different decades of the 20th century, he was gradually constructing a cycle.

The naughty wedding night comedy "For Marrieds Only" at the NoHo Studios in North Hollywood is a tacky, one-joke play about a 1930s bride who insists on following a sex manual to the minutest detail before venturing into bed with her frustrated groom. Originally staged in Texas and brought here by the Texas Premiere Theatre, the production should appeal to people who drape topless hula dancer dolls from their rearview mirrors.

* Britney Spears takes her tour to the Air Canada Centre on Nov. 5. Her new album, "Britney," hits the stores Nov. 6. 40 Bay St., Toronto, (416) 815-5500.* The "TV Dinner With Landscape" exhibition begins at the YYZ Artists' Outlet this week, featuring work by Lois Andison, Jill Ballard, Deco Dawson, David Krippendorff and others. Ends Nov. 24. 41 Richmond St. West, Suite 140, Toronto, (416) 598-4546.

Gem of the Ocean (Set in 1904) Premiere: Goodman Theatre, Chicago, April 2003 Plot: A young man seeks an old seer's counsel about a violent incident, while a former Underground Railroad guide frets over his sister and a black constable tries to enforce the white man's law. * Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1911) Premiere: Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Conn.

Toronto is offering a "Good Fun" summer discount program through Sept. 30. More than 50 metropolitan Toronto hotels are reducing their regular rates Monday through Sunday, with prices based on double occupancy. Book under the "Good Fun" program. Rooms are on a space-availability basis, as is customary with such programs.

Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and other students of grief might not approve, but Corinne Jacker's quirky "Bits and Pieces"--a 1974 dark comedy receiving its local premiere at Theatre 40--still has some valuable insights into death and loss. Gita Donovan plays Iris, a middle-aged widow who is mourning her husband, a literature professor named Philip (Robert Boardman), by seeking out patients who may have received one of his donated organs.

There are multiplexes in the United States where James Bond is still considered too much of a foreigner. Moviegoers in smaller cities often shun art-house fare. And African American ticket buyers are not usually the first to queue up for period dramas. The movie exhibition business is filled with this kind of conventional wisdom, but "The King's Speech" is proving it wrong at almost every opportunity. This year's Oscar race has been distinguished by the unexpectedly strong box-office returns generated by some of the winter's leading Academy Award contenders: In domestic release, "True Grit" has grossed more than $161 million, "Black Swan" has crossed the $100-million mark, "The Social Network" has sold more than $96 million in tickets, and "The Fighter" stands at $86 million.

Jimmy Murphy's 1999 play, “The Muesli Belt,” now in its American premiere at Theatre Banshee, deals with the rampant gentrification of an inner-city Dublin neighborhood. Of course, in Ireland as in much of the world, boom times led to a global bust, with the bloodily declawed Celtic Tiger left scrabbling on a mountain of debt. In light of those developments, Murphy's themes now seem dated, and although director Sean Branney elicits lovely performances from his cast, the moral quandaries in the play seem mere niceties, unbalanced by the march of time.