Stage

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn't released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing. According to the American Cancer Society , lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. Survival rates of people with lung cancer are low. Only about half of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (the more common type)

After five seasons, the hit reality show"Jersey Shore"has spawned no shortage of spinoffs - towels, tanning oil, even greeting cards featuringNicole "Snooki" Polizzislurring catchphrases. Somehow a transition to the stage seems fitting, if not inevitable. "Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera," playing at the Hayworth Theatre in L.A. through June 27, has all the clubbing, tanning and "smushing" ("Jersey Shore"-speak for sex) set to music, with the cast of bronzed "guidos" and "guidettes" from the TV series played by sketch comedy veterans, a Tony Award-winner and a Buttafuoco.

The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck's, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town. "Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares," said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. "He told me even he can't get Facebook shares. " The new tech boom officially gets underway Friday when Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rings Nasdaq's opening bell remotely from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, launching the largest initial public offering of stock in Silicon Valley history.

A new biographical stage production about the late rapper Tupac Shakur is expected to premiere in January at the Black Ensemble Theater in Chicago. The show, written by Lyle Miller, is titled "Amaru (The History of Tupac Amaru Shakur)." A spokeswoman for the theater company said the show is still in the works and that casting hasn't been announced. She said the production will most likely be a play with sequences featuring Shakur's music.

When Pink Floyd first took its concept album "The Wall" to the concert stage more than three decades ago, even lead singer and chief songwriter Roger Waters couldn't imagine a day when rock music might get any bigger. But 32 years later, his magnum opus about the battle between individual freedoms and authoritarian oppression has magnified beyond Waters' own expectations of yore. Now the man who once excoriated the voluminous expansion of the rock concert experience has helped institutionalize it. "I famously hated playing to large numbers of people and playing in stadiums," Waters, 68, said from a tour stop in Austin, Texas, earlier this month.

The Grammy Award-winning singer Glen Campbell announced this week that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. And then he said he'd be going on the road for a farewell tour. It's not unusual for a public figure to reveal a diagnosis of the insidious disease. Former President Reagan told the world of his battle with Alzheimer's in a poignant letter in 1994. Actor Charlton Heston disclosed, via a taped statement, that he was suffering from symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's.

There wasn't much to like about Facebook's first day as a public company. The social media giant's stock rose by mere pennies in its initial public offering. The shares closed at $38.23, barely above the $38 IPO price. The performance fell far short of the grandiose expectations of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and raised questions about whether the company's stock will be the sure bet many had counted on. "There was all this pressure and hype and attention with all eyes on Facebook — and the starlet tripped on the red carpet," said Max Wolff, an analyst at GreenCrest Capital Management in New York.

Amgen Tour of California When: Sunday through May 20. Where: Stage 1, Santa Rosa; Stage 2, San Francisco to Aptos; Stage 3, San Jose to Livermore; Stage 4, Sonora to Clovis; Stage 5, Bakersfield (time trial); Stage 6, Palmdale to Big Bear Lake; Stage 7, Ontario to Mt. Baldy; Stage 8, Beverly Hills to L.A. Live. TV: NBC Sports Network, Sunday through Friday, 11 a.m to conclusion; NBC Sports Network, May 19, 1 p.m. to conclusion; NBC, May 20, 10 a.m. to conclusion.

There's so much to praise in the blissful Broadway revival of "Follies," which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre on the heels of its numerous Tony nominations, but let's pay homage first to the sheer sophistication of the show itself. After experiencing "Follies" again - an adult entertainment if ever there was one - I flat-out refuse to accept any more jukebox substitutes. One doesn't often talk about architecture when writing about musicals, but the most impressive thing about "Follies," beyond Stephen Sondheim's bejeweled score, is the ingenious way it is constructed.

Fond of Fonda: Peter Fonda is returning to Hollywood--via stage, not screen--as director of Joseph G. Tidwell III's drama "Southern Rapture," opening April 2 at the Met Theatre. Fonda has cast actress Sally Kirkland and country star Dwight Yoakam, who is also producing.

Nearly a decade ago, an improbable dream came true for Deaf West Theatre and its founder, Ed Waterstreet. The small, L.A.-based company went to Broadway with its signed and spoken version of the musical "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. " Even as he savored their success, Waterstreet had another dream - creating an original musical inspired by Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac. " What better tale for his theater to tell than one that explores the universal desire to express oneself?

Robert Gesink, a Dutchman who rides for the Rabobank team, won the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday, confirming his place on top that he had earned by climbing fast up Mt. Baldy on Saturday. The win was emotional for the 25-year-old, who grew up on a farm and learned to love cycling from his father, Dick, who was killed in a mountain bike crash two years ago. Father and son loved coming to California, Gesink said. Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who rides for the Italian-based Liquigas-Cannondale team, won his fifth stage of the eight-stage race Sunday, edging out crowd favorite Tom Boonen, the big Belgian sprint specialist who rides for the Omega Pharma-Quick-Step cycling team, for the win in the 42.6-mile road race between Beverly Hills and L.A. Live on Sunday.

Sylvain Georges rode alone for almost 114 of the 116 miles from Palmdale to Big Bear Lake during Stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California on Friday. Then he had to hold the trophy. For that Georges needed help. The 28-year-old Frenchman on the AG2R La Mondiale team did his lonely journey at the front of the field and for his reward he got not only the fifth stage win of his career but a trophy that was three feet tall, two and a half feet wide and 39 pounds, according to the creator, Kirby Craig of Kirby's Carving's of Big Bear Lake.

"What to Expect When You're Expecting"is essentially the Hallmark card version of the sage, saucy and very specific how-to bestseller by Heidi Murkoff. The movie's sentimental squibs on pregnancy merely skim the surface scratched so thoroughly by the book. As Murkoff knew and mined so well, there is a lot of nature-made comedy to be found in the discomforts of distended bodies, raging hormones and altered relationships. There is also pathos and pain, especially for couples who can't conceive.

Tim Sae Koo had an idea for a tech start-up, but the first-time entrepreneur had no idea what to do next. In January, at the advice of a friend he joined the inaugural class of tech accelerator StartEngine, hoping to turn his vision for Hypemarks - a website at which users create collections of their favorite links - into a bona fide business. Within three months Koo launched the website, and is now talking to a local investor about a substantial investment in the company.

NEW YORK - James Corden is in the throes of a New York moment. He's in a hit Broadway show, the London import "One Man, Two Guvnors," and though he's been down this road before with "The History Boys," a more high-minded British comedy that became a smash on the Great White Way, this time he's the star and all eyes are on this generously proportioned funnyman - a cherub posing as Puck, or is it the other way around? Part of the secret of Corden's comic gift is that he combines innocence so naturally with mischief.

"La Boheme" is back. So too is Los Angeles Opera's enduring 1993 Herb Ross production. Of course, Puccini's endearing Bohemians are never ones to worry about wearing out their universal welcome. And Ross' warmly cinematic staging, which gets trotted out every few years, has long proved impervious to passing opera-production fashion, at least as an audience attraction. No, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion wasn't full when the curtain went up Saturday night on Act 1. But the hall was full by the time the curtain went up on Act 2. Blame an accident on the Santa Monica Freeway that added an hour to the drive from the Westside.