I do so happily because whenever I see Coco perform, I always have the best time.

This is smart, outspoken, honest, brilliant comedy.

The show is of There Comes a Time in. It’s a reflection of drag performer Clinton Luepp’s 20 years as the brilliant storyteller/ monologist/singer that is Coco.

It will be back at The Renberg Theatre March 2,3 and 4 and tickets are a steal at $25.

I’m going to be going again and I’m taking friends!

Saw the show last spring and I’m not sure if Coco has tweaked any of the material but if not, it’s fine with me because the whole thing is a riot with a few touching moments in there too.

Some of my favorite lines from the show were:

“Let’s face it, I feel old. Time rolls on … Rolls on like a f*****g steamroller. Some of us get more steamrolled than others.”

Coco also has trouble with all the modern technology from iPads to DVRs: “The Wizard of Oz came on once a year and that’s when you watched it and if you missed it, well tough sh*t Dorothy!”

On today’s reality stars: “These people are not celebrities. Elizabeth Taylor was a celebrity, Snookie is not. Is she an Ewok? … Those Jersey Shore people are horrible, horrible people!”

On now openly-gay celebs like Ricky Martin and Lance Bass who came out after their made their millions: “That’s not brave! You know what brave is? THIS (gesturing toward herself) is brave!”

I’ll say!

Ditto Darren Criss.

But the current Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre has a new injection of star power this week with Nick Jonas and Michael Urie joining the cast.

Beau Bridges joined the cast when Criss began his highly successful three week run this month. Other cast members include Rose Hemingway, Rob Bartlett, Mary Faber, Ellen Harvey and Michael Park.

Go to BroadwayWorld.com to see photos from opening night.

Entertainment Weekly reports that with the Glee star in the lead, the show took in $1.3 million per week for a haul of more than $4 million.

Aside from Daniel Radcliffe’s final week in the show, an anomalous nine-show week that grossed $1.9 million, the revival had the three most lucrative weeks of its 11-month run with Criss in the leading role.

The ticket sales have consistently been at or near the production’s potential gross.

Kurt, Rachel, Finn, Mr. Scheuster and all the rest of the gang must be so proud!!!

It was announced today that they will be joined in the cast by Jane Lynch, George Takei, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Martin Sheen and Christine Lahti.

Black, who won the Academy Award in 2009 for his screenplay for the film Milk, based 8 on the actual words of the trial transcripts, first-hand observations of the courtroom drama and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.

The performance will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER). A previous one-night benefit in New Yo starring Morgan Freeman, Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow, and Cheyenne Jackson, among others, raised more than $1 million.

The Los Angeles performance will be directed by Rob Reiner.

Towleroad.com broke the news exclusively this morning.

This is shaping up, already, as the best looking cast in the history of Los Angeles theater!

Darren began his three-week run on Tuesday at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and will perform in the lead role through Jan. 22 when Nick Jonas takes over. Daniel Radcliffe left the production on New Year’s Eve after nearly a year.

Also new to the cast is three-time Emmy winner Beau Bridges who is returning to Broadway for the first time in 38 years in his first musical as J. B. Biggle. Bridges will be with the production for months through Sunday, July 1, 2012.

Continuing cast members include Rose Hemingway as Rosemary Pilkington, Tammy Blanchard as Hedy La Rue, and Christopher J. Hanke as Bud Frump.

Hugh Jackman just wrapped the stupendously successful run of his one man show on Broadway and now comes news that he will be returning to The Great White Way in 2013!

The Tony winner star and action movie stud will be starring as America’s greatest showman in Houdini, an original musical.

There’s some major talent involved here: Making his Broadway debut as librettist, Academy Award and six-time Emmy Award winner Aaron Sorkin who will collaborate with three-time Academy Award and four-time Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz.

Jackman said in a statement: “I have been deeply fascinated by the life of Harry Houdini since I was young, and in many ways I’ve been preparing for this role my whole life. I am thrilled to be collaborating with this collection of artists who are all at the top of their game.”

Never thought I’d see the day.

Watching last night’s telecast of the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, Glenn Close sang a beautiful ballad as part of a tribute to honoree Barbara Cook and was soon followed by Patti LuPone!

Flash back to the mid-90s when Close got to be Norma Desmond in the very first Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard – at LuPone’s expense.

It was a major triumph for Close who went on to win the Tony Award for lead actress in a musical. For LuPone who was supposed to be the first Norma on Broadway, it was the most disappointing experience of her career.

LuPone debuted the role in London and was contracted to take it to Broadway but Andrew Lloyd Webber very publicly fired her and put Close on Broadway after she triumphed in the LA production.

Patti’s Broadway career recovered with Tony nominations for Sweeney Todd and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and a Tony win (her second) for Gypsy.

But the experience left LuPone not a fan of Webber or Close as we learned in the “two whole raged-filled chapters” she gives the experience in her memoir which came out last year.

Of Close she wrote: “Do I think Glenn Close was complicit in what happened to me? … What I do know is that from the time she was announced, I never heard from her.”

So these former Norma Desmonds are clearly not the best of friends.

But there they were, just feet from each other during the finale of the Cook tribute. You wonder if they spoke during the rehearsal or after the show. Did Patti turn to Glenn and say: “You should have called” or something like that?

Maybe one day we’ll find out!

Now they are going to be harder to find than a presidential candidate who will publicly support same-sex marriage!

George Clooney has agreed to play the role of one of the attorneys in the play about the Proposition 8 trial which will have a one-night only performance in March.

It’s expected to be a star-studded affair with Jane Lynch also possibly taking part, according to director Rob Reiner.

Read all about Clooney’s participation in my story for GayStarNews.com.

Do yourself a favor and buy a ticket to David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One Man Show while you still can.

It is a riot.

The show will have the final two performances of its current run at Rogue Machine Theatre on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I was in the audience a few weeks ago – NCIS’s Pauley Perrette was in the next row – and was amazed at the magic David Dean Bottrell creates with just a few props and clever lighting.

Of course, it’s all about the writing and this is a brilliantly written series of monologues about love – all kinds of love – from romantic love to parental love to friendship love and more.

“When I sat down and wrote this thing, my goal was to write it to the best of my ability, to be as honest I could be and tell every truth I could come up with,” Bottrell told me during our chat before a recent performance.

Bottrell is best known for his recurring role of Lincoln Meyer on ABC’s great series Boston Legal and recently did a guest spot on NBC’s Harry’s Law. He is also a successful writer whose screenplay became the film Kingdom Come starring Whoopi Goldberg.

“When Boston Legal came along, I had been retired from acting for more than a decade,” he said. “I would occasionally do something but I was in now way actively looking for acting work. It was out of the blue. The phone rang one day and suddenly I was on a TV show. That’s how fast it happened. That particular character was so bizarre and proved to be so popular with audiences that I suddenly got handed back my acting career on a silver platter by David E. Kelley.”

He doesn’t mind that there are some casting directors that will only call him to play psychopaths and nutcases.

“I feel kind of blessed because those parts are kind of fun to do,” he said. “They’re not as plentiful as I would like but when they do come up, I really, really dig doing them.”

But Bottrell isn’t one to sit around waiting for the phone to ring. He teaches acting classes, and also writes and directs. During the run of his one man show, he is also directing an adaptation of Graham Greene’s Travels With My Aunt at The Colony Theatre in North Hollywood.

“I’m holding up pretty well but I don’t think I’m every going to try opening two shows five days apart again,” he said. “I’ve learned my lesson.’

David Dean Bottrell Makes Love was first performed at the Comedy Central Stage and a few days later, Bottrell was sent a DVD of it.

He watched and was mortified.

“It occurred to me how much I had revealed about myself in front of a paying audience,” he said. “But the good news was, everybody laughed, nobody walked out of the theater in a huff and everybody was able to look me in the eye afterward. … The whole experience has been phenomenal for me – it really has on every level.”

“What’s been really cool about this show is that when I first started working on the show with director Jim Fall, he wanted to do a show about love. He wanted to be sure and stick to the subject and provide various on-ramps for audience members and as a result, the audiences for the show have become very diverse.”

“We get people of all kinds coming to the show, all sexual preferences, all ethnicities and so many straight guys. It’s been very gratifying.”

One thing that isn’t in the show is any mention of the chatty letters that his mother used to write to him – letters that inspired him to become a writer in the first place.

“There are no letters from my mom in the show – that’s a different show. But I became a writer because of my mother’s letters.

“She would send me these letters, back in the days when people wrote letters, that were amazing because I have a very large, very blue collar, very unlucky family. She would write these letter that would be four pages, front and back, of nothing but bad news. She was so used to that kind of life that she didn’t even notice. It would be about somebody having a miscarriage or something terrible like that then in the next paragraph about how many tomatoes there were in the garden. She was completely color blind to the fact that these letters were unintentionally hilarious. Friends in New York would gather in my apartment to hear me read these letter out loud.”

With a show all about love, is Bottrell is still open to the possibility.

“I’m a single guy, I’m a certain age. Like all single guys in my age group, it’s tricky. It’s not like when you’re a young guy when you go out there and there are a thousand possibilities,” he admits. “As a mature gay, your life is pretty well set. It’s trickier for two men who have very complete, fully formed lives to integrate. I think it’s a little trickier but the good news is, as long as you’re in the game, you have a chance of winning.”

His show has been getting a lot of repeat business and several of those people have brought a single person with them to introduce to Bottrell after the show.

“Who knows? Maybe the whole reason I did this was to get my new partner. Maybe the true love of my life will walk in and see the show.”

David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One Man Show is playing on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8 p.m. at the Rogue Machine Theater - 5041 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019. (323) 930-0747

The show closes on Dec. 15. Here is a LINK for tickets.

Urie has signed on for six month run beginning Jan. 24 in the role of Bud Frump replacing Christopher J. Hanke.

The smash musical will undergo other cast changes in January starting with Glee star Darren Criss replacing Daniel Radcliffe for three weeks. Once Criss leaves, he will be replaced by Joe Jonas.

Urie is currently starring as Yepikhodov in the Classic Stage Company’s production of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. He also starred in Signature Theatre Company’s revival of Angels in America and originated the role of Rudi Gernreich in 2009′s The Temperamentals.

There was an article on Huffington Post about actor Mark Consuelos appearing in Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays and stopping the interview because he became distracted by a video clip of a dancing Rob Kardashian and his ample rear end.

Mark, who is married to Kelly Ripa, is not only secure enough in his sexuality to comment on Rob’s assets. he also was willing to make out with actor Craig Bierko in the play.

“Um, I didn’t tell [Kelly] about the kiss, wanted her to be surprised,” Mark said.”She loved it. I thought she could relate.”

Kelly even had some kissing tips: “Craig Bierko is a very handsome man. I asked Kelly to give me notes and she gave me two after seeing the show.[She said] ‘Don’t strong-arm Craig when he goes in for the kiss’ and ‘don’t strong-arm Craig when he goes in for the kiss.’”

Kelly confirmed to the NY Daily News that she enjoyed watching the lip lock: “As an actor, there’s something voyeuristic and perversely sexy about watching my husband” kiss someone else.

Why do we care?

Because it stars the dreamy Harry Connick Jr. who I’ve been smitten with ever since seeing him opposite Sandra Bullock in Hope Floats.

In this romantic musical, Harry plays Dr. Mark Bruckner, a down-to-earth psychiatrist who finds himself suddenly swept off his feet by a beautiful woman. But the muddled romantic subplot of the original show and film starring Barbra Streisand has been transformed into a love triangle full of dramatic and comic tension.

One of the central characters, a flighty woman named Daisy, has been turned into a gay florist named David. Dr. Bruckner hypnotizes Daisy/David and then falls in love with her/his past self, a woman named Melinda Wells.

“I love being on Broadway and it was a matter of finding the right thing,” Connick Jr. told TheatreMania last month. “I had just done Pajama Game, which was classic and great, but I don’t know that I wanted to do that kind of show again. And this came along and it was very different. They’ve taken a completely different approach to the material and our director Michael Mayer has some great ideas. Plus they’re great songs and I get to play a great character.

Here is a LINK to the show’s website.

His most recent feature film, Real Steel, was number one for two weekends in a row and has grossed nearly $75 million domestically.

Jackman is also a box office smash on Broadway with his Back on Broadway show taking in $1.2 million in previews – the kind of numbers such mega-hits as Wicked and The Book Of Mormon achieved.

Preview tickets cost a whopping $136.50 and aren’t expected to get any cheaper for the show’s official opening next week.

It won’t hurt that Hugh is out making all kinds of appearances to publicize the show. He appeared on Martha Stewart’s show this week and shared with her his most embarrassing moment as an actor:

Martha: “What was your most embarrassing moment as an actor?”

Hugh: “Really? You really want to know?”

Martha: “Love scene?”

Hugh: “Oh yes. So, I did a move with Jennifer Garner, called Butter recently, which is just about to come out, and we have a love scene – a love making scene. But, you don’t actually see it you only hear it. So they [the director] said ‘OK, we need to record the love scene,’ and I was like ‘oh, right, ok…’ and it actually takes place in a car in a showroom.  I’m a car salesman [in the movie]. So, we literally got in a showroom, in a car, Jennifer Garner and I in a backseat, director in a front seat”

Martha: “The camera man?”

Hugh: “No camera man, just the sound recorders and he was like ‘OK guys – action!’ and we look at each other and go ‘OK.’ We did it and he said ‘cut, cut, cut, this is not going to work. I can’t record you guys simultaneously; we’re going to have to do it separately.’ So I had to simulate a love making scene with Jennifer Garner …”

Martha: “Like an orgasm scene? One of those?”

Hugh:  “Let’s face it. Yes.”

Martha: “Oh, one of those. Oh, God.”

Hugh: “Yes, and I don’t know what it is- there is no way for a guy to be sexy. Guys can not sound sexy.  There’s no way around it, and when Jennifer Garner is laughing so much she had her head in the front seat trying not to make any noise while I was recording. Humiliating.”

But previews will begin Monday, March 12, 2012 and tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10:00 am via www.ticketmaster.com / 1-800-745-3000.

Starring with Martin is Olivier Award-winning Argentinean actress Elena Roger as Eva Perón and Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris as Juan Perón. The trio posed in New York City for a photo shoot with celebrity photographer Frank Ockenfels.

Michael Grandage will direct the production and Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford will choreograph.

BROADWAY BABE: Hugh Jackman may be one of the biggest action movie stars in the world with the X-Men franchise and current hit Real Steel, but he’s also a first-rate song and dance man.

Jackman, a Tony winner for The Boy from Oz, returns to The Great White Way on Tuesday in Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway. The show will play at the The Broadhurst Theatre through Jan. 1.

He will be accompanied by an 18-piece orchestra in a show that already has had sold-out runs in San Francisco and Toronto.

If you plan to be in New York in the next few months, Tickets are on sale at www.Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200.