From Time Out New York: With the scheduled Jan. 17 close of Broadway's Finian's Rainbow comes at least one "I told you so" from a certain reviewer. For the Finian-philes, while producers of the show caved to the "economic realities of Broadway," an original "Missitucky" cast album will come out in February.

From The Kitchen: Ah, Shakespeare has never sounded so ... prosaic? Shall we say? The Kitchen - a progressive performance and exhibition space in New York - continues to host a kinda-brilliant production of Romeo and Juliet; for its Shakespeare rendition, the (also New York-based) "Nature Theater of Oklahoma" asked everyday people to recount the the plot of the play in their own words over the phone, then used the layman accounts as its script.

... We New Yorkers can also look forward to a few showings this January from the acclaimed, Brooklyn-based pianist Simone Dinnerstein: a concert entitled "Bach and the Concerto," part of Columbia University’s Miller Theatre's "Bach and The Baroque" series, as well as two concerts with ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble.