It's break-a-leg time for musical partners Janet Vogt and Mark Friedman. Green Gables, their adaptation of children's classic Anne of Green Gables, opens the Columbus Children's Theatre season on Wednesday.

Green Gables has a reading scheduled for the York Theatre in New York in October. The partners have high hopes for their musical drama River of Freedom to see a stage in Cincinnati for the Festival of Freedom in 2004.

Their latest project is a holiday show, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas: The True Story.Other people news:

• University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music grad Aaron Lazar (so memorable in the title role of Man of La Mancha) has a principal role in the Broadway-bound Barry Manilow musical Harmony.

• Christa Scott-Reed and Mark Mineart are brushing up their Shakespeare. We saw them at Playhouse in the Park in Much Ado About Nothing. This week they open in As You Like It at Actors Theatre of Louisville. For information call the box office at (502) 584-1205. Mineart again returns to Cincinnati and Playhouse's A Christmas Carol in December.