Beth McVey (left) portrays Penelope Pennywise and Charlie Pollock is Bobby Strong in Urinetown (Joan Marcus photo)

Talk about overflowing with riches. The coming week will stand as one of the best weeks of theater in 2003-04. Put a hold on your movie-going (the multiplexes aren't going anywhere) and see a play that will re-introduce you to theatrical thrills.

Both Metamorphoses at Playhouse and Dracula at Cincinnati Shakespeare have stacked up nominations for the season-end Enquirer Theatre Awards. They're already standards to set the season by.

Both continue for a few weeks (call 381-2273 for Dracula and 421-3888 for Metamorphoses). And don't forget that Metamorphoses creator Mary Zimmerman will give a free lecture at Playhouse at 5 p.m. next Sunday.

This is the last week to catch Urinetown, kicking off the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati season. It also has the town talking, and the words are "better than New York." (241-7469.)

New York connection

It's next stop off-off-Broadway for local playwright Kevin Barry. His James Dean road trip fantasy In Rebel Country opens a 10-week run at 13th Street Repertory Theatre on Jan. 15. Rebel premiered at Know Theatre Tribe at Gabriel's Corner.

"I'm just happy to have a New York connection now where my stuff will be seriously considered and not just another needle in the haystack of unsolicited manuscripts," Barry says.

"But whether it's New York, Los Angeles or Cincinnati, what really matters to a playwright is hearing his (or her) words connecting with an audience."

UC grad in 'Urinetown'

The life of a bureaucratic henchwoman is no bed of roses, says Beth McVey. The former Miss West Virginia and University of Cincinnati grad is touring through Cincinnati in Urinetown as Pennywise, who belts out "It's a Privilege to Pee" early in the first act.

"Penny may be mean and cross but she tells the truth as she knows it," McVey defends with a laugh. "She's a very bitter, angry person trying to survive as best she can in an impossible world."

The world of Broadway has been anything but impossible for McVey, who is a veteran of Phantom of the Opera, Annie, 42nd Street, Nine, Beauty and the Beast.

You may spot McVey offstage sampling Skyline and Graeter's for old times sake.

"I'm so sorry Forest View Gardens is closed. I worked there for a while after I graduated. Hi to Trudie and Kurt (Seybold)," the oweners of the establishment.

Urinetown continues through next Sunday at the Aronoff's Procter & Gamble Hall. 241-7469.

'Blue Heart' reading

Dale Hodges fell in love with Caryl Churchill's Blue Heart when she saw it in London a couple of seasons back. She'll be center stage for the staged reading by Women's Theatre Initiative at 7 p.m. Monday at Xavier University's Gallagher Student Center theater.

The paired one-acts also features area favorites Corinne Mohlenhoff and George Alexander. Mary Tensing, who helmed Hodges in a superb staged reading of Wings last season, directs.

Works in Progess

Performance Gallery (3900 Eastern Ave.) offers an evening of Works in Progress on Saturday. Scheduled are spoken word artist Daryl Harris; a sound poem by Brian Griffin; playwright Jason Cooney; musician Joe Riddle; an ensemble work by Performance Gallery members and more.

BlueForms, the Columbus alternative theater company scheduled for an appearance at Performance Gallery on Nov. 14-15 replaces TBA with A Lonely Crowd: The Isolation Cycles which, it promises, explores personal disconnection, social separation and the diminishing quality of community life in America. 333-8482.