"I feel blessed," Reda happily reports from the road. "I'm on a Broadway tour, and I'm having a fabulous time! I would pay someone to do what I'm doing right now!"

What the 2003 CCM grad is doing is playing Go-to-Hell Kitty, the heiress who punctuates her displeasure with a shotgun. She's also the show's "swing" - she understudies all the murderesses. Knowing all that choreography keeps her on her toes. (If you want to try it, you can join the 20/20 Festival on Thursday and learn some Bob Fosse dance steps before the show, starting at 6 p.m. Call 621-4700.)

Reda is making all the right moves. The Chicago revival's famous director, Walter Bobbie, told her that when he saw her audition, he knew she was the one. "They put me in the available slot and knew they'd move me when the role opened up."

Reda's fingers are crossed. Bobbie is slated to direct the Broadway revival of Sweet Charity in 2005.

For the time being, catch her act here. Call 241-7469 or visit www.ticketmaster.com for dates, times and ticket prices.

'Tuna' returns

Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, creators of riotous quick-change comedy Greater Tuna and all its sequels, will headline the holiday engagement of A Tuna Christmas, playing Dec. 7-12 in the Aronoff's Jarson-Kaplan Theater under the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati banner.

Sears and Williams portray 24 of the bizarre residents of a Texas hamlet. It's Christmas Eve, and the action includes a disaster-prone pageant and a yard decorating contest.

Tickets go on sale Oct. 28. For information, call the box office at 241-7469.

Cabaret at 20th Century

CCM grad Scott Coulter, a cabaret favorite in Manhattan, will do his thing to benefit New Voice Theater on Oct. 18 in Miscast at the 20th Century (3021 Madison Road, Oakley.)

Coulter has a trophy case filled with prestigious MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs) and Bistro awards for his work, including the 2003 MAC award for outstanding recording for his self-titled debut CD. It also topped lists at theater Web sites and Cabaret Scenes magazine.

He's taking a couple of nights off from touring the U.S. in the revue Stephen Schwartz & Friends for New Voice, which plans to formally debut in 2005 with the promise of presenting a new way of looking at theater. Key players include Skip Fenker, Richard Oberacker and Mark Femia.

Coulter will share the stage with locals Laurie Brinkman, Pamela Kay Day, Wayne Wright and Mark Femia.

Curtain is at 8 p.m. Buy $20 tickets to Miscast online (with a $1.50 convenience fee) at www.theatreconnection.com, at (513) 241-2866 with a major credit card or at the door. For information on Coulter, visit www.scottcoulter.com.

Singing Disney

Disney's new On the Record has a heavy dose of CCM alums. The show is opening in November in Cleveland and then tours the country, including Louisville, Dec. 14-19, with hopes for playing in New York.

We already knew that 2004 grad Ashley Brown would be singing songs from Disney classics from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Lion King alongside Broadway vet Emily Skinner (star of Side Show). Also in the ensemble will be Tyler Maynard, Leigh Ann Larkin and Lyn Philistine.

Committed to New Stage

Alan Patrick Kenny doesn't let grass grow under his feet. The artistic director of young and tiny summer theater company New Stage Collective had no sooner shut the lights on The Shape of Things at the Greenwich than he got an audition call for the non-Equity tour of Smokey Joe's Cafe.

He got the job, not as an actor or director but conducting the band. He's in Indianapolis, departure point for the national tour.

The gig, he says, should give him plenty of time during the day to work on New Stage's third season. He'll also be applying for grants to graduate schools for directing.

Kenny is committed to New Stage, so much so that he would only sign a nine-month contract for Smokey Joe's. That will bring him back to Cincinnati in June 2005 when producing partner Joshua Steele graduates from Ohio State. Kenny promises New Stage will be back in July.

New leadership

Katie Fox is new executive artistic director of the Children's Theatre of Mason, founded in 2003.

Fox was most recently tour coordinator, education and development director for Cincinnati-based Theatre IV. She's worked with Seattle Children's Theatre and theaters in Chicago and Missouri.

Next up for the Mason troupe is Pinocchio, playing Oct. 8-10. For more information check out www.ChildrensTheatreofMason.com.

Short takes

• Drew Fracher has donned his directing hat (or is that a beret?) and is spending the next few weeks at Georgia Shakespeare in Atlanta, where he'll direct wife Sherman and Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival co-founder (and long-time star) Marni Penning in Macbeth, playing Oct. 7-31. Call (404) 264-0020 or visit gashakespeare.org for more information. (If you happen to be down Atlanta-way, Jasson Minadakis, founding artistic director at Cincinnati Shakespeare, has opened his season at Actors Express with the comedy Killer Joe.)

Don't look for the Frachers until early 2005 - they'll spend the holidays on stage in Actors Theatre of Louisville's A Christmas Carol and then back home in January for roles in Ensemble Theatre's Sight Unseen (Jan. 16-Feb. 13; 241-3555.)...

• In February, Justin Schultz will come close to home - Dayton. He'll appear in The Drawer Boy at Human Race, under the direction of his CCM professor, Richard Hess.

These days, Schultz is based in New York. Most recently, he was part of the first Summer Play Festival at Theatre Row, appearing in Anatomy 1968, the sequel to Karen Hartmann's Going, Gone (which made quite the impression in its world premiere at Playhouse in the Park last season.)...

• Doug Barton, another CCM grad, will also be in Dayton. He opens the Broadway season at the Victoria Theatre Oct. 5-17, leading the company in the Gershwin-scored musical Crazy for You.

Call Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630 or (888) 228-3630 for reservations and information for Human Race and the Victoria Theatre.

• Jason Bruffy and Jeff Syroney of Cincinnati Experimental Arts are fresh back from the San Francisco Fringe Festival, where they participated in a panel "and got the word out that there are things going on in Cincinnati," says Syroney.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com