Show Time

The Big Bang, one of the best shows of the 2004-05 theater season, got the annual parade of plays and musicals off to a resounding start. But were the exploding fireworks of the musical's title a harbinger of spectacular successes to follow? Unfortunately not. The past season of area theater didn't exactly light up the sky. Neither was it a dud, but on balance it was somewhat less exciting than area theatergoers have come to expect. Before The Big Bang raised optimistic speculation, the year's lineup appeared to offer fewer challenging productions than usual.

This weekend's antiquing action sparkles, with two shows devoted to glass and a third offering a smattering of glass objects along with other merchandise. One show, A Brilliant Weekend Affair III, will showcase cut glass from the American Brilliant period - 1875 to around 1915 - from the collections of eight of the country's best-known dealers. It's the first event of its kind on the East Coast in nearly five years and is sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the American Cut Glass Association.

Andrew Wolf and Jessica Ritter gazed longingly into each other's eyes as they sang melodiously and swayed in unison. For five weeks, the two teens have been swooning over each other on stage as lead characters in the play Little Mary Sunshine. As they did a practice run through Capt. Jim's and Mary Sunshine's duet, the 42 other young people participating in the Upper Dublin Summer Stage program watched or studied their lines from their seats in the auditorium as they awaited their scenes.

This is the time of year when the great outdoors moves indoors. Four major sportsmen's shows - two devoted to the full spectrum of outdoor pursuits, one for fly fishermen and one aimed at boaters - will take place in the next several weeks. The Greater Philadelphia Sport, Travel & Outdoor Show (Wednesday through Sunday, Jan. 20-24). This show, to be held at the Fort Washington Expo Center in Fort Washington, will be making its debut. Some 400 exhibitors will be on hand, including most major tackle manufacturers - DuPont-Stren, Berkley, Penn, Orvis and others.

Time was when the State Farm Show in Harrisburg occupied a permanent place on Pennsylvania farmers' January calendars. It was the "must-see" event between harvesting and planting. Not anymore. Many in the agricultural community say the Farm Show - now in its 86th year - is no longer for "real" farmers; it has instead become a six-day-long "show and tell" for suburbanites. "There were too many curious city folk," explained Carl Zimmerman of Zimmerman's Farm Service in Bethel.

No rest for the weary on the ever-changing radio scene. The hiring of Bob Pantano is not the only switch at oldies station WOGL-FM (98.1) - two jocks have been fired to make way for a new lineup. Afternoon DJs Glenn Kalina (noon to 3 p.m.) and Bill O'Brien (3 to 7 p.m.), both at the station for several years, have been released. And late-morning man Rich Hawkins (9 a.m. to noon) has been moved to a production job and weekend air shift. Here's the way it is now at 'OGL: Charlie Bennett is still on the air mornings, from 5:30 to 10 a.m.; Pantano, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; former weekend man Tony Davis moves into the 2-to-6 p.m. slot; Bobby Sharpe's shift moves from the 7 p.m.-to-midnight slot into a 6-to-10 p.m. position; Christy Springfield moves from overnights to the 10 p.m.-to-2 a.m. shift, and Joe Conklin moves from a weekend shift into the 2-to-5:30 a.m. overnight shift.

From the Los Angeles Dodgers' clubhouse, to a private stairway near the Diamond Club entrance in Shea Stadium, to the executive offices on the second floor, Darryl Strawberry made the longest diplomatic journey of his career yesterday. Strawberry walked into Frank Cashen's office at 5 p.m. and finally restored his friendship with the New York Mets' general manager. "It was a very, very positive meeting," Strawberry said after the 10- minute session. After spending much of the winter criticizing the Mets for "running me out of town," Strawberry was far more conciliatory toward Cashen, who, he said, "has really liked me, deep down, all along.

The Union are eager to get the MLS season started after a lengthy preseason that included five weeks away from home with trips to Florida and Greece. All the practice will be put to a test when the Union begin their second Major League Soccer season with Saturday's 8:30 p.m. game in Houston (6ABC) against the Dynamo. "It was good to get them out of their comfort zone and spend a long time together," team manager Peter Nowak said of his team on Wednesday. "There was no rush to come back home, they could interact and talk, and it was a lot of fun. " Still, it was a long time away from home, and the players have enjoyed returning to the area to prepare for this week's match.

Even the Easter Bunny is quietly chuckling into his whiskers. It's a big weekend for comedy, as a variety of laugh-getters are scheduled to perform for the winter-weary residents of the Philadelphia area. Tonight and tomorrow night, you can catch the McGonigal Brothers, in their first-ever appearance in Philadelphia, at the Comedy Factory Outlet. Also in the lineup: "the Court Composer," Pat Godwin. There will be two shows today, 8:30 and 11 p.m., and two shows tomorrow, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Admission is $9.99.

The Wachovia Spectrum will close this year, but before it does, it will host Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus for the last time. This year's show, "Zing Zang Zoom," is in town until May 25. It is the 41st edition of the Greatest Show on Earth to perform at the Spectrum in South Philadelphia. Since 1968, the circus has been an annual attraction, bringing audiences to the arena for more than 800 shows and topping the list for the most entertaining shows in the Spectrum's history.

HARRISBURG - Each year, Pennsylvania produces a half-billion dollars' worth of mushrooms, three million pounds of tart cherries, more than seven billion chicken eggs, and what's billed as the country's largest indoor agricultural event. That winter tradition, the Pennsylvania Farm Show, formally opens Saturday for an eight-day run that showcases the many aspects of life on the state's 62,000 farms. This year marks the 97th time the event has been held, with a schedule of events at the 24-acre Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg that includes livestock judging, cooking contests and exhibitions, rodeo competitions, and tractor pulls.

NEW YORK - To celebrate the 100th episode of Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show in an hour that was to air today, a giant cup of frozen hot chocolate topped with whipped cream was wheeled onto the set after its star interviewed a svelte Janet Jackson. Something sweet was undoubtedly welcomed. It's been a tough stretch for "Anderson," illustrating how difficult it can be to launch a successful television series from scratch. In six months, the show has weathered a scandal involving a scheduled guest's serious injury, seen three top execs leave and a new one join midstream, and experimented with formats to see what suits Cooper best.

DEAR ABBY : Years ago an advice columnist posed the question to her readers, "If you had it to do over again, would you still have children?" I'm wondering when the information was collected, and what the results of that inquiry were, and if you asked the same question today, what the majority of your readers would answer. - Ready2bdone in Phoenix DEAR READY2BDONE : The columnist was Ann Landers (my mother's twin sister) and while I remember the poll, I don't recall the date.

Sunday Top billing Once best known for playing Hannah Montana's best friend, actress and singer Emily Osment is now up front as a dynamic performer of high-energy dance-pop (her infectious "Lovesick" is an early entry into the song-of-the-summer sweepstakes). She headlines the Fam Jam , with rising Radio Disney star Cody Simpson and Tim Urban of American Idol fame, at 1 p.m. at the RiverStage at Penn's Landing , Columbus Boulevard and Chestnut Street. Admission is free.

It's an uncomfortable summertime moment for many small-business owners: A female staffer shows up for work in the shortest of shorts. Or a male staffer arrives wearing a tank top. And they work in full view of customers or clients. Violations of the dress code aren't confined to the summer months. But they tend to be more frequent than in colder months, when everyone covers up. Employers who do not like a lot of skin showing need to be crystal clear about a dress code. Chances are, most staffers do have a sense of how to dress for work.

The Union are eager to get the MLS season started after a lengthy preseason that included five weeks away from home with trips to Florida and Greece. All the practice will be put to a test when the Union begin their second Major League Soccer season with Saturday's 8:30 p.m. game in Houston (6ABC) against the Dynamo. "It was good to get them out of their comfort zone and spend a long time together," team manager Peter Nowak said of his team on Wednesday. "There was no rush to come back home, they could interact and talk, and it was a lot of fun. " Still, it was a long time away from home, and the players have enjoyed returning to the area to prepare for this week's match.

After a summer of promo and hype, The Jay Leno Show opened with 18.4 million viewers, a dominant figure that's comparable to the audience of Dancing With the Stars or CSI: Crime Scene Investigation , TV's No. 2 and No. 3 shows last season, after American Idol . Apparently, the moribund first installment of the 10 p.m. "comedy" show satisfied plenty of the curious, as the ratings dropped more than 40 percent Tuesday, with...

The Wachovia Spectrum will close this year, but before it does, it will host Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus for the last time. This year's show, "Zing Zang Zoom," is in town until May 25. It is the 41st edition of the Greatest Show on Earth to perform at the Spectrum in South Philadelphia. Since 1968, the circus has been an annual attraction, bringing audiences to the arena for more than 800 shows and topping the list for the most entertaining shows in the Spectrum's history.

The lead defendant in the Fort Dix terrorism case once put off a meeting in which he was supposed to discuss a map of the military base because he wanted to get a haircut. Another defendant appeared to counsel against violence when he told the key government informant in the case that "sometimes war is not the way. " And a third defendant described one of his alleged coconspirators as all talk, telling the informant that "the dog that barks doesn't bite. " Those comments, taken from conversations secretly taped by FBI informant Mahmoud Omar, were highlighted yesterday as defense attorney Rocco Cipparone Jr. completed a fifth day of cross-examining the government's star witness.

Brandon Huber was the buzz of the Philadelphia Flower Show preview yesterday, winning - at age 18 - his first blue ribbon. Not long after judges pronounced his Amorphophallus konjac tops in a hardy tuber-bulb-rhizome-corm class, Huber found himself the center of attention from a tag team of invited show visitors, all members of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. They stared and giggled at his purple-brown plant, which is shaped like a phallus and not only looks bizarre but also has a smell often compared to rotting flesh.