Title Role

You're an ABC executive looking to cast the fatherly toymaker in a new musical version of the Pinocchio story titled "Geppetto. " Immediately you think of Drew Carey because: A) you believe that inside that middle-aged beer drinker's body lurks the best song-and-dance man in town, B) you think it would be a pleasant surprise for viewers to see Carey outside his Cleveland Everyman persona, C) you've always wanted to see what he would look like with more hair and different glasses, D)

Mayfair's Joanna Pacitti, 11, was chosen yesterday for the title role in the 20th-anniversary production of Annie, slated to hit Broadway next spring after opening this fall in Houston and then taking to the road. Joanna was picked by the show's lyricist and director, Martin Charnin, from among 14 finalists chosen from thousands of hopefuls during a three-month search. "It's a terrifying thing to have to break little hearts," said Charnin. "But when you hear Joanna sing, you will know why we chose her. " Two other girls from the area were selected as cast members - Christiana Anbri, 5, of Northeast Philly, and Lindsay Watkins, 11, of Mays Landing, N.J. All three are handled by Patti Claffy of West Chester's Jarrett Management.

If ever a blank stare was also a penetrating projection of everyday despair, it's Shuler Hensley's aspect as he rehearses the thorny title role of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, for its opening tomorrow at the Kimmel Center. And then Hensley sings - a challenging feat in an opera that, like his character's mind, bursts with thickets of sound unhinged from anything resembling terra firma, often requiring a vocal style somewhere between speech and song. But is that so different from Hensley's last stage assignment, Broadway's Young Frankenstein?

Every 30 years or so, Richard Strauss' Salome returns to the Academy of Music stage. Depending on the social atmosphere, the opera comes as an example of powerful expressionist theater, as a study in psychology, or as a kind of peep show for voyeurs who always knew the rich and powerful lived lives different from ours. Fortunately, the opera can survive approaches more bizarre than those to be what it is: a score dazzled with color and a drama of telling depth. In the production devised by the Opera Company of Philadelphia's general director, Robert Driver, the opera is given a traditional staging set in the Middle East, the moon crossed by clouds and the air full of moral decay.

All ended happily for Snow White and her assistant producer. Crista McDonald, who played the title role in the Forge Theater's production of the children's classic, gets a hug from assistant producer Ron Groenig before the curtain's rising at the final performance.

Singer Cesare Siepi, 87, who performed hundreds of times at the Metropolitan Opera and was well-known for the role of Don Giovanni, died Monday at an Atlanta hospital after suffering a stroke more than a week earlier. His distinctive bass helped make him a favorite in such roles as Mephistopheles in Faust as well as the title role in Don Giovanni . His Met career began in 1950 and ran until the early 1970s. Mr. Siepi was a native of Milan, Italy. He had lived in the United States for many years and performed in two Broadway musicals, Bravo Giovanni and Carmelina . - AP

TOP 10 FILMS NEXT YEAR: "Problem Child Meets Kindergarten Cop," - Gunfire is exchanged regularly in this wacky, heartwarming film. "Pretty Woman 2: The Rest of Their Lives" - Richard Gere and Julia Roberts become dumpy Main Liners. "I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up: The Movie. " "Democratic Presidential Frontrunner" - Science fiction from George Lucas. "Look Who's Talking 3"- Featuring the voice of Rip Taylor. Tom Cruise is "Jacques Cousteau. " New from Disney Studios: "The Little Animated Merchandisable Action Figure.

Sidney Michaels, 83, a playwright who was nominated for Tony Awards in three consecutive seasons in the 1960s, died April 22 in Westport, Conn. His daughter-in-law, Jennifer Jennings, confirmed his death. Mr. Michaels had Alzheimer's disease. He made a splash on Broadway in 1962 with his play Tchin-Tchin , an Americanized version of a farcical, bittersweet French comedy about a pair of betrayed spouses attempting, ineptly, to gain their revenge by having an affair of their own. It was nominated for a Tony for best play in the spring of 1963, though it lost to Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The Opera Company of Philadelphia plans to stage four works next season, according to an announcement made yesterday. The decision came after a month of emergency board meetings and an abrupt change in management precipitated by a deficit estimated at more than $500,000. Jane Nemeth, named acting general manager last month after Margaret Anne Everitt resigned, said the staff and board had determined that "the company must be more responsive to the audience we know is out there.

Cecilia Roth, the sage, sexy star of Pedro Almod?var's gem All About My Mother, is the best reason - the only reason - to see Luc?a, Luc?a. A forced, freewheeling mystery-comedy about a Mexico City wife in the throes of a midlife crisis, the pic is clunky and unsurprising. In the title role (or half the title role, to be precise), Roth is a children's book writer drawn into a complicated kidnapping caper when her husband disappears at the airport one day. An elderly but endlessly energetic former Castro compatriot, F?lix (Carlos ?lvarez Novoa)

Sidney Michaels, 83, a playwright who was nominated for Tony Awards in three consecutive seasons in the 1960s, died April 22 in Westport, Conn. His daughter-in-law, Jennifer Jennings, confirmed his death. Mr. Michaels had Alzheimer's disease. He made a splash on Broadway in 1962 with his play Tchin-Tchin , an Americanized version of a farcical, bittersweet French comedy about a pair of betrayed spouses attempting, ineptly, to gain their revenge by having an affair of their own. It was nominated for a Tony for best play in the spring of 1963, though it lost to Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

TORONTO - "Life sure comes easy for the beautiful," quips one rueful soul in Tamara Drewe , gazing at the title character - played by the unarguably beautiful Gemma Arterton - as she bobs around the English countryside, turning heads, and turning a peaceful writers' retreat into a cauldron of lust. And here, at the Toronto Film Festival in September, Arterton and her director, Stephen Frears , were on hand to premiere their larky farce. Adapted from Posy Simmonds' British comic strip, which, in turn, was inspired by Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd , the movie follows Tamara as she returns to her Dorset village a changed young woman.

Simon MacCorkindale, 58, who starred on British television in Casualty and in the United States in Falcon Crest , died Thursday of bowel cancer in a London clinic. Once talked up as a potential James Bond, Mr. MacCorkindale had a more modest career. He won the starring role in Manimal as a crime-fighting college professor capable of metamorphosing into any animal, but it survived for just eight episodes on NBC in 1983. Mr. MacCorkindale had better luck on CBS's Falcon Crest , appearing in 59 episodes from 1984 to 1986 as womanizing lawyer Greg Reardon.

Singer Cesare Siepi, 87, who performed hundreds of times at the Metropolitan Opera and was well-known for the role of Don Giovanni, died Monday at an Atlanta hospital after suffering a stroke more than a week earlier. His distinctive bass helped make him a favorite in such roles as Mephistopheles in Faust as well as the title role in Don Giovanni . His Met career began in 1950 and ran until the early 1970s. Mr. Siepi was a native of Milan, Italy. He had lived in the United States for many years and performed in two Broadway musicals, Bravo Giovanni and Carmelina . - AP

Movies Opening This Week The Good Heart A middle-aged bartender with a mean streak takes a younger homeless man under his wing. Harry Brown A widower (Michael Caine) turns vigilante after the murder of a friend. Just Wright Queen Latifah stars as a physical therapist who falls for the basketball player (the rapper Common) she is working with. Letters to Juliet A young American (Amanda Seyfried) embarks on a journey that brings unexpected romance when she travels to Verona, Italy, the home of Shakespeare's tragic lovers.

Verdi's Stiffelio is an infrequent visitor to the Metropolitan Opera - or any company - and couldn't be a more unlikely vehicle for an important vocal debut. Yet Philadelphia-based tenor Michael Fabiano, one of the Academy of Vocal Arts' most promising graduates, made it work for his Met debut on Monday amid the building critical mass of his career. Fabiano, 25, is also a big and not-always-sympathetic presence in The Audition, the excellent documentary film about the Met's National Council Auditions, to be broadcast nationally on PBS (at 3 p.m. Jan. 31 on WHYY and at 2, 6 and 8 p.m. Jan. 25 on the Y Arts channel)

If ever a blank stare was also a penetrating projection of everyday despair, it's Shuler Hensley's aspect as he rehearses the thorny title role of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, for its opening tomorrow at the Kimmel Center. And then Hensley sings - a challenging feat in an opera that, like his character's mind, bursts with thickets of sound unhinged from anything resembling terra firma, often requiring a vocal style somewhere between speech and song. But is that so different from Hensley's last stage assignment, Broadway's Young Frankenstein?

Who would have thought that about-to-turn-50 Pearce Bunting, who made an enduring name for himself in Philadelphia as an intensely edgy character actor, would be singing and dancing as the sexy Australian "dad" in Mamma Mia!? And in spandex, yet? But there he was one January night not long ago, on the stage of Manhattan's Winter Garden Theater, doing the big Broadway thing, charming the ruffled socks off the little girls in the audience - not to mention their moms. Theatre Exile's production of Blackbird (in previews, opening Wednesday at Plays & Players Theatre)

Make way for the award contenders. Look out for Brad and Keanu, Leo and Will, Meryl and Tom. And save room, between the Thanksgiving turkey and the New Year's toast, for a new Jim Carrey high-concept comedy, a serious piece of political theater (or a play-turned-film about a fallen politician), and, yes, the lovable high jinks of a famous pooch. The holidays, and the holiday movies, are upon us. Unlike previous years when a slew of serious-minded indies jostled for attention amid big-budget Hollywood entertainments and prestige productions, the offerings this time around seem more modest in scale and scope.

Perky people always have something upbeat to say, a cheerful hello to issue, a compliment to drop. In times such as these, they are a beacon of light in a storm-tossed sea of bitterness, anger, darkness. So why do we hate them? It's a question that hovers over "Happy Go Lucky," an oddball British movie that makes a courageous attempt to profile a woman who lives up to the title, always, in every situation. Like Spongebob, only human. I say courageous because any sort of comprehensive movie biography carries the implication of, at the very least, mood change.