• The eight Theater Hall of Fame inductees for 2008 are actors Nathan Lane, Richard Easton and the late Roscoe Lee Browne, playwright Alan Ayckbourn, choreographer Patricia Birch, composer Marvin Hamlisch, producer Emanuel Azenberg and orchestrator Jonathan Tunick. The induction ceremony (the 38th) will be Jan. 26 in the upper lobby of Broadway's Gershwin Theatre, where the names of the members (now approaching 500) are mounted on the walls in gold letters. Arranging it all is producer Terry Hodge Taylor.

As usual, I expect to be there, since I coordinate the annual nominations and balloting. This year's slate of inductees seems to me especially fine and varied. Lane is the biggest current name, of course, but I'm particularly gratified about Browne, who died in 2007, age 81.

• Kudos to Homestead's own Tamara Tunie, CMU grad, Broadway and TV lead and most recently the first African-American producer on Broadway ("Spring Awakening," "Radio Golf"), who is one of the first inductees into the Steel Valley Hall of Fame. Steeler Charlie Batch is honorary chair of the banquet, Nov. 14, St. John Cathedral Center in Munhall (tickets $100, 412-462-3444 or www.homesteadlibrary.org).

This Hall of Fame is a collaborative effort of The Best of the Batch Foundation, Carnegie Library of Homestead and Ironmen Technology Enrichment Academics Mentoring, designed to honor current and former residents with outstanding accomplishments in many fields. Others to be honored are NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, all-time Steeler Jack Butler, passionate architect and preservationist David Lewis, artist George A. Nama, Homestead Grays owner/manager Cumberland "Cum" Posey, patent-holding scientist Lynn Yanyo and the Campbell family, known for academics, athletics and philanthropy.

• The survivor of six German death camps, Jack Sittsamer, 83, died Sunday. For years he suppressed those memories, even, according to his son, as quoted in Sadie Gurman's fine obituary, "passing off a blue K and L tattooed on his wrist at a concentration camp, as a girlfriend's initials." But he later became an eloquent witness to the barbarity that killed millions.

I met him briefly two years ago at the JCC premiere of Amy Hartman's play, "Mazel," based on his memories, in which semi-fictionalized versions of him and his daughter, Paula Riemer, were played by Bob Haley and Robin Walsh. "The message that he sent to people was ... about living well and loving well and appreciating what you have," Hartman recalls.

• Multi-arts curator and producer Janera Solomon was introduced Tuesday as the new executive director of the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty. She's charged with expanding its role in the region's arts and economic development mix and to be what board chair Chad Stacy calls "a vibrant part of the region's cultural force, as the exciting growth of Pittsburgh's East End unfolds."

A native of Guyana who grew up in Pittsburgh, Solomon is a Pitt grad, a fellow with CMU's Studio for Creative Inquiry and a board member of Future Tenant. She foresees opening the Kelly-Strayhorn to "our amazing small, local companies and talented individuals. ... I ask myself. 'Who is the next Billy Strayhorn or Gene Kelly?' "

• Fair warning: the final play of August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle closes Sunday.

As Sterling, Homestead native Montae Russell wears a shirt with Steelers #95 (Greg Lloyd). But the Steelers tattoo he shows is real, his own -- another benefit (along with Montae's "Picksburg" and his Stargell imitation) of casting a native Pittsburgher.

I'm still hoping to locate Miss Harriet's chicken joint, which the play says was torn down in 1974. Is it fictional or real?

• Tome Cousin, ex-pat Pittsburgh performer and choreographer, has spent six years working with the estate of the Harlem Renaissance photographer James VanDerZee on a new multimedia musical with a score by another Pittsburgher, Michael Moricz. It's being submitted to the Sundance Theatre Lab.

Tome was just in Budapest, holding auditions for the Hungarian premiere of "Contact." And Susan Stroman has invited him to direct it as part of Poland's 2011 Lodz Festival. As Tome says, "Yikes!"

• Tome issues a rave for a young Pittsburgher, Stephen Hanna, who plays Older Billy in "Billy Elliot" on Broadway -- Tome remembers him as a 9 or 10 year-old student at a dance program at Point Park.

• Playwright Jim McManus is making inroads down under. Ten days ago, "Cherry Smoke" had a reading in Australia for representatives of several theaters, followed by a live interview with Jim from New York. The producers describe the play as "in the stylistic realm of Sam Shepherd, David Lynch and Quentin Tarrantino -- sexy, violent, spiritual, magical, passionate, aggressive."

But Jim writes, "i didn't realize that 2:40 p.m. Sydney time is 4:40 a.m. NYC time. 2 choices i think, go to bed early or stay at the bar til 4 and roll onto the phone for the interview. i know which one would lead to a more interesting interview." Wonder how it worked out?

• If you really want change, maybe you should head to The Warhol Museum, which continues Off The Wall 2008 with "The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac," Sat., 8 p.m. ($10-$20; 412-237-8300). The release describes him as a "flamboyant chameleon of words, music and sociopolitical tirades, visual and vocal phenomenon [who] employs gender-bending surrealism to explore the human condition and challenge the contemporary culture of fear." How's this for an ad quote, from the Irish Times: "Taylor Mac seduces you, breaks your heart, patches it back up again and sews sequins along the scars." Wow!

• Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for the week ending Oct. 26:

Radio Golf/Public (61%) .................. 2,941

Long Story Short/City (60%) .............. 551

LovePerfectChange/CLO Cab. (34%) .. 468