• I'm now on the island of Manhattan for the PG's annual spring ShowPlane. If all goes well (I'm writing this on the way up on the plane, which takes a contortionist, USAir has shrunk so much), by now the group has seen "Boeing-Boeing" with the ineffable Mark Rylance and I've also seen "Gypsy" with Patti LuPone and Lenora Nemetz -- ineffables on every hand. If I've gotten my act together, there should soon be more in my On Stage Journal.

• The Outer Critics and Drama Desk award nominations are out, pre-cursors to the Tony Awards. Leading the Pittsburgh-related pack is Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' "The Glorious Ones," which premiered at the Pittsburgh Public. It has five nominations from the Drama Desk (which mixes Broadway and off-Broadway), for outstanding musical, music (Flaherty), lyrics (Ahrens), orchestration (Michael Starobin) and costume design (Mara Blumenfeld).

Other Drama Desk nominations went to Pittsburgh's Rob Ashford for choreography ("Cry-Baby") and to Jorge Cousineau for doing sound for Michael Hollinger's "Opus" (which debuted at City Theatre). Winning Outer Critics nominations were Ashford again, Tony Yazbeck for featured actor in a musical ("Gypsy") and, for the John Gassner Award for an American play preferably by a new playwright, "Opus" again.

And can we count Pittsburgh-visitor Mark Rylance? The Outer Critics nominated him as best actor for "Boeing-Boeing."

• So writes Jackie Dempsey to say that Squonk Opera "will be Squonkin' in South Korea, feasting on bibimbap and kimchi and performing a site-specific opening show at the Busan International Performing Arts Festival this weekend. Busan is South Korea's second largest city and one of the largest ports in the world. It is our second trip to this welcoming and well-cuisined country. When we return from our trans-Pacific adventure, we will head on over to the University of Delaware to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of Newark (that's New-Ark, Del., NOT Newark, N.J.!) with our next hometown opera, 'Newark: The Opera,' May 10-11. In June, we'll be closer to home in Charleston, W.Va., at the fun and fabulous FestivALL Charleston. Come see 'Charleston: The Opera,' June 21, 3 and 8 p.m."

• The CLO's Kristin Archbold and Cindy Opatick recently saw several Broadway shows and noted CLO alums in those shows: "In the Heights" (Andy Blankenbuehler); "Young Frankenstein" (Sutton Foster, Roger Bart); "Legally Blonde" (Gaelen Gilliland); "A Catered Affair" (Tom Wopat, Faith Prince, Leslie Kritzer, Matt Cavenaugh, Matthew Scott); and "Cry-Baby" (Rob Ashford, Courtney Mazza, Tori Ross, Mayumi Miguel).

• Little Lake Theatre's "World's Largest Cast Party" starts at 3 p.m. Sun., not the later time I had last week. The entertaining tribute is scheduled for the first hour. Wish I could be there -- I'll be in the air on my way back from Broadway.

• The children in "Circulo Juvenil de Cultura," aimed to give those from Spanish-speaking households the opportunity to converse with their peers and learn more about their culture, have written a play, to be performed at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Oakland Carnegie Library.

• It's one of those offers you can't refuse: "The Don of the DeMedio Family, 'Big Al,' respectfully requests your presence at a dinner celebrating his early retirement, and you would be wise to attend." This is "Arrivederci, Al! A Dinner with the Godfather," an interactive, improvisational evening with live music and a script by Michael E. Moats and Francis A. Veltri, that's been performing at area restaurants for several months. (One of these weeks its erratic schedule will jibe with mine.) No, a script and improv are not mutually exclusive. Friday's showing, a benefit for the Cancer Caring Center, is at Jimmy G's, 1822 Main St., Sharpsburg; reservations at 412-781-4884. Check out the clever Web site, www.dinnerwiththegodfather.com.

• F.J. Hartland's new play "Onions" is part of Springfest 2008 at the Emerging Artists Theatre, New York City. His Springfest 2007 play, "Postcards from a Dead Dog" (voted best play at the 2005 Pittsburgh New Works Fest) is going to be published in an anthology of best plays at Emerging Artists Theatre.

• Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for the week ending April 27:

JCSuperstar/Benedum (64%) ... 8,134

Rabbit Hole/Public (60%) ... 2,829

Big Bang/CLO (64%) ... 1,136

King Lear/PICT (61%) ... 1,071

Late Nite Catechism/City (41%) ... 160

Risk Everything/Caravan ... N.A.

Lydie Breeze/Open Stage ... N.A.

Post-Gazette theater editor Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1666.