By Joe Dziemianowicz

City teens are sharing several stages with glittery stars for a variety of events.

Tonight at 6 p.m. at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center (Broadway and 60th St.), 13 adolescents who live at Covenant House will perform in a benefit, "A Night of Broadway Stars," to raise funds for the residence that serves homeless, runaway and at-risk kids. They will be performing Mary J. Blige's "Each Tear." Among the Broadway vets performing: "Chicago" alum Luba Mason will sing "All That Jazz"; Natalie Toro from "Les Miserables" tackles "On My Own" and Capathia Jenkins belts "Home" from "The Wiz." More details here.

On Monday, June 6, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Daniel Radcliffe, spends his morning off from "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" emceeing the Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway Jr. Program, which is all about engaging kids in musical theater and the arts.
The 6-year-old program helps build self-sustaining theater programs in schools with limited arts programming. Hundreds of public middler schoolers from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens who have benefitted from Broadway Jr.  will be joining the Harry Potter portrayer on stage at the Majestic Theatre (245 W. 45th St.). Selections from kid-friendly versions of "Annie," "Once On This Island," Seussical," "Aladdin" and "Guys and Dolls" are set to be performed. Click here for more details about the program.

By Joe Dziemianowicz

"Am I doing this too sexy? Cuz I can take it down."
Every class picture needs a class clown. And when dozens of nominees for the 65th annual Tony Awards assembled this morning for a group photo, the amiable Yul Vazquez gladly assumed the role of joker.
His line about being too hot got an appreciative laugh from the crowd of Broadway's best -- just like he does during each performance as the odd cousin Julio in  "The Motherf- with the Hat."
Speaking of hats, composer David Yazbek ("Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown") rarely goes anywhere without his signature porkpie topper. That includes this group snap. He politely asked the photograpaher "Is my trademark hat in the way?" It wasn't. He kept his hat on.
Meanwhile, "Anything Goes" star Sutton Foster, 5-foot-9 in bare feet and like 5-foot-12 in summery wedges, happily switched places with "Baby, It's You" star Beth Leavel so that the actor behind her, "Jerusalem" featured actor Mackenzie Crook, could be seen in the picture. Who knew Foster was such a skyscraper!
Post-picture session, the stars mingled, as waiters passed mini crabcakes and other treats.
"Sister Act" Mother Superior Victoria Clark was introduced mid-munch to "The Scottsboro Boys" Joshua Henry, as Nikki M. James ("The Book of Mormon") eyed a fellow nominee and asked "Who's he?"
(BTW, it was Alex Timbers, who's up for his book of "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.")

By Joe Dziemianowicz

Summer 2011 is already shaping up as a very busy season for theater. And a soon-to-launch theater in Harlem is making it even more so.

The City College of New York (CCNY) and its Department of Theatre and Speech are launching the New Haarlem Arts Theatre (NHAT), a new professional theater company in residence at Aaron Davis Hall, which will produce its first season in the summer of 2011.

The objective, according to a release, is to establish a professional theater uptown that will rank among the best in the country and to produce bold theatrical works that express the true history, culture, and diversity of America.

New Haarlem Arts Theatre (NHAT) will produce James Baldwin's "Blues for Mister Charlie," directed by Eugene Nesmith (pictured, above), NHAT's founder and Artistic Director, June 23 to July 17 and the musical revue, "It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues," directed by Alfred Preisser, co-founder and former Artistic Director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem, July 27 to August 21.

Performances will be in Theatre B of Aaron Davis Hall, located at W. 135th Street and Convent Avenue.  Both productions will run Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:00 PM, with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 PM.  Tickets are $25-15.  Box office is SMARTTIX, (212) 868-4444, www.smarttix.com.

Click here for more details.

By David Hinckley
 
Cheryl Cole has apparently been sacked from the judging panel on “X Factor,” months before the first X even hits the air, and as if that’s not startling enough, the reported reason is even more disturbing.
 
It seems she has too much of a British accent.
 
Oh, no! We love British accents! We can’t get enough of British accents!
 
So does this mean we have finally hit the wall? Has our fascination for British accents peaked?
 
It feels like the pop-culture equivalent of breaking off diplomatic relations. It feels like we have betrayed Professor Henry Higgins himself.
 
The Cole news has been somewhat buried under the news that Scotty McCreery won “American Idol,” an outcome that was about as surprising as finding caffeine in Starbucks coffee.
 
Also, of course, most Americans know little about Cole, so it’s not like we’ll be missing an old friend when it’s Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls instead of Cole sitting next to Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul on the judging panel in the fall.
 
Still, it’s bracing that on the very same night, Americans embraced an accent that many people gently chuckle over – the Southern country twang that McCreery used to win “Idol” – we’re losing an accent that we so admire.