When the stagehands’ strike ended late Wednesday night, the general consensus was that not all Broadway productions would be able to pull it together in time for Thursday night re-openings. But as it turned out, all 27 strike-darkened shows were up and running last night, despite the challenges that larger productions faced after 19 dormant days. Chicago, for instance, had two stars joining the cast – Vincent Pastore and Aida Turturro of “The Sopranos” –......

On Wednesday night Tim Burton gave the Film Society of Lincoln Center a 17-minute taste of Sweeney Todd, his film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s macabre musical. The 1979 Broadway hit was inspired by Victorian folklore about a crazed London barber who slits his customers’ throats and, in some versions of the story, colludes with his lover to bake the corpses into meat pies – which become wildly successful! (Ah, the culinary possibilities before rogue......

During the summers, city shelters see a spike in unwanted pets, and this year is no different. NYC's Animal Care & Control is "taking in 85 cats and kittens a day - up from about 50 a day just a few months ago," according to the Daily News. Animal Care & Control is worried they will have to start euthanizing adoptable cats and dogs, because they are, as director Richard Gentiles says, "being inundated." From......

THEATER: A revival of Patrick Hamilton’s thriller Gaslight has just begun at Irish Rep; some may remember the award-winning 1944 film version starring Ingrid Bergman and Angela Lansbury. The chilling study in domestic domination to the max concerns a diabolical husband who, not satisfied in exploiting his wife’s savings to buy their house, plots her murder. But while he’s out the police inspector comes in to warn the poor bride that her husband is suspected......

If you detected a frisson of fabulous excitement scorching the air this morning, it’s because the 61st annual Tony award nominations were announced! (For those who may not fathom the awesome significance of the Tonys, the awards are the Broadway theater world equivalent of the Oscars and named for Antoinette Perry, an actress, director, producer and who passed away prior to the first award show in 1947.) Turning a profit on Broadway takes a perfect......

ART: As a "happy anniversary" to The Velvet Underground and Nico (40 years!), John McWhinnie honors the rock legends (and the release of that album) with a collection of rare memorabilia and art(rock)ifacts. Come by to check out film stills by Warhol, "never before published or publicly shown photographs of the band by Adam Ritchie, Paul Morrisey and Doug Yule," and original lyrics by Lou Reed. More info here. 10am to 6pm // John McWhinnie......

This is pretty awesome: NYC saved $11 million in various fees because it used the online lawsuit-settling site Cybersettle to handle various cases. NY1 explains: "Lawyers for each side type in proposed settlement figures in three rounds over 30 to 60 days. Each side's numbers are kept secret until Cybersettle sees a match." Has anyone used it? City Comptroller William Thompson (who some suspect may run for Mayor in 2009) noted that more than half......

Yesterday, people from TV, film, and Broadway, as well as the public, gathered to pay tribute to the dearly missed Jerry Orbach. The attendees included Angela Lansbury, Al Pacino, Benjamin Bratt, Chris Noth, Jill Hennessy, Jane Alexander, Karen Ziemba, and Dick Wolf, plus many regular New Yorkers who cherished Orbach's contribution as an actor. Former Mayor David Dinkins was there, and Mayor Bloomberg spoke to the crowd, saying, "Briscoe exuded the life of the city......

The wacky juror in the Tyco case, who may (this is Gothamist's poor, unfounded speculation based on nothing) be the the one juror causing the jury dissension, gets the Post treatment today. The Post, who had been calling her, "the holdout granny," reports that 79 year-old Ruth Bennett Jordan is, among other things, listed in the Social Register and described (by a friend) as being "self-centered, 'paranoid' and 'loves to be contrary.'" Yeah, that's pure......

Gothamist is hella amused by the R. Kelly song, Ignition, as well as the remix. The remix is actually better, as its lyrics are hysterical: Now it�s like �Murder She Wrote� Once I get ya out them clothes The privacy�s on the door Huh? Does R. Kelly get carte blanche to talk about "sticking [his] key in your ignition" because he mentions Murder, She Wrote, thereby sucking any sexiness out of it? Don't know what......