Today’s NYTimes Styles section has a Q&A with actor David Hyde Pierce (Niles Crane on Frasier), talking about his new dinner-party movie, The Perfect Host. And there, seated at the table in the accompanying photo, is former North Texas stage actor Tyress Allen, who left for Broadway (Aida) and TV series (Alias, The Practice, Dark Blue).

Also in the NYTimes comes word that the American Rep’s much-anticipated revisal of Porgy and Bess (starring Audra McDonald and David Alan Grier with a re-thought book by Suzan Lori-Parks and Diedre Murray) will, indeed, take a swing by Broadway, with previews beginning at the Richard Rodgers Theater Dec. 17. Dallas Theater Center company member Cedric Neal is playing the lawyer, Frazier, and is the standby for Sportin’ Life.