Happy tunes: Lyric Stage kicks off its 20th season with a revival of The Most Happy Fella. Lawson Taitte at the Dallas Morning News talks to founder Steven Jones (paywall) about growing from a little musical theater on a shoe string budget to producing five shows a season with full orchestras and a $1 million budget.  Lawson reports that Jo Sullivan Loesser, the widow of Fella composer Frank Loesser, and the show’s original star in 1956, will sing after Saturday’s opening. Meantime, Jerome Weeks reminds me that “Big D” (“Big D, little a, double l, a, s”) originated from this musical.

Behn There: Echo Theatre’s mission is to produce plays by women, so it makes sense that the company would focus much of its 2012-13 season to work by and about Aphra Behn, the first professional female playwright.  On Theater Jones, Lauren Smart reviews Behn’s fascinating life in the 17th century and the struggles she faced. There’s also a nifty timeline of Behn’s life. Echo is starting its season this weekend with a piece that introduces Behn: Or, written by Liz Duffy Adams, is historical fiction inspired by the playwright’s life.

Cookies and milk: On FrontRow, Peter Simek catches up with the very very busy dancer/choreographer/artist Danielle Georgiou. She’s making her New York gallery debut, exhibiting five videos at the Horton Gallery. You can also see her work- and others’- Friday at the “Gallery as Host” show at UTD: “It’s a structured improvisation that will take place during the opening of The Gallery as Host. It involves elastic bands and harnesses, Oreos and milk, and Katie Holmes,” she tells Simek. We’re in!

Bonus item: Nothing local about it, but did you know the man who wrote the lyrics to Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” is also the man who adopted Ethel and Julius Rosenberg’s children after their execution? I didn’t.