Running Lines

Whispers in the ladies' room queue . . . The next Evita . . . The fabulous Annalee Jefferies . . . Everybody's an acting coach.

OVERHEARD on the bathroom line at Memphis at Wednesday's matinee: A woman of mature years began the traditional speech about how much longer the ladies' room line is than that for the men's room at this and many theaters. But, she recalled, that had not been true, at a Bette Midler show she'd attended. And the same was true at this thing called Encores! at City Center that she'd gone to several times.

"Do you know what I think?" she said, lowering her voice. "I think they attract a gay audience."

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WHY is the TV at the upstairs bar at Sardi's tuned to the Fox Business channel?

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SO who is this Elena Roger, who's going to star in Evita on Broadway a season or two from now? She was born in Argentina, for starters, which is a nice touch of authenticity. If the show opens in the 2011-12 season, she'll be 37 on opening night. (Patti LuPone was only 30 when she took on the role in 1979.)

In 2006, Roger played Evita in the London production, which, according to The Times of London's Web site, got "spectacular reviews" but flopped commercially. She won an Olivier Award (which, as we all know, is the British equivalent of the Tony) for playing Edith Piaf in Piaf last year. She also played an Italian flight attendant in Boeing-Boeing. And if we can trust IMDB, she has appeared on Dancing With the Stars and The Sharon Osbourne Show.

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OBSERVED Monday night at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater by one of theatergossip.com's many roving reporters: Audience members at God of Carnage, Yasmina Reza's 90-minute one-act, sitting politely in their seats after the curtain calls, waiting for Act II.

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FINALLY saw Part 2 of The Orphans' Home Cycle at the Signature Theater Company's far, far, far West Side outpost (why didn't you just put it in the Hudson River, guys?) and, as expected, it was fabulous in all the ways Horton Foote's work is fabulous. And Hallie Foote was exquisite just about every time she opened her mouth, comme d'habitude. But the discovery for me was Annalee Jefferies who is hysterical as the relentlessly dour Aunt Lucy in Act II. When she says something like "I enjoy going to cemeteries," it's a laugh line.

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Experienced in the parking lot of the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven on Friday night after a performance of Sylvia: In the near-dark, I was mistaken for Karen Ziemba (I'm a brunette again), who had played the female human lead. (The other female lead character is a dog.) A white-haired woman slowed her car, rolled down the window and said, "I loved your performance, but I have one suggestion."

Maybe it's not so bad being a writer, compared with being an actor, I thought. At least the people who delight in telling us what we did wrong usually don't do it face to face.

Note to Karen Ziemba: I asked her to give me the suggestion anyway, but she ignored me and drove away.