With the SF company of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee having shuffled off to Boston, the Post Street Theatre has lined up a trio of attractions to help fill the schedule until another long-run prospect presents itself.

First up is Adam Pascal, who went from aspiring rock star to an officially designated "Broadway heartthrob" thanks to Rent and Disney's Aida. In a show billed as Adam Pascal LIVE!, playing Oct. 27 and 28, the singer-songwriter will perform songs from his two solo rock albums as well as theater songs from various musicals including, of course, Rent .

Among performers whose skills have largely vanished from the spotlight are plate-spinners, organ grinders, and mentalists. But give Marc Salem credit for bringing mind-reading back into the mainstream. His Mind Games show, seen on Broadway last year, will play Oct. 31-Nov. 19. How good is he? Well, he blew Mike Wallace's mind on a 60 Minutes segment profiling his seemingly impossible skills — like reading the serial number off a dollar bill that Wallace pulled from his own wallet.

And an old favorite will close out the year with some Argentinean-style hoofing. Forever Tango will make its fifth SF appearance on Dec. 26-Jan. 21. Luis Bravo's revue offers an overview of the history of the tango through music, dramatic vignettes, and of course, dance. The all-Argentine cast features 14 dancers and a 12-piece orchestra.

Tickets for all three shows go on sale Oct. 15. Call 771-6900 or go to www.poststreettheatre.com.

Absolute salute

This is the final weekend to catch Absolutely San Francisco, a musical look at the "San Francisco dream" — at least as far as this shakedown run is concerned. An open-ended run is promised for next year.

Produced by Not Quite Opera Productions, and finishing up Oct. 12-14 at the Phoenix Theatre, this revue is built around four San Franciscans, stranded on a broken cable car, who share stories of their lives in anecdotes and songs. The quartet includes a gay charac

Huey Lewis stars in Chicago in SF. Photo: Richard Fahey

ter who has a song about the ups and downs of gay relationships. This particular song was co-written by Brad Erickson, whose play The War at Home is running at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

Absolutely San Francisco has been running for nearly a month, but publicity efforts have lagged, according to producer John Doherty. "We're a very small production company, and it was touch-and-go as to whether we'd ever get the show up," Doherty reported. "But, as I say, we intend to revive it next year."

More info is available at 682-0159 or go to www.notquiteopera.org.

'Chicago' to Broadway

Veteran rocker Huey Lewis is headed back to the Broadway company of Chicago, but he's doing one out-of-town date in deference to the city that gave Huey Lewis and the News their start in the 1980s. He'll be playing the conniving lawyer Billy Flynn Oct. 25-Nov. 5 at the Orpheum Theatre before his Nov. 20 return to Broadway.

Meanwhile, back at the Orpheum, a concubine and a eunuch provide the point of view for the story of China's first emperor in Terracotta Warriors. Dance, music, and spectacle are the ingredients in this unusual history lesson, running through Oct. 15 at the Orpheum. And in case you were concerned, this is "the only show with the Xian Cultural Relics Department's stamp of approval."

Jacqueline Antaramian plays Regina in ACT's The Little Foxes.

Foxes in the belfry?

What's in a name? Would The Fruit Bats have had the success that The Little Foxes has enjoyed? Lillian Hellman took the title for her 1939 melodrama from a Biblical quotation that got a little more poetic in mistranslation. ACT is offering this enduringly popular melodrama as the second offering of its current season, running Oct. 27-Nov. 26 at what is now known as the American Conservatory Theater (formerly the Geary).

A prime reason for the play's staying power is the juicy role of the scheming and avaricious Regina Giddens. Tallulah Bankhead had it first, in the Broadway production, and Bette Davis took over in the 1941 movie. Subsequent Broadway revivals have starred Anne Bancroft, Stockard Channing, and Elizabeth Taylor.

For the ACT production, director Laird Williamson has cast Jacqueline Antaramian, an actress with credits at major regional theaters. She was on Broadway last year in the production of Julius Caesar that starred Denzel Washington. One of her colleagues from that production, Jack Willis, returns to ACT to play Regina's brother Ben Hubbard, head of a post-Civil War Southern family that has, to put it mildly, issues. Willis seems at home playing powerful Southerners; he was an exemplary Big Daddy in ACT's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof last season.

But before The Little Foxes can take up residence, Travesties must clear out. The closing date for Tom Stoppard's historical phantasmagoria has been pushed back to Oct. 21. More info is available at www.actsf.org.

Short scenes

● Theatre Rhino returns to the San Francisco Zoo on Oct. 15 for another daylong fundraiser for children and grownups. Tickets include a catered lunch buffet, a silent auction, and performances by Marga Gomez, Lee Crow, and a gay barbershop quartet known as the Fellatios. Tickets are available at 861-5079 or www.therhino.org.

● The oft-told story behind the creation of the atomic bomb gets a new gloss in Gadget, a show that mixes theater, dance, installation art, archival film, original video imagery, and dialogue based on Gadget creator David Szlasa's interviews with surviving members of the Manhattan Project. The production runs Oct. 13-29 at the Thick House. Call 821-4849 or go to www.zspace.org.

Richard Dodds can be reached at BARstage@comcast.net.