Two casting items — both announced yesterday — have made me excited for the theatre all over again.

1) Candide at the Goodman Theatre. Mary Zimmerman’s highly anticipated production will feature Geoff Packard in the title role of Candide; Lauren Molina as Cunegonde; Larry Yando as Pangloss, Candide’s tutor; Hollis Resnik as the Old Lady; Jonathan Weir as the Governor; Erik Lochtefeld as Maximillian; Margo Seibert as Paquette; Jesse Perez as Cacambo; and Tom Aulino as Martin.

Out of all those fancy names, I’m excited to see Hollis Resnik in the juicy role of the Old Lady. It’ll be fun to see her in a comedic musical role on a major stage. It’s been far too long. Performances begin Sept. 17.

2) Turning to Broadway, the new David Yazbek-Jeffrey Lane musical adaptation of the 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown will include Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Sherie Rene Scott. It’s set to begin performances Oct. 2 at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre.

What an exciting trio of performers. It’s great to see that bona-fide Broadway stars have been cast in a new Broadway musical. We need more of that, please. Having never seen Pedro Almodóvar’s film, the plot description sounds rather wild (courtesy of Playbill.com):

The Oscar-nominated film centers on Pepa (Scott), a voice-over actress on a mission to deliver an important secret to her philandering boyfriend, Iván (Mitchell). A two-day chase ensues, involving Iván’s mentally insane wife Lucía (LuPone), who has been recently released from a mental institution and is hunting down the father of her child and his mistress for one last confrontation. The plot involves an unstable best friend, Shiite terrorists, a mambo-loving taxi driver (Burstein), a hostage motorcycle driver, gazpacho laced with sleeping pills and a charred bed.

LuPone playing a crazy woman? This is made of win.