Cherry Jones headed back to Broadway; Peter Allen show delayed

Out actress Cherry Jones has committed to play Mary McCarthy opposite Swoosie Kurtz's Lillian Hellman in the Broadway production of Nora Ephron's Imaginary Friends, reports Variety. While not technically a musical, the play--about the long-running rivalry between two legendary female American authors--will contain up to seven new songs by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia, who recently teamed on Sweet Smell of Success.

In other Broadway news, Hugh Jackman has confirmed that he will play gay song-and-dance man Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz, but that show's premiere has been pushed back from next spring to September 2003.