Even as the Showboat Majestic opens another show this summer (The Art of Murder by Joe DiPietro kicks off tonight and continues through Aug. 28), it’s time to announce the ’boat’s 90th season in 2012, featuring an all-American slate of musicals and comedies to please patrons aboard America’s last showboat, a National Historic Landmark. Here’s the 2012 season:

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Tracy Letts' plays haven't quite caught on in Cincinnati. We're yet to see a production locally of August: Osage County, his 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner. Neither the Cincinnati Playhouse nor Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati� have picked up Superior Donuts, his 2011 Tony-nominated script that will be staged by at least eight major regional theaters across the United States during the coming season. However, a local pick-up company will present Letts' latest script at the Clifton Performance Theatre (404 Ludlow Ave.) in a brief run (Sept. 9-18).

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Know Theatre of Cincinnati has called Jackson Street in Over-the-Rhine home for several years, but it's been easy to miss them, tucked away behind the Gateway Garage on a short block between Central Parkway and 12th Street. That's being remedied right now with the construction of a marquee that should be highly visible from both north and south of the theater, especially from busy Central Parkway.

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Lyle Benjamin has been on and off a lot of local stages with his company Queen City Off-Broadway. He's been dormant for a few seasons, but he's back with a slightly new name — it's now called Queen City Theater — and a couple of mid-summer productions using the black box theater at the new School for Creative and Performing Arts (108 West Central Pkwy., Over-the-Rhine) as his venue. Tonight is the opening performance of The Amish Project by Jessica Dickey.

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More word about upcoming seasons from two of Cincinnati’s smaller but adventurous companies. New Edgecliff Theatre (NET) has put forth a five-show season with work by several excellent contemporary playwrights, as well as a holiday offering partnering with the True Theatre. Queen City Theatre (QCT is the current incarnation of the dormant Queen City Off Broadway) will offer productions of dramas using the black box theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.

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If you're seeking something silly to divert your attention from the heat and humidity, I'll refer you to Cincinnati Shakespeare Company where today they open a production of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce. I went to a preview on Wednesday, and it's a daffy piece of comedy — four couples, three bedrooms, one crazy night and the morning after.

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Monday night I attended the fourth of four sold-out evenings of True Theatre, an innovative spoken word program that's been happening at Know Theatre since last October. Organizers Dave Levy and Jeff Groh have found considerable success inviting people (usually five per evening) to speak at these quarter gatherings about some real, personal event — usually on a theme, such as Monday night's "True Independence," inspired by last week's holiday.

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In my CityBeat column this week I shared the news that the Acclaim Awards are gone and that the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) have stepped up to create a new awards program. The first two recognitions of the season have been awarded to Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati’s (ETC) Christmas-in-July celebration, Roger Bean’s Winter Wonderettes. This musical sequel to ETC’s biggest-ever box-office hit, The Marvelous Wonderettes, has earned these awards for its acting ensemble and specialized design.

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Following a six-month search, UC yesterday announced the appointment of Peter Landgren as dean of the College-Conservatory of Music, effective Sept. 1, pending board approval. The search process was noteworthy for actively involving CCM faculty, students and community members.

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Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy are back onstage at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Those characters — played by Sara Mackie, Mia Gentile, Brooke Rucidlo and Denise Devlin — kept ETC audiences coming back for more in the spring of 2010 for The Marvelous Wonderettes, the theater's biggest box office hit ever, extended three times to meet the demand for tickets. This summer you can return for the regional premiere of Winter Wonderettes, a Christmas-holiday themed show with Pop holiday tunes from the 1960s, including "Jingle Bell Rock," "Santa Baby" and "It's a Marshmallow World."

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