• Last week I promised my thoughts on the CLO's annual patron poll as to what shows it should do. Available in "West Side Story" programs through Sunday or at www.pittsburghCLO.org, the current poll lists 44 shows (plus "Legally Blonde," already selected) for the Benedum and eight for the Cabaret.

• But first, a nay-sayer. Lois Jackson wrote to point out there isn't much time before they announce next season: "could they really tabulate the votes and get organized by then? I doubt it. I think the whole thing is to get e-mail addresses and some positive p.r."

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That's what I always used to think, and I said it in print. But the past two years CLO has pointed out that its choices and the poll results (with or without hanging chads) have correlated pretty well. So I wonder. On the other hand, this year's poll is later than usual, coming during the final show -- but that's just as well, since "Annie Get Your Gun" drew so badly.

• As usual, my own poll preferences lean toward the older shows, like "An American in Paris," "Meet Me in St. Louis," "On the Twentieth Century" or "Damn Yankees" (if only to see the Yankees lose on stage, as, it is hoped, in real life). I'd like to see pros do "The Wiz," too, because I've had such a steady diet of it in high schools. "Buddy," too -- I'm a sucker for the pop music of my youth.

Among new shows, I'd love to see what CLO can do with "Ragtime" (one of the great scores of our lifetime), "The Producers" or "Thoroughly Modern Millie." And I'd like to see "Curtains" and "Drowsy Chaperone" because, although new, they're essentially old-fashioned.

Please, not "Pippin"!

• Lois Jackson's letter (above) was just one good e-mail I got last week taking exception to this or that. Others came from Buck Favorini (the Cultural Trust), Josh Sivitz (the CLO's "West Side Story") and Charles Brice (Quantum's "Cymbeline"). Here's the last, since it's so unusual to find someone who cares deeply about "Cymbeline":

"I was very disappointed. As you wrote, they played it for laughs. Imogen was acted very well, given the direction, but she was directed to act like Paris Hilton, which I found insulting to the play!

"They greatly cut what to me is the apex: the beautiful elegy that Aviragus and Guiderius say over Fidele, 'Fear not the heat o' th' sun ... ' And what they preserved, they sung. It really got lost, which affected the poignancy of the jailer's speech to Posthumus, 'But the comfort is, you shall be called to no more payments.' The symmetry and irony between these two speeches are lost.

"Since everything was so 'comical,' some of the most moving lines got a laugh and there was no sense that 'Cymbeline' had discovered the virtues of tolerance and humility. I wish I could see again the wonderful production in London last summer, where Imogen was portrayed as a tormented figure, torn between love and fealty to father and husband. Pardon the rant, but I really love that play."

• As I write, the newest Cultural District arts center is due to be topped off Wednesday with its final steel beam, the last of its 700 tons, traditionally draped with an American flag. Then the $35.9 million center for African-American culture will start to fill itself out. President and CEO Neil Barclay says the two-story, 65,000-square-foot, multidisciplinary center is on target to open next spring, incorporating exhibition galleries, 486-seat theater, education center, cafe, gift shop and multipurpose spaces. Info at www.AugustWilsonCenter.org.

• "As long as I can remember, some Pittsburghers have referred to Washington, Pa., as 'little,' but never as Little. Are we so close to the BIG one that a distinction must be made?" So writes Mary Disney, noting that she's following in the "footsteps of my dearly departed father-in-law," the artful, curmudgeonly Will. To which I think the only possible answer is Yes! But I'm not so sure about the capital L.

• City Theatre's Greg Quinlan writes that "The Wonder Bread Years" is doing well -- the figures in our weekly Bottom Line bear him out -- and "subscription sales remain strong, particularly given the ongoing economic news. We seem to be on track to grow subscribers for the fourth year." That's good news, although there's still unhappiness over how three recent lay-offs were handled.

• Ex-pat Pittsburgh playwright Jim McManus writes from New York that "these insufferable Yankee fans are laughing at this recent trade where they got Marte and Nady. They seem to look at it more like the bully stealing the weak kid's milk money than a fair trade. I hope one of the boys the Bucs got in return proves them wrong, but I'm a bit dubious." Let's hope Jeff Karstens is that man. But Jim mainly sent good "writer news."

1) Pittsburgh Playwrights is reprising "Dorothy 6" as part of the Pittsburgh 250 celebration in September. "Can't wait to come in and see it and hopefully do it on a weekend when the Steelers are in town. Hotels could package the weekend as 'Demise of steel, Rise of the Steelers.' If folks would tailgate before one of my shows I'd know I've made it."

2) "Finally the long anticipated (by me) American premiere of 'Cherry Smoke' in NYC. Clockwork Theatre Company, who did three readings in May, is going to produce it in February. ... I truly believe that if it wasn't for Patrick Jordan and barebones greasing the skids with knockout reviews in Scotland, I would still be trying to get this play up. 'Cherry' is headed to Australia in fall '09, and we are in discussions with theatres in D.C. and Chicago. Or maybe the Times will crucify it and I can tuck the script back under my bed. Info at www.theclockworktheatre.org."

3) Reading of "Bulldog Whiskey" by Diverse Theatre Company, 7 p.m. Aug. 24. "'Bulldog' is my favorite play of mine and just happens to have a wonderfully nasty Irish grandfather role for Bingo O'Malley. Tailgating aside, for a kid from Pittsburgh I'll really know I've made it when Bingo is in one of my shows."

4) "Just finishing a new play, 'Blood Potato,' that finally incorporates a meth lab into one of my plays. Thank you, Donora!"

• Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for the week ending Aug. 10: