Eartha Kitt

81 Eartha Kitt Singer-actress 77 James Earl Jones Actor 46 Jim Carrey Actor 37 Kid Rock Rapper 27 Ray J Singer

Dorothea Freitag, a Broadway composer and Baltimore native, died of a stroke Thursday at University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, Va. She was 80.Services will be at 7 p.m. today at Lindsey Harrisonburg Funeral Chapel, 473 South Main St., Harrisonburg, Va.Miss Freitag was a pianist, musical director, arranger and composer for Broadway shows, including "Mame," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Golden Boy" and "West Side Story." She coached stage and television performers, including Carol Channing, Sammy Davis Jr., Angela Lansbury, Leontyne Price, Leslie Uggams, Johnny Cash, Eartha Kitt, Stevie Wonder, Carol Burnett and Liza Minnelli.

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard left his home in England for Los Angeles 20 years ago, determined to be a movie star. The acting thing didn't exactly work out. But in one of those delightful turnabouts in life, he is now the interior designer to the stars. Ed Norton, the Osbournes, Cher and Kid Rock top an eclectic list of clients. Lawrence-Bullard has made the Architectural Digest and Elle Decor lists of top designers. He is a principal on Bravo TV's "Million Dollar Decorators. " He has a new book, "Live, Love & Decorate," with a foreword by client Elton John.

Richard Wesley Hamming,82, whose mathematical genius made possible everything from compact disks and video recorders to digital images from outer space, died in Monterey, ZTC Calif., Wednesday of a heart attack. Hamming helped spur the computer revolution by developing codes allowing computers to fix their own mistakes. The "Hamming codes" are used to enhance the reliability of most of today's microchip devices.Dean X Johnson,42, a composer, conductor and choral arranger who worked with singers including Eartha Kitt and Stockard Channing, died of AIDS in New York Sunday.

Philip Yordan wrote his 1940s melodrama, Anna Lucasta, about a Polish immigrant family. But the play is best known in its African-American version, first mounted by the American Negro Theatre in Harlem in 1944 and released on film five years later. Directed by Jennifer Nelson, this version - which helped launch the careers of Sammy Davis Jr., Eartha Kitt, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Sidney Poitier - opens the season tomorrow at Rep Stage in Columbia. The cast is headed by Deidra LaWan Starnes in the title role of a young woman whose circumstances drive her to a life as a streetwalker.

The women of in good company are so egalitarian that they refuse to capitalize the name of their dance collective. They include Sandra Lacy, who is on the faculty of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Beth Davis, Pam Matthews and Mary Williford-Shade.At the Dance Place this weekend, they'll perform an assortment of solos and duets: repertory that fits the group's compact identity.The program includes "Gone By," an homage to Brahms' "Hungarian Dances" by Amy Spencer; "Two by Eartha," a solo for Lacy by Irene Hultman to songs by the sultry Eartha Kitt; "Lo and Behold" by Michael Foley, a solo for Williford-Shade; Jose Luis Bustamante's "Rain" and Mark Dendy's "Rock," a pair of duets for Lacy and Williford-Shade; and "Edge" by Boris Willis, for Matthews.

`Cinderella' opening at the Kennedy Center If you missed the hip, multicultural production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at the Mechanic Theatre last year - or if you want to see the show again - you can catch it at Washington's Kennedy Center, where it opens tonight. Eartha Kitt continues in the role of the Fairy Godmother, with Paolo Montalban as Prince Charming and Everett Quinton as the Wicked Stepmother. Jessica Rush, however, has replaced Deborah Gibson in the title role.

For the length and breadth of dance in the area, there's a program this weekend to fit.At Goucher College tonight,the acclaimed historical dance troupe Choregraphie Antique is exploring American dance from George Washington's resignation ball in Annapolis (1783) through jazz, swing and rock and roll.And "Danceteria," all weekend at Baltimore's Theater Project, offers a full menu of performances by local troupes and soloists.Among the highlights of the "Danceteria" lineup are performances by Sandra Lacy and Stephanie Powell.

*JUST ANNOUNCED --Nine time Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin, above, will appear at Towson State University's Stephens Theatre on March 1. Call (410) 481-SEAT.the Capital Centre in Landover: Dire Straits, Feb. 24. Call (410) 481-SEAT.Hammerjacks, 1102 S. Howard St. brings in the Hooters, Feb. 1; Britny Fox, Feb. 8; Scatterbrain with Ugly Kid Joe, Feb. 11; a classic-rock concert with Peter Frampton, Feb. 14; Fates Warning and Savatage, Feb. 15; the Cramps, Feb. 18; Swedish guitar phenom Yngwie Malmsteen on Feb. 21; and Wrathchild America on Feb. 29. Call (410)

Phoenix Dance Company at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, used to be one troupe, governed by four faculty artistic directors. As the faculty retired from dancing and turned to choreography, they regrouped as a more flexible set of smaller ensembles -- Doug Hamby Dance and Baltimore Dance Project, directed by Carol Hess, as well as solo dancer Sandra Lacy -- using Phoenix as an umbrella title.On their umbrella program this weekend at UMBC, many of the works involve video. The first piece, "Changing Room," is entirely video, as Hess was recorded by Vin Grabill, a professor of visual arts, in a variety of nondance settings -- in the woods at a state park, for instance.