Eartha Kitt

Toni Braxton said she caught a cold from her 2-year-old son, so that's why her voice was so low, breathy and noticeably underpowered Monday night at the Lyric Opera House. Between all the gratuitous rump-shaking and costume changes (10 in all), she asked the packed house to forgive her. But why did she feel the need to apologize? For the past five or six years, the Severn native has all but abandoned the full-throttle, gospel-fueled belting that put her on the pop map nearly 15 years ago. Instead, the seven-time Grammy winner has been sighing huskily through her songs, playing up the coy, Eartha Kitt-inspired sexpot role.

James Dean, master actor? Just when you think every angle of a short, lavishly documented life has been explored, television supplies another facet. American Masters, the PBS series that has profiled long-lived legends Lucille Ball, Julia Child and Ella Fitzgerald, tonight turns its attention to Dean, although his legacy is built on just three films: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. "Quite honestly, he's in the series because he's an icon, and it's the 50th anniversary of his death," says Susan Lacy, executive producer of American Masters.

Adaptations are never easy to bring off.And adaptations of classic theater by the likes of Aristophanes, Sophocles and Moliere are darned near impossible.How do you capture enough period nuances to do honor to the original while switching venues, modifying characters and bringing the declamatory poetic style of yesteryear alive for contemporary audiences?The folks at Colonial Players know how, because they have just opened a production of Moliere's hilarious 17th-century comedy, "The Learned Ladies," that's almost as feisty and fizzy as it must have been when France's greatest comic playwright had them rolling in the aisles at Versailles during the august reign of his benefactor, King Louis XIV.I doubt that the Sun King's retinue would have comprehended the hillbilly accents of the Nashville social climbers who provide the grist for Moliere's satirical mill in this adaptation by Freyda Thomas.

Black History Month begins Saturday. Originating in 1926, the observance has evolved into a month-long excursion into the African-American experience.With inspiration from the city's generous cultural history, organizations have planned a full calendar that will bring the likes of Cicely Tyson and Eartha Kitt, the Alvin Ailey and KanKouran West African dance companies and Essence magazine editor Audrey Edwards to the area for everything from a masquerade ball,to film festivals,to ragtime concerts,to gospel show,to lectures.

Black History Month begins Saturday. Originating in 1926, the observance has evolved into a month-long excursion into the African-American experience. With inspiration from the city's generous cultural history, organizations have planned a full calendar that will bring the likes of Cicely Tyson and Eartha Kitt to the area. Here is a sampling of the programs -- from film festivals to gospel shows -- that pay tribute to the achievements of African-Americans.'SATURDAY, FEB. 1 * "Bustin' With the Sounds of Rockapella," The Medical School Teaching Facility Auditorium, University of Maryland at Baltimore, 10 S. Pine St., (410)

Philip Yordan's play Anna Lucasta is a theatrical piece that transcends its time and its genre. The play, which opens Rep Stage's 2002-2003 season at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre tomorrow night, began its life as a classic 1940s melodrama. Originally composed as the tear-stained story of a young streetwalker from an abusive Polish immigrant family, Anna was anything but successful in its original format. But it was quickly snapped up by the American Negro Theater, an acting ensemble formed in New York's Harlem to provide career opportunities for black artists unable to find work downtown in Manhattan's theater district.

Sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving, we break out our Christmas CDs. Our children would request Christmas music early in the season when they were little, and now we think it is perfectly normal to hear Bing Crosby crooning "White Christmas" on the morning of Nov. 1. Sure, it's a little odd to be out in your yard, raking fall leaves to Julie Andrews' "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" in your earphones. But we're used to it. Fortunately, we have quite a variety of music - Tchaikovsky, Mannheim Steamroller, the Vienna Boys' Choir, 'N Sync, Martina McBride, Ken Navarro, even the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors - so it never becomes tiresome.

SAN FRANCISCO - The recent visit to Baghdad by actor and director Sean Pennhas added fuel to a public debate about whether celebrities should venture from the art of make-believe to the flashpoint realities of politics. But when the stakes are large in the real world, there's no value in trying to maintain the illusion that celebrities inhabit a different world than the rest of us. Often overlooked is the simple and illuminating fact that celebrities rarely get into public relations trouble for aligning themselves with popular views.

Interior designer Alexander Baer and Center Stage certainly know how to put on a show.Baer was the host at a party recently at his home for members of the Center Stage Presents committee. Gala chair Marsha Becker announced that the star of the April 11 gala will be Hinton Battle, who won Tony Awards for his performances in "Sophisticated Ladies," "The Tap Dance Kid" and his current hit, "Miss Saigon." Battle is not a stranger to many Baltimoreans, thanks to his involvement with the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Kevin Brubaker is a grown man with a thing for lunchboxes. Not that there's anything wrong with that. He has hundreds of them, on display at home and at his Baltimore advertising office. And no, he is not a bachelor, which is why he also has lots and lots of them stashed in his attic. "I actually had a dream about lunchboxes," said Brubaker, a creative director at Euro RSCG Baltimore. "I was walking by my old grade school in my dream and there was - remember the old car, the Gremlin? - there was a Gremlin that was just packed to the gills with lunchboxes.