Names and faces

— Katie Holmes’ return to Broadway will be muchshorter than she would have liked. Producers said Thursday that Holmes’ play Dead Accounts, adrama by Theresa Rebeck, will close next Sunday after 27 previews and 44 performances. The show, which opened to poor reviews Nov. 29, stars Norbert Leo Butz as Holmes’ onstage brother, who returns to his Midwest home with a secret. Rebeck created the first season of NBC’s Smash and several well-received plays, including Seminar and Mauritius. Holmes, who became a star in the teen soap opera Dawson’s Creek, made her Broadway debut in the 2008 production of All My Sons. She was married to Tom Cruise from 2006 until this year.

Ryan Seacrest has a New Year’s resolution:improve his skill at dancing. “There’s a signif icant other in my life who’s very good at it,” he said. Thatwould be professional dancer Julianne Hough, a two-time champion on Dancing with the Stars, in whose proximity Seacrest said he feels “the pressure to be as good as she is. It sounds like a joke, but this is a serious thing for me to accomplish next year.” Seacrest adds dancing lessons to a list of other projects he is involved in, including roles on E! Entertainment and NBC, a syndicated morning radio show for Clear Channel, as well as American Idol, the new season of which starts next month on Fox. But as Monday nears, Seacrest is focused on an annual rite: Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, which, with related programming, will blanket ABC from 7 p.m. until past 1 a.m. CST. Booking musical acts has been inthe works for months, Seacrest said. Performers include Carly Rae Jepsen, Neon Trees, Flo Rida and Pitbull, as well as Taylor Swift, in the headliner position just before midnight. This will be his eighth New Year’s Eve turn for ABC, but it’s his first since Clark’s death in April at age 82. Clark originated New Year’s Rockin’ Eve four decades ago and gave Seacrest as a youngster his earliest memories of ringing in each new year. “I’d like to say I can imagine how it’s going to feel, but I’m not quite sure,” Seacrest said. “I looked forward so much to each year that I did the show with him.”

Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/30/2012

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