WICKED STUPID

"Wicked" (PNC Broadway at the Benedum, Feb. 22-March 5) put single tickets on sale Monday and sold out in two days. But a friend of a friend of a friend went to the Benedum Web site and paid $175 -- for one seat in the second tier!

She goofed. The Benedum sells "Wicked" seats for $29-$72.50. Clearly she ended up at some site like HubStub, which "makes markets" between ticket holders and buyers, so you can't claim they're breaking anti-scalping laws. They have plenty of "Wicked" tickets -- for five or six times face value. So caveat emptor. And where, I wonder, do those HubStub tickets come from?

Word to the wise (though would the wise possibly care?): "Phantom of the Opera," back Jan. 6-29 for the third time, has already sold all but single tickets on the weekends.

A BETTER IDEA

So Pittsburgh flocks to the blockbuster musicals. But something of rarer excellence, the London Globe's "Measure for Measure" with Mark Rylance, is not at all sold out, and its prices ($25-$75) don't seem so bad. It's here just through Dec. 18 (my review runs tomorrow). And this IS a word to the wise.

THE RELIABLES

If it's pre-Christmas gifts you want, remember the CLO's "Musical Christmas Carol" (opens tomorrow), the Ballet's "Nutcracker" and my favorite, "Black Nativity." "Christmas Is Coming Uptown" returns Dec. 15-18.

BENEFITS

The season's ripe for parties to raise money. Look here:

B.U.S. (Bricolage Urban Scrawl) offers its first annual One Day Play Series, with six playwrights, six directors, 21 actors (all people you know), 24 hours and 100 seats, all in one day, to benefit the company and introduce its new Downtown space at 937 Liberty Ave., third floor. Each writer will have 12 hours to write a 10-minute play inspired by a 90-minute bus journey; the others will have 12 hours to rehearse. Sat., 7 p.m.; $75 ($20 for artists) includes drinks, food and show; 412-519-5538.

B.U.S. writers: Ted Hoover, Melissa Martin, Maureen McGranaghan, Tammy Ryan, Mark Southers and David Turkel. Directors: Tracy Brigden, Jed Allen Harris, Rebecca Harris, Barbara MacKenzie Wood, David Maslow and Sheila McKenna.

"Picon Pie" is a musical biography by Rose Leiman Goldemberg of Molly Picon, the "little yente with the big talent," the queen of Yiddish theater. The off-Broadway cast is June Gable (chain-smoking Estelle on "Friends"), directed by Pamela Hall. The beneficiary is Pittsburgh ZOA (anti-intolerance program for high school students, Israel scholarship program) and i's at East Liberty's Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre, Sat. 7:30 p.m. and Sun. 1 and 5 p.m.; $40-$100; 412-421-6660.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for the week ending Dec. 4:

Rockettes/Benedum Center ...................... Not available

Yellowman/Public Theater (55%) ........................ 2,654

Tuesdays With Morrie/City Theatre (83%) ........... ....1,530

Christmas Catechism/City Theatre (96%) ................ 1,110

Forever Plaid/CLO Theater Square (53%) .................. 674

One Flea Spare/PlayhouseRep (94%) ....................... 278

Secret Garden/Theatre Factory (48%) ..................... 185

BlackComedy/OpenStage (60%) ..............................110