How pleasant to settle down on a Friday night with a fresh New Yorker and almost immediately find mention not only of your home institution, but of an author and his connection to a hot new show on Broadway.

See the April 6 Talk of the Town for more on how noted UI professor of music and UIP author and series editor William Kinderman inspired a character in “33 Variations,” the new play on Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations by Moisés Kaufman.

Kaufman eventually decided to create a musicologist character, but Kinderman never expected to be played by Jane Fonda. “I enjoy surprising twists,” he said. At the theatre, he was joined by his wife, Katherine Syer, also a musicologist, and their six-year-old daughter, Anna. The musicologists brushed past a crowd that included Dolly Parton, David Hyde Pierce, and Rosie O’Donnell, and took their seats.

Anna can begin her press clippings folder right now.