Husband and wife thespians Joanna Gleason and Chris Sarandon will star in Michael Patrick King's new pair of comic one-acts Thorn & Bloom at Los Angeles' Court Theater (722 N. La Cienega Blvd.). The production, running July 9-Aug. 16, will mark the first time the two have performed together since first meeting on the stage of the ill-fated Broadway musical Nick & Nora.

So Terrence McNally's controversial new play Corpus Christi features a gay Jesus Christ figure? How about this: The first half of Thorn & Bloom is about a screenwriter meeting Jesus for a power lunch to tell the deity that he's gay. Sarandon plays the Saviour.

The second half of the evening stars Gleason as a jaded spiritual guide in Heaven schooling a group a unsuspecting new souls on how to survive life on miserable, little Earth.

Both plays were specifically written by King for the actors. King is best known as a television writer ("Murphy Brown") and producer ("Sex in the City"). The production also stars Don Berman and Allan Wasserman. For information, call (213) 660-8587.

-- By Robert Simonson