Holy smokes, folks! Donna McKechnie is coming to town. Primarily known as the best dancer ever to grace the Broadway stage, McKechnie (A Chorus Line, Company, Promises, Promises) will appear in Nice Work If You Can Get It! An Ira Gershwin Salon tomorrow night at the Alcazar Theater.

Ira, you see, provided the lyrics to brother George’s music from 1924 until the latter’s death in 1937, resulting in such works as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Of Thee I Sing and the gorgeous Porgy and Bess. He also wrote for Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Vernon Duke, just to name a few. And although McKechnie is famous for singing more modern Broadway tunes -- such as "The Music and the Mirror," "You Could Drive A Person Crazy," and the single greatest song ever written in the history of the universe -- she will belt out a few Ira classics during her all too rare SF visit.

“I don’t think Gershwin shows fell out of favor,” McKechnie told the LA Examiner, “so much as technology was just kind of sneaking in to Broadway at that time. A lot of new ground was being broken. It was also the sexual revolution and perhaps — and this is just a guess — the more romantic sensibilities of those shows felt a little bit quaint or too sweet." She cited "But Not For Me" as she all-time favorite Gershwin tunes. And we agree.

Tomorrow's one-night-only performance, directed by 42 Street Moon co-founder Greg MacKellan and with a book by Bay Area theater writer Chad Jones -- will also feature performances by Sarah Kathleen Farrell, Rob Hatzenbeller, Kelly Houston, Benjamin Pither and Celeste Russi.

What: Nice Work If You Can Get It! An Ira Gershwin Salon
Where: Alcazar Theatre, 630 Geary St., San Francisco
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Tickets: $70 to $100 (includes reception with cast members)