Broadway bound: Old Globe associate artist Kandis...

Broadway bound: Old Globe associate artist Kandis Chappell will make her Broadway debut in “Rumors” when she substitutes for Christine Baranski as early as December. Chappell never auditioned for the part she will understudy when she completes work in “The Crucible” at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa on Oct. 16. She came to the attention of longtime Neil Simon producer Manny Azenberg when she was assigned to read the script with auditioning actors in Los Angeles.

“She was wonderful,” Azenberg said, “so we offered her a job.”

Lynnda Ferguson, whom scouts spotted in the small but eloquent role of Coriolanus’ wife, Virgilia, in the Old Globe’s “Coriolanus,” may also go on to understudy the Broadway production, Azenberg said. And LuAnn Ponce, the Los Angeles teen-ager who made her Old Globe debut as Little Red Riding Hood in Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” in December, 1986, will soon make her Broadway debut as a substitute for the actress now in the part.