What do Natasha the cat, actress/writer Carrie Fisher and the Italian Village restaurant have in common?

Don’t know? Give up?

They were all part of one especially enjoyable day I had last week. I hit two plays and the restaurant for dinner in between, all in about five hours and with two different friends.

It was great. You should try it.

I started off at the opening matinee performance of Lake View resident Avrum Krause’s Let’s Have Fun With This! the eighth original musical Krause has written and directed for the Time of Your Life Players, an age 55-plus acting group he founded to demonstrate that one can lead a creative life at any age.

The play is a one-hour, one-act, no frills, bare-bones display of community theater at its best, about a mischievous but loveable black cat named Natasha who escapes from her owners’ apartment. Natasha is played purrfectly by Skyliner Mary Gault, Sandburg Village resident Annie Kontak is the shifty Ms. Cohen and Gold Coaster Nancy Pranckus is an understudy who’s in the chorus.

A rockin’ granny also adds a little fun, and the actors really give their all. It runs through Nov. 5 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. As Krause says, where else can you see an original musical comedy with an eight-piece live band for $16?

“I think anyone who would like to have a good time and laugh should come to see this very entertaining show,” said Krause. “Also, they can see a production created and performed by seniors that has very hip music and great musicians and singers.”

Next I headed downtown to somewhere I hadn’t been in many years, Italian Village, 71 W. Monroe St. We decided to eat there as it’s the cheapest place to valet park, $10, and you can stay if you’re theater-going. After being seated by a suave maitre-d introducing himself as “George Clooney,” my friend Pearl and I munched on Prince Edward Island Mussels in marinara, Atlantic salmon puttanesca (broiled with tomatoes, capers, olives, garlic, basil and white wine) and cannoli for dessert. This will now become a downtown ritual, as it was absolutely fantastico!

We closed the night catching Carrie Fisher in Wishful Drinking, running through this weekend at the Bank of America Theatre. Fisher was hilarious as she let her life all hang out, joking about drugs, mental illness, her failed marriages, mother Debbie Reynolds, dad Eddie Fisher, the whole Liz Taylor scandal and plenty of other juicy stories.

So whether it’s cats, cannolis or Carrie that turns you on, there’s something good in the ’hood happening for all ages this weekend.

What are you doing tonight? … come on up to my neck of the woods and see my fellow Metro High alum Rondi Charleston at Mayne Stage, 1328 W. Morse Ave. Charleston is a jazzy singer who studied guitar at the Old Town School of Folk Music for many years, and even named her album after a tune she learned there, “Who Knows Where The Time Goes.”

Sincerest condolences … to all at Columbia College mourning the death of Rose Economou, a veteran broadcast journalist and professor who died Oct. 2 at age 65.

I didn’t know Rose that well but from what I did know, she was a dynamo. According to an obit the school released, she achieved early fame as a 25-year-old “advance man” for the presidential campaign of Democrat Ed Muskie in 1972, leading Time magazine to report it as a national feature describing her as “persuasive” and “an attractive brunette from Chicago.”

Seems from there it was all uphill for Rose. I know she’ll be missed. Services are pending.