Little Richard, Chuck Berry to play benefit

New Orleans — Little Richard and Chuck Berry are dusting off the songbook of a New Orleans legend to raise money for the city’s parks and schools.

They’re part of a May 30 concert at the New Orleans Arena called “The Domino Effect” because they’ll be performing songs popularized by New Orleans native and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist Fats Domino.

The concert is a fundraising event for a charity run by New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees called “Operation Kids,” which has raised more than $1.5 million since 2007.

Domino, who is 81, has been invited to attend the concert but will not perform. He lives in suburban New Orleans.

Brees says he’s thrilled about the lineup that also includes Keb Mo, Junior Brown, Taj Mahal and other artists.

Obama’s half sister to write children’s book

New York — President Obama’s half-sister has a book deal, for a children’s picture story.

Maya Soetoro-Ng’s “Ladder to the Moon,” based in part on Obama’s mother and other family members, will be published by Candlewick Press at a date not yet determined. According to Candlewick, Soetoro-Ng will pay “homage to her mother’s tradition of storytelling.”

The late Ann Dunham is mother both to Obama and Soetoro-Ng, who was born in 1970, nine years after the future president. (Obama and Soetoro-Ng have different fathers). Soetoro-Ng, who teaches at an all-girls school in Honolulu, campaigned for her half brother and spoke at last year’s Democratic National Convention.

John Stamos set for ‘Bye Bye Birdie’

New York — Hello “Bye Bye Birdie.”

John Stamos and Gina Gershon will star in the first Broadway revival of “Bye Bye Birdie.”

Roundabout Theatre Company artistic director Todd Haimes says “Birdie” will open this fall at one of its theaters. The 1960 musical concerns an Elvis Presley-like rock ‘n’ roll star named Conrad Birdie who is being drafted into the Army and the effect his departure has on the teenagers in a small Ohio town.

Stamos will play the star’s manager, Albert Peterson, and Gershon will portray the manager’s long-suffering secretary.