Quick Takes: ‘Next to Normal’ national tour, Whitney Museum, Oprah’s charity and more.

Alice Ripley is taking her Tony-winning performance as a mentally disturbed housewife in “Next to Normal” to theaters around the country.

The actress will star in the national tour of “Next to Normal,” which kicks off at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in November. The rest of the musical’s touring cast hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Michael Greif, who directed the Broadway version, will also direct the tour.

—David Ng

N.Y.’s Whitney will build venue

The Whitney Museum of American Art will break ground on a new museum in downtown Manhattan in 2011.

The museum’s board on Tuesday night unanimously approved the construction of the Renzo Piano-designed building at the entrance to the new High Line park. It said the six-story, asymmetrical, metal-clad museum will provide “essential new space” for the Whitney’s holdings.

The museum’s current Madison Avenue location can display only 150 works at a time from its 18,000-piece permanent collection.

The museum has raised $372 million of the $680-million project. It’s expected to be completed in 2015.

The fate of the uptown museum hasn’t been resolved. The Whitney board agreed to continue discussions with the Metropolitan Museum of Art about possibly sharing it.

—Associated Press

Oprah charity

to shut down

Oprah Winfrey’s charity, the Angel Network, is shutting down as her talk show draws to a close.

The network stopped accepting donations this week and said on its website that it plans to dissolve as soon as its remaining funds are disbursed.

The Angel Network was launched in 1998 with donations from viewers of Oprah’s talk show. Its demise stems from Winfrey’s decision to end her Chicago-based show in 2011 after 25 years on the air, Angel Network spokeswoman Angela DePaul said.

The website said nearly 150,000 donors gave more than $80 million to the charity.

Winfrey isn’t ending her philanthropic efforts. The website notice says her new cable network, due to launch in January, will highlight charitable organizations in coming years.

—Associated Press

Fox shuffles business lineup

Fox Business Network confirmed Wednesday that the network is canceling its afternoon show “Happy Hour” and replacing it with “The Willis Report,” a consumer-oriented program hosted by former CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis.

Willis’ show, which will premiere at 2 p.m. EDT June 7, will mark a change in tone from “Happy Hour,” which was produced live out of the bar of the Bull & Bear restaurant of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. “Gerri brings a fresh, no-nonsense approach to complicated financial issues and her new program will be a clear reflection of that,” Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News and Fox Business, said in a statement.

The network has not yet announced how “Happy Hour” anchors Eric Bolling, Rebecca Diamond and Cody Willard will be reassigned.

The move comes as Fox Business has been quietly tinkering with its lineup.

Executives recently canceled “Fox Business Morning,” the 5 a.m. EDT lead-in to “Imus in the Morning,” replacing it with “Best of Imus,” a taped show. “Your Questions, Your Money,” a four-hour call-in show on Saturdays aimed at small business owners, is scheduled to end its run at the end of the month.

—Matea Gold

Willie Nelson gets a haircut

Country music fans have come to expect a little eccentricity from legendary crooner Willie Nelson, but he pulled off a real shocker this time.

He cut his hair.

Nelson’s waist-deep, reddish pigtails have long been one of the singer-songwriter’s signature features. But spokeswoman Elaine Schock said Nelson, who’s been hanging loose in Hawaii, got his hair cut in the last couple of weeks.

She said the Texas-born performer didn’t make a big fuss about the makeover, but she theorized Willie might have grown tired of dealing with the long locks.

“There’s a lot of maintenance,” she said.

—Associated Press