Breaking News: Valerie Harper Replaced by Brenda Vaccaro in Ogunquit's NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT

Academy Award nominated film star Brenda Vaccaro will step into the role of Millicent Winter in the production of Nice Work If You Can Get It now playing on the Ogunquit Playhouse stage through August 15. Valerie Harper, who had been performing in the role, continues to rest after falling ill on July 29. Ms. Vaccaro will take the stage for the 8PM performance on Tuesday, August 4, and through the end of the run.

The Playhouse tells us that "Valerie is feeling great right now and we want her to continue to rest and to enjoy her family. After discussing with them, we decided that we wanted to relieve her of any pressure of having to return to the show, which only runs for two more weeks. With Valerie's blessing, the Ogunquit Playhouse is thrilled to announce that Brenda Vaccaro, star of film, television and stage, has arrived in Ogunquit to take over the role of Millicent Winter," stated Executive Artistic Director Bradford Kenney.

Brenda Vaccaro is considered to be one of our nation's most respected actresses. She has received an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, the People's Choice Award, and the Theater World Award. In addition, she has been honored with two Academy Award nominations, five Tony Award nominations, and numerous Emmy Award nominations.

Ms. Vaccaro landed her first motion picture with director John Schlesinger who chose her to star with Dustin Hoffman and John Voight in his masterpiece Midnight Cowboy in 1970. She has gone on to star in numerous films including I Love My Wife with Elliott Gould, Summer Tree with Michael Douglas, and Going Home with Robert Michum. Ms. Vaccaro was nominated for an Academy Award and received the Golden Globe Award and a People's Choice Award for her performance in the film Once Is Not Enough, based on Jacqueline Susanne's best-selling novel. Among her many other screen credits are Airport 77 with Jack Lemon, Capricorn One a Peter Hyams film with Hal Holbrook, Where It's At with David Janssen, The First Deadly Sin with Frank Sinatra, Zorro the Gay Blade with George Hamilton, Super Girl with Fay Dunaway, Water with Michael Caine, in the Warren Beatty film Love Affair, in Barbra Streisand's film The Mirror has Two Faces, and in Nicolas Cage's film Sonny with James Franco.

Ms. Vaccaro has had three television series of her own: Sara, for which she received an Emmy Award nomination, Paper Dolls and Dear Detective. She also received an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Special for The Shape of Things, as well as Emmy Award nominations for Honor Thy Father and Sunshine. In addition she has starred in some of television most prestigious shows including Stanley Kramer's The Trail of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, The Streets of San Francisco with Michael Douglas, The Big Rip Off with Tony Curtis, and The Guyanna Tragedy with Powers Boothe. She has made dozens of appearances on television shows including The Pride of Jesse Hallam with Johnny Cash, The Star Maker, with Rock Hudson and Susanne Pleshette, A Long Way Home, with Timothy Hutton, Deceptions with Stephanie Powers, Stolen One Husband with Valerie Harper, Colombo, Murder She Wrote, Ally McBeal and The Golden Girls. She has also guest starred in Friends, as Joey's mother. She recently stared in Barry Levinson's film for HBO You Don't Know Jack with Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. She has also garnered Emmy Award nominations for her guest appearances on the television shows Street of San Francisco, The Shape of Things and The Golden Girls.

Ms. Vaccaro began her career on Broadway in John Patrick's play Everybody Loves Opal with Eileen Heckart, for which she received the Theater World Award and a Tony Nomination. In the Broadway production of C. P. Snow's The Affair, she received another Tony Award nomination, and has subsequently been nominated another three times for her outstanding performances in Abe Burrow's comedy Cactus Flower, George Abbott's musical How Now, Dow Jones, and Herb Gardner's play The Goodbye People. She also starred on Broadway with Gene Hackman in The Natural Look, in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple with Sally Struthers, and with Alan Alda in Neil Simon's Jake's Women, as well as many other stage performances.

Nice Work If You Can Get It is the brand-new musical written by Tony Award-winner Joe DiPietro based on material by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse and was nominated in 2012 for 10 Tony Awards, winning two. This high-stepping Broadway musical stars Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning actress Sally Struthers as prohibitionist Duchess Estonia Dulworth, along with Joey Sorge as Jimmy Winter and Amanda Lea LaVergne as Billie Bendix and with James Beaman as Cookie McGee. The Ogunquit Playhouse production is directed by Larry Raben, with Peggy Hickey as Choreographer and Musical Director is Charlie Reuter.

The Ogunquit Playhouse will produce three more Broadway musicals in 2015. The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical about the iconic jam session with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, Million Dollar Quartet, is on stage August 19 to September 19. Saturday Night Fever, with a newly revised book and musical arrangements, comes to life on stage from September 23 to October 25. The Irving Berlin classic White Christmas will be presented just in time for the holidays, December 9 to 20 at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.