A reading of The Puma, a new play by Julie Gilbert and Frank Evans, will star two Tony-nominees as two legends. Daphne Rubin-Vega will play Marlene Dietrich and Marc Kudisch will be seen as Erich Maria Remarque in the private reading, which will be presented on March 23rd.
The play explores the relationship between the high-cheekboned German actress and the famed author of the anti-war novel
All Quiet on the Western Front.
The Puma will also feature Brian Letscher as James Stewart (with whom Dietrich had an affair) and Ariane Brandt as four women who figured in the lives of Dietrich and Remarque: Maedchen, first wife Yutta Remarque (who he married twice), Gloria Hatrick McClean (who would marry Stewart) and second wife Paulette Goddard, who starred in
Modern Times and other films.
Yanna Kroyt Brandt will direct the reading of the play, whose seeds were planted with Gilbert's acclaimed dual biography of Remarque and Goddard,
Opposite Attraction.Kudisch, who was last seen in
See What I Wanna See at the Public Theater, is a Tony-nominee for his performances in
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and
Thoroughly Modern Millie; he has also been seen on Broadway in A
ssassins, Bells Are Ringing, High Society, The Wild Party and more. Rubin-Vega currently appears in
Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center. She received Tony nods for her performances in
Rent and
Anna in the Tropics.
E-mail PumaThePlay@aol.com for more information on the reading, which is closed to the public.
