LESLIE JORDAN... PINK CARPET Set For Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue

The West?End theatre and dates have now been confirmed for the transfer from New York of the acclaimed one-man show, LESLIE?JORDAN?MY?TRIP?DOWN?THE?PINK?CARPET.

Award-winning Leslie Jordan, celebrated as one of the funniest men in Hollywood, will take the West?End by storm when LESLIE?JORDAN?MY?TRIP?DOWN?THE?PINK?CARPET opens at the Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue, on Thursday January 27 and runs to Saturday February 19.

Leslie Jordan, a small man but a giant, notorious scene stealer on screen, wowed New York audiences during a four-month run of the show earlier this year at the Midtown Theater. An outrageous tell-all that weaves together a hilarious collection of true life stories (which were also the basis for his popular memoir, ‘My Trip Down The Pink Carpet', recently published by Simon & Schuster), it is filled with comically overwrought childhood agonies, offbeat observations, and revealing celebrity encounters. From Boy George to George Clooney, LESLIE?JORDAN?MY?TRIP?DOWN?THE?PINK?CARPET delivers a laugh-out-loud take on Hollywood, fame, addiction, gay culture, and learning to love oneself.

"This is actually just a cheap ploy to get an all expense paid trip to London," Leslie laughed, "but I am thrilled to be able to share my life story on another continent."

Pint-sized Jordan, hailed by the American critics as "an hysterical spitfire" and "comic gold",?made his name on ‘Will & Grace' and won a coveted TV?Oscar - an Emmy - as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series as Beverley Leslie, the nemesis of infamous Karen Walker. Viewers in their hundreds of millons around the globe lapped it up as Leslie and Megan Mullally traded barbs and insulted as the worst of enemies. However, not many people know that his most famous role was originally written for ‘Dynasty' star Joan Collins, but she refused to have her wig torn off in a fight scene with Mullally - just one of the juicy Hollywood insider stories revealed by Jordan in LESLIE?JORDAN?MY?TRIP?DOWN?THE?PINK?CARPET.

Jordan has also made memorable appearances on ‘Ally McBeal', ‘Boston Legal', ‘Monk' and ‘Murphy Brown', as well as the cult classic, ‘Sordid Lives' alongside ‘Golden Girl' Rue McClanahan and Olivia Newton?John.

Part autobiography, and part Hollywood tell-all - from small-town USA to the pink carpet of Hollywood - LESLIE?JORDAN?MY?TRIP?DOWN?THE?PINK?CARPET tells the unlikely tale of how Leslie, raised in a conservative family in Chattanooga, Tennessee, boarded a Greyhound bus bound for L.A. with $1,200 sewn into his underpants and never looked back. His pocket-sized physique and inescapable talent for high camp paved the way to a lucrative and varied career in commercials (including one memorable time alongside Boy?George, as a Kimono-wearing monkey, encased in prosthetic make-up by Rick?Baker, the genius behind Michael Jackson's ‘Thriller' video and "An American Werewolf in London') and in major TV series. Along the way he immersed himself in writing for the stage, but with success came dangerous temptations that threatened his career and life, including drug and alcohol dependency.

Director David Galligan has worked with Leslie?Jordan several times. As well as directing ‘My Trip Down The Pink?Carpet', he also helmed his Christmas show, ‘Deck the Halls, Ya'll' and ‘Like a Dog on Linoleum'.

MY?TRIP?DOWN?THE?PINK?CARPET is produced by Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman, Dennis Grimaldi, Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner, Jean McFaddin/Susan Falk, Thomas Hopkins, and Daniel Wallace in association with Julian Stoneman.

www.mytripdownthepinkcarpet.com

West End listings info

Leslie Jordan MY TRIP DOWN THE PINK CARPET

Apollo Theatre
Shaftesbury Avenue
London
W1D 4ES

Box office: 0844 412 4658

www.nimaxtheatres.com

Thursday 27 January to Saturday 19 February

Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm
(*except press night Thursday 3 February at 7.00pm)

Thursday & Saturday matinee at 3.00pm

Ticket prices: £45.00, £40.00, £35.00, £30.00, £25.00, £20.00 (Concessions available)
Booking fees apply (includes £1 restoration fee)