Tony Cacciotti, Chase Mishkin, David Steiner and Leonard Soloway announced today that Valerie Harper will return to Broadway this spring in Matthew Lombardo's new comedy Looped, directed by Rob Ruggiero. It will play the Lyceum Theatre (149 West 45th Street). Previews begin on February 19 and opening night is Sunday March 14.
Looped tells the story of
Tallulah Bankhead, the internationally celebrated actress, being called into a sound studio in 1965 to re-record (or "loop") one line of dialogue for what would be her last film -- the dreadful Die, Die My Darling . Southern, but by no means a belle, Ms. Bankhead was known for her wild partying and convention-defying exploits that outshone even today's celebrity bad girls. And given her inebriated state (and inability to loop the line perfectly), what ensues is a hilarious showdown between an uptight and conservative sound editor, Danny Miller, and the outrageous legend.
The creative team for Looped includes set designer
Adrian W. Jones, costume designer
William Ivey Long, wig designer
Charles LaPointe, lighting designer
Ken Billington, and sound designer
Michael Hooker /
Peter Fitzgerald Four time Emmy winner
Valerie Harper ("Rhoda," "The
Mary Tyler Moore Show"), returns to Broadway where she last starred in
Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. She also starred in that show's first national tour, as well as in the tour of
William Gibson's acclaimed one-woman play, Golda's Balcony, winner of the 2006 Touring Broadway Award. Other Broadway credits include
Paul Sills' Story Theatre;
Paul Sills' production of Ovid's Metamorphoses;
Carl Reiner's Something Different, Subways are for Sleeping, Wildcat, Take Me Along, Destry Rides Again and Li'l Abner. Off Broadway, she starred in Death-Defying Acts by
Elaine May and
Woody Allen and All Under Heaven, a one-woman play which she co-wrote based on the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning author
Pearl S. Buck. She originated the role of Tallulah in the world premiere production of Looped at the
Pasadena Playhouse and reprised the role at the Cuillo Centre and at
Arena Stage. On TV, she achieved worldwide acclaim playing Rhoda Morgenstern on "The
Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Rhoda," earning four Emmys, a Golden Globe, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year and the Hollywood Women's Press Club Golden Apple Award. She starred in the NBC series "Valerie," as well as in CBS' "The Office," and "City" and in the feature films Blame it on Rio,
Neil Simon's Chapter Two, Freebie and the Bean and The Last Married Couple in America. She is the author of a book published by Harper Collins entitled "Today I am a Ma'am: And Other Musings on Life, Beauty and Growing Older," a light-hearted look at aging. Since 1977, she's been an active participant in The Hunger Project, a strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.
Playwright
Matthew Lombardo is the author of Tea at Five, the
Katharine Hepburn bio-play which starred actress
Kate Mulgrew. The play, which won the IRNE Award for Best Solo Play) had a successful run Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre and continues to tour the country. Other Off -Broadway credits include directing the hit comedy End Of The World Party by
Chuck Ranberg at the 47th Street Theatre; Mother and Child at
Second Stage; and Guilty Innocence at The Actors' Playhouse, serving the latter two productions as both playwright and director.
Rob Ruggiero directed the world premiere of Looped last summer at the
Pasadena Playhouse, as well as the productions that played both The Cuillo Centre and The
Arena Stage. Ruggiero conceived and directed the highly successful production of Ella, a musical portrait of
Ella Fitzgerald which has played (and continues to play) numerous regional theaters nationally (receiving three
Kevin Kline Awards and three
Joseph Jefferson Awards including two for Outstanding Director.) He conceived and directed the original musical revue, Make Me A Song: The Music of
William Finn, which received an off-Broadway run as well as a 2008 London production. The New York production received nominations for both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Awards. He made his Off-Broadway directorial debut with the Pearl Buck solo play All Under Heaven (also starring
Valerie Harper), which toured regionally and also ran in Los Angeles. Ruggiero's work on both plays and musicals has been seen at regional theaters around the country, including critically acclaimed revivals of 1776, Big River and Camelot for
Goodspeed Musicals, where he will be directing a 2010 revival of Annie Get Your Gun. Mr. Ruggiero has been a key partner in the Artistic Leadership of TheaterWorks in Hartford, Connecticut since 1992.
