Laguna Playhouse to Present OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE RITA, 12/31

The Laguna Playhouse will present the beginning of 2015 in a most spectacular fashion with the return of superstar comedienne Rita Rudner who will be performing, RITA RUDNER: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE RITA, to start the New Year right with joy and laughter. OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE RITA will perform on Wednesday, December 31 at 7pm at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Ring in the New Year with award-winning comedian Rita Rudner. Rudner's sharp timing and soft-spoke voice have become her trademarks while delivering hilarious and witty observations on everyday life. Opening for Rita will be her singer-songwriter daughter Molly Bergman to make the evening this New Year's celebration a family affair to remember!

Rudner has performed over 3,000 solo shows in Las Vegas since the MGM Corporation built a theatre for her twelve years ago. She also regularly performs concerts and at corporate and charity events across the country.

She recently performed as an actress in the world premiere of her play "Tickled Pink" at the Laguna Playhouse.

One of the country's top comedians and a New York Times bestselling author, Rita Rudner is also an award-winning television personality, screenwriter, playwright, Broadway dancer, and actress. A house-filling favorite in Las Vegas since she opened as one of the hottest tickets in town in June, 2000, Rudner is known for her epigrammatic one-liners. She performs at The Venetian in Las Vegas, where over the course of a ten year run and 2,000 plus shows, she has sold over one million tickets and become the longest-running solo show in the history of Las Vegas. She has been named Comedian Of The Year nine years in a row and in 2006 received The Nevada Ballet's Woman Of The Year Award (other recent recipients include Bette Midler, Celine Dion, Chita Rivera and Twyla Tharp).

Rita's first solo HBO special, Rita Rudner's One Night Stand, was nominated for several awards, as was her eponymous English BBC television show that later appeared in the USA on A&E. Rudner's two one-hour specials for HBO, Born to Be Mild and Married Without Children, were ratings standouts and she performed all over the country, filling Carnegie Hall in New York three times and the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles twice. In 2008 Rita Rudner: Live From Las Vegas was PBS's first ever stand-up comedy special.

Rita Rudner has written five books, including her bestselling non-fiction titles, Naked Beneath My Clothes and Rita Rudner's Guide to Men and the novels Tickled Pink and Turning the Tables. The audio version of Tickled Pinkreceived a Grammy nomination. Her latest collection of essays, I Still Have It...I Just Can't Remember Where I Put It,was published in May 2008.

In 2003, Rudner launched from Las Vegas her first syndicated daily TV show, Ask Rita, which featured a panel of celebrities lightheartedly attempting to solve personal problems submitted by members of the public; it ran for two years. For her work on the show, American Women In Radio and Television awarded Rudner a 2004 Gracie Allen Award for Best Program Host. Rita helped write the 2001 and 2003 Oscar shows with Steve Martin and the 2002 Oscar broadcast with Whoopi Goldberg.

Rita Rudner moved to New York at the age of fifteen to become a dancer on Broadway. She appeared in several shows, including the original productions of Follies and Mack and Mabel. It was while in Annie on Broadway that she began exploring the comedy clubs of Manhattan. In the early '80s, Rudner took a full-time leap from chorus lines to punch lines and was soon a regular guest on both Late Night With David Letterman and The Tonight Show.

Rudner is a frequent collaborator with her writer/producer husband of twenty years, Martin Bergman. The couple's first produced film script was Peter's Friends. The film, starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton, Stephen Fry, and Rita, won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award for Comedy and was nominated for the Goya Award for Best European Film of 1994. Bergman and Rudner's latest film, Thanks, recently premiered at the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The couple's first play - Room 776 - ran as part of the 2008 season of the Las Vegas Little Theatre. Tickled Pink had its world premiere at the Playhouse.

In 2009, Rita, Bette Midler and Sheryl Crow joined forces to perform a fundraiser for President Obama and the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid.

Rita Rudner lives in Las Vegas and Monarch Beach, California, with her husband and daughter. For more information on Rita, log on to her website at www.ritafunny.com or become her fan on Facebook.

Molly Bergman is a twelve-year-old budding singer-songwriter. During 2014, she has performed at the Indian Wells Tennis Center, the Laguna Playhouse, The Hamilton Oaks Winery in San Juan Capistrano, Red Rock High School in Sedona, Arizona, and The Point and Stillwater restaurants in Dana Point. She also recorded her first video for her original song "Get Your Orange On."

She will be opening for her mother, comedian Rita Rudner, on December 27th at Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas and then on New Year's Eve at the Laguna Playhouse. Molly plays the piano, guitar and ukulele.

Tickets are $90 and can be purchased online at www.lagunaplayhouse.com or by calling (949) 497-ARTS (2787).

The box office is open Mondays - Sundays: 12p.m. to 5 p.m. (open until 7:30pm on performance days). For more information on all shows and programming visit wwwlagunaplayhouse.com. The LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE is located at 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

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