Tickets Are Now on Sale for ANN and ANNIE GET YOUR GUN at Pasadena Playhouse

Pasadena Playhouse Producing Artistic Director Danny Feldman has announced the on -sale of tickets for the Los Angeles premiere of Ann - written by and starring Holland Taylor and directed by Benjamin Endsley Klein from May 27 to June 28, 2020, and a new production of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun with book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, directed by Sarna Lapine, from July 28-August 23, 2020.

Tickets for both Ann and Annie Get Your Gun are now available at pasadenaplayhouse.org, by phone at 626-356-7529, and at the box office at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Memberships are currently available at pasadenaplayhouse.org.

Iconic, heroic and hilarious, Texas Governor Ann Richards had a heart as big as the state from which she hailed, a wit to rival the greats, and an enduring passion for fair play. Neither partisan nor political, Ann is pure entertainment - an uplifting tribute to this courageous leader, dedicated mother, loving grandmother and legendary personality. Researched, written and performed by Emmy Award-winner Holland Taylor (The Practice, Legally Blonde and Two and a Half Men), whose unforgettable performance the New York Times called "frank, funny and warm...a FIERY DYNAMO," this richly imagined play reveals a complex, colorful and captivating character whose capacity to inspire us all burns even brighter today. Ann is a no-holds-barred, "blisteringly funny" comedy (Washingtonian) you won't soon forget.

Holland Taylor steps into the shoes of Ann Richards who dedicated her life to empowering, expanding and enriching the lives of her constituents, friends and family. Taylor takes the audience on a journey, neither political nor a history lesson, swirling together the past and present to reunite Ann Richards with old friends and introduce her to a new generation.

After playing throughout Texas to sold-out audiences, Ann went on to win critical acclaim in Chicago, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and on Broadway at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Holland Taylor says, "Even after a great revival a few years ago when I brought her home to Texas, I didn't feel quite 'complete' with playing Ann. Galveston, San Antonio, Austin, Washington DC, Chicago, and New York-- clearly left the West Coast out, and I always wanted to play her in Los Angeles. I have to consider that I can't do it forever, I'm getting up there--and as with childbearing, we forget the labor, and only think of the joy ahead. It also seems a time yearning for the spirit of Ann Richards. The glorious Pasadena Playhouse has had a permanent invitation extended to us for years, and the time has come to RSVP. "I'll be there!"

Ann began as a project and quest for Taylor to understand what it was about this housewife, mother, grandmother, leader and iconic patriot that affected so many people so deeply. Writing the play became a four-year journey for Taylor, crisscrossing the country, interviewing people who knew the Governor, watching countless hours of video coverage, and pouring over reams of Richards' personal and public papers at the University of Texas. In the end, her greatest resources were the family, friends, staff and colleagues of the Governor who allowed Holland to "know" Ann Richards.

About Ann, Feldman said, "In 2013, I saw Holland Taylor perform her love letter to Texas Governor Ann Richards on Broadway. I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Schedules finally aligned and I'm thrilled to have her bring her tour-de-force performance here at the Playhouse for our audiences. "

Holland Taylor's New York stage performances include Bess in Breakfast with Les and Bess, the original productions of Butley, opposite Alan Bates, A.R. Gurney's The Cocktail Hour, and more recently--David Lindsay Abaire's dark comedy Ripcord at The Manhattan Theatre Club, and Broadway's stellar The Front Page, with Nathan Lane. She still holds her head high after long ago on Broadway opening the historic flop, Moose Murders, having taken over for Eve Arden during previews a mere week before.

Holland most notably stormed Broadway at Lincoln Center's Beaumont Theatre as both writer and star of ANN, a play about the late Texas Governor Ann Richards. ANN garnered rave reviews, bringing Holland a TONY Award nomination for Best Actress, Drama Desk and Drama League nominations, and the Outer Circle Critics award for Best Solo Performance. There is a filmed version of the 2016 Zach Theatre production of ANN in Austin, when Holland triumphantly brought the show home to Texas as she said she would. That live performance movie of ANN now streams on BroadwayHD.com and will be broadcast across the country on PBS in summer of 2020.

Over the years in Los Angeles, she has performed on stage in Kindertransport, and played opposite Christopher Lloyd in Yasmina Reza's two hander The Unexpected Man at the Geffen Theatre. Narrating for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Stravinsky's Persephone for Essa-Pekka Salonen, and for John Adams in Phillip Glass' Ahknaten, Holland also delivered the spoken word in the Harry Potter Suite for Maestro John Williams with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

She has worked extensively in film, appearing in Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, To Die For, Next Stop Wonderland, One Fine Day, George of the Jungle, The Truman Show, Happy Accidents, Spy Kids (2 & 3), Keeping the Faith, Legally Blonde, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Baby Mama, and Gloria Bell, starring the glorious Julianne Moore.

On television, Holland has been nominated for the Emmy seven times, winning Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for the sexy, smart Judge Roberta Kittleson on The Practice. Among numerous series starring roles: The Powers that Be, Norman Lear's short-lived, highly acclaimed political satire; Bosom Buddies, with Tom Hanks; and, of course, the juggernaut, Charlie Sheen's Two and a Half Men. Her final season is airing now of Mr. Mercedes, a limited TV series for Audience Network, starring the great Irish actor Brenden Gleeson. It is written by Executive Producer David Kelley, run by director Jack Bender, and based on a trilogy of novels by Stephen King.

While working in this project, Holland also filmed three movies-- The Stand-In with Drew Barrymore, Bombshell, the Jay Roach picture about Roger Ailes, starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, and John Lithgow, and--the cherry on the cake, she played "The Great Leader," in Bill and Ted Face the Music, which die-hard hordes of fans await next summer.

Holland also especially enjoyed the role of 'Stormy," in NETFLIX's To All the Boys I've Loved Before sequel, a wildly popular romantic film for young adults based on the charming Jenny Han novels. It airs in February 2020.

Currently she is having a wonderful time filming one of creative mogul Ryan Murphy's projects for NETFLIX-- Hollywood-a behind the scenes take on the lives of a movie studio's denizens from the fabled forties.

One of the most beloved musicals of Broadway's Golden Age, Annie Get Your Gun will bring the strongest and most revolutionary Annie Oakley you have ever seen to the beloved music and lyrics of Irving Berlin. Directed by Sarna Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George with Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford), this production will return to the book by Dorothy and Herbert Fields made famous by Ethel Merman, rather than more recent versions from revivals. One of the classic scores of Broadway comes to life with There's No Business Like Show Business, Anything You Can Do, I Got Sun in the Morning and You Can't Get a Man With a Gun, all reimagined and performed by a country western, bluegrass band. Annie Get Your Gun is a co-production with Bay Street Theatre.

Irving Berlin, the composer of the music and lyricist for Annie Get Your Gun, was born in Tyumen, Russia, on May 11, 1888, and immigrated to New York as a child. He would become one of the most popular songwriters in the United States, with hits like Alexander's Ragtime Band, What'll I Do, God Bless America, and White Christmas. His music forms a great part of the Great American Songbook.

Herbert & Dorothy Fields are the brother and sister team who wrote the book for Annie Get Your Gun. Dorothy started writing songs for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway in the 1920s. From the 1930s on, Dorothy also worked for Hollywood with her partner, composer Jimmy McHugh. She won an Oscar for the song The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time (1936), which she had written with Jerome Kern. Herbert was a writer and actor, known for Hit the Deck (1955), 50 Million Frenchmen (1931) and Joy of Living (1938). Dorothy and Herbert won two Tony Awards in 1959 for Redhead including Best Musical and shared the award for Best Book/Libretto with Sidney Sheldon and David Shaw.

Sarna Lapine (Director) is a New York-based director and developer of new work. Upcoming: The Rape of Lucretia (Boston Lyric Opera), Kate Hamill's adaptation of Little Women (Primary Stages) and Radioactive, a new musical by Eric Price and Will Reynolds (Manhattan School of Music). Recent: Into the Woods (Juilliard), Noises Off (Two River Theater) Frost/Nixon (Bay Street Theater), You Are Here, a new musical (Goodspeed Musicals); Photograph 51, Japan premiere (Umeda Arts Theater); Sondheim on Sondheim with the Boston Pops and the L.A. Phil; and the critically-acclaimed Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford. Sarna directed the second national tour of Lincoln Center Theater's South Pacific and was Associate Director of The National Theatre's War Horse (North American Tour and Japan production). She started out at Lincoln Center Theater as Bartlett Sher's assistant director on The Light in the Piazza and worked with him on the Tony-award winning revival of South Pacific, as well as the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing! She holds an MFA from Columbia University.

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