SHUT UP SWEET CHARLOTTE Comes To The Rose and Alfred Miniaci PAC 11/19, 11/20, 11/22

Fresh from an acclaimed four-city debut tour which garnered New Orleans' Big Easy Awards for Best Comedy and Best Director and included a sold out three-month run in Provincetown, Mass., Shut Up, Sweet Charlotte! comes to the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center located at the Nova Southeastern University campus in Davie. Performances are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, November 19 and 20 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 22 at 2 and 7 p.m.

The show is a side-splitting parody of the original novel and the camp classic film Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) which starred Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. This larger-than-life production played to packed audiences during its initial engagements in New Orleans, Provincetown, Atlanta and most recently Palm Springs, Calif.

The production stars two of New Orleans biggest (literally) and best known personalities working today - Ricky Graham as Charlotte Hollis and International Drag Sensation Varla Jean Merman (a.k.a. Jeffery Roberson) as Cousin Miriam Deering.

Reaction Productions, the Los Angeles based production arm of Reaction Marketing & Promotions, Inc. headed by Executive Producer David R. Morgan, has selected Fort Lauderdale as one of five cities that the show will play as its resurrection is driven "back by popular demand."

The time is 1927 and Charlotte Hollis is a young woman having the time of her life at a party thrown by her father, rich plantation owner Big Sam. Charlotte's happiness is cut short when she offers her hand to her suitor John, who shortly finds himself without a hand, a head, or a life. Moving to the present day, we find Charlotte aged, crazed and shunned by the locals who think she murdered her lover those many years earlier. Charlotte's disheveled maid, Velma, is her sole companion...at least until cousin Miriam shows up to "help" with things. Cousin Miriam fails to offer any assistance other than bringing in the family physician to have her troubled relative committed. As the nightmares of her fiancée continue to haunt her, Charlotte ends up fighting for the Hollis estate, her sanity and top billing

The triple threat talents of director, star and writer Roberson leads a talented cast which includes Michael Sullivan as Harry Wills, Mark Meehan as Dr. Drew Bayliss, Brooks Braselman as Velma Cruther and Yvette Hargis as the only female in this "all male" creative stroke of genius who pulls double duty as Jewel Mayhew and Luke Standish. The set design is by Hollywood-based wizard Larry Basso. Wigs are by Gerard Kelly, costumes are by Cecile Casey Covert and the production stage manager is Mark Cortale.

Varla Jean Merman is the alter ego of Jeffrey Roberson who shared the Outfest Film Festival "Best Actor" Award and the Aspen HBO Film Festival "Best Actress" Award with his costars Jack Plotnick (aka Evie Harris) and Clinton Leupp, (better known as Miss Coco Peru) for his featured performance in Girls Will Be Girls (Sundance 2003) directed by Richard Day. Last year, Varla Jean made a splash nationally when he took home the winning model honors on Project Runway's Season Five Drag Challenge. He also played the role of Mary Sunshine in the revival of Chicago on Broadway. Roberson starred in The Mystery of Irma Vep at Provincetown Repertory, The Hartford Stage and the Long Wharf Theatre in Conn. His shows Varla Jean Merman Loves A Foreign Tongue, Anatomically Incorrect, I'm Not Paying For This, Girl With A Pearl Necklace, An Act Of Love, Under A Big Top, Holiday Ham!, All Washed Up! and The Very Worst of Varla Jean Merman have filled concert halls and cabarets around the world including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the New York Public Theater, London's Soho Theatre, Los Angeles' Renberg Theatre, and San Francisco's Victoria Theatre. He wrote and starred in the short Improve Your History with Varla Jean: Stonewall for the launch of the MTV's television network Logo. He was also the opening act at Vienna's Life Ball, Europe's largest fundraiser for AIDS research, where he performed on the same bill with Sharon Stone, Catherine Deneuve and Naomi Campbell. Most recently, in addition to his Shut Up Sweet Charlotte triumph, Varla Jean directed, wrote and starred in Varla Jean and the Mushroom Heads in Provincetown. For more information please visit www.varlaonline.com

Ricky Graham has appeared in The Pirates of Penzance, Candide and The Mikado (Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre), The Mystery of Irma Vep and Sordid Lives (Le Chat Noir). His musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol cleverly retitled Scrooge in Rouge co-starring Varla Jean Merman ran for four sold-out weeks in New Orleans at Le Chat Noir this past season. With Fred Palmisano he co-created the musicals Tunes, Peter Darling!, and Chicken Little (Le Petit Theatre) and Nighttime Naughties (Beverly Dinner Theatre and True Brew Theatre). Ricky has directed and appeared in Noel and Gertie (Southern Rep), Greater Tuna (True Brew, North Star Theatre), The Man Who Came To Dinner for the Tennessee Williams Festival, and Oh! Coward! for Le Petit Theatre. He has written and directed ...And the Ball And All, Our Class Reunion...And All, Out Da Box! (North Star Theatre) and When Ya Smilin' (True Brew, North Star and Le Petit Theatre). With David Cuthbert and Harry Mayronne he wrote and directed the musicals Daryl's Perils and At The Club Toot Sweet (Southern Rep Theatre and Le Petit Theatre). Graham's work with Mayronne, includes The Black and White Blues (Le Chat Noir and the Laurie Beechman Theatre, New York), and Hollywood Heaven (Le Chat Noir) with Bob Bruce and Roy Haylock. Ricky has also written, directed and performed in Crescent City for WWNO Public Radio, I'm Still Here... Me!, Getting a Kick Out of Cole and Naughty Bits at Le Chat Noir where he recently appeared in I Know What It Means. Earlier this year, Graham interpreted the notorious Fagin in Oliver for New Orleans' Southern Rep as well as a co-starring stint in Varla Jean and the Mushroom Heads in Provincetown.

Reaction Productions, headed by Executive Producer David R. Morgan, recently completed executive producing the initial run of Shut Up Sweet Charlotte. Morgan's other recent production projects accentuate his impresario-like skills of melding corporate conglomerates with and into creative, innovative sponsorships deals for mega-music production entities. During May and June 2009, these included country music behemoth outdoor festivals Stagecoach 09 in Southern California which was headlined Reba McIntyre, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney among numerous others and the Country Music Fest 2009 in Chippewa Valley, Wis. featuring George Strait and country legend-in-the-maKing Taylor Swift. Both events generated massive audiences with attendance of over 100,000 each. Closer to the Lone Star State, Morgan is performing similar duties on the Sarah Evans Tour 2009 playing Ft. Worth, Texas and Atlanta. Last year, Morgan spearheaded a 35-city national tour of the critically acclaimed stage production of My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, the autobiographical tour-de-force starring television and film funny man Leslie Jordan. Additional stage works include An Evening with Leslie Jordan in Provincetown as well as Palm Springs, Calif. Engagements of The Mismatch Game, An Evening with Ann Hampton Calloway, Sunset Tea Dance with DJ Abel and the annual staging of the Taste of Palm Springs. National touring events for Reaction Marketing & Promotions, Inc. include I Wanna Be A Soapstar, 2006 and 2007; Soapnet in Paradise 2005 in Honolulu; and Clarins Drenched Tour (national) 2006. With offices in Hollywood, Palm Springs and Boston, Reaction's notable client roster includes Pernod Ricard USA, Warner Brothers Home Video, Warner Brothers Domestic Television, The Disney Channel, Soap Net, ABC Family Network, Proctor & Gamble and Rock & Republic. The marketing/promotion arm segued into the live stage production arena as a promotional sponsor entity, creating premiums, collateral and subsequent special events highlighting the world theatrical premiere of Legally Blonde, The Musical in San Francisco and Cry-Baby, The Musical in La Jolla Calif. prior to both shows run on Broadway. For additional information, please visit www.reactionmarketing.net

Shut Up Sweet Charlotte's stop in Ft. Lauderdale is part of an additional five-city tour for the show in response to the demand which has rippled across the alternative arts and entertainment milieu throughout the country.

Tickets are $45 and are available at (954) 462-0222, on-line at www.miniacipac.org and at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center an hour and a half prior to each performance. The Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center is located at the Nova Southeastern University campus, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Boulevard, Davie.

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