The latest actresses added to the ongoing Vagina Monologues line up Off Broadway are Linda Ellerbee, Calista Flockhart, Lisa Gay Hamilton, arriving June 13-25. Flockhart, a New York City theatre presence for more than a decade (Bovver Boys, The Glass Menagerie) hit it big on TV's "Ally McBeal" but still returns to theatre when her schedule permits. (For example, last summer she starred in Neil LaBute's bash [sic].) Ellerbee has been a news and current affairs commentator on television for many years, while Hamilton starred in 1999's Angelique at Off-Broadway's MCC Theatre.
The last trio of Monologue stars, in through June 11, were Joy Behar, Hazelle Goodman and Holland Taylor.
June 27-July 9 will bring Carol Kane, Melissa Joan Hart and Phylicia Rashad. Kane was recently seen, albeit briefly, in Beth Henley's Family Week Off-Broadway. The play had a brief run, closing a week after opening. Rashad is best known for her role of the sitcom "The Cosby Show." On Broadway, she replaced Bernadette Peters in Into the Woods.
Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues, starring Ensler herself, returned to New York the Westside Theatre Oct. 3, 1999 after previews from Sept. 21. Vagina reveals a series of different women's stories and experiences involving their genitalia. New introductions to the monologues have been written for the various threesomes, who divide the text among themselves.
According to producer David Stone, Claire Danes, Mary Alice, Amy Irving, Rosie Perez, Audra McDonald, Swoosie Kurtz, Julie Kavner, Lynn Whitfield, Marsha Mason, Mo Gaffney, Mary McDonnell, Jenifer Lewis, Rita Moreno, Cynthia Nixon, Marlo Thomas, Shirley Knight, Andrea Martin, Alanis Morissette, Gina Gershon, Annie Potts, Diahann Carroll, Marisa Tomei, Judith Ivey and Viola Davis are among those who have already appeared in the production. Joe Mantello, who staged Love! Valour! Compassion! on Broadway, is the director of the show.
$10 of each ticket sold to The Vagina Monologues goes to the V Day Initiative.
For information on the Westside engagement, call (212) 239-6200.
-- By Robert Simonson
and David Lefkowitz
