A West Coast hit during its spring engagement at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, If You Ever Leave Me...I'm Going With You will spend its summer in Nyack, New York, playing at the Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center July 21-25. Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna celebrate 33 years of marriage with their play, which ran in California March 6-April 26. The husband-and-wife team wrote, co-directed and star in the show, which was staged at a few regional theatres after having been briefly workshopped in L.A. two years ago.
The comedy covers the couple's romantic courtship, their first wedding reception on the Merv Griffin Show, their five marriage ceremonies, and the "near spouse-icides of the three decades of professional collaboration," said a Canon spokesperson. As such, it includes scenes from the couple's last duet, the Off-Broadway hit, Bermuda Avenue Triangle, as well as It Had to Be You and their best-known pairing, Lovers and Other Strangers.
Bologna has been especially busy these days, having directed the hit comedy King Levine, which recently ended a commercial engagement at the Tiffany Theatre in L.A. Taylor is known to TV audiences for her Emmy-nominated role as Fran Drescher's mom on "The Nanny."
After Taylor and Bologna, composer-pianist Marvin Hamlisch will offer a concert gig July 30-31, featuring humorous anecdotes and musical selections -- no doubt including tunes from A Chorus Line and Smile, as well as movie songs from "The Way We Were" and "The Sting."
Finishing the Hayes Center's "Summer of Stars" will be Catskills in Rockland II -- All New for 1999, an offshoot of Catskills on Broadway featuring two of that show's original comedians, Freddie Roman and Dick Capri. Stand-uppers Stewie Stone and Lenny Rush are also on the bill, Rush having appeared in the first Catskills in Rockland at the Hayes Center in 1997. The new version runs Aug. 11-15. For tickets and information on all three shows, call (914) 358-6333. Previous plays in the Hayes Center season have included the premieres of Big Rosemary and Missing Footage, and a revival of Company starring Donna McKechnie.
