She’s been to Amsterdam and she’s been a “who’s Huu” in Seattle, but these days actress-writer Lauren Weedman has been having a Homecoming — literally. Weedman’s best-known piece, Homecoming, has returned to Off-Broadway, playing at the ArcLight Theatre where performances began Jan. 17 for an official opening Jan. 21.
The solo, directed by Maryann Lombardi, played a number of engagements at NYC cabaret venues cabaret since late fall 2000 in the hopes of sparking interest in a run Off Broadway. Homecoming even had a once-a-week legit stint at OB's Westside Theatre that began Sept. 10 and was poised for a limited run — that is, until terrorist attacks the next day turned New York and the world upside down. As such, Homecoming's producers, boulevard arts inc. [Sic] in association with Laine Valentino and Evan Bergman, announced after the Sept. 24 performance that the show would go on hiatus until January. The ArcLight run will be through March 10, according to production spokesperson Karen Greco.
A popular Seattle performer, Weedman appeared at the Empty Space Theatre in The Salvation of Iggy Scrooge, Pants on Fire, Wuthering! Heights! The! Musical!, Texarkana Waltz and this season’s Amsterdam. She is known for her work in the final season of Almost Live TV and her solo pieces, If Ornaments Had Lips, Yea, Though I Walk; Huu and the aforementioned Homecoming, which has already played several stints in New York City, including a recent run at the Westbeth Theatre Center. She's also recently become an on-camera member of the team for the cable-TV news-satire comedy, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
In Homecoming, among the roles Weedman essays in the tale of her search for her birth mother are her adopted Mom, her bossy sister, her aging Grandma, and her boyfriend, switching from one character to another rapidly.
Producer and director Lombardi had wanted to tour Homecoming around New York City before settling into a permanent space in spring 2001. Off-Broadway was booked rather tightly, so Homecoming instead toured Florida in March and April 2001. For information on Homecoming at the ArcLight Theatre: 152 West 71 Street, call (212) 239-6200.
— By David Lefkowitz
