Looped, Starring Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead, Will Play Broadway's Lyceum

By Kenneth Jones
10 Dec 2009

Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead in Looped
Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead in Looped

Producers Tony Cacciotti, Chase Mishkin, David Steiner and Leonard Soloway confirmed on Dec. 10 that they will bring Valerie Harper back to Broadway. She'll play Tallulah Bankhead in Matthew Lombardo's new comedy Looped, directed by Rob Ruggiero.

The plan had previously leaked out in a public casting notice that sought an actor to play opposite her. (That actor has yet to be announced.)

Looped will play the Lyceum Theatre, 149 W. 45th Street, beginning Feb. 19, 2010, and opening March 14.

According to the producers, "Looped tells the story of Tallulah Bankhead, the internationally celebrated actress, being called into a sound studio in 1965 to re-record (or 'loop') one line of dialogue for what would be her last film — the dreadful 'Die, Die My Darling.' Southern, but by no means a belle, Ms. Bankhead was known for her wild partying and convention-defying exploits that outshone even today's celebrity bad girls. And given her inebriated state (and inability to loop the line perfectly), what ensues is a hilarious showdown between an uptight and conservative sound editor, Danny Miller, and the outrageous legend."

The creative team for Looped includes set designer Adrian W. Jones, costume designer William Ivey Long, wig designer Charles LaPointe, lighting designer Ken Billington, and sound designer Michael Hooker/Peter Fitzgerald.

Harper is a four-time Emmy Award winner famous for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the spin-off series, "Rhoda." In 2000, she reprised the role of Rhoda Morgenstern (along with Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards) in the ABC television movie "Mary and Rhoda," which attracted nearly 18 million viewers. She performed with various companies of Second City and Story Theatre in many venues all over the country and in Canada. In 1970 she was a member of the original stage production of Story Theater in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum and on Broadway. During the run at the Ambassador Theater, Paul Sills opened his second production: Ovid's Metamorphoses, also featuring Harper, to run in repertory with Story Theater. In the mid-1970s she played Los Angeles' James Doolittle Theatre and later toured in Dear Liar with Anthony Zerbe. She and her husband, Tony Cacciotti, began developing a one-woman play based on the life and work of Pearl S. Buck, the Nobel Prize-winning author of, among many works, "The Good Earth." She co-wrote and performed that play All Under Heaven (directed by Ruggiero) in New York (1999), in Los Angeles (2000) and across the country. In 2001 Harper was back on Broadway starring in Charles Busch's comedy The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. She played "the Wife" (Marjorie Taub) for a year on Broadway and then for another year in the national tour. Having completed her cross-country tour of Golda's Balcony, Harper is continuing as Golda Meir for the film version of William Gibson's play.

Lombardo is the author of Tea at Five, the biographical play about Katharine Hepburn.

Ruggiero directed the world premiere of Looped at Pasadena Playhouse, as well as the productions that played both The Cuillo Centre and Arena Stage. Ruggiero conceived and directed the popular regional musical Ella, a portrait of Ella Fitzgerald. He also conceived and directed the musical revue, Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn. The Off-Broadway production received nominations for both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Awards. He made his Off-Broadway directorial debut with the Pearl Buck solo play All Under Heaven (also starring Valerie Harper), which toured regionally and also ran in Los Angeles.

Tallulah Bankhead (1902-68) was the outspoken, reckless and blowsy film and stage star whose famous roles include Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth, Regina in The Little Foxes and Blanche Du Bois in a 1956 City Center production of A Steeetcar Named Desire. Her manner was so arch that people often thought she was British; she was, in fact, a native of Alabama. She was nominated for a Best Actress Tony in 1961 for the play Midgie Purvis.

Looped will play Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday-Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2 & 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM.

Visit www.loopedtheplay.com.