Tea at Five's Lombardo Writing Tallulah Play for Ashley

By Robert Simonson
15 Nov 2004

Matthew Lombardo, the author of the Katharine Hepburn-centered solo play, Tea at Five, will next give Tallulah Bankhead the same treatment.

Lombardo is currently working on Looped, a three-character play about the legendary actress, the Hartford Courant reported. When complete, it would star Elizabeth Ashley. John Tillinger is on board as director.

Tea at Five, which starred Kate Mulgrew, found Hepburn at her home in Old Saybrook. The first act takes place in 1938, a brief dip in Hepburn's career when a series of film flops got her branded "box-office poison."The second act speeds ahead 45 years to 1983. Here, recuperating from a car accident, she looks back on her storied career and famed romance with fellow (and married) actor Spencer Tracy. It had a run Off-Broadway in early 2003. John Tillinger directed the show.

Bankhead is a popular subject with playwrights. Tovah Feldshuh appeared Off-Broadway in Tallulah Hallelujah! in 2000. Around the same time, Dahling, a brisk, eight-actor play about the actress-diva, also played Off-Broadway. Finally, Kathleen Turner starred in the touring Tallulah in late 2000. It was advertised as Broadway-bound, but never reached New York.