Tovah Feldshuh will assume the garb of fashion diva Diana Vreeland for the Hartford, CT, premiere of the Vreeland portrait, Full Gallop , presented by TheaterWorks, Oct. 30-Dec. 6. The official opening is Nov. 6. The Off-Broadway hit, about the indomitable Vogue editor in her waning years, is presented at TheaterWorks' 165-seat flexible space, the Hutensky Theatre, 233 Pearl St. in downtown Hartford. The company's associate artistic director, Rob Ruggiero, stages the play, written by original star Mary Louise Wilson and Mark Hampton.
One-woman shows are getting to be a habit with Ruggiero: He also directs the Pearl S. Buck drama, All Under Heaven, beginning previews Nov. 3 (for a Nov. 16 opening) at the Century Theatre Off Broadway. Valerie Harper stars.
Feldshuh is a three-time Tony Award nominee who has appeared in Lend Me a Tenor , Yentl , BAM's Three Sisters and, earlier this year, as Tallulah Bankhead in Tallulah's Party.
Designers are Michael Schweikardt (set), John Lasiter (lighting) and Margaret Carbonneau (costumes).
For tickets ($20-$35), call TheatreWorks at (860) 527-7838.
The dry comedy, Full Gallop , wowed audiences as part of Manhattan Theatre Club's second-stage season in 1995, and reopened to much acclaim at Off-Broadway's Westside Theatre, Oct. 2, 1996. It closed Aug. 30, 1996. Wilson and Hampton's Off-Broadway staging was directed by Nicholas Martin and produced by David Stone, Amy Nederlander-Case and Barry & Fran Weissler.
After helping define style from the 40's through the 60's at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines, Vreeland was fired from her position as editor-in-chief of Vogue in 1971.
Wilson received an Obie and Drama Desk Award for her performance as Vreeland.
-- By Kenneth Jones
and David Lefkowitz
