"Due to an unfortunate conflict in Rita Moreno's schedule," a press statement reads, the Peter Quilter comedy will not make its West Coast debut as part of the 40th anniversary season.
The two vacant slots in the season will now be filled by the Fisher solo and the return of the troupe that previously brought the California venue its staging of The Miser.
"Naturally, everyone was disappointed when Rita had to withdraw," said artistic director Tony Taccone, "but I'm thrilled that we could find another comedy that perfectly matches its performer to its content. I'm looking forward to working with Carrie and directing Wishful Drinking."
Fisher debuted her solo at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse where it enjoyed an extended run from November 2006 into January 2007. The Berkeley run is presented in association with Jonathan Reinis Productions.
The new season (subject to change) follows:
Les Waters stages the classic filled with "ridiculous aristocrats, eccentric suitors, and iconoclastic women [who] grapple with unlikely romance in a world on the brink of war."
Frank Galati adapts and directs the work written by Haruki Murakami and translated by Jay Rubin in which a "storyteller can't dispel the world's woes, but he can teach a child – and himself – how to face fear."
Conceived and directed by the Chicago-based creator of Journey to the West, Metamorphoses, The Secret in the Wings and The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, this new mythic trek takes audiences alongside "Jason on his ancient quest for the Golden Fleece — an epic journey of love and loss, hubris and honor, danger and adventure... [in which he] confronts giants, kings, sirens, nymphs, centaurs, sea monsters, and one treacherously heartsick sorceress."
Tony Taccone will direct a new solo created and performed by Jails, Hospitals & Hip Hop star Danny Hoch, which "captures the indelible characters of his neighborhood in Brooklyn, where the melting pot is boiling over with ethnic and economic tensions."
Written and performed by the Hollywood star and writer, the show offers insights and experiences from her life and career covering everything from "Star Wars" to having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother to her marriage with Paul Simon and more; directed anew by Tony Taccone.
Les Waters stages the American premiere of the new work from the pen of Thom Pain (based on nothing). "The sun – despite its shining record – has finally set. Reporters descend in a flurry of absurd questions and incoherent commentary, while the governor hysterically urges calm."
Inspired by Mozart and Beaumarchais, Dominique Serrand directs and co-adapts (with Steven Epp) this new take where "Figaro and the Count recall their rivalries years later – amid the bloodshed of the French Revolution." Tickets to shows at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison Street in Berkeley, CA, are available by calling (510) 647-2949 or toll free at (888) 4 BRT-tix. For more information visit the website at www.berkeleyrep.org.
