"A family emergency has made any travel plans for Ms. Mulgrew in the near term uncertain," according to a release. Current ticket holders for the run slated Sept. 10-18 will receive replacement tickets when a new schedule is determined and will be notified directly by the Seattle Rep box office. Free exchanges and refunds will also be available.

Tea at Five finds Hepburn — a longtime Connecticut resident — 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." She would soon rebound with The Philadelphia Story, in which she starred on Broadway before buying up the film rights. In this section of the play, the actress reflects on her patrician, privileged upbringing, no doubt touching on her devotion to her father and her vaunted athletic prowess.

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.

John Tillinger directs the show, which opened at Off-Broadway's Promenade Theatre March 9, 2003, under the auspices of Daryl Roth, David Gersten, Paul Morer, Michael Filerman, and Amy and Scott Nederlander.

The show has also been wrought with other woes. Mulgrew had bowed out of several performances of Tea at Five early in the original run at Hartford Stage in Feb. 2002 complaining of vocal trouble. She then cut back to only six shows a week. The play closed there early and Mulgrew returned later in the spring to make up the lost shows. Mulgrew has appeared on Broadway in Black Comedy and in Central Park in Titus Andronicus, but she is far better known as the strong-jawed Captain Janeway, who spends most of her time piloting "Star Trek: Voyager."

For more information, call the Seattle Repertory Theatre box office at (206) 443-2222 or toll-free (877) 900-9285. The Seattle Rep website is located at www.seattlerep.org.