After winning accolades in New York City for their 1995 Rose Tattoo at Broadway's Circle in the Square, Anthony LaPaglia and Mercedes Ruehl are recreating their roles as Serafina dell Rose and Alvarro Mangiacavallo for Los Angeles' Theatre Works radio. Performances began Dec. 8 and end Dec. 12.
After his darker plays, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Summer and Smoke, Williams wanted to write a comedy to capture the joy and warmth of the Italian people that he felt while staying with his lover Frank Merlo's family in Sicily. The Rose Tattoo tells the story of widow Serafina who finds love with Alvarro, a truck driver, who is both sexy and comical.
LaPaglia won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor as Eddie in the recent revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge. Recent film credits include "The House of Mirth," "Company Man" and the upcoming "Autumn in New York." Ruehl won a Tony Award for Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "The Fisher King." Other film credits are "Lost in Yonkers," "Last Action Hero," "Married to the Mob" and "Big."
Richard Masur directs. A former president of the Screen Actors Guild, Masur is a well-known character actor who played starring roles on "One Day At A Time," "Picket Fences," "Rhoda" and was Emmy-nominated for his role opposite Farrah Fawcett in "The Burning Bed." Film roles have included "Risky Business," "Heaven's Gate," "My Girl," "Six Degrees of Separation" and "Forget Paris."
Tickets are $35-$31 and available by calling the TheatreWorks box office at (310) 827-0889. A special Saturday matinee has been added Dec. 11. Performances run at the Skirball Center at 2701 N. Sepulveda Boulevard. All "The Play's the Thing" theatre productions are recorded for future broadcast on Santa Monica College's KCRW 89.9 FM. Productions have won several awards including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Gold and Silver Awards, three Sony Awards, the Writer's Guild of America's Best Comedy Award and the 1999 Audie Award for Best Dramatic Production from the Audio Publishers Association.
-- By Christine Ehren
