The singer-actress will offer Shameless! The Life and Times of Laura Bell Bundy at 9:30 PM. Produced by Lynn Shaw, the concert will be directed by Jamie McGonnigal with musical direction by John McMahon.
According to production notes, Shameless! tells the story of "love and devotion, bitterness and betrayal. From Britney Spears and Natalie Portman understudying her in Ruthless, to performing in two of Broadway's biggest hits, the show will provide a bit of insight into her blond ambition." Cabaretgoers can expect to hear original tunes as well as songs from Bundy's theatre outings.
About her show Bundy told Playbill On-Line, "You know, a lot of people do one woman, one-man shows. You get up and sing a lot of songs, and you take the journey down memory lane or you talk about men, a whole show about men, or you do a show where you're just doing one composer's songs. But this particular show is different in that I'm playing other people. I'm playing well known celebrities. I'm [also] playing my mother. I'm playing Britney Spears. I'm playing Judy Garland. All of these different characters kind of tell the story of my life and how I came from Kentucky as a five-year-old girl and came to New York and got a five-year modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency and how that put me into other things — how I got to where I am now. It's a comic look at my dysfunctional life seen through other people's eyes.
"I think Joe's Pub is like my dress rehearsal because I'm never gonna have done it before an audience before. And I have wigs and all this crazy madness. It's going to be really fun. I want to do this show as much as I can — I know that it's one of those things that I can always extend on . . . I do a look at Hairspray, I do a small little glance at Wicked. I do the look at Ruthless! when I was little. That's actually a funny section. I do me going back to Kentucky in high school — this girl who had learned all this stuff from being in New York and all of a sudden I'm jarred back into a world of normalcy, and I'm completely not fitting in. The thing is the show is relatable because everybody's been through that — everybody's felt those kinds of emotions, but it's also a little different because not everybody was a child actor."
Laura Bell Bundy created the role of Amber von Tussle in the Broadway cast of the Tony-winning musical Hairspray. Recently the standby for Kristin Chenoweth's Glinda in Wicked, Bundy received Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk nominations for her performance as Tina Denmark in Off-Broadway's Ruthless. Her other theatrical credits include Gypsy, Damn Yankees, Grease!, Pajama Game and The Sound of Music. On screen Bundy has been seen in "Guiding Light," "Jumanji," "Life with Mikey," "Adventures of Huck Finn," "Home Improvement," "Strangers with Candy" and "Curtis Court." Joe's Pub is located within the Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. For tickets, visit www.telecharge.com. Those wishing to dine before the show should make reservations at (212) 539-8778.
