Valerie Harper Hits Broadway as Tallulah Bankhead

Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead
It's time to get Looped, the production that has travelled from California to Washington, DC and is now ready for prime time. Valerie Harper has been perfecting her role as Tallulah Bankhead in Looped, directed by Rob Ruggiero. Brian Hutchison and Michael Mulheren also star. Best of all, we have serious discounts on the tickets.

From the Looped website (Link).
The first preview is February 19 with the official opening scheduled for March 14. Our ticket offer applies to all performances except opening night through April 5. Balcony seats are $25 and the $111.50 orchestra seats are priced at $66.50. At the Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street.

Tallulah is Looped again.
The comedy by Matthew Lombardo is based on a real event. It takes place in the summer of 1965, when an inebriated Tallulah Bankhead stumbles into a sound studio to rerecord (or 'loop') one line of dialogue for her last movie --Die, Die, My Darling. Ms. Bankhead was known for her wild partying and convention-defying exploits that surpassed even today's celebrity bad girls.

Given her intoxicated state and inability to loop the line properly, what ensues is an uproarious showdown between an uptight film editor, Danny Miller, and the outrageous legend.

Valerie Harper offstage.

"VALERIE HARPER IS DIVINE AS TALLULAH, AN ACTRESS WHO NOT ONLY CHEWED THE SCENERY BUT SNIFFED IT, SNORTED IT, AND DRANK IT!"
- The Washingtonian

Here's how to get your discount tickets and save over 40%. Call 212-947-8844 and mention code LPNYT23. Alternately, you can go to www.broadwayoffers.com and enter the same code, LPNYT23.

Matthew Goade in, Chad Allen out of Arena's "Looped"

Jay Goede replaces Chad Allen in Looped.
Sad news today from Arena Stage. As playwright Matthew Lombardo continues to develop the upcoming production of Looped starring four-time Emmy Award-winning Valerie Harper (Rhoda on The Mary Tyler Moore Show) as Tallulah Bankhead, another casting change has taken place. Jay Goede, known for his work on Broadway in Angels in America, A Year with Frog and Toad and Sex and Longing, as well here in the Berkshires at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, will now play opposite Harper in the pre-Broadway staging, directed by Rob Ruggiero at Arena Stage at the Lincoln Theatre May 29 through June 28, 2009.

“As the play has evolved, I found it necessary to reconstruct the character of Danny Miller,” Lombardo remarks. “And although the previously announced Chad Allen is a fine talent, the demands of the play now require a different actor in the role. And I am extremely excited to have the remarkably gifted Broadway veteran Jay Goede joining our production.”

Chad Allen on "Save Me" DVD and in Person in "Looped"

The versatile Chad has been acting since he was five.

Chad Allen's film "Save Me" was released on DVD yesterday, while Washington, DC's Arena Theatre has confirmed that he will co-star with Valerie Harper in Looped. On its way to Broadway, Looped is the story of Tallulah Bankhead, the original celebrity bad girl, which begins as she enters a studio to re-record (or "loop") one line of dialogue for her final film. What ensues is a showdown between an uptight sound editor and the outrageous legend.

Valerie Harper and Chad Allen in Looped.

Four time Emmy winner Valerie Harper plays Talllulah, to Chad Allen's soundman in Matthew Lombardo's riveting new play. It is slated for May 29 through June 28, 2009 at Arena Stage's Lincoln Theatre. We will write more about this production closer to the opening.

Save Me comes to DVD at last.

Meanwhile, Allen's "Save Me" which had its premiere at Sundance in 2007 has finally made it to DVD. Save Me is a deft exploration of the controversial ex-gay movement. The story follows Mark (Chad Allen), a drug-addicted young man who overdoses and finds himself at the mercy of his disapproving family.

Their solution to Mark's problems is to check him into a Christian run ministry overseen by Gayle (Judith Light), who believes she can help cure young men of their 'gay affliction' through spiritual guidance. At first, Mark resists the efforts of Gayle and her husband Ted (Stephen Lang), but soon finds solace and brotherhood with several of the members, including Scott (Robert Gant), who is battling family demons of his own.

Chad Allen and Robert Gant in Save Me.

When Mark and Scott begin to find their friendship developing into an unexpected romance, both are forced to confront the new attitudes they're beginning to accept, and Gayle finds the values she holds as an absolute truth to be threatened.

Directed by Robert Cary, from a screenplay by Robert Desiderio, Save Me is a love story that offers a complex and timely examination of one of the most polarizing religious and sexual debates in America, while intricately showing the way love (for oneself, most importantly) can heal in all its various forms.

I just checked, and it is now available at Netflix.