Questions about Lombardo's "Looped"

I saw it . Theatre barely had people in it. So not surprised about closing. Play was more a off broadway show. Valerie Harper deserved her nomination Bc she kept the show afloat. It was her on stage with two guys. I think one didn’t even say a word. Maybe it was just one guy and he barely said anything and I’m just confused. But basically was a one woman show.

I saw this in its original production at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2008. Harper was excellent and commanded the stage. Agree with the previous part about the male role being underwritten. I would guess it's intentional, designed as a device to basically cue up her stories and best lines and otherwise not get in the way, as it's fundamentally a one woman show. I enjoyed it for what it was, a bit of nostaglia and an opportunity to see Valerie in a great role. Not surprised it didn't do that well on Broadway. Who really remembers Tallulah Bankhead much less wants to spend $160 to see a play devoted to a very specific incident in her life as opposed to a broader play covering her whole life. It was more of a passion project for Matthew Lombardo and Valerie and they took it as far as it would go.

There were 2 men in the show. One was a recording engineer, played by Michael Mulharen, and he had very few lines. The other was the film editor for Die, Die, My Darling! The play is based on a true story of a recording session that went on for hours while Bankhead attempted to rerecord a single line (a process known as "looping", hence by the title). The title is also a play on words, for when the editor objects to her drinking during the session, she says that she was drunk during filming, so that in order to preserve continuity, she needed to be "looped" during the session.



In Lombardo's version of this event, the session went overtime because Bankhead was trying to get the editor to admit that he was gay (?). I completely agree with Rob120's entire post. Harper deserved the Tony nod, if only for the Streetcar moment. For that short scene, the play was lifted from the campy mess it was to show what an excellent actress Bankhead and Harper could be. After the play closed on Broadway, Harper's cancer came back, and she had to back out of the tour. Lombardo sued her for something like $50,000. For having cancer. Nice guy.



Hard to understand how he managed to get the ill-fated HIGH to Broadway, though having the name Kathleen Turner attached to it helped. This was probably the worst play I've ever seen, and I saw PRYMATE. At one point, HIGH had an average ticket price of under $30. It ran only one week after it opened. The idea that The rewritten TEA AT FIVE could have ever gone to Broadway was laughable. That said, as bad as LOOPED was, I don't think you dodged a bullet, especially since you are a big fan of Harper's. She turned in an excellent performance.

Updated On: 8/14/19 at 08:25 AM

I saw HIGH, I have a shirt and everytime I wear it I send a photo to someone that worked on the show and they say "you probably are the only one that owns one" lol

That clip has one of my favorite lines in the show, brodyfosse123.

" If you get lost in Manhattan, you don't deserve to be found".

Here's a link to a thread on HIGH. There were several others.

Link to thread

Updated On: 8/14/19 at 11:20 PM

WOW! Thanks everyone for your responses !