Valerie Harper as Tallulah in LOOPED - Thoughts and/or Buzz?

[Luscious]

Posted: 1/26/10 at 11:44pm

Anyone interested? I know she's been doing the show on the West Coast and on the road for the past year. What's the buzz on the show and her performance? Worth seeing? I'm a big Tallulah fan and a big fan of her campy last film, "Die, Die, My Darling" which figures into the plot of the show. Just watched it for the first time in years on TCM a couple of weeks ago. (It's a hoot!) So... what's the buzz?

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 12:09am

With Chase Mishkin at the helm and virtually no buzz in New York, I fear this show will flop.

That being said, I love Valerie Harper and Tallulah Bankhead and I think I will love this show. I hope it gets excellent reviews that help gets people in the theater.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 12:23am

I loved Valerie in Sex and the City.

[raulmark]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 12:36am

I already have my ticket. This show seems pretty appealing for some reason...I guess because it's about Tallulah Bankhead, who seems like an interesting "character". Mainly, I suppose, because I'm a big fan of Valerie harper

[hockeynut2]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 12:44am

Here's an interview I recorded with Valerie Harper when she was at Arena Stage's Lincoln Theatre location earlier this year. Hope you like it.
VALERIE HARPER PODCAST ON DC THEATRE SCENE

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 12:46am

I don't see how this show is going to succeed. With no buzz, a play nobody knows about and (although I love her to death) a star that doesn't exactly sell out houses, I don't know how this is going to succeed, either. It's a shame but I am looking forward to seeing this!

[hockeynut2]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 8:28am

When it was booked into the Lincoln Theatre, which is a large theatre, many of us asked the same question, but it sold out and was one of the most difficult tickets to get in town. There are still a lot of people who love Valerie Harper, and her performance is extraordinary. I wish Valerie well.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 9:01am

I am SO looking forward to this. Although I never saw Ms. B in person, I remember her radio show back in the early 50's -- I didn't really understand a lot of what she was saying, but my parents were howling and that voice hooked me from the time I was four. A pretty good sampling of the Bankhead persona is captured on the Lucy episode she did in the late 50's. The listing in the ABC's of the NYT reads, "Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead in Looped," so I'll finally have a Playbill of a show that I saw that reads, in part, "Tallulah Bankhead in . . . "

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 11:53am

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 2:24pm

My friend was at a party on the Upper East side and a several events around the city last week and he said there was a lot of chatter about the show. Mostly among the gay community.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 2:27pm

Oh this show is gonna market the hell out of the gay community. No doubt about that.

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 2:34pm

Big time! I am wanting to fly in to see it. The former Chairman of the DCPA here is her Godson. His office was chock full of things he received from her. Also, at the beginning of almost every board meeting I attended, he would start with a story about her. I always tried to be early so I wouldn't miss the story. Always interesting.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 2:50pm

Looped appeal to the gay community? Dahling, how could you possibly think there'd be any interest there?

[WOSQ]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 3:25pm

What worries me is that Tallulah Bankhead is a personality that has never been successfully impersonated in a play or even a revue. (Neither has Napoleon but he's another story entirely.) Helen Gallagher, Tovah Feldshuh and Kathleen Turner are but three who could not make a show about her work.

But then the tales begin:

"Cocaine...? Habit forming...?
Don't be ridiculous. I've been using it for years."

and

"My father warned me about men and liquor. I wish he'd said something about women and cocaine."

and

Reporter - "Miss Bankhead, why are you going to Hollywood?"
Miss Bankhead - "To make movies, darling, and to f--k that divine Gary Cooper!"

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 3:53pm

The show has a YouTube channel. Along with a MySpace and Facebook page.

http://www.youtube.com/loopedonbroadway#p/f/32/X5c0uPVG5Bk

Updated On: 2/3/10 at 03:53 PM

[Daniel2]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 7:19pm

I saw it at the Pasadena Playhouse, the play is good she is amazing. I don't know how it will do in NY--it may not really be the sort of thing that flies there. It's pretty much a 2 person show and often in NY they don't like film related things.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 1:34am

When I saw it in Pasadena I thought it was good, but nothing I really remember. It didn't really stick with me. What did stick was me was what a gracious classy women Mrs. Harper was backstage after the show. CLASS ACT.

[Daniel2]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 3:35pm

Perhaps I should have said the play wasn't bad. It wasn't anything extraordinary--it was very funny, but her performance was great.

[MeganW]

Posted: 1/28/10 at 7:43pm

I saw it in DC last year and really enjoyed Harper's performance - that said, the show just didn't make a big impression on me. She does a great job, but there's nothing in the plot that completely grabbed me.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 2/4/10 at 10:34am

The director actually went to my college! He actually came to talk to my acting class last fall semester!

[garyl]

Posted: 2/4/10 at 10:53pm

Saw it in DC last fall and Valerie is terrific and worth seeing..also, very funny, but the play is sappy, but should have a descent run