Last chance to catch Joy Behar, Holland Taylor and Hazelle Goodman sharing anecdotes, both bitter and empowering, in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues Off Broadway. The trio began May 30.
Goodman appeared as the Queen in the Public Theatre's production of Cymbeline in 1998, and was seen in the film "Deconstructing Harry." Behar, on TV's daily "The View," is best known as a comedienne. Taylor's many Broadway credits include The Devils, Breakfast with Les and Bess, Butley, Murder Among Friends, Something Old Something New, We Interrupt This Program and the infamous Moose Murders.
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The latest actresses added to the ongoing Vagina Monologues line up are Linda Ellerbee, Calista Flockhart, Lisa Gay Hamilton, arriving June 13-25. Flockhart, a New York City theatre presence for more than a decade (Bovver Boys, The Glass Menagerie) hit it big on TV's "Ally McBeal" but still returns to theatre when her schedule permits. (For example, last summer she starred in Neil LaBute's bash [sic].) Ellerbee has been a news and current affairs commentator on television for many years, while Hamilton starred in 1999's Angelique at Off-Broadway's MCC Theatre.
June 27-July 9 will bring Carol Kane, Melissa Joan Hart and Phylicia Rashad. Kane was recently seen, albeit briefly, in Beth Henley's Family Week Off-Broadway. The play had a brief run, closing a week after opening. Rashad is best known for her role of the sitcom "The Cosby Show." On Broadway, she replaced Bernadette Peters in Into the Woods. Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues, starring Ensler herself, returned to New York the Westside Theatre Oct. 3, 1999 after previews from Sept. 21. Vagina reveals a series of different women's stories and experiences involving their genitalia. New introductions to the monologues have been written for the various threesomes, who divide the text among themselves.
Claire Danes, Mary Alice, Amy Irving, Rosie Perez, Audra McDonald, Swoosie Kurtz, Julie Kavner, Shirley Knight, Andrea Martin, Alanis Morissette, Gina Gershon, Annie Potts, Diahann Carroll, Marisa Tomei, Judith Ivey and Viola Davis have already appeared in the production.
Joe Mantello, who staged Love! Valour! Compassion! on Broadway, is the director of the show.
$10 of each ticket sold to The Vagina Monologues goes to the V Day Initiative.
For information on the Westside engagement, call (212) 239-6200.
-- By Robert Simonson
and David Lefkowitz
