Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce keep on dancing out at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse. The theatre legend and TV and film actor will continue on in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks through Aug. 19. This is the fifth extension for the new Richard Alfieri comedy-drama, which opened June 7.
As reported earlier, the play will then make the leap to New York City in March, 2002 with Rodger Hess (Annie, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), Marcia Seligson (L.A.'s Reprise series) and Entpro Plays, Inc. producing. A Broadway or off-Broadway house may be sought.
Hagen plays a feisty minister's wife who takes dance lessons from a heartbroken dance teacher (Hyde Pierce) who has relocated to Florida from New York City. The characters foxtrot, tango and tangle their way through an assortment of lessons in the play, about love, loss and friendship.
Previews began May 29. Arthur Allan Seidelman directs.
Hagen's career is highlighted with classical and contemporary roles, including Shakespeare, Chekhov, Broadway's The Country Girl and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Off-Broadway's Collected Stories, among many other works. Pierce is widely know as Niles on TV's "Frasier" but has years of theatre credits behind him. Designers are Roy Christopher (set), Helen Butler (costume), Tom Ruzika (lighting) and Philip G. Allen (sound).
The Geffen Playhouse is at 10886 Le Conte Avenue in Westwood, CA. For tickets or information, call (323) 933-9266 ext. 54, or visit www.actorsfund.org.