Nora Mae Lyng, a veteran of Forbidden Broadway, stars in Mae West At The El Fey Club Tonight at Penguin Repertory in Stony Point, NY. Previews begin Nov. 19 for a run through Dec. 13. Official opening night is Nov. 22, 1998. Sally Mayes, a Tony nominee for the Broadway revival of She Loves Me, was to appear in the Penguin production as stage and movie vamp Mae West, but Mayes left because of "artistic differences," said Penguin executive director Andrew M. Horn. Horn would not elaborate on the matter.
Mae West, with songs by Ellen May Schwartz and Bonnie Lee Sanders and a book by Joe Brancato, is set in a New York nightclub the eve of West's departure for Hollywood, where she would become an internationally acclaimed star and sex symbol.
Don Goodspeed co-stars. Brancato will direct. For information, call (914) 786-2873.
-- By Robert Simonson