Matthews & Aldrich Star in Hitchcock Blonde in CA, Feb. 3 2006/01/23

Matthews & Aldrich Star in Hitchcock Blonde in CA, Feb. 3

Monday, January 23, 2006; Posted: 06:01 PM - by BWW News Desk

Hitchcock Blonde, a new play by Terry Johnson (The Graduate) about the legendary film auteur, will be performed in its American premiere at the South Coast Rep's Segerstrom Stage. The company, located in Cosa Mesa, CA, will present the play from February 3rd through March 12th. The show will open on February 10th.

The show, according to press notes, is "part theatre, part cinema...What was the dark secret that caused the great Alfred Hitchcock to obsess over beautiful blondes in jeopardy? At a villa in the Greek isles, a British professor and his beautiful young assistant sift through the clues (and the reels of disintegrating celluloid). As the cinematic mystery cuts back and forth between 1919 on a London soundstage and 1959 during the filming of that unforgettable shower scene, illusion and reality collide with shocking results."

Dakin Matthews will play the rotund director of such classics as Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window and Rebecca; Hitchcock was famous for casting his heroines with such fair leading ladies as Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint and Tippi Hedren. The cast will also feature Sarah Aldrich as the Blonde, Adriana DeMeo, Martin Noyes and Robin Sachs. Sets, costume and video will be handled by William Dudley (who designed the show in London). Chris Parry will design the lighting while Ian Dickinson is the composer and sound designer for the show, which was a West End hit in 2003. Plans to bring it to Broadway (with stars such as Jane Krakowski and Christina Ricci mentioned) never materialized.

Matthews adapted and co-starred in the recent Lincoln Center production of Henry IV, earning a Drama Desk Award in the process. He also served as a dramaturg for both that show and the Julius Casear revival, and received L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards for his performances in The School for Wives, Shadowlands and The Prince of L.A., which he also penned. He was also recently seen in the acclaimed American premiere of David Hare's Stuff Happens. His many film and TV credits include The Fabulous Baker Boys, "The West Wing" and "Desperate Housewives."

Aldrich, who is best known for her work on "Port Charles," "The Young and The Restless" and "Days of Our Lives," has also appeared in productions of plays such as Ascension, The Lion in Winter, Heaven and Quartet. Film credits include Miracle at Sage Creek, The Drifter and The Speeding Ticket.

For more information and tickets, visit www.scr.org.