Rita Rudner to Kick Off the New Year with '9PM IS THE NEW MIDNIGHT' at Laguna Playhouse

Laguna Playhouse has announced the third annual New Year's Eve return of superstar comedienne Rita Rudner, in her bubbly and sparkling show, Rita Rudner: 9PM IS THE NEW MIDNIGHT! Rita Rudner: 9PM IS THE NEW MIDNIGHT! will perform onSaturday, December 31 at 7pm at Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Rita Rudner is not only one of America's top comedians -- she's also a New York Times bestselling author, as well as an award-winning television personality, screenwriter, playwright, Broadway dancer and actress. A house-filling favorite in Vegas, Rudner is beloved for her witty one-liners, which have helped make hers the longest-running solo show in Vegas history -- she's sold more than a million tickets during her time there.

Now this comedy legend is hosting her own early evening New Year's Eve party at Laguna Playhouse in Orange County, where you'll toast the end of 2016 and watch the ball drop on the East Coast with a complimentary champagne drink and dessert. Rita Rudner: 9PM IS THE NEW MIDNIGHT is a one night special performance featuring special guests Molly Bergman and Sidney Bowen.

Rudner has performed over 3,000 solo shows in Las Vegas since the MGM Corporation built a theatre for her twelve years ago. She also regularly performs concerts and at corporate and charity events across the country. She has performed as an actress in the world premiere of her play "Tickled Pink" at the Laguna Playhouse. One of the country's top comedians and a New York Times bestselling author, Rita Rudner is also an award-winning television personality, screenwriter, playwright, Broadway dancer, and actress. A house-filling favorite in Las Vegas since she opened as one of the hottest tickets in town in June, 2000, Rudner is known for her epigrammatic one-liners. She performs at The Venetian in Las Vegas, where over the course of a ten year run and 2,000 plus shows, she has sold over one million tickets and become the longest-running solo show in the history of Las Vegas. She has been named Comedian Of The Year nine years in a row and in 2006 received The Nevada Ballet's Woman Of The Year Award (other recent recipients include Bette Midler, Celine Dion, Chita Rivera and Twyla Tharp).

Rita's first solo HBO special, Rita Rudner's One Night Stand, was nominated for several awards, as was her eponymous English BBC television show that later appeared in the USA on A&E. Rudner's two one-hour specials for HBO, Born to Be Mild and Married Without Children, were ratings standouts and she performed all over the country, filling Carnegie Hall in New York three times and the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles twice. In 2008 Rita Rudner: Live From Las Vegas was PBS's first ever stand-up comedy special.

Rita Rudner has written five books, including her bestselling non-fiction titles, Naked Beneath My Clothes and Rita Rudner's Guide to Men and the novels Tickled Pink and Turning the Tables. The audio version of Tickled Pink received a Grammy nomination. Her latest collection of essays, I Still Have It...I Just Can't Remember Where I Put It, was published in May 2008.

In 2003, Rudner launched from Las Vegas her first syndicated daily TV show, Ask Rita, which featured a panel of celebrities lightheartedly attempting to solve personal problems submitted by members of the public; it ran for two years. For her work on the show, American Women In Radio and Television awarded Rudner a 2004 Gracie Allen Award for Best Program Host. Rita helped write the 2001 and 2003 Oscar shows with Steve Martin and the 2002 Oscar broadcast with Whoopi Goldberg.

Rita Rudner moved to New York at the age of fifteen to become a dancer on Broadway. She appeared in several shows, including the original productions of Follies and Mack and Mabel. It was while in Annie on Broadway that she began exploring the Comedy Clubs of Manhattan. In the early '80s, Rudner took a full-time leap from chorus lines to punch lines and was soon a regular guest on both Late Night With David Letterman and The Tonight Show.

Rudner is a frequent collaborator with her writer/producer husband of twenty years, Martin Bergman. The couple's first produced film script was Peter's Friends. The film, starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton, Stephen Fry, and Rita, won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award for Comedy and was nominated for the Goya Award for Best European Film of 1994. Bergman and Rudner's latest film, Thanks, recently premiered at the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The couple's first play - Room 776 - ran as part of the 2008 season of the Las Vegas Little Theatre. Tickled Pink had its world premiere at The Playhouse.

In 2009, Rita, Bette Midler and Sheryl Crow joined forces to perform a fundraiser for President Obama and the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid.

Rita Rudner lives in Las Vegas and Monarch Beach, California, with her husband and daughter. For more information on Rita, log on to her website at www.ritafunny.com or become her fan on Facebook.

Molly Bergman and Sidney Bowen are two local teen singer/songwriters who sometimes perform as a duo. They appeared together at the Laguna Playhouse when they performed last year for recent-Emmy-winning comedian Louie Anderson. They've also performed at several benefit shows around Orange County.

Sidney hosts the highly successful Tuesday open-mike nights at The Point in Dana Point, and Molly usually joins her, depending on homework!

As well as performing covers of popular songs with beautiful harmonies, both Molly and Sidney independently write their own songs. Together, they wrote "Who Are You?" for a teen outreach program ("Tilly's Life Center") which is used as the program's theme song. Molly and Sidney are both teen ambassadors for the TLC program.

Rita Rudner: 9PM IS THE NEW MIDNIGHT! will perform on Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 7pm. Tickets are $99 - $125.00 and can be purchased online at www.lagunaplayhouse.com or by calling (949) 497-ARTS (2787). The box office is open Mondays - Saturdays: 12p.m. to 5 p.m. (open until showtime on performance days); Sundays: 11a.m. - 4p.m. Laguna Playhouse is located at 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Founded in 1920, the historic Laguna Playhouse is one of the oldest continuously-operating not-for-profit theatres on the West Coast and is proud to be an active participant in the celebrated Laguna Beach arts community. From classic plays and musical comedies to the current off-Broadway smash, cutting edge and traditional music exhibitions, dance festivals and stand-up comedy performances, Laguna Playhouse brings the magical experience of the performing arts direct to over 80,000 patrons each season. A member of the League of Resident Theatres, Laguna Playhouse is also home to the annual Laguna Dance Festival, Laguna Beach Music Festival and Laguna Beach Concert Band.

Laguna Playhouse educational programming, includes year-round classes, productions by and for children and teens (Youth Theatre) and is one of the few companies in the region that offer a curriculum-based professional theatre-touring program, TheatreReach, which aligns with the California State Standards for literature, history and performing arts curriculum.

Serving more than 80,000 patrons each season, Laguna Playhouse has been recognized in 2016 and 2015 as one of Orange County Register's "Best of OC" in the category of Live Theatre. The Playhouse has featured many talented performers on stage, including Leslie Caron, Val Kilmer, Ed Asner, Hershey Felder, Donna McKechnie, Rita Rudner, violinist Joshua Bell, Lee Rocker, ballerina Misty Copeland, Harrison Ford, and Bette Davis.

Learn What's Going On at www.lagunaplayhouse.com.