Laguna Playhouse to Present AN EVENING WITH RITA RUDNER AND HER NEW DRESS, 5/31-6/1

By: Apr. 16, 2014
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Laguna Playhouse will present the return of Rita Rudner who will be performing her award-winning solo comedy, AN EVENING WITH RITA RUDNER and her new dress, for two performances only, Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Award-winning comedian and Las Vegas headliner Rita Rudner returns with her sophisticated wit and clever one-liners to The Laguna Playhouse for an exclusive all-new engagement. Rudner's sharp timing and soft-spoken voice have become her trademarks while delivering hilarious and witty observations on everyday life.

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 recently performed as an actress in the world premiere of her play "Tickled Pink" at the Laguna Playhouse. A further production is being mounted next January in Tampa at that city's performing Arts Center. "Tampa had heard about its successful run here, plus we've had phone calls from producers in New York," says Rita. "So we thought we'd try it on the East Coast somewhere to gauge the reaction and to further refine it. I'm certainly very pleased and glad it was birthed in Laguna."

Rita never uses an opening act, but she has reversed this policy for these Laguna dates. "I saw this young local singer/songwriter, Sasha Evans, perform and I was blown away. I think she's a massive talent and I think my audience will love her as much as I do, so I invited her to perform with me on these three shows."

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 andRita 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 recently 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.

AN EVENING WITH RITA RUDNER and her new dress will perform on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1 at 7:30pm at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach. Tickets range from $50 - $60 and can be purchased online at www.lagunaplayhouse.com or by calling (949) 497-ARTS (2787). Student discounts are available at the Box Office. Group discounts are available by calling 949-497-2787 ext. 229. The box office is open Mondays - Sundays: noon to 5pm (open until 7:30pm on performance days). LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE is located at 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Founded in 1920, The Laguna Playhouse is one of the oldest continuously-operating not-for-profit theatres on the West Coast and is noted for its artistic excellence, wide-ranging theatrical programming, award-winning youth education offerings and community partnerships. A member of the League of Resident Theatres, The Laguna Playhouse is a valued part of the Laguna Beach arts community that serves all of Southern California with year-round, professional, high-quality productions in theatre, music and dance.

Because of its longstanding commitment to the arts, The Laguna Playhouse has been recognized for excellence by the LA Drama Critics Circle, NAACP, Backstage, ArtsOC, OC Weekly, Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce and more. Laguna Playhouse educational programming, which includes classes, productions by and for children and teens (Youth Theatre) and a school tour, has been honored by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Arts Orange County and the Orange County Department of Education.

Serving more than 100,000 patrons each season, The Laguna Playhouse has brought many talented performers to Southern California, including Davis Gaines, Stephanie Zimbalist, Rita Rudner, Sally Struthers, Cloris Leachman, Julie Harris, Harrison Ford, Charles Durning, Marlo Thomas, Roddy McDowell and Bette Davis, who have performed in world, national and regional premieres, as well as national tours of The Belle of Amherst and Copenhagen.



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