Reprise Theatre Co Hosts An Evening With Joan Rivers 1/30

Reprise Theatre Company will present An Evening With Joan Rivers for one performance only on Monday, January 30 at 8:00 pm, at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Ticket sales from "An Evening With Joan Rivers" will benefit Reprise Theatre Company and support Reprise's mission to produce musical theatre of the highest artistic quality and make this art form accessible to new audiences through education and outreach programs.

Tickets go on sale to the public on December 19. For tickets, please call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/825-2101 or visit www.reprise.org <http://www.reprise.org/> .

Reprise Theatre Company is headed by Artistic Director Jason Alexander. Christine Bernardi Weil is Managing Director and Gilles Chiasson is Producing Director of Reprise Theatre Company.

Joan Rivers is a force of nature and one of the hardest-working celebrities in the world. An entertainment legend of unparalleled accomplishment and talent, she's an internationally renowned comedienne, Emmy-winning television talk show host, Tony-nominated actress, best-selling author, playwright, screenwriter, motion picture director, columnist, lecturer, syndicated radio host, jewelry designer and cosmetic company entrepreneur, red carpet fashion laureate, businesswoman -- and most importantly, a proud mother and grandmother.

Joan has enjoyed an illustrious career spanning more than four decades in the entertainment industry and beyond, and as her recent accomplishments reveal, she's as robust and hard working as ever. Recently Joan returned to E! Entertainment Television to host the network's popular franchise Fashion Police covering red carpet style for the annual awards season, as well as hosting E!'s popular Fashion Police weekly series. From hot new trends to red carpet risks, Rivers takes viewers through a complete recap of the week's celebrity fashion ultimately deciding who sizzled and who fizzled. In 2011, Joan became the GoDaddy girl for GoDaddy.com. The commercial premiered during Super Bowl XLll to thousands of viewers nationwide. Her highly anticipated and critically acclaimed documentary, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work premiered in theater's nationwide summer of 2010 and is now available on DVD. Rivers also appears regularly in Las Vegas at the Venetian Showroom.

After a successful first season, Joan once again has taken over the reality TV circuit with, Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, WEtv's series, where the famous mother/daughter duo welcome cameras into their homes. This ultimate pair will address the question plaguing daughters since the beginning of time: does mother really know best? Season two premieres January 2012.

In 2009, she starred in NBC's hit reality series The Celebrity Apprentice along with her daughter Melissa where she emerged as the Season Two winner. She also celebrated the publication of two critically received, best-selling books: Men Are Stupid and They Like Big Boobs: A Woman's Guide to Beauty Through Plastic Surgery and Murder at the Academy Awards: A Red Carpet Murder Mystery, both published by Simon & Schuster. She received a Daytime Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Bubbe in PBS' award-winning animated children's series Arthur, gave life to the character, Dot Matrix in the animated series, Spaceballs in 2008, played an eccentric aunt in two seasons of IFC's popular mockumentary series Z Rock, and wowed audiences at The Udderbelly in London with her comedy show Unplugged and Uncensored.

Also in 2009, the iconic funny woman was roasted and honored in The Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers. That year also marked the debut of her TV Land reality show, How'd You Get So Rich?, which took a candid look at the extravagant lifestyles of fabulously rich entrepreneurs and innovators. The show ran for two seasons.

From her signature question "Can we talk?" (A Federal trademark) to her red-carpet mantra "Who are you wearing?" the woman who asks the questions gets the answers America -- and the world -- wants to hear.

Joan Rivers embodies class, confidence, and chutzpah in all the right proportions, and her accomplishments are extraordinary. Her most joyous triumph is being grandmother to Melissa's son, Cooper (Edgar Cooper Endicott), who was born on December 1, 2000.

About Reprise Theatre Company

Since its inception in 1997, Reprise Theatre Company has been a focus of the Los Angeles musical theatre community, producing productions of great American musicals, and a wide variety of concerts, staged-readings, special events and outreach programs. In May 2007, Jason Alexander became Artistic Director. Christine Bernardi Weil is Managing Director and Gilles Chiasson is Producing Director of Reprise.

Since its inaugural production of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Promises, Promises," which starred Mr. Alexander, Reprise has brought to the stage vibrant productions from all eras of American musical theatre including the Gershwins' "Of Thee I Sing" and "Strike Up the Band," Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" and "Kiss Me Kate," Rodgers and Hart's "The Boys from Syracuse" and "Babes in Arms," Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel," as well as Richard Rodgers' later "No Strings." The "Golden Era" has been well represented – Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg with "Finian's Rainbow," Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe with "Brigadoon" and "Gigi," Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green with "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town," Irving Berlin with "Call Me Madam," Robert Wright and George Forrest with "Kismet," both of the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musicals "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees," Johnny Mercer and Gene dePaul with "Li'l Abner," Jule Styne with "Bells are Ringing," and Frank Loesser with "The Most Happy Fella" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Musical theatre reached a new peak of popularity beginning in the sixties, along with new creative talents, and Reprise has presented shows by many of them including Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt with "The Fantasticks," Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick with "She Loves Me," Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot's "Hair," Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone with "1776," Charles Adams and Lee Strouse with "Applause," Stephen Schwartz with "Pippin," Cy Coleman with "On the Twentieth Century" (libretto by Betty Comden and Adolph Green), "City of Angels" (lyrics by David Zippel), and "I Love My Wife" (libretto by Michael Stewart), Jerry Herman with "Mack and Mabel," Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's "Once on This Island," Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager's "They're Playing Our Song" (with libretto by Neil Simon) and four Stephen Sondheim musicals – "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Company," "Sweeney Todd," and "Sunday in the Park with George."

Many of the great stage performers working today, as well as those who make their residence primarily in Los Angeles, have appeared in Reprise shows including William Atherton, Scott Bakula, Christine Baranski, Brent Barrett, Orson Bean, Jodi Benson, Stephanie J. Block, Stephen Bogardus, Dan Butler, Len Cariou, Carolee Carmello, Vicki Carr, Patrick Cassidy, Matt Cavenaugh, Anthony Crivello, Jason Danieley, Lea DeLaria, Cleavant Derricks, Manoel Feliciano, Rodney Gilfry, Kelsey Grammer, Josh Grisetti, Harry Groener, Bob Gunton, Neil Patrick Harris, Sam Harris, Gregory Harrison, Simon Helberg, Tom Hewitt, Mimi Hines, Seán Martin Hingston. Judy Kaye, Jane Krakowski, Marc Kudish, Ledisi, Vicki Lewis, Judith Light, Rebecca Luker, Lesli Margherita, Eric McCormack, Maureen McGovern, Joey McIntyre, Donna McKechnie, Andrea Marcovicci, Millicent Martin, Marin Mazzie, Julia Migenes, Karen Morrow, Burke Moses, Kelli O'Hara, Lisa O'Hare, John O'Hurley, Ken Page, Robert Picardo, David Hyde Pierce, Larry Raben, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Roger Rees, Charles Nelson Reilly, Cathy Rigby, Alexandra Silber, Douglas Sills, Rex Smith, Brent Spiner, Lea Thompson, Steven Weber, Lee Wilkof, Ruth Williamson, Marisa Jaret Winokur, Lillias White, Fred Willard, and Rachel York.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos