Duncan and Ziemba Headline Westport Production

Westport Country Playhouse (Joanne Woodward and Anne Keefe, artistic directors, and Jodi Schoenbrun Carter, managing director) will present two of Broadway's most versatile performers, Sandy Duncan and Karen Ziemba, in a reading of the new comedy, The Real Tabasco, written by Deborah Grace Winer, formerly of Westport, on Monday, April 14, 7 p.m.  The reading is part of the Playhouse's "Funny Mondays" series, showcasing both new and classic comedies, followed by audience feedback, often with the playwright in attendance.

"When a prize-winning show dog escapes the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport, The Real Tabasco captures the ensuing crisis of the entangled lives of a blue-collar Astoria couple with marriage problems, an immigrant baggage handler, and an under-employed actress leading the rescue effort," press notes state.

Sandy Duncan appeared on Broadway in Chicago (as Roxie Hart), Canterbury Tales (Tony Award nomination), The Boyfriend (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Peter Pan (Tony nomination) and My One and Only (with Tommy Tune and husband Don Correia). At New York City Center, she appeared in Music Man, Carousel, Life with Father and Finian's Rainbow. Off-Broadway, she was in The Fourth Wall, Ceremony of Innocence (Theatre World Award) and Your Own Thing.  In Los Angeles, she was in Vanities (LA Drama Critics nomination). Other stage productions include 5,6,7,8 Dance! (Radio City), I Do! I Do! (with James Naughton), Love Letters (with Peter Fonda) and South Pacific (with Michael Nouri).  Her television credits include Funny Face (Emmy nomination), Roots (Emmy nomination), The Hogan Family; specials Sandy in Disneyland and The Sandy Duncan Special; made for television movies My Boyfriend's Back and Miracle On I-880; Pinocchio (with Danny Kaye), Law & Order and The Muppet Show. Ms. Duncan is also widely known as the commercial spokesperson for Nabisco's Wheat Thins and the Sylvan Learning Center.  Animation work includes My Little Pony, The Fox and the Hound, Rock-a-Doodle, Swan Lake and I Am Curious. Concerts include Together (with Don Correia and Guy Stroman) with major symphony orchestras across the country. Ms. Duncan continues her commitments to AIDS and children's issues. The Correias have two sons, Jeffrey and Michael.

Karen Ziemba currently appears on Broadway in Curtains (Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony and Drama Desk nominations).  Other Broadway credits are Contact at Lincoln Center Theatre (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards), Never Gonna Dance (Outer Critics Circle Award), Steel Pier (Tony nomination), Chicago, Crazy For You, 42nd Street and A Chorus Line. Off-Broadway credits are And the World Goes 'Round (Drama Desk Award for a performance she repeated at Westport Country Playhouse in 1992) and I Do! I Do! (Drama Desk nomination).  For New York City Opera, she appeared in 110 in the Shade, The Most Happy Fella and Candide.  For Encores! at City Center, she was in Allegro, Bye Bye Birdie, The Pajama Game and Ziegfeld Follies of 1936.  Regional work includes Much Ado about Nothing (Shakespeare Theatre/Hartford Stage), The Three Penny Opera (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Leading Ladies (Ford's Theatre), House and Garden (GeVa Theatre) and The Opposite of Sex (Magic Theatre). Television and film includes The Producers, Scrubs, all three Law & Order series, The Kennedy Center Honors, and for PBS, Ira Gershwin at 100, My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies and Stephen Sondheim:  A Celebration at Carnegie Hall.

Two other actors will be announced.

Playwright Deborah Grace Winer's play, Big Important Issues was read at Westport Country Playhouse during the Funny Mondays series in 2005, with Karen Ziemba.  Another of her plays, The Last Girl Singer, was produced Off-Broadway by the Women's Project and Productions, starring Tony Award-winner Kelly Bishop.  Ms. Winer presented Dorothy's Side of the Street, the Dorothy Fields Centennial Show, for the 92nd St. Y's Lyrics and Lyricists series, for which she was guest artistic director, host and writer.  She also wrote Fans!:  The Sally Rand Centennial Celebration presented at Town Hall.  For New York's City Center, she wrote the script for Gotta Dance - A Dance Tribute to Hollywood, and Dancing on Air - A Dance Tribute to Television.  She is also author of several books and articles.

Kaitlin Hopkins will direct.  She appeared in the New York productions of Batboy and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, as well as television and film roles.

"Funny Mondays" are supported, in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, the Playhouse is now open year-round, welcoming 85,000 audience members annually. On its legendary stage are theatrical productions, educational programming and special events, including films, readings of short fiction and new plays, and a Family Festivities series. The rich history of the Westport Country Playhouse dates back to 1931, when New York theatre producers Lawrence Langner and his wife Armina Marshall created a Broadway-quality stage within an 1830s cow barn.  Now celebrating its 78th season, the Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 35 of which later transferred to Broadway. Its roster of actors reads like a "Who's Who" of the American theatre.  Westport Country Playhouse serves as a treasured home for the performing arts for audiences and artists alike, and as a true cultural landmark for Connecticut.

Tickets to "Funny Mondays" are $25, $20 and $15.  For more information, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Information about the Playhouse is also available at www.westportplayhouse.org. 

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