Valerie 'Rhoda' Harper in Golda's Balcony Returns to Ft. Lauderdale
By: Beau Higgins Nov. 28, 2005
FOUR-TIME EMMY AWARD-WINNER Valerie Harper
RETURNS TO FORT LAUDERDALE TO RESUME HER POWERHOUSE PERFORMANCE
AS LEGENDARY PRIME MINISTER GOLDA MEIR IN WILLIAM GIBSON'S
GOLDA'S BALCONY
OPENING TWO WEEK RUN, JANUARY 4-15 AT PARKER PLAYHOUSE
HARPER CUTS INTO NATIONAL TOUR TO COMPLETE ORIGINAL RUN FOLLOWING
CANCELLATION OF PERFORMANCES DUE TO HURRICANE WILMA.
Returning to South Florida after Hurricane Wilma forced the cancellation of performances, four-time Emmy Award-winning television and motion picture star Valerie Harper resumes her starring solo role as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (and 43 other characters) in the Broadway smash, GOLDA'S BALCONY, at the Parker Playhouse, 707 N.E. 8th Street in Fort Lauderdale. This follows the cancellation of the final 18 (of 24) performances at the Parker Playhouse. Harper has performed the role to critical acclaim in Detroit, Michigan, and will have played engagements in Milwaukee and Cleveland prior to the show's Ft. Lauderdale return.
Everyone who had individual tickets (non-group) for the cancelled performances Sunday, October 23rd through Sunday, November 6 have been refunded and should call to re-book their tickets. Groups who were booked will be contacted by the group sales agent.
Tickets range from $42.00 - $50.00 and can be purchased in person at the Parker Playhouse Box Office, by phone at 954-462-0222 internet at www.parkerplayhouse.com. Tickets are also available through TicketMaster at 954-523-3309 or www.ticketmaster.com. and in person at the Broward Center AutoNation Box Office at 201 S.W. 5th Ave. Monday-Friday, 10 A.M.-5 P.M. and Saturday and Sunday, 12 Noon-5 P.M.
A riveting portrait of one of the great women of our time, GOLDA'S BALCONY is the latest work from WILLIAM GIBSON, who wrote the Tony Award-winning classic "The Miracle Worker" as well as "Two For The Seesaw" starring Henry Fonda.
Nominated for a Tony Award and for "Best Play" by the Drama League, and winner of the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards, GOLDA'S BALCONY is a dazzling, sight and sound spectacular, with a virtuosic performance by Valerie Harper at its center. In addition to the legendary Prime Minister Golda Meir, HARPER plays 43 different, distinctly-rendered characters: from Henry Kissinger, King Abdullah, David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan, to Israeli soldiers, children and concentration camp survivors from every country in Europe.
GOLDA'S BALCONY plays the Parker Playhouse from Wednesday, January 4 through Sunday, January 15 with performances Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm and matinees Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.
GOLDA'S BALCONY
The rise of Golda Meir from Russian schoolgirl to Israel's Prime minister is one of the most thrilling stories of the 20th century. GOLDA'S BALCONY tells this story and has earned raves across the board on Broadway.
USA TODAY called the play "a moving tribute to the human capacity for survival."
John Simon in New York Magazine said, "GOLDA'S BALCONY is perfect: the play conveys so many lives, so much history, such an onrush of humanity."
Clive Barnes in The New York Post raved: "Gibson's fascinating play is a tight knit story of war and peace."
And The New York Times enthused: "Hearing from someone who was there at the birth of the country, who sacrificed to make it happen, helps remind us where the Middle East standoff came from.
Valerie Harper most recently appeared on Broadway starring in Charles Busch's "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife." After running almost a year in New York, Harper then starred in the national tour. Off-Broadway she co-wrote and starred in "All Under Heaven," a one-woman play based on the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck ("The Good Earth.") She starred in Elaine May's and Woody Allen's "Death Defying Acts," also Off-Broadway. During her long and varied career, Harper has starred in a wide variety of television films, specials and feature films, as well as five prime time series. Most notably, Harper spent nine years as the character of Rhoda Morgenstern on both "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and on her own series, "Rhoda." She was the recipient of Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Golden Apple Award, and four Emmy Awards. She is currently working with her husband, Tony Cacciotti, developing a series of health-related television specials. The couple lives in Los Angeles and has a daughter, Cristina, who is an actress.
Playwright WILLIAM GIBSON has written poetry, fiction and scripts for stage, television and films. His plays include "The Miracle Worker," winner of the Tony Award for Best Play in 1960, "Two for the Seesaw," "A Cry of Players," "Golda," from which GOLDA'S BALCONY is loosely adapted, "The Butterfingers Angel," "Monday After The Miracle," "Goodly Creatures," and "Handy Dandy." He is the author of a novel, "The Cobweb," as well as the musical version of Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy." His several books include "The Seesaw Log," "A Mass for the Dead" (a study of his family), "A Season in Heaven," and "Shakespeare's Game," a critical study. GOLDA'S BALCONY is his latest play. It set a record as the longest running one-woman play in Broadway history on January 2, 2005. Last September 30, 2005, Gibson was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, along with actors John Lithgow and Sada Thompson, designer William Ivey Long and director Sir Peter Hall.
Returning to direct GOLDA'S BALCONY in its national tour is the play's Broadway director, Scott Schwartz. Schwartz was previously represented on Broadway as co-director of "Jane Eyre" with John Caird. He also directed the highly acclaimed Off-Broadway hits, "tick, tick…BOOM!," "Bat Boy: The Musical," and Franz Kafka's "The Castle."
Many of the Broadway designers have reprised their roles for the road show, including set designer ANNA LOUIZOS ("Avenue Q," "Irving Berlin's White Christmas"); costume designer JESS GOLDSTEIN ("Take Me Out," "Enchanted April," "Proof"); and video and projection designer ROBIN SILVESTRI ("The Rocky Horror Show," "Bring in Da Noise…."). The GOLDA'S BALCONY tour is produced by David Fishelson, who led the team on Broadway with veterans Roy Gabay ("Metamorphoses") and Randall L. Wreghitt ("Little Women").
The GOLDA'S BALCONY national tour is in proud support of the Israel Children's Centers, insuring a promising future for the state of Israel.
For more information, visit www.GoldasBalcony.com.
GOLDA'S BALCONY recently completed a record-breaking 15 sold-out months on Broadway. The show's run at the Parker will complete the show's only Florida engagement during a 30-week tour where, among other cities, it will play Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, St. Louis, St. Paul, Toronto and Pittsburgh.
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