FINDING DOROTHY PARKER Returns to The Laurie Beechman Theatre

After a sold-out run, Finding Dorothy Parker, an evening celebrating the wit and wisdom of celebrated NY writer Dorothy Parker, will return January 14th-18th to The Laurie Beechman Theatre at West Bank Café (407 W. 42nd Street, NYC).  The all-star ensemble of Broadway favorites returns as well: Tony Award honoree Julie Halston (And Just Like That, Tootsie), Ann Harada (Avenue Q, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella), Jackie Hoffman (Hairspray, The Addams Family, Xanadu), and Tony Award nominee Anika Larsen (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Rent).  Compiled and directed by five-time Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane (Little Dog Laughed, Xanadu), the evening features music by composer Alistair Wroe (Prince Faggot). 

Finding Dorothy Parker is a sparkling revue and whirlwind tour of Dorothy Parker’s hilarious and wise material performed by some of the funniest women on Broadway. Dorothy Parker was the razor-sharp wit of the Roaring Twenties, a cocktail-sipping literary firecracker who made her mark with her words and her style. Parker’s dazzling wit graced the pages of Vanity Fair (where she was a staff writer and theater critic), The New Yorker (where she was one of its earliest contributors), Vogue, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and her short stories, poems, and reviews have been collected into several books. Whether she was penning scathing reviews, unforgettable one-liners, or melancholic poetry, Parker’s unapologetic brilliance and biting humor made her a legend. Dorothy Parker - An intoxicating mix of biting social commentary and campy fabulousness that continues to sparkle like a glass of champagne. 

“I have always wanted to do an evening of Dorothy Parker with four of Broadway’s funniest ladies in the style of Don Juan in Hell,”. Says Douglas Carter Beane. “Well we’re not in Hell now. We’re in Hell's Kitchen. So hello, Vagina Monologues and Love, Loss and what I Wore. …Come meet your sassy sister!”

The Laurie Beechman Theatre, which opened in 1978 beneath the legendary West Bank Café, has long been a launchpad for theatrical talent. Originally the “Downstairs Theatre Bar” with Lewis Black as Artistic Director, it produced over 1,500 one-act plays in its first 14 years, featuring early works by Aaron Sorkin and breakout performances from Tony Shalhoub, Mary Testa, Holly Hunter, Nathan Lane, and Mark Linn-Baker. It was also the birthplace of the Tony Award-winning Side Man starring Edie Falco, and where Stephen Sondheim famously debuted “Finishing the Hat” for Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin during rehearsals for Sunday in the Park with George.

Renamed after beloved Broadway star Laurie Beechman, the theatre has since become a premier destination for cabaret, drag, comedy, and live performance. Its intimate stage has hosted icons from Joan Rivers—who performed more than 200 sets there and told her final joke on its stage—to Jinkx Monsoon, André De Shields, Matt Doyle, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, and even The Who. Now under the leadership of Broadway producers Tom and Michael D’Angora, the venue has been reimagined with a bold, all-blue disco-inspired redesign by Tony Award-winning designer David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group, blending late 1970s Times Square grit with uptown polish.