Transport Group Presents I LOVED LUCY 8/8

Transport Group, the Drama Desk and OBIE award-winning theatre company has announced that I Loved Lucy, written by Lee Tannen, based on his best-selling memoir about the author's friendship with Lucille Ball during the last years of her life, will play a special one-night-only performance of the Laguna Playhouse production on Monday, August 8 at 8pm at at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street® project, 229 West 42 Street.

Comedienne Lucille Ball left an indelible imprint on fans throughout the world, but most saw only the public persona. Now, go behind the scenes and get a glimpse of the personal side of Lucy. Few people knew America's comic sweetheart the way Lee Tannen did. Though distantly related by marriage and forty years apart in age, Lucy and Lee became the nearest and dearest of friends during the last decade of Lucy's life. It was a time Lucy spent out of the spotlight and around a backgammon table, and Lee was lucky enough to be sitting across from her for much of that time.

Based on Lee's memoir, I Loved Lucy offers a front row center look at a very different Lucy-a woman who was so much like and unlike her TV alter ego. See what it was like to be her friend, the way she truly was and the way she chose to live. Learn the stories and the shenanigans that Lee shared with her in Beverly Hills, New York, Washington DC, and Colorado. This is Lucy like you've never known her before. It's a funny, irreverent, and bittersweet portrait that will add to the love of a great showbiz legend.

I Loved Lucy features Diane J. Findlay as Lucille Ball and Jeffry Denman as Lee; it is directed by Todd Weeks. The performance will be followed by a question & answer session featuring Tannen, Findlay, and Denman.

Founded in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director, and Lori Fineman, Executive Director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that develops and produces work by American Playwrights and composers with the aim of exploring the American consciousness in the 20th and 21st centuries. Transport Group is the winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award for its "breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions." Transport Group presented its premiere production in 2002: Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which featured older actors in the roles of Emily and George and a twelve-year-old girl as the Stage Manager. Its second production, Requiem for William, an evening of seven seldom produced plays by William Inge, that featured a cast of 26 as well as original songs, premiered in 2003. In 2004 the company presented the first New York revival of Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite, which received rave reviews, played to sold-out houses, and earned two Drama Desk Award nominations including outstanding revival of a musical. Other productions include the world premiere of the musical The Audience, which featured a cast of 46 actors and earned three Drama Desk Award nominations, including outstanding musical; Normal, a new musical about a mother's battle to save her daughter from anorexia; cul-de-sac, a new play by Tony Award nominee John Cariani; the first New York revival of Tad Mosel's Pulitzer Prize play, All the Way Home; the 50th anniversary, Obie-winning production of William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs; the world premiere musicals Crossing Brooklyn, Marcy in the Galaxy, and Being Audrey, and the first New York revival of Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead. Both First Lady Suite and Bury the Dead were filmed for the New York Performing Arts Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. In 2010 Transport Group presented a sold-out, extended engagement of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band, which received an OBIE Award and was nominated for five 2010 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Play-the most for an off-Broadway play. Transport Group's productions of See Rock City and Other Destinations by Brad Alexander and Adam Mathias, and Hello Again by Michael John LaChiusa combined for eleven 2011 Drama Desk Award nominations and one win. Transport Group's most recent production, Lysistrata Jones, by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, opened to rave reviews and played to sell-out houses. For more information about Transport Group visit www.transportgroup.org.

I Loved Lucy plays Monday, Aug 8 at 8pm at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project, 229 West 42nd Street. Tickets are $75 (priority seating and post-show reception) and $45, and are available at www.Dukeon42.org or by phoning The Duke on 42nd Street box office at 646-223-3010. Online box office is available 24 hours; regular box office hours at The Duke on 42nd Street are: Tuesday-Friday 4pm-7pm; Saturday 12pm-6pm. On the performance day, the box office is open 4pm-performance time. Transport Group's productions of The Patsy and Jonas, featuring David Greenspan, continue their runs through August 13. For more information about Transport Group, I Loved Lucy, The Patsy, and Jonas, visit www.transportgroup.org.

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