CALL ME ELIZABETH Will Come to The Playground Theatre
Performances will run Tuesday 1st – Saturday 5th September @ 7.30pm and Sunday September 6th @ 6pm.
Direct from the Edinburgh Fringe, audiences are invited to an audience with Dame Elizabeth Taylor! Call Me Elizabeth, written and performed by American actor Kayla Boye giving her London debut as she portrays Hollywood royalty Elizabeth Taylor.
The show will play at the Playhouse Theatre, W10, London from 1st – 6th September. Originally at the fringe in two 60 min parts this show will combine Part 1: 'From Lassie to Cleopatra' and Part 2: 'From Burton To Humanitarian' in to one two hour performance plus an interval. Prior to this transfer, the production, will be play at the Assembly George Square Studio 2 alternating Parts 1 & 2 every day through August.
The show is directed by Mike Weber and dramaturged by Olivier award winner Guy Masterson - who was twice Taylor's nephew by marriage to Burton! Masterson saw Boye perform Part One at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 and was so taken by her performance he offered to consult with her about Part Two given his inside knowledge! He wanted to ensure that the material contained the truth and was handled with the greatest of care and respect.
The result is a biographical masterpiece, where Boye takes us from Child Star to Humanitarian, giving us an intimate portrait of an extraordinary life, offering unique family insights and first-hand knowledge of the superstar!
In the show, Elizabeth reveals her innermost feelings about life, love, triumphs and tragedies, passion and compassion... She reflects on her tempestuous passion with Richard Burton which nearly killed them both, but which also transformed her to play perhaps her greatest role... AIDS activist.
Born to stardom, for a decade she was the darling of Hollywood, but her fairytale wedding to Nicky Hilton soured on their wedding night, she lost beloveds James Dean and Montgomery Clift to car crashes, she lost her 3rd husband - and the love of her life - Mike Todd, in a plane crash, she almost lost her own life to pneumonia, she lost her 5th and 6th husband - and passion of her life - Richard Burton, to alcoholism. She lost her best friend, Rock Hudson, to AIDS… and she very nearly lost herself... but she stopped on the brink. Defiant, she became the voice that demanded that AIDS be taken seriously, that it was more than just “a Gay Disease”, and her influence led to activism, and her activism to acceptance and cure.
Biography
Kayla Boye (WRITER/ACTOR/PRODUCER) is a Chicago-based artist and the creator of Call Me Elizabeth and Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story. Credits include productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Drury Lane Theatre, Fireside Theatre, Capital City Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Mercury Theater Chicago, Music Theater Works, BrightSide Theatre, Citadel Theatre, Bigfork Summer Playhouse, The Huron Playhouse, The Youngstown Playhouse, and City Lit Theater (Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days). Her work has been awarded grants from Illinois Arts Council and the Arts Midwest Touring Fund.
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