Joan Rivers celebrates her 75 years with 75 shows
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
AS PART of her 75th birthday (June 8) celebrations, comedy icon Joan Rivers will make her London acting debut in Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress By a Life in Progress.
The self-penned autobiographical play receives its premiere at the 420-seat newly refurbished and re-named Leicester Square Theatre (formerly The Venue), where it initially runs from Friday, August 29 to Thursday, September 18, 2008.
It will then return with further dates between December 2, 2008 and January 29, 2009 before embarking on a Broadway season. In the meantime, there will be a 19-date Edinburgh Festival preview season at the Underbelly Cow Barn – from Thursday, August 7 to Monday, August 25, 2008.
In total, there will be 75 performances.
Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress By a Life in Progress is a four-handed, part-confession, part-performance comedy drama based on Rivers’ own life. Described as fierce, funny and unforgettable, it not only presents the public face of Rivers – as seen in biographies, TV appearances and live stand-up shows – but also the private one.
Set in her dressing room backstage at the Oscars ceremony, Rivers is preparing for one of her legendary annual TV catwalk commentaries on the fashion hits and disasters at Hollywood’s biggest night of the year. But all is not well – her dressing room is B, not A; her complimentary cheese is puny, not plentiful; and her producer is the bigwig’s nephew, not the bigwig himself!
The tension and drama are the catalyst for an introspective look at aging, going through life’s ups and downs and being a woman in Hollywood. After five decades in showbusiness, the topics fly by – some familiar, some not. The famous breakup with Johnny Carson is there, her husband’s suicide, the feuds and firings, several backstabbings, sidesteps and full frontal calamities.
Olivier Award-winner Sean Foley directs a cast that also includes Emily Kosloski, Carrie Paff, Mark Philips, and on camera, Melissa Rivers, Dorie Barton and Leo Marks.
As well as a comedienne, Rivers is a Tony Award-nominated actress; best-selling author; Emmy Award-winning TV chat show host; playwright; screenwriter; motion picture director; columnist; lecturer; syndicated radio host; jewellery designer and cosmetic company entrepreneur; red-carpet fashion laureate; businesswoman and, most importantly to her, mother and grandmother.
Rivers was the first woman host of a primetime evening chat show for Fox TV and went on to win an Emmy for her work on her daytime show, which ran for seven years. She received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress for her last Broadway appearance in Sally Marr and Her Escorts and was internationally acclaimed for her one-woman show, Broke and Alone, both of which she also co-authored.
Foley is a co-founder and Artistic Director of The Right Size, whose production The Play What I Wrote won every major theatre award on its West End debut. He has devised and performed in all the company’s productions, touring nationally and internationally, including Bewilderness, Mr Puntilla and His Man Mafia, Do You Come Here Often? (for which he won an Olivier Award) and Stop Calling Me Vernon.
Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress By a Life in Progress was originally produced as a workshop at the Magic Theatre, San Francisco, in 2007, and received its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles in February this year.
Tickets: £25, £42.50, £49.50, and £75 VIP Diamond Package which includes a seat in roped off front rows, a Joan Rivers goodie bag and an aftershow ‘meet and greet’ with the star herself.
To book call the box office on 0844 8472 475 or visit TicketWeb.