Laguna Playhouse is thrilled to announce a very special event, a world premiere musical, TWO’S A CROWD starring Rita Rudner and Davis Gaines, book by Martin Bergman and Rita Rudner, music and lyrics by Jason Feddy and directed by Martin Bergman. TWO’S A CROWD will perform two weeks only, Friday, September 7 through Sunday, September 16 at Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.
They say opposites attract. They haven’t met Tom and Wendy. Forced together by a computer error, freewheeling Tom and uptight Wendy do their best to ruin each other’s vacations. Will they get to know each other well enough to reveal the real reasons behind their travel? Will they agree on sleeping arrangements? Will room service ever arrive? Written by Martin Bergman & Rita Rudner, TWO’S A CROWD pairs audience favorites award-winning comedian and actress Rita Rudner and Phantom of the Opera’s Davis Gaines, featuring songs written by Laguna’s own rock star, Jason Feddy.
ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
This is Martin Bergman and Rita Rudner’s third new show and first musical at the Laguna Playhouse, and their most ambitious offering to date. “We find the Laguna audience to be really supportive, and we wanted to start this show here before taking it on tour and hopefully ending up in New York,” said Martin Bergman. “The feedback we’ll get from the Playhouse audiences will be immensely helpful, and we hope the people who come and see the show will know and enjoy their role in being involved in something at its very inception. Although it’s set in Las Vegas, it’s a very Laguna recipe – the three of us plus the immensely talented Jason Feddy.”
RITA RUDNER has been a house-filling favorite in Las Vegas since she opened as one of the hottest tickets in town in June 2000, Rudner is known for her epigrammatic one-liners. Over the course of a multi-year run, she sold almost two million tickets, grossed over a hundred million dollars and become the longest-running solo comedy show in the history of Las Vegas. She was named Las Vegas’s Comedian Of The Year nine years in a row and in 2006 received The Nevada Ballet’s Woman Of The Year Award. Last October she was given the 2017 Casino Entertainment Legend Award. Rita’s first solo HBO special, Rita Rudner’s One Night Stand, was nominated for several awards, as was her eponymous English BBC television show that later appeared in the USA on A&E. Rudner’s two one-hour specials for HBO, Born to Be Mild and Married Without Children, were rating standouts and she performed all over the country, filling Carnegie Hall in New York three times. In 2008 Rita Rudner: Live From Las Vegas was PBS’s first ever stand-up comedy special. Rita Rudner has written five books; her bestselling non-fiction titles, Naked Beneath My ClothesRita Rudner’s Guide to Men and I Still Have It…I Just Can’t Remember Where I Put It, plus the novels Tickled Pink and Turning the Tables. The audio version of Naked Beneath My Clothes received a Grammy nomination. Rita Rudner moved to New York at the age of fifteen to become a dancer on Broadway. She appeared in several shows, including the original productions of Follies and Mack and Mabel. It was while in Annie on Broadway that she began exploring the comedy clubs of Manhattan. In the early ‘80s, Rudner took a full-time leap from chorus lines to punch lines and was soon a regular guest on both Late Night With David Letterman and The Tonight Show.
In January 2016, Rita appeared at the Laguna Playhouse in the new play by David Ambrose and Claudia Nellens entitled Act 3…, alongside English actor Charles Shaughnessy and under the direction of her husband. She and Martin have previously collaborated on two plays which they co-wrote – Room 776 and Tickled Pink. Future plans include a new TV stand up comedy special premiering on demand in September called A Tale Of Two Dresses and an autobiography.
DAVIS GAINES performed the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera over 2,000 times, during his run on Broadway, in Los Angeles, (where he remains LA’s longest-running Phantom), and in San Francisco, (where he received the Bay Area Critics’ Award for Best Actor). Subsequently, he was chosen by Hal Prince and Lloyd Webber to play the leading role in the World Premiere of Whistle Down the Wind. Other Broadway and National Tour credits include Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly! (with Carol Channing), Camelot (with Richard Burton) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (with Alexis Smith). Gaines’ Off-Broadway appearances include Des McAnuff’s The Death of Von Richthofen as Witnessed from Earth, the Maury Yeston/Larry Gelbart musical One Two Three Four Five, Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, She Loves Me and Forbidden Broadway. He made his New York City Opera debut in The New Moon and appeared in New York in concert versions of Sitting Pretty, The Cat and the Fiddle, Pippin and the Encores production of The Boys from Syracuse. In Southern California, he portrayed Hannibal Lecter (LA Weekly Award, Best Male Musical Performance) in SILENCE! The Musical, appeared at Musical Theater West in Spamalot, Man of La Mancha (Ovation Award and BroadwayWorld Award, Best Lead Actor in a Musical), 1776, Parade (with T.R. Knight/Mark Taper Forum) and Side by Side by Sondheim (Rubicon Theatre/Pasadena Playhouse). Film work includes a featured role in “Warlock: The Armageddon” (with Julian Sands) and television credits include “Desperate Housewives,” “Charmed,” “Chicago Hope,” “Veronica’s Closet,” “Bodies of Evidence” and “Murder, She Wrote.” He appeared in three PBS Great Performances broadcasts (Emmy Award-winning “Sweeney Todd” with the San Francisco Symphony, “Broadway Originals” with the Boston Pops and “Jerry Herman’s Broadway at the Bowl’). Additionally, Gaines has sung for five U.S. Presidents and with every major symphony orchestra in North America, including the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. He has also performed in cabaret in New York at ‘Feinstein’s at Loews Regency’ and ‘Rainbow and Stars’, Hollywood’s ‘Cinegrill’ and San Francisco’s ‘Plush Room’. His voice can be heard over 30 cast recordings and compilation albums, as well as two solo CDs, “Against the Tide” and “All My Tomorrows: Songs of Sammy Cahn.” Gaines resides in Los Angeles and is a frequent singer of our National Anthem for the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Dodgers. Most recently, made his Los Angeles area directing debut at Musical Theatre West with Oklahoma! and appeared opposite Vicki Lewis in I Do!, I, Do!at the Laguna Playhouse.
MARTIN BERGMAN (Book/ Director) His first play was produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London when he was only fifteen. As a teenager, the Royal Court allowed him free rein to observe close-up theatre giants like Samuel Beckett, Athol Fugard, David Storey, Christopher Hampton, Edward Bond, David Hare and Lindsay Anderson. After graduating from Cambridge University, Martin worked for the BBC as both a comedy writer and performer, hosting his own TV talk show on BBC 2 at the age of twenty-two. Deciding he preferred being behind the scenes rather than on camera, he then spent the rest of the1980s successfully producing live shows in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. He moved to Los Angeles in the late eighties and he and his wife Rita Rudner have worked exclusively together ever since. The couple’s first produced film script was Peter’s Friends. The film, starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton, Stephen Fry, and Rita, won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award for Best British Film and was nominated for the Goya Award for Best European Film of 1994. Their second film project, a TV movie called A Weekend In The Country, achieved a very high rating when it premiered on USA Films. An ensemble comedy, it starred Rita, Jack Lemmon, Dudley Moore, Richard Lewis, Christine Lahti and Faith Ford. Bergman and Rudner’s last film,Thanks, premiered at the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival, won several awards on the film festival circuit and was bought by and frequently aired on Showtime. Bergman’s production company has produced all of Rudner’s TV projects as well as her record-breaking stage show in Las Vegas.
JASON FEDDY (Music/Lyrics) Born and raised in Leeds, UK, Jason paid his musical dues in the ’80’s in the working men’s clubs and pubs that hone so much of Britain’s Rock & Roll talent. He has worked as a singer/songwriter and guitarist ever since school days, pausing only for 5 years as a morning jock on Laguna Beach’s local radio station. His career has seen him open for Neil Young, Tears For Fears, The Cranberries, John Martyn, Christie Moore and Joe Cocker. He’s produced 6 solo albums of original songs and written music for film and TV. Jason has a well-regarded show of songs from the plays of William Shakespeare, called “Shakespeare’s Fool.” He co-produced the recordings with legendary rock producer Ed Stasium. As a working musician, Jason currently tours and records with his own material, a Beatles cover band and an amazing Joe Cocker tribute show.
ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND PRICING
TWO’S A CROWD will perform two weeks only, Friday, September 7 through Sunday, September 16 at Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.
Performances will be Fridays at 7:30pm; Saturdays at 2pm & 7:30pm; Sundays at 1pm & 5:00pm; with additional performances on Wednesday, September 12 at 7:30pm & Thursday, September 13 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm.
Tickets range from $75.00 – $120.00 and can be purchased online at www.lagunaplayhouse.com or by calling (949) 497-ARTS (2787). Group discounts are available by calling 949-497-2787 ext. 229. Prices subject to change. The box office is open Mondays – Saturdays: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (open until showtime on performance days); Sundays: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Founded in 1920, the historic Laguna Playhouse is one of the oldest continuously-operating not-for-profit theatres on the West Coast and is proud to be an active participant in the celebrated Laguna Beach arts community. From classic plays and musical comedies to the current off-Broadway smash, cutting edge and traditional music exhibitions, dance festivals and stand-up comedy performances, Laguna Playhouse brings the magical experience of the performing arts direct to over 80,000 patrons each season.
Laguna Playhouse educational programming includes year-round classes, productions by and for children and teens (Youth Theatre) and is one of the few companies in the region that offer a curriculum-based professional theatre-touring program, TheatreReach, which aligns with the California State Standards for literature, history and performing arts curriculum.
Laguna Playhouse has been recognized in 2017, 2016 and 2015 as one of Orange County Register’s “Best of OC” in the category of Live Theatre, and has been recognized by OC Hotlist in their “Best Theatre Group” winning first place in 2017 and 2016. The Laguna Playhouse has featured many talented performers on stage, including Ed Asner, Leslie Caron, Hershey Felder, Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith, Val Kilmer, Gregory Harrison, Dan Lauria, Hal Linden, Wendie Malick, Rita Rudner, Charles Shaughnessy, French Stewart, Loretta Swit, and Bette Davis.
Learn What’s Going On at www.lagunaplayhouse.com.
David Elzer
DEMAND PR
David Elzer Marketing AND Public Relations
