Valerie Harper to Get Looped as Tallulah Bankhead on Broadway

Emmy Award winner Valerie Harper will return to Broadway in 2010, starring as over-the-top screen legend Tallulah Bankhead in the new Matthew Lombardo comedy Looped. Directed by Rob Ruggiero, previews begin at the Lyceum Theatre on February 19 in advance of a March 14 opening.

Looped tells the story of Bankhead, the internationally celebrated actress, being called into a sound studio in 1965 to re-record (or "loop") one line of dialogue for what would be her last film, the dreadful Die, Die My Darling. Southern, but by no means a belle, Bankhead was known for her wild partying and convention-defying exploits that outshone even today's celebrity bad girls. Given her inebriated state (and inability to loop the line perfectly), what ensues is a hilarious showdown between an uptight and conservative sound editor, Danny Miller, and the outrageous star.

Best known for her Emmy Award winning turns on television classics including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, Hooper returns to Broadway for the first time since starring in 2002's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. Additional Broadway credits include Story Theatre, Metamorphoses, Something Different, Subways are for Sleeping, Wildcat and Li'l Abner. Off-Broadway, she has been seen in Death-Defying Acts and All Under Heaven.

Looped, helmed by Ruggiero, had its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in Summer 2008, going on to play The Cuillo Centre and Arena Stage. The Broadway production is being mounted by Harper's husband Tony Cacciotti, Chase Mishkin, David Steiner and Loenard Soloway.

The creative team for the show includes set designer Adrian W. Jones, costume designer William Ivey Long, wig designer Charles LaPointe, lighting designer Ken Billington and sound designer Michael Hooker/Peter Fitzgerald.