Looped National Tour Delays Launch Due to Hospitalization of Valerie Harper

The national tour of Looped has rescheduled its opening in Hartford following an announcement that its star, Emmy Award winner Valerie Harper, underwent hospitalization in Manhattan. The actress, who was in rehearsals to reprise her Tony-nominated role as Tallulah Bankhead, is expected to make a full recovery.

The tour will now kick off at Fort Lauderdale’s Parker Playhouse on February 26. The Hartford engagement has been rescheduled for May 7 through 12. Dates for the show’s engagement at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre (March 5 through 17) remain scheduled as planned.

Set in the summer of 1965, Looped follows an aging and intoxicated Tallulah Bankhead (Harper) as she attempts to re-record one line of dialogue for her final film, Die! Die! My Darling! The ordeal takes eight hours as Bankhead spars with Danny Miller (Brian Hutchison), a no-nonsense film editor, during the dubbing session. In addition to Harper and Hutchinson, the tour also features Matthew Montelongo as Steve. 

Looped originally premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, starring Harper. The show opened at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre on March 14, 2010, where it played 25 performances before closing on April 11. 

Harper earned four Emmy awards for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on TV’s The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda and Mary and Rhoda. On Broadway, Harper has appeared in Take Me Along, Wildcat, Subways Are For Sleeping, Something Different, Paul Sills’ Story Theatre, Ovid’s Metamorphoses and The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife. Hutchison’s Broadway credits include The Invention of Love, Exit the King and Proof. His film and TV credits include Ghost Town, Love and Other Drugs, Sudden Death and Do No Harm.