Double Trouble

Since September, I have been appearing 4 nights a week on the Ansley Park Playhouse stage as Diane, a former socialite turned self-medicating mother of 5…

"Diane" and "Carol" (Erin Greenway)

in a show called “A Sunday Afternoon at Loehmann’s,” a new comedy by the award-winning playwrights John Gibson + Anthony Morris.

Please see my previous post HERE and click HERE to BUY YOUR TICKETS, ALREADY!

Ahem.

As you may or may not know, John and Anthony are best known for their play, Peachtree Battle which ran for 7.5 years and surpassed Driving Miss Daisy as the longest-running production in Atlanta Theatre History - when it finally closed Septemer 7th, 2008, Peachtree Battle completed over 1,200 performances to the delight of over 140,000 patrons. Yowza!

Well….THEY’RE BACK. For 15 performances. Staring TONIGHT! Lindsay and I were lucky enough to see the preview performance on Wednesday and it was HILARIOUS.

The Q+DD is this: The show centers around the high-powered socialite Trudy Habersham (played by Atlanta icon Deborah Childs) whose youngest son, Ansley, the apple of her eye (Justin Geer), brings home an African American Hooters waitress (Tanya Fraser) as his bride-to-be, much to his mother’s chagrin…and the delight of her other two children, Candler, her low self esteem-having, image-obsessed, carb-counting, man-repelling daughter (Angela Mitchell) and homosexual oldest son, Holcomb (Stan Gentry). As if all of that wasn’t enough, they throw in a cheating husband (Shields Upchurch) and alcoholic grandmother (Anna House) and an illegal immigrant housekeeper (Sarah Cooper). I assure you won’t stop laughing for 2 hours. Trust.

I have been lucky enough to work with Deborah Childs these last few months in Loehmann’s, in fact, we sit right next to each other in the dressing area and I love her, but I don’t think it’s biased to say that she is BRILLIANT. The moment she enters the stage, she is so compelling that your eye is immediately drawn to her. (And not just because of the f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c. costumes she rocks.) She’s just that good. She’s got such a strong presence and she’s not afraid to take risks in order to be outrageously HILARIOUS. I love beautiful women who can do comedy well and this show is chock full of them.

For instance, L and I also particularly LOVED Frasier as Tiffani (with an i!) she was adoooooorable, and Mitchell was marvelous as Candler. She’s a gorgeous girl who isn’t afraid to get ugly for a laugh. Love it. Respect it. Of course, House is an absolute RIOT as matriarch Azalea Wieuca and Cooper does an excellent job as the much-abused housekeeper Marta (exasperated as everyone keeps calling her by the wrong name.)

Lindsay’s favorite character was Sherwood Habersham, Trudy’s blustery philandering husband. In the role, Upchurch gets some big laughs and has some nice moments with Trudy, both tender and tempestuous. Oh and I can’t forget the boys! I ADORE Stan Gentry (both on and off stage. Stan also appears in my show as Ben, the blind ex-boyfriend) and Geer is absolutely darling as young Ansley.

Peachtree Battle’s limited run is already close to being sold out, so call today and get your tickets.

Bonus: If you purchase tickets to both “A Sunday Afternoon at Loehmann’s” and “Peachtree Battle” you will receive 20% off each ticket.

Please remember, Ansley Park Playhouse is BYOB. And I hope you will. We are funnier if you are drunker. Fact.

Hope to see you there!

xx, L

Ansley Park Playhouse
www.ansleyparkplayhouse.com
1545 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, GA 30309-2413