The first performance of
Looped was as a January 8, 2007
New World Stages reading, with
Elizabeth Ashley as Tallulah Bankhead and
Neal Huff as Danny Miller. In 2008 the play's writer Matthew Lombardo pitched
Looped to
Valerie Harper - who Lombardo states he envisioned as Tallulah Bankhead when he wrote the play. Harper invited Rob Ruggiero, who in 1998 had directed her
off-Broadway in
All Under Heaven, to helm
Looped, which premiered at the
Pasadena Playhouse,
Pasadena, California in the summer of 2008. According to Harper, "When the show ran in Pasadena, we got a lot of feedback that the first act was uproariously funny, and the second act was very, very dark. It was almost like two separate plays. Since then...Matthew Lombardo...has added more depth and context to the first act, and more laugh lines to the second act. It’s now a much more cohesive journey." With Harper reprising her role, the rewritten
Looped would play 2009 engagements at the Cuillo Centre for the Arts in
West Palm Beach, Florida, and at the Arena Stage of the
Lincoln Theater (Washington D.C.). Created by
Chad Allen in Pasadena, the role of Danny Miller would be played in West Palm Beach and Washington D.C. by
Jay Goede. It was announced in December 2009 that Harper would be reprising her starring role in
Looped in a
Broadway production of the play which, as scheduled, began preview performances at the
Lyceum Theatre on February 19, 2010, to officially open on March 14, 2010. Directed by Rob Ruggiero, who had helmed the play's prior engagements, the Broadway production of
Looped featured
Brian Hutchison and
Michael Mulheren: its creative team including Adrian W. Jones (sets),
William Ivey Long (costumes),
Ken Billington (lighting), and
Michael Hooker (sound). The Broadway production of
Looped typically drew glowing notices for Harper but not the play, exemplified by
Asbury Park Press critic Bill Canacci's assessment: "Harper...is consistently excellent. [...] Too bad she did not have better material. [...] This a long two hours [that] even with Harper's performance [is] not worth watching".
Looped would prove a Broadway flop, closing after 33 performances and 27 previews on April 11, 2010, the play unable to survive for the remaining three weeks until the announcement of the
Tony Award nominations. Harper received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play and was considered a deserving contender in a strong field, although
Viola Davis (
Fences) was favored to win (and did). Although a
Toronto engagement of
Looped with Harper was tentatively announced at the time of the Broadway production's closing, it would not be until the summer of 2012 that a February 2013 engagement at
the Bushnell in Lombardo's hometown of
Hartford, Connecticut, was announced to inaugurate a four city tour of
Looped headlined by Harper. While rehearsing for
Looped in January 2013, Harper experienced health issues mandating her hospitalization: after initial reports that Harper would be able to headline the
Looped tour with its Bushnell engagement postponed, the premiere engagement instead being at the
Parker Playhouse (Fort Lauderdale), it was announced by the end of January 2013 that Harper would be replaced in the role of Tallulah Bankhead by
Stefanie Powers, who had co-starred (as Patricia) with Tallulah Bankhead in the film
Die! Die! My Darling!. With three weeks rehearsal, Powers premiered as Tallulah Bankhead in February 2013 at the Parker Playhouse engagement of
Looped, subsequently headlining engagements at the
Hippodrome Theatre (Baltimore), the
Cutler Majestic Theatre (Boston), and the Bushnell. Brian Hutchison reprised the role of Danny Miller in the 2013 tour of
Looped. • July 2014: with
Diane Louise Salinger (Ensemble Theatre,
Santa Barbara, California) • February 2019: with
Judith Chapman (Desert Rose Playhouse,
Palm Springs, California) • May 2023: with Martha Lott (
Holden Street Theatres,
Adelaide,
South Australia) • October 2024: with
Eileen Bowman (The Roustabouts at the Legler Benbough Theatre,
San Diego, California) ==References==