We Open Tonight!

Last night's Final Dress Rehearsal was such a jolt. I think every actor gets to a point in rehearsal where they think they suck. Mark, the director, and John, the playwright have seen us do it so many times that they don't really laugh anymore and they don't just laugh to be nice and blow smoke up our butt. So the run in the afternoon was crickets. Anyhoo, it was absolutely thrilling when people (all invited friends) were laughing and clapping. So it IS funny. Thank Jesus. My friend's were there: Gene, Jen, Kit, Carole (who will be playing my mom in Elvis & Juliet), Michael, Hugh...it was a loving, complimentary bunch, and I just had the best time. Even though my thong is chaffing my butt crack. Tada. Amd here is the latest article from Playbill!

My Deah — Medea Spoof with Opel and Batt — Begins Off-Broadway Run April 21

By Andrew Gans
21 Apr 2006

My Deah, John Epperson's new comedy, begins its limited engagement at the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre April 21.

Presented by The Abingdon Theatre Company and inspired by Euripides' Medea, the Epperson work will play through May 7. Bryan Batt and Nancy Opel co-star in the comedy, which features direction by When Pigs Fly's Mark Waldrop.

Opel stars in the title role with Batt as Gator. The cast also includes Todd Butera, Lori Gardner, Michael Hunsaker, Geoffrey Molloy, Jay Rogers and Kevin Townley.

My Deah, according to press notes, "spotlights Gator Hedgepeth, a former Mississippi football star, and his plans to abandon his wife, My Deah – an ex-beauty queen from Louisiana with a penchant for a gossip-filled bridge game – to marry Simplicity Bullard, the daughter of the corrupt, one-armed Governor Bullard. When My Deah confronts her card-dealing friends (and Governor Bullard) and she lays out her plans for revenge…y’all just might could die laughin’!"

The creative team for the production includes Mark Simpson (set and lighting design), David Kaley (costume design) and Matt Berman (sound design).

A graduate of the Juilliard School, Nancy Opel's Broadway credits include Fiddler on the Roof, Urinetown, Triumph of Love, Ring Round the Moon, Getting Away with Murder, Sunday in the Park with George, Anything Goes and Evita. Off-Broadway, the singer-actress has been seen in All in the Timing, Mere Mortals, Lives of the Saints, Hundreds of Hats, Don Juan in Chicago and Personals. Opel's screen credits include "The Ice Storm," "Second Skin," "Marcix," "Law & Order," "Ryan's Hope" and "One Life to Live."

Bryan Batt was most recently on Broadway in the revival of La Cage aux Folles. His other theatre credits include Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast; Monty, the disco DJ, in Saturday Night Fever; the Cat in the Hat in Seussical the Musical; Sir Percy in Frank Wildhorn's The Scarlet Pimpernel; as well as principal roles in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Starlight Express and Cats. The actor-singer-dancer also played Joe Gillis opposite Betty Buckley's Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and has appeared Off-Broadway in Forbidden Broadway and Jeffrey. Batt has also been busy raising funds for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

My Deah plays Wednesdays-Saturdays at 7:30 PM with matinees Saturdays at 2 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. The Dorothy Strelsin Theatre is located within the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex at 312 West 36th Street. Tickets, priced at $19, are available by calling (212) 868-4444 or by visiting www.smarttix.com.