WELL KNOWN ACTORS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR IN
“BROADWAY ROCKS ANAHEIM” PRESENTED BY THE APAC FOUNDATION
AT THE HERITAGE FORUM, NOVEMBER 27, 2010
The production, Broadway Rocks Anaheim, is a benefit to kick off the Capital Campaign to build the Anaheim Performing Arts Center in Anaheim.
Vickie Lewis, Lea Thompson and Mary Ann Mobley are three of the actors to appear in “Broadway Rocks Anaheim”.
VICKIE LEWIS is best known for her five year stint as the quirky secretary Beth in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio and as Nora on Three Sisters for NBC. She has had recurring and guest starring roles on the TV including Seinfeld, Bones, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Grey’s Anatomy, Caroline In The City, Murphy Brown, Grace Under Fire and Home Improvement and was recently seen on Curb Your Enthusiasm as Larry David’s producing partner in the Seinfeld re-union arc.
Her films include The Ugly Truth, Last Day Of Summer, California Dreamin, Godzilla, Mousehunt, Pushing Tin, I’ll Do Anything, The Huntress, Bye Bye Birdie and Breakfast Of Champions. And you can hear her voice in many animated films including Pixar’s animated blockbuster Finding Nemo.
On Broadway she starred in the revivals of Chicago and Damn Yankees and the productions of Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? and Snoopy!!! The Musical. She also appeared in Pal Joey at the New York City Center with Peter Gallagher and Patti LuPone and opposite Jason Alexander in the TV film adaptation of Bye Bye Birdie for ABC. Locally she received the 2007 Ovation Award for her performance in the world premiere of Michael John Lachuisa’s Hotel C’est L’amoure
Recently Lewis found time in her busy schedule to talk about her second foray into the world of animated super heroes as Persephone, a key character among the Amazons in Wonder Woman, the next entry in the popular series of DC Universe animated original PG-13 movies.
“I do a lot of animation and mostly I get cast as the whacky character. I play a lot of kids, or the strange neighbor next door, or the really off-the-wall person in the script. But this was really enticing because Persephone is a solid, commanding woman. It was an interesting process to find and place her vocally. She’s a powerful character, and the direction was “less is more” in the grand scheme of this Greek tragedy. I’m very rarely asked to play the powerful, centered part of myself. It’s always there, but I don’t get to use it often in performance. I played Velma Kelly in Chicago, so I think I drew mainly on that character. But this was a great experience. I expected to come in and they would ask me to act like an idiot, which is what I usually get paid to do. So this was an interesting recording session.”
LEA THOMPSON, is best known for her role as Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back To The Future Trilogy. Lea has recently been on a worldwide tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future, and is starring in the new Hallmark Movie Channel original The Cabin, premiering summer 2011.
Recently in an interview by USA Today she agreed she has least two reasons to still be thankful for Back to the Future. One, it put her on the map in Hollywood for years to come, and it also gave her the Halloween costume that keeps on giving.
“I still have the pink prom dress, we have a ritual: Every Halloween, my girls try to put (the dress) on and decide whether they want to wear it for Halloween. It’s really too uncomfortable. And then I’m like, ‘No, you can’t take this out! I’m gonna have to sell it on eBay one day and pay for your college!’ ”
While Thompson’s two daughters Madelyn, 19, and Zoey, 15, were initially confused the first time they watched Back to the Future and saw their mom kiss guys who weren’t their dad — namely, Michael J. Fox and Crispin Glover— but she says now they see it as a beautifully crafted film.
Thompson is grateful to have played six aspects of Lorraine over the course of the trilogy, plus the 1880s character of Maggie McFly in the Western-tinged Back to the Future III.
“It’s probably still my middle name. For a while, my middle name turned into Caroline in the City,” Thompson says, referring to her 1990s sitcom, “but now it’s back to Back to the Future. It was just a great part. It was sad and it was funny and it was sexy — what more could an actress ask for?” Part of the reason Back to the Future endures in pop culture is its deep themes, she says. “The idea that you can change your future, you can live a better life and be happier as you get older, that’s an amazing thing to think about. And the idea that a child could help his parents go back and change their life and make it better is a sweet notion.”
MARY ANN MOBLEY, a former Miss America (1959) joins the cast of Broadway Rocks Anaheim. A well known celebrity on TV, Mary Ann has starred opposite Elvis Presley on screen, been shot at by guerrilla forces in Mozambique, performed death-defying circus acts in television’s Circus of the Stars and has dedicated many years to documenting the young victims of war and starvation in places like Cambodia, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Sudan.
Mobley appeared in several movies, including two with Elvis Presley in 1965, Girl Happy and Harum Scarum. She said about working with Presley – “Elvis and I felt a common bond, coming from Mississippi. He thought I understood him. He didn’t have to put on airs with me, and I wasn’t after anything. The first day I came on the set of Girl Happy, in 1964, Elvis got up and he came to me, and he said, “Hi, I’m Elvis. Like I didn’t know.”
She is probably the only Miss America ever to achieve success in film, television, Broadway, personal appearances and as a documentary filmmaker. Her career started on Broadway in the musical Nowhere To Go But Up followed by the revival of Guys and Dolls in Boston which was the first of 16 productions of Mobley as Sarah Brown, the Salvation Army lass. Some of her other musical productions were; Brigadoon, The King and I, Oklahoma!, Cabaret, Pajama Game, On A Clear Day, Irene, The Music Man, Hello, Dolly!, Finian’s Rainbow, Love Letters and others. For her musical work, she was voted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame April 13, 2002.
Mary Ann makes public appearances throughout the United States as a vocalist, as well as a speaker on world hunger, and health issues. She is the first woman to be voted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame. Mobley has served on the National Board of Trustees for the March of Dimes for 30 years, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, served for five years on the National Council on Disability and, herself a breast cancer survivor, now serves on the National Advisory Board of the Eudora Welty Foundation.
She has just completed a three season run at the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs in a new musical entitled “Senior Class”, as well as traveling all over the United States doing concert dates and speaking on health issues and world hunger.
Reserved General Admission tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/133171 for $20, $50 and $75. VIP tickets are $250 and $150, half of which will go directly to the Capital Campaign and is tax deductible. The $250 VIP ticket includes dinner at The Muzeo, Premier Seating for Broadway Rocks Anaheim and a Meet the Cast reception after the performance. The $150 VIP ticket includes Premier Seating for Broadway Rocks Anaheim and a Meet the Cast reception after the performance. VIP tickets are available by calling Shelley at 714-401-5325.
The production, Broadway Rocks Anaheim, is a benefit to kick off the Capital Campaign to build the Anaheim Performing Arts Center in Anaheim. The show also stars Jennifer Aedo, Erica Ash, James Barbour, Caitlin Baunoch, Dennis Bendersky, Jeremy Davison, Michelle Duffy, Ray Garcia, Julie Garnye, Jenna Leigh Green, Daniel Guzman, Tricia Kelly, Derek Klena, Crystal Starr Knighton, Vicki Lewis, Tyler Milliron, Mary Ann Mobley, Nicole Parker, Aleks Pevec, Joan Ryan, Jennifer Shelton, Nathan Shrake, James Snyder, Evan Strand, John Lloyd Young and Musical Theatre Unversity’s Kids Next Door. Songs are performed by some of the Broadway cast members of Jersey Boys, Wicked, Jane Eyre, Beauty and the Beast, Cry Baby and future Broadway productions of Heathers, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Catch Me If You Can.
Sandy Hall
Production Coordinator
Board of Directors
Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation
