Valerie Harper, Jay Goede, Michael Orenstein Set for Arena Stage’s Looped

The full cast and creative team is now set for Matthew Lombardo’s Looped, to play Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage, May 29-June 28, with an opening set for June 4. Rob Ruggiero will direct.

The cast will include Four-time Emmy Award winner Valerie Harper as Tallullah Bankhead, Jay Goede as Danny Miller, and Michael Orenstein as Steve. It is loosely based on the true story of Bankhead’s eight-hour looping session during the movie Die, Die, My Darling. Previous versions of the work have been presented at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Cuillo Centre for the Arts, with Lombardo doing rewrites for Arena.

The creative team includes Adrian W. Jones (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), Michael Gillian (lighting), and Michael Hooker (sound).

Harper’s stage credits include Golda’s Balcony, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, and Death Defying Acts; she is best known for her Emmy Award-winning work as Rhoda Morgenstern on TV’s Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda. Goede’s Broadway credits include Angels in America, A Year with Frog and Toad and Sex and Longing. Orenstein originated his role at Pasadena Playhouse and also played it at the Cuillo Centre.

Lombardo is best known as the author of Tea at Five. Ruggiero’s directing credits include Ella, Make Me A Song, and The Little Dog Laughed.

For more information, visit www.arenastage.org.