[NEohioPAL]Where is Varla Jean Merman? At CPT, Under A Big Top

[Dan Kilbane]

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Dan Kilbane, Publicist
216/631-2727 ext. 203
dkilbane at cptonline.org <mailto:dkilbane at cptonline.org>

October 1, 2003

CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE REVEALS VARLA JEAN MERMAN’S UNDER A BIG TOP

Jeffery Roberson is Varla Jean Merman in
Varla Jean Merman’s Under A Big Top

Written by Jeffery Roberson and Michael Schiralli with additional material
by Matt Callaway
Music by David Brunetti. Directed by Michael Schiralli.

October 23 - November 2, 2003

The Upstairs Theatre

CLEVELAND, OH - Executive Director James Levin and Artistic Director Randy
Rollison are proud to welcome back Varla Jean Merman as she returns to
Cleveland for her third year in a row.  This time, Ms. Merman has a mission:
“I've heard people complaining for years", she squealed, "that there wasn't
a Big Top in Cleveland!  So, I had to take action!"  Her most colorful revue
to date, Varla Jean Merman's Under A Big Top encompasses circus, carnival,
magic, and freak shows, and boasts four new videos in addition to six new
songs.

Varla Jean Merman’s Under A Big Top is written by Jeffery Roberson and
Michael Shiralli, with additional material by Matt Callaway, and music by
David Brunetti.  Directed by Michael Schiralli, this circus-magic-good time
jamboree employs Varla Jean’s dizzying vocal range, dazzling costumes,
processed cheese, and perhaps a  trapeze.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer calls
Varla Jean Merman “Outrageously hilarious!”  Under A Big Top opens Thursday,
October 23, 2003, for a limited engagement running through Sunday, November
2, 2003. All performances will begin at 8:00 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and
Saturdays, with 6:00 p.m. matinees on Sundays (allow the lady to sleep in!).
All tickets are $20 general admission, and $18 for students and seniors.
For reservations and information, call 216/631-2727.

The purported love-child of the minutes-long marriage between Ethel Merman
and Ernest Borgnine, Varla Jean combines the fiery good looks of Ann
Margaret, the décolletage of Dolly Parton, the voice of Joan Sutherland on
ecstasy, and a comedic punch uniquely her own. Having just completed an
engagement in London’s West End and a starring role in the Sundance Film
Festival hit movie Girls Will Be Girls, as well as an appearance on ABC
Television’s “All My Children” in the recurring role of Rosemary Chicken,
the “International Chanteuse” is ready to return to Cleveland with what
promises to be her most “freak show” to date.

Under A Big Top highlights include: “The Ballad of the Bearded Lady,”
“Madame Know-It-All,” “Peck of the Chicken Woman,” and “Have I Had My Fill
of the Big Top?”

The mission of Cleveland Public Theatre is to inspire, nurture, challenge,
amaze, educate and empower artists and audiences, in order to make the
Cleveland Public a more conscious and compassionate community.

Cleveland Public Theatre and its artistic and education programs are funded
in part by public funding from The National Endowment for the Arts and the
Ohio Arts Council as well as by The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund
Foundation, The John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, The Doris
Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Theatre
Communications Group, and many others.

Cleveland Public Theatre Fact Sheet
Production
Varla Jean Merman’s Under A Big Top
The Upstairs Theatre

Artistic Staff
Jeffery Roberson as Varla Jean Merman, performer and co-writer
Michael Schiralli, director and co-writer
Matt Callaway, additional material
David Brunetti, music

Performance Dates and Times
Opening 		Thursday, October 23, 2003	8:00 p.m.
Closing			Sunday, November 2, 2003	6:00 p.m.
Run			October 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31; November 1, 2,
Times			Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.
			Sundays at 6:00 p.m.

Ticket Prices
Regular Admission $20
Students and Seniors $18

Jeffery Roberson (Varla Jean Merman) recently shared the 2003 Outfest Film
Festival "Best Actor" Award and the Aspen HBO Film Festival "Best Actress"
Award for his featured performance as Varla in GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS (Sundance
2003) directed by Richard Day and to be released nationwide this October.
Jeffery also made his network television debut this past February on ABC's
All My Children in the recurring role of lady of the evening Rosemary
Chicken.

Other film and TV credits include HBO's Dragtime, E!'s Fashion Emergency, E!
Goes to Cannes, MTV's True Life: Mardi Gras, and Francesca Page with Rossy
DePalma.  Jeffery has appeared in many TWEED Fraktured Classiks productions,
including The Mailman Always Comes Twice, Screen Door and CAGED! with Lily
Tomlin, Joan Rivers and Isabella Rossellini, Lypsinka is Harriet Craig, The
Miracle Worker (with Charles Busch) and Varla Jean Merman is The Bad
Seedling. This past summer he opened for Jennifer Holliday in Provincetown
and has also shared the stage with Betty Buckley singing excerpts from the
notorious Broadway flop Carrie as part of Ms. Buckley's cabaret act at the
Bottom Line.

Jeffery wrote and starred in The Very Worst of Varla Jean Merman, which
played to sold-out crowds last season at Joe's Pub at the New York Public
Theater, The Soho Theatre in London and the Renberg and the Hudson Avenue
Theaters in Los Angeles (Garland Award for Best Performance in a Musical
Award). He played the role of "Mary Sunshine" in the musical revival of
Chicago on Broadway and with the First National Touring Company. Jeffery
also wrote and starred in the hit show (GLAAD nominated) Enough About Me: An
Unauthorized Autobiography that ran Off-Broadway for five months and in San
Francisco in 2000 - 2001. His critically acclaimed multi-media cabaret acts,
I, Who Have Nothing and Peel Me A Grape (MAC and BISTRO awards) ran for
fifteen sell-out months at Eighty Eights and he made his Carnegie Hall debut
with Varla Jean Merman: A Christmas Concert.

Jeffery also wrote and starred in Varla Jean Merman is All Washed Up at
Joe's Pub at The New York Public Theater in June 2001, which was then
presented last November at the Renberg Theater in Los Angeles where it ran
for four weeks. Jeffery returned to London in June 2002 for another
engagement at the Soho Theatre with All Washed Up.  His Christmas show Varla
Jean Merman's Holiday Ham recently played to sold-out crowds this past
December at the Renberg Theatre.
Jeffery just returned from London this past June where Varla Jean Merman's
I've Got The Music In Me ran for three weeks at the Soho Theatre. Upcoming
engagements include Varla Jean Merman's Holiday Ham at Joe's Pub at the New
York Public Theater on December 20th and 21st, The Mystery of Irma Vep for
Hartford Stage , January 8th - February 8th and the LA premiere of Varla
Jean Merman's Under A Big Top in May at the Renberg Theatre.