[NEohioPAL]PRESS RELEASE: CPT welcomes the return of The Girl With A Pearl Necklace-- VARLA JEAN MERMAN!

[Dan Kilbane]

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Dan Kilbane, Director of Marketing & Public Relations
216/631-2727 ext. 203
dkilbane at cptonline.org <mailto:dkilbane at cptonline.org>
promotional photos available by request
October 1, 2004
CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE IS PROUD TO HOST THE GIRL WITH A PEARL NECKLACE,
MS. VARLA JEAN MERMAN
Jeffery Roberson is Varla Jean Merman in
GIRL WITH A PEARL NECKLACE:  aN ACT OF LOVE
Written by Jeffery Roberson with Jacques Lamarre & Michael Schiralli
Directed by Michael Schiralli
October 28 - November 6, 2004
The James Levin Theatre

CLEVELAND, OH - Executive/Artistic Director Randy Rollison is proud to
welcome back Varla Jean Merman as she returns to Cleveland for her fourth
year in a row.  This time around, in addition to her amazing vocals,
original music videos, and cheez whiz, she brings with her a pearl necklace
to add to the cabaret fun that is her show:  Girl With A Pearl Necklace:  An
Act of Love.  The production runs October 28 through November 6, 2004.  The
cabaret-style seating for the show once again includes cabaret tables of ten
that can be reserved for an additional charge by a group.  New this year for
the run:  Saturday night shows at 10:30pm.

Varla's biological clock is ticking and she is desperate to get married.
Will she be institutionalized in a state of matrimony or installed in a
state institution? Will the girl with a pearl necklace find that special
someone who will get under her skin and see through the Vermeer?  With a
hope chest filled with new videos and songs, Varla Jean Merman's offensive
marriage act has something old (Varla), something new (her face), something
borrowed (if you stretch the legal definition) and something blue.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer calls her “Outrageously Hilarious!”  The New York
Times commented "...a first-rate singer and actor...awesome.”  The reviewer
for The Opera News calls her show "the best club act I've ever seen."

Girl With A Pearl Necklace:  An Act of Love is written by Jeffery Roberson
with Jacques Lamarre and Michael Shiralli, and directed by Schiralli.  The
production runs Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8:00 p.m., and Saturdays
at 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (so we can give the lady Sundays off to sleep
in!).  Ticket prices range from $10 - $24, and can be purchased by phone by
calling 216/631-2727.

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 received nationwide theatrical release in
2003).   Jeffery also made his network television debut in February 2003 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.  Jeffery also wrote and
starred in Varla Jean Merman's Under A Big Top which began in Provincetown
in 2002 and then played Symphony Space in New York as well as the Renberg
Theatre in Los Angeles and the City Theatre in Pittsburgh. His Christmas
show Varla Jean Merman's Holiday Ham recently played to sold-out crowds at
Joe's Pub in New York.  Upcoming engagements include The Mystery of Irma Vep
for the Long Wharf Theatre in November. In the winter/spring of 2005 Jeffery
will bring Varla Jean Merman's Girl With A Pearl Necklace: An Act of Love to
Australia, where it will play the Sydney Opera House as well as the Mardi
Gras festival in Melbourne and in the International Arts Festival in Perth.
.

The mission of Cleveland Public Theatre is to foster a more conscious and
compassionate community through the arts.

Cleveland Public Theatre and its artistic and education programs are funded
in part by The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, Ohio Arts
Council, Greater Cleveland Community Shares, Jakprints, The Free Times, D.H.
Ellison Architects, Forest City Enterprises, Theatre Communications Group,
CoolCleveland.com, National Endowment for the Arts, Nord Family Foundation,
John P. Murphy Foundation, Kulas Foundation, Bruening Foundation, Codrington
Foundation, Giant Eagle Foundation, Thomas White Foundation, Community
Foundation of Greater Lorain, Family Foundations of Jewish Community
Federation, The Dolphin Trust, Saint Ann Foundation, William J. and Dorothy
K. O’Neill Foundation, Stocker Foundation, Key Foundation, Nordson
Foundation, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, The Heartland Arts Fund, Wolf
Family Foundation, The Gerson Foundation, The Meisel Family Foundation, The
Doll Family Foundation, Raymond John Wean Foundation, The Ellie Fund, Cyrus
Eaton Foundation, Greater Cleveland Community Shares, Alcoa Foundation,
Capezio Foundation, Nathan and Regina Herman Foundation, Hankins Foundation,
Wolpert Fund of the Cleveland Foundation, The Cleveland Browns Foundation,
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, City Architecture, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan,
& Aronoff LPA, Ron and Deborah Ratner, Joan Horvitz, Roe Green Foundation,
Fifth Third Bank, Huntington National Bank, National City Bank, Marous
Brothers Construction, Stewart and Donna Kohl, and other corporate and
individual contributors.



Cleveland Public Theatre Fact Sheet
Production
Jeffery Roberson is Varla Jean Merman in
Girl With A Pearl Necklace:  An Act of Love

Artistic Staff
Playwright, Jeffery Roberson with Jacques Lamarre & Michael Schiralli
Director, Michael Schiralli

Cast
Varla Jean Merman:  Jeffery Roberson

Performance Dates and Times
Opening 		Thursday, October 28, 2004				7:30 p.m.
Closing			Saturday, November 6, 2004				10:30 p.m.
Run			October 28, 29, 30, 4, 5, and 6
Times			Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.
Fridays at 8:00 p.m.
Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.


Ticket Prices
Friday and Saturdays $24
Thursdays $19
Under age 25:  $10
Full table reservation charge:  $20
Half table reservation charge:  $10

Reservations and information
216/631-2727
Location
CPT’s James Levin Theatre

www.cptonline.org <http://www.cptonline.org>
www.varlaonline.com <http://www.varlaonline.com>