January 05, 2010
Do It Today: An Evening with Lucille Ball at the Florida International Museum
January 04, 2010
Suzanne LaRusch hopes you'll love Lucille Ball, too
By Anne Glover, Times Staff Writer, TampaBay.com
Mention the words Lucille Ball, and many people will immediately flash to their favorite episode of I Love Lucy: the candy factory, Vitameatavegamin, William Holden putting out Lucy's fake nose that's on fire.
But for Suzanne LaRusch, the late comedian and actress is much, much more than the zany redhead who was always getting into trouble. She was a smart businesswoman, a mother who loved her children (even if she didn't always show it), a perfectionist and, says LaRusch, "I'll just say it, she was a classy broad."
LaRusch should know. She portrays Ball in a play that she wrote, An Evening with Lucille Ball, Thank You for Asking!. It opens tonight and runs through Jan. 17 at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.
We spoke with LaRusch last week as she was packing for her trip to this coast from California and watching an old appearance by Ball on the Dick Cavette Show. Here are some highlights:
How she came to be Lucille, not Lucy: LaRusch started as a child actor in a Kodak commercial at 18 months old, but it wasn't until she was working at Universal Studios in Hollywood that she used her talents for doing impressions (she'd been doing Mae West, Marilyn Monroe and others) to launch into a career first as Lucy Ricardo, and now as Lucille Ball. She explains: "The perception is that Lucy Ricardo and Lucille Ball are the same person. L-u-c-y is a person that Lucille Ball invented. She always talked about that character as a third person." In fact, LaRusch emphasizes that she didn't get into portraying her because she was a huge fan of I Love Lucy. To her, it was just part of her acting repertoire, one that she was very good at. But over time, she became a historian of the woman and the show.
That's why it's a play, not old skits. If you want to see Lucy stomping grapes, rent some DVDs, suggests LaRusch. Her play is meant to be a re-creation of one of Ball's old lectures that she used to give, answering questions from the audience and reminiscing about her career and her life. Ball had used these lectures as a way to connect with her fans without having to be L-u-c-y.
LaRusch began writing the play in 1997, but it wasn't until 2006 that she had a version she performed. All along, she had the permission of Ball's heirs, daughter Lucie Arnaz and son Desi Jr. Then in 2008, Lucie Arnaz saw the play and immediately started making suggestions. "She treated it like the Scarecrow (from the Wizard of Oz)," says LaRusch. "She took out the stuffing and put it back in." More importantly, Arnaz became the play's director ("very intricately involved") and provided valuable insight into her mom and dad's life, including suggesting clips and home movies that would go well at different moments. She and husband Larry Luckinbill remain firmly associated with the show.
What can the audience expect? The construct of the play is Ball answering questions from audience members (really actors who have recorded their lines in a studio). As Ball answers them, she relives moments from her life. That's why you won't see her doing skits, only remembering scenes from her shows as they were being filmed. LaRusch is confident that her audience will love Lucille and not clamor for Lucy. "I promise they will not be disappointed," she says. "There's a touching scene at the end where the lights go down and she reminisces about the love of her life, Desi."
Shhh, here's a little insider info: LaRusch, who would love to take the show to Broadway, shared a fact that's usually reserved for after the show. The actors who are "audience members" asking questions are in some way either related to Ball or worked with her during her career. LaRusch says she accomplished this because during her career playing Lucy, she met so many people who had that connection. Tampa Bay audiences will be able to see who the questioners really are after the play.
An Evening with Lucille Ball, Thank You for Asking!, opens tonight at 7:30 at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa. Tickets are $36.50 and up. Call (813) 229-7827 or visit tbpac.org. Runs through Jan. 17. Running time is approximately two hours and includes a 15-minute intermission. The center is offering special talkbacks with Lucie Arnaz after the performances on Jan. 14, 15 and 16.
Mention the words Lucille Ball, and many people will immediately flash to their favorite episode of I Love Lucy: the candy factory, Vitameatavegamin, William Holden putting out Lucy's fake nose that's on fire.
But for Suzanne LaRusch, the late comedian and actress is much, much more than the zany redhead who was always getting into trouble. She was a smart businesswoman, a mother who loved her children (even if she didn't always show it), a perfectionist and, says LaRusch, "I'll just say it, she was a classy broad."
LaRusch should know. She portrays Ball in a play that she wrote, An Evening with Lucille Ball, Thank You for Asking!. It opens tonight and runs through Jan. 17 at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.
We spoke with LaRusch last week as she was packing for her trip to this coast from California and watching an old appearance by Ball on the Dick Cavette Show. Here are some highlights:
How she came to be Lucille, not Lucy: LaRusch started as a child actor in a Kodak commercial at 18 months old, but it wasn't until she was working at Universal Studios in Hollywood that she used her talents for doing impressions (she'd been doing Mae West, Marilyn Monroe and others) to launch into a career first as Lucy Ricardo, and now as Lucille Ball. She explains: "The perception is that Lucy Ricardo and Lucille Ball are the same person. L-u-c-y is a person that Lucille Ball invented. She always talked about that character as a third person." In fact, LaRusch emphasizes that she didn't get into portraying her because she was a huge fan of I Love Lucy. To her, it was just part of her acting repertoire, one that she was very good at. But over time, she became a historian of the woman and the show.
That's why it's a play, not old skits. If you want to see Lucy stomping grapes, rent some DVDs, suggests LaRusch. Her play is meant to be a re-creation of one of Ball's old lectures that she used to give, answering questions from the audience and reminiscing about her career and her life. Ball had used these lectures as a way to connect with her fans without having to be L-u-c-y.
LaRusch began writing the play in 1997, but it wasn't until 2006 that she had a version she performed. All along, she had the permission of Ball's heirs, daughter Lucie Arnaz and son Desi Jr. Then in 2008, Lucie Arnaz saw the play and immediately started making suggestions. "She treated it like the Scarecrow (from the Wizard of Oz)," says LaRusch. "She took out the stuffing and put it back in." More importantly, Arnaz became the play's director ("very intricately involved") and provided valuable insight into her mom and dad's life, including suggesting clips and home movies that would go well at different moments. She and husband Larry Luckinbill remain firmly associated with the show.
What can the audience expect? The construct of the play is Ball answering questions from audience members (really actors who have recorded their lines in a studio). As Ball answers them, she relives moments from her life. That's why you won't see her doing skits, only remembering scenes from her shows as they were being filmed. LaRusch is confident that her audience will love Lucille and not clamor for Lucy. "I promise they will not be disappointed," she says. "There's a touching scene at the end where the lights go down and she reminisces about the love of her life, Desi."
Shhh, here's a little insider info: LaRusch, who would love to take the show to Broadway, shared a fact that's usually reserved for after the show. The actors who are "audience members" asking questions are in some way either related to Ball or worked with her during her career. LaRusch says she accomplished this because during her career playing Lucy, she met so many people who had that connection. Tampa Bay audiences will be able to see who the questioners really are after the play.
An Evening with Lucille Ball, Thank You for Asking!, opens tonight at 7:30 at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa. Tickets are $36.50 and up. Call (813) 229-7827 or visit tbpac.org. Runs through Jan. 17. Running time is approximately two hours and includes a 15-minute intermission. The center is offering special talkbacks with Lucie Arnaz after the performances on Jan. 14, 15 and 16.
December 31, 2009
An Evening With Lucille Ball
By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune
Suzanne LaRusch, the foremost Lucille Ball impressionist in the country, teamed up with Lucille Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, to create this production, running through January 17 at the Straz Center in Tampa, Florida.
Suzanne LaRusch was playing Lucy Ricardo long before she started performing as Lucille Ball.
"The two are very different — one is the actress, the other is her most famous character," LaRusch said.
She portrays both in "An Evening With Lucille Ball: Thank You For Asking," which opens in Tampa on Tuesday.
Lucy Ricardo was the scatterbrained, slapstick character created by Ball in the long-running "I Love Lucy" series.
Her Lucy was a star-struck, stay-at-home wife of temperamental Cuban band leader Ricky Ricardo, played by Ball's real-life husband, Desi Arnaz.
In LaRusch's one-woman show, she portrays Ball as she was in the 1970s, giving a question-and-answer session about her life and career.
"In flashbacks, I also become the Lucy character and take people behind the scenes of some of the classic sketches such as the Vitameatavegamin commercial, the grape-stomping episode and others," LaRusch said in a telephone interview.
"It's not meant to be a parody and I'm not doing just a Lucy impression," she added. "It's a touching insightful look at Lucille Ball that includes some of her personal memories and observations that have never been shared before."
That's because the production is co-written, co-produced and directed by Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, who will be at the performances on Jan. 14, 15 and 16.
The play is being staged in the intimate Jaeb Theater at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts through Jan. 17.
Lucie Arnaz will talk with the audience after those performances. "She has been very hands on with this and has added so much to the show with things I never knew about her mother," said LaRusch, who has been performing various "Lucy" shows since the 1990s.
As the foremost Lucille Ball impressionist in the country, LaRusch teamed up with Lucie Arnaz in 2006 to create this production which opened in April 2009 at Desi Arnaz Jr.'s theater in Boulder City, Nev.
This is only the second run of the play that LaRusch hopes to one day take to Broadway.
A former child actor, LaRusch grew up near Hollywood and was portraying several famous people (Marylyn Monroe, Mae West, Betty Boop) for Universal Studios in 1991 when her impression of Lucy began to impress everyone.
"I didn't notice the facial resemblance myself before I dressed as Lucy," she said. "I have straight blond hair. But I always thought my mother was a dead ringer for Lucy."
Ball was a movie actress in the 1930s and 1940s. She was in her late 30s when she became one of television's biggest stars in the 1950s. She died in 1989.
For almost two decades LaRusch has been authorized by Lucie and Desi Jr. to portray their mother. She has appeared at numerous public events, performed for presidents and even sold "I Love Lucy" products on the Home Shopping Network. She was a runner-up on the ABC reality show "The Next Best Thing," the search to find the best celebrity impressionist.
She starred as Lucille Ball in many productions, including the 50th anniversary performance of the radio show "My Favorite Husband," the radio program that inspired "I Love Lucy."
"I enjoy playing her and think this is a good way to honor her life and career," she said.
THEATER PREVIEW
'An Evening With Lucille Ball: Thank You For Asking'
WHEN: Tuesday through Jan. 17
WHERE: Jaeb Theater, David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts
HOW MUCH: Regularly priced tickets start at $36.50.
December 15, 2009
Lucie Arnaz appears at Rrazz Room , Hotel Nikko in San Francisco
Sentinel Editor and Publisher.
Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, brings her new show to the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko, Tuesday through Sunday, December 8th–13th.
“An Evening with Lucie Arnaz,” features Lucie singing everything from jazz to Broadway, taking her fans on a musical tour of her life. She began her long career in a recurring role during six seasons of The Lucy Show, opposite her mother, Lucille Ball. At age fifteen, she became a series regular on Here’s Lucy, and starred in her own series, The Lucie Arnaz Show and later in the critically acclaimed Sons & Daughters on CBS. Sunday afternoon Lucie and I talked about her show just shortly after she arrived in San Francisco and checked in.
For more, read the interesting conversation at The San Francisco Sentinel.
November 19, 2009
The Lucy Show - More DVD Seasons on Way!
An industry source has relayed information regarding the next DVD season release for "The Lucy Show".
The new planned release date for "The Lucy Show - The Official Season 2" DVD is presently scheduled for July 13, 2010. If sales are successful, the studio will then follow up with an October 12th release for Season 3.
Please note though, that follow-up DVD releases are not a guarantee. Season 2 release Must have good sales before CBS/Paramount will commit to releasing the third season set in October. As long as you continue to buy the series, they are willing to keep making the releases.
So, if you have not purchased Season 1 - then visit the "Everything Lucy Store" and be sure to get your copy today. Your purchase will help in guaranteeing the release of all 6 seasons of "The Lucy Show".
The new planned release date for "The Lucy Show - The Official Season 2" DVD is presently scheduled for July 13, 2010. If sales are successful, the studio will then follow up with an October 12th release for Season 3.
Please note though, that follow-up DVD releases are not a guarantee. Season 2 release Must have good sales before CBS/Paramount will commit to releasing the third season set in October. As long as you continue to buy the series, they are willing to keep making the releases.
So, if you have not purchased Season 1 - then visit the "Everything Lucy Store" and be sure to get your copy today. Your purchase will help in guaranteeing the release of all 6 seasons of "The Lucy Show".
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