For Immediate Release: December 5, 2005
Media Contact: Rebecca Fullan, Merriam Theater/Theater League of Philadelphia, 215.732.5997

Four-time Emmy Award-winning television and motion picture star VALERIE HARPER will fill the shoes of Israeli Prime Minister GOLDA MEIR (and 43 other characters) as she takes on the starring solo role in the National Tour of the Broadway smash GOLDA'S BALCONY, which opens in Philadelphia at the Merriam Theater on February 7th, and runs through the 12th. Tickets will go on sale on Sunday, December 18th at 10 AM and can be purchased in the Merriam Theater Box Office, by calling Ticketmaster at (215) 336-1234, or online at www.ticketmaster.com. For group sales, call (215) 732-1366. The ticket price range is from $20-$59.50.

This engagement of GOLDA'S BALCONY will mark the Philadelphia premiere of a riveting portrait of one of the great women of our time. GOLDA'S BALCONY is the latest work from Tony Award-winning playwright WILLIAM GIBSON (The Miracle Worker, Two For The Seesaw), and a record-breaking stage hit that recently completed 15 sold-out months on Broadway.

The rise of Golda Meir from Russian schoolgirl to Israel's Prime Minister is one of the most thrilling stories of the 20th century. GOLDA'S BALCONY tells this story - and more - and earned raves across the board on Broadway:

USA Today called the play "A moving tribute to the human capacity for survival."

John Simon in New York Magazine said, "Golda's Balcony is perfect: the play conveys so many lives, so much history, such an onrush of humanity."

Clive Barnes in The New York Post raved: "Gibson's fascinating play is a tight-knit story of war and peace."

And The New York Times enthused: "Hearing from someone who was there at the birth of the country, who sacrificed to make it happen, helps remind us where the Middle East standoff came from. Golda's Balcony is enlightening."

Nominated for a Tony Award and for "Best Play" by the Drama League, and winner of the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards, Golda's Balcony is a dazzling, sight-and-sound spectacular that promises to be a thrilling, moving and unforgettable night of theatre.

VALERIE HARPER most recently appeared on Broadway starring in Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. After running almost a year in New York, Ms. Harper then starred in the national tour. Off-Broadway she co-wrote and starred in All Under Heaven, a one-woman play based on the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck (The Good Earth). She starred in Elaine May's and Woody Allen's Death Defying Acts, also Off-Broadway. Other Broadway credits include Paul Sills' Story Theatre and Metamorphoses, Something Different (by Carl Reiner), Subways Are For Sleeping, Wildcat, Take Me Along, Destry Rides Again, and Li'l Abner. During her long and varied career, Ms. Harper has starred in a wide variety of television films, specials and feature films, as well as five on-air prime-time series. Most notably, she spent nine years as the character of Rhoda Morgenstern on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and on her own series, Rhoda. She was the recipient of Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Woman Of The Year Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Golden Apple Award, and four Emmy Awards. She's currently working with her husband, Tony Cacciotti, developing a series of health-related television specials. The couple lives in Los Angeles and has a daughter, Cristina, who is an actress.

Playwright WILLIAM GIBSON has written poetry, fiction and scripts for stage, television and films. His plays include The Miracle Worker (winner of the Tony Award for "Best Play" in 1960), Two For The Seesaw, A Cry of Players, Golda (from which Golda's Balcony is loosely adapted), The Butterfingers Angel, Monday After The Miracle, Goodly Creatures and Handy Dandy. He is the author of a novel, The Cobweb, as well as the musical version of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy. His several books include The Seesaw Log, A Mass for the Dead (a study of his family), A Season in Heaven, and Shakespeare's Game, a critical study. Golda's Balcony is his latest play. It set a record as the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history on January 2, 2005.

Returning to direct Golda's Balcony in its national tour is the play's Broadway director, SCOTT SCHWARTZ. Mr. Schwartz was previously represented on Broadway as the co-director of Jane Eyre with John Caird. He also directed the highly acclaimed Off-Broadway hits tick, tick. . . BOOM!, Bat Boy: The Musical and Franz Kafka's The Castle. All of the Broadway designers will reprise their roles for the road show, including set designer ANNA LOUIZOS (Avenue Q, Irving Berlin's White Christmas), costume designer JESS GOLDSTEIN (Take Me Out, Enchanted April, Proof), lighting designer HOWELL BINKLEY (Avenue Q, The Full Monty, Parade), sound designer MARK BENNETT (The Goat, Lily Tomlin's The Search . . .) and video and projection designer ROBIN SILVESTRI (The Rocky Horror Show, Bring in Da Noise . . . ).

The tour is being produced by David Fishelson, who led the team on Broadway with veterans Roy Gabay (Metamorphoses) and Randall L. Wreghitt (Little Women).

The Golda's Balcony national tour is in proud support of the Israel Children's Centers, insuring a promising future for the state of Israel.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Tuesday-Saturday at 8 PM
Saturday Matinee at 2 PM
Sunday at 1 and 6:30 PM

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