{"id":459,"date":"2019-05-06T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/whats-happening-now\/?p=459"},"modified":"2020-04-05T03:53:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T03:53:57","slug":"valley-of-the-dolls-at-a-benefit-for-the-alcott-center-for-mental-health-and-los-angeles-lgbt-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/whats-happening-now\/valley-of-the-dolls-at-a-benefit-for-the-alcott-center-for-mental-health-and-los-angeles-lgbt-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Valley of the Dolls!"},"content":{"rendered":"

With some of the unparalleled stars of a staged reading of the ever-brilliant, never-fading Valley of the Dolls, at a benefit for the Alcott Center For Mental Health and Los Angeles LGBT Center<\/a> Saturday night. I’m friends with a ton of the cast so it was a ball + 1000! Here with (L-R) Marissa Jaret Winokur<\/a> as a seriously and hilariously hideous French-accented stewardess and Miss Steinberg, whose dialog actually included the word \u201cHairspray”, myself (as audience member), Laraine Newman<\/span><\/a> as the narrator who constantly mispronounced Neely O\u2019Hara as Nelly, and Alec Mapa<\/a> who deserves an Acadamy Award as an exquisitely poised (and posed) lisping Anne Wells, like seriously the most laughing I\u2019ve ever done at a character in my life! Also shout-outs to my pals Mo Gaffney<\/a> as the brusk and boozy Bellamy, Sheryl Lee Ralph as the wig-bearing Helen Lawson, Steve Bluestein in the haughty and manly roles of Ted Casablanca and Claude Chardor, and my friend of 6000 years, Bruce Vilanch<\/a>, as a spectacularly demure and curvy Jennifer North.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t