"An Evening With Beatrice Lillie" Starring Layne Littlepage In San Francisco

THE NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER ADDS SPECIAL EVENT TO IN-CONCERT SEASON

The New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) has added a special production to this season's In Concert season with "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie" starring Layne Littlepage, produced in association with Prince SF Productions, September 22nd through October 14th, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 pm with a Sunday matinee on October 14th at 2:00 pm, at the NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER (25 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA - 415/861-8972 & http://www.ticketweb.com). There is a preview on Friday, September 21st at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $16 for the preview, $20 for opening night, and $18 for all other performances.

Layne Littlepage is the author and star of "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie," a delightful one-woman musical entertainment about the life of the legendary comedienne whom Noel Coward called the world's greatest comedienne. Her world included the famous and accomplished of her time: the British Royal Family, Noel Coward, Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Fanny Brice, Bing Crosby, Tallulah Bankhead, Clark Gable and Cole Porter. The show highlights Lillie's best songs and monologues and has been hailed by critics coast to coast.

Born in Toronto in 1894, Beatrice Lillie's remarkable career began on the London musical stage in 1914. Also known as Lady Peel because of her marriage to British nobleman Sir Robert Peel, Lillie came to America in the smashingly successful "Charlot's Revue of 1924" with her fellow British start Gertrude Lawrence and Jack Buchanan. She starred in many of Noel Coward's shows, including "This Year of Grace "in 1928, "Set to Music" in 1939, and "High Spirits," Martin and Gray's musical version of Coward's play "Blithe Spirit," in 1963. During World War II, Ms. Lillie entertained in London and toured army bases in the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East, receiving the Africa Star, the King George VI Medal, and the French Liberation Medal.

In 1952, she appeared on Broadway in "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie," for which she received a Tony Award, then toured the show in the United States, Canada and England until 1955. She was a frequent guest on television in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances with Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. A veteran of every performing medium of her day, including radio and vaudeville, her film career spanned silent films to talkies, ending with "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in 1966. Beatrice Lillie died in England in 1989 at the age of 94.

Layne Littlepage graduated from the University of California at San Francisco, where she won the faculty's Best Actress Award. She received a fellowship to perform at the Hilberry Repertory Theater in Detroit, then moved to New York to pursue a career as a classical singer and writer. She performed with the Manhattan Opera Ensemble, New York Grand Opera and the New American Opera Theater. Her novels, "Wonkers" and "Murder-by-the-Sea," were published by Dutton and Doubleday.

In April 2001, she performed "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie" in the HIGH SPIRITS ROOM, the New York cabaret owned by Timothy Gray (who, with Hugh Martin, wrote "High Spirits," the Broadway musical adaptation of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit," Lillie's last Broadway show.)

This production is supported in part by the California Arts Council, Grants for the Arts, and the San Francisco Foundation.

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