April 8, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … The incomparable Lily Tomlin brings many of her classic characters to life in a one-woman show, “An Evening of Classic Lily Tomlin,” presented by the Oregon Symphony in a Special Event concert on Saturday, April 30, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The Oregon Symphony does not perform. The Heathman Hotel is the hotel sponsor for this concert.
Tomlin, winner of the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for Humor in 2003, has been at the forefront of American comedy for more than 30 years. A veteran of the variety show “Laugh-In,” Tomlin has performed in several one-woman Broadway shows, including “Appearing Nitely” and “The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe,” both of which earned her Tony awards. She has also starred in a number of films, including “9 to 5,” “All of Me,” “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” and her most recent, “I Heart Huckabees,” with Dustin Hoffman. Tomlin has appeared on many hit television shows, including “Murphy Brown” and “The X Files;” her most recent role is as a recurring character on “The West Wing,” where she plays Debbie Fiderer, the President’s secretary.
In this special performance, she recreates some of her most indelible characters including Ernestine, the sassy phone operator, the precocious six-year-old Edith Ann, Judith Beasley, the Calumet City housewife and Trudy, the main character from her acclaimed one-woman show, “The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer describes Tomlin as a “shamanistic shape-shifter…she assumes a repertoire of diverse types, complete with their characteristic gestures, postures, moods and intonations. At first the effect is dazzling, even incredible. Then it is funny. Then it is poignant, even tragic. Then it induces something like insight and compassion.”
Following her performance, Tomlin will participate in a question and answer session with the audience, who will be invited to submit questions on index cards prior to the show.
The performance is scheduled for Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range from $30 to $79 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Lily Tomlin, one of America’s foremost comediennes, continues to venture across an ever-widening range of media, starring in television, theater, motion pictures, animation, and video. Throughout her extraordinary entertainment career, Tomlin has received numerous awards, including six Emmys, a Tony for her one woman Broadway show, “Appearing Nitely,” a second Tony as Best Actress, a Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics’ Circle Award for her one woman performance in Jane Wagner’s “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,” a CableAce Award for Executive Producing the film adaptation of “The Search,” a Grammy for her comedy album, “This is a Recording,” nominations for her subsequent albums “Modern Scream,” “And That’s the Truth” and “On Stage,” and two Peabody Awards — the first for the ABC television special “Edith Ann’s Christmas: Just Say Noel” and the second for narrating and executive producing the HBO film, “The Celluloid Closet.”
Lily Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of one of the city’s most affluent areas. Although she claims she wasn’t funny as a child, Tomlin admits she “knew who was and lifted all their material right off the TV screen.” Her favorites included Lucille Ball, Bea Lillie, Imogene Coca, and Jean Carroll, one of the first female stand-ups on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” After high school, Tomlin enrolled at Wayne State University to study medicine, but her elective courses in theater arts compelled her to leave college to become a performer in local coffee houses. She moved to New York in 1965, where she soon built a strong following with her appearances at landmark clubs such as The Improvisation, Upstairs at the Downstairs and Cafe Au Go Go.
Lily Tomlin made her television debut in 1966 on “The Garry Moore Show” and later opened for the legendary Mabel Mercer in the Downstairs Room at the ‘Upstairs at the Downstairs.’ She then made several memorable appearances on “The Merv Griffin Show,” which led to a move to California where she appeared as a regular on “Music Scene.” In December 1969, Tomlin joined the cast of the top-rated “Laugh-In” and immediately rose to national prominence with her characterizations of Ernestine, the sassy telephone operator, and Edith Ann, the devilish six year old. When “Laugh-In” left the air, Tomlin collaborated with writer Jane Wagner on six comedy television specials: “The Lily Tomlin Show” (1973), “Lily” (1973), “Lily” (1974), “Lily Tomlin” (1975), “Lily: Sold Out” (1981) and “Lily for President?” (1982), for which she won three Emmy Awards and a Writers Guild of America Award. Tomlin also starred in the HBO special about the AIDS epidemic, “And the Band Played On,” as San Francisco health official Selma Dritz (1993). She has guest starred on numerous television shows, such as “Homicide” and “The X-Files,” and played the boss for two years on the popular CBS series “Murphy Brown.” She is also heard as the voice of the science teacher Ms. Frizzle on the popular children’s animated series, “The Magic School Bus,” for which she was awarded an Emmy.
Lily Tomlin made her Broadway debut in the 1977 play, “Appearing Nitely,” written and directed by Jane Wagner. “Appearing Nitely” included such favorites as Ernestine, Edith Ann and Judith Beasley, the Calumet City housewife, and introduced Trudy, the bag lady; Crystal, the hang-gliding quadriplegic; Rick, the singles bar cruiser; Glenna, a child of the sixties; and Sister Boogie Woman, a 77-year-old blues revivalist. “Appearing Nitely” was later adapted as both an album and an HBO Special. Tomlin next appeared on Broadway in 1985 in a year long run of Jane Wagner’s critically-acclaimed signature play, “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.” The Broadway success was followed by a coast-to-coast, fourteen-city tour that spanned four and a half years. Tomlin brought “The Search” to the Kennedy Center in 1988, where she played an unprecedented 20 sold-out weeks in the Eisenhower Theater. And she recently extended her extraordinary theatrical career with a cross-country, 29-city revival of “The Search,” a New York revival of “The Search” on Broadway and a record-breaking six-month run of “The Search” in San Francisco.
On film, Tomlin made her debut as Linnea, a gospel singer and mother of two deaf children in Robert Altman’s “ Nashville” (1975); her memorable performance was nominated for an Academy Award, and both the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics voted Tomlin Best Supporting Actress. She next starred opposite Art Carney as a would-be actress living on the fringes of Hollywood in Robert Benton’s “The Late Show” (1977). She went on to star with John Travolta as a lonely housewife in “Moment By Moment” (1978), then teamed with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton in the late Colin Higgins’ comedy, “ 9 to 5” (1980). She starred as the happy homemaker who became “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” (1981), written by Jane Wagner, and the eccentric rich woman whose soul invades Steve Martin’s body in Carl Reiner’s popular “All of Me” (1984). She teamed with Bette Midler for “Big Business” (1988).
In the 90’s, Lily Tomlin starred in the film adaptation of “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life In the Universe” (1991), appeared as part of an ensemble cast in Woody Allen’s “Shadows and Fog” (1992), starred opposite Tom Waits in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts” (1993) and portrayed Miss Jane Hathaway in the screen adaptation of the popular television series “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1993). Tomlin also starred in the Miramax film “Flirting With Disaster” (1996) and joined Jack Lemmon, Dan Aykroyd and Bonnie Hunt in “Getting Away with Murder” (1996). Tomlin starred opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Jenna Elfman in Buena Vista’s “Krippendorf’s Tribe” (1998) and co-starred with Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher in the Franco Zeffirelli film “Tea With Mussolini” (1999). She most recently starred with Bruce Willis in Disney’s “The Kid” (2000) and appeared in a quirky cameo role in “ Orange County” (2002).
Tomlin recently joined the cast of the hit NBC series “The West Wing,” playing President Bartlett’s assistant, Debbie Fiderer — a role for which she received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series. On May 21, 2003, Tomlin opened an eight-week run of her one-woman play “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif. A collaboration between Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner, Allee Willis, and the zany and creative BUBBLES The Artist has produced the magical Lily Tomlin Web site.
