Actress brings show about Texas icon to Chicago

The last time actress Holland Taylor appeared on Broadway, it was in Arthur Bicknell's notorious 1983 flop “Moose Murders.” It opened and closed on the same night.

“I actually held my head up very high after that because I survived it,” Taylor said during a telephone interview. “I was a replacement for Eve Arden, who bailed very wisely, and I had less than a week to get up and open that play.”

Taylor is hoping for a more felicitous return to Broadway in spring 2012 with “Ann,” a one-woman play written by and starring herself as the late Democratic Texas Governor Ann Richards. “Ann” comes to Chicago's Bank of America Theatre for a three-week run starting Sunday, Nov. 13.

Taylor is famed nowadays for playing a string of haughty and patrician roles in both TV dramas and comedies. She won an Emmy Award as Judge Roberta Kittleson in “The Practice,” but she's probably best-known as the curtly sarcastic mother Evelyn Harper in the hit comedy “Two and a Half Men.”

But with “Ann,” Taylor gets a chance to show more range. And by performing “Ann,” which previously carried the extended title “An Affectionate Portrait of Ann Richards,” Taylor also does her small part to keep the memory alive of an admired figure who loomed large on America's political scene during the 1980s and '90s.

“What made me want to portray her was that I was very moved when she died,” Taylor said. “It's like I had known her, but I didn't know her. I realized that she represented something important to me.”

Rather than sit on those feelings of loss, Taylor decided to find a creative way to work through her emotions following Richards' death from cancer in 2006. Given all of her TV work, it would have been a natural for Taylor to spearhead a TV movie or miniseries. But Taylor felt Richards would be best served by appearing onstage.

“Given (Richards') nature as a great connector of people, I figured that this would be a stage event where she could connect with a live audience,” Taylor said, noting how Richards' down-home Democratic Convention address in 1988 catapulted her to the national spotlight. “There's something ineffable that happens between an audience and a performer and that is related to the ineffable potency that Ann Richards had on me, and I dare say on everybody.”

The actress researched, wrote and took trips to Texas to work on “Ann” over the past few years while she was on hiatus from “Two and a Half Men.” Taylor eventually structured “Ann” to show a literal hour in her office, bookended by two scenes showcasing other aspects of Richards' life.

“This isn't just a rug and a chair and dialogue taken from her speeches — it's a completely written and theatrical play,” Taylor said, careful to dispel any notion that “Ann” could be lumped together with other one-actor shows that draw upon pre-existing texts.

“Ann” has previously played major Texas engagements in Galveston, San Antonio and Austin, but that wasn't the original production path Taylor had in mind for the show.

Taylor was intimidated by the idea that she, a Philadelphia native, had no business portraying Richards “in her backyard with all of that close scrutiny.”

But Taylor thought about Richards' own fearlessness and faced the Texas challenge head-on, winning plenty of critical acclaim for her performance.

Taylor is excited to get back to Chicago, where she previously appeared in Sarah Ruhl's “Passion Play” at the Goodman Theatre. Taylor also remembers how responsive Chicago audiences were when she provided narration for composer John Williams' “Harry Potter Suite” with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

While some may see this Chicago engagement to be a test of how “Ann” plays away from the Lone Star State, Taylor is confident that non-Texans will embrace the show because, “Ann was adored all over this country.”

“Ann”

Location: Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or <a href="http://broadwayinchicago.com">broadwayinchicago.com

</a>Showtimes: Sunday, Nov. 13, to Sunday, Dec. 4: schedule varies, but mostly 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $20-$85