Former SNL star Nora Dunn tries on stage role
Former “Saturday Night Live” star and native Chicagoan Nora Dunn is relishing her chance to appear in Nora and Delia Ephron's 2009 off-Broadway hit “Love, Loss, and What I Wore.” A national tour of the show starts performances Wednesday, Sept. 14, at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place in Chicago.
“I think women will relate to this personally because it's really about the experience of what we wear,” Dunn said of the Ephron sisters' theatrical adaptation of Ilene Beckerman's best-selling book of the same name. The show tackles what clothing “means within a relationship, why we buy certain clothes and the angst we have about clothes.”
Though Dunn hasn't appeared in the show before, she has seen “Love, Loss, and What I Wore” in New York, where it continues to run with a rotating cast of film, TV and theater personalities (Tyne Daly and Rosie O'Donnell appeared in the original cast). The show is similar in a sense to Eve Ensler's hit “The Vagina Monologues,” which was able to attract renowned actresses for limited runs.
For the Chicago stint of “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” Dunn is to be joined by TV actress Emily Bergl (“Desperate Housewives,” “Southland”), local improv comedian Katie O'Brien and Jeff Award-winning Chicago actors Felicia Fields (“The Color Purple”) and Barbara Robertson (“Wicked”). Taylor Miller (“All My Children”) and Loretta Swit (“M*A*S*H”) are set to rotate into the cast respectively on Tuesday, Oct. 25 and Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Lest men fear that “Love, Loss, and What I Wore” is a show targeted only at women, Dunn says they'll be laughing as “outsiders looking in.”
“Some of it's fun for men to see since it can be new territory for them,” Dunn said. “I'm sure some women won't want men to know how neurotic they can be about clothing by inviting them into their closet.”
And since the styles and politics of certain fashions changes through each decade, Dunn says the show will be more poignant, say, for women in their 40s versus women in their 20s. “You remember moments of your life through your clothes because they really are our second skin.”
Dunn herself remembers her own fashion struggles when she was thrust into the national spotlight in 1985 when she joined the cast of NBC-TV's “Saturday Night Live.” Dunn appeared with the show until 1990, when she was controversially fired for refusing to appear in an episode hosted by comedian Andrew Dice Clay (Dunn said she was protesting misogynistic and homophobic content in Clay's routines).
“When I first started, I wasn't strong enough to stand up to the show's stylist,” Dunn said, noting that her hair was cut short despite her preference for long hair, and that the clothes she wore in early publicity photos were provided for her.
“That wasn't me,” Dunn said. “It took a couple of seasons to get a grip and be more confident on what I would be seen in.”
With “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” Dunn is happy to be taking part in her hometown's vibrant theater scene and to be working with such an esteemed company of actors “without a safety net.”
“When you do film and TV, you can do take after take and fix things off camera,” Dunn said. “Actors who have to depend on each other performing live develop a great bond. I still remain close to people I've done theater with.”
<b>“Love, Loss, and What I Wore”</b>
<b>Location:</b> Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago. (800) 775-2000 or <a href="http://www.broadwayinchicago.com" target="_blank">broadwayinchicago.com</a>
<b>Showtimes:</b> Schedule varies, but usually 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays; through Dec. 4
<b>Tickets:</b> $68-$78
<b>Parking:</b> Nearby pay lots