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Northridge, CA: An Intimate
Evening of Classic Lily Tomlin kicks off the season at the
Performing Arts Center at California State University,
Northridge, with a wildly funny evening reprising of many of her
most-loved characters on Friday, September 29 at 8 p.m. and
Saturday, September 30 at 8 p.m. One of America’s foremost
comediennes, Lily continues to venture across an ever-widening range
of media, starring in television, theatre, motion pictures,
animation and video—and now adds a Cal State Northridge performance
to the mix!
Throughout her extraordinary career, Ms. Tomlin has
received numerous awards, including six Emmys, two Tonys for stage,
a Grammy, three Writers Guild of America Awards and a CableAce
Award, nominations for several comedy albums, and two Peabody
Awards. Appearances on TV’s The Garry Moore Show lead
to national prominence on the top-rated Laugh-In, where she
delighted audiences with her characterizations of Ernestine,
the sassy telephone operator, and Edith Ann, the devilish six
year old. Lily went on to co-write and star in several comedy
and public service specials, and later stared in The Search
for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
on Broadway, later on an extended 20-city cross-country tour
and record-breaking six-month run in San Francisco.
Lily Tomlin has had a long and successful film
career, staring in several Robert Altman films—including the new
Prairie Home Companion as well as Nashville, The
Late Show, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, All of Me, Big Business,
Shadows and Fog, Short Cuts, The Beverly Hillbillies, Flirting with
Disaster, Getting Away with Murder, Tea with Mussolini,
and The Kid. TV roles on Murphy
Brown and The West Wing have made her a
familiar face to all.
Tomlin’s trademark wry delivery can be
observed in David O. Russell's offbeat 2004 comedy I Heart
Huckabee’s, where she plays part of a husband-wife
“existential detective agency,” alongside Dustin Hoffman. The
philosophy that the loopy-but-profound duo of the film, Bernard and
Vivian, share, considers everything and everyone in the universe
connected, as if part of a big blanket. This sentiment doesn’t seem
all that far afield, actually, from Tomlin’s own proffered take in
performances and interviews, which often emphasizes the
inter-connectedness of humanity. Upon
bestowing the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on
Tomlin in 2003, a center spokesperson astutely mentioned that Tomlin
"uses humor and irony as her vehicle for truth.” The same year,
Variety offered this Tomlin sound bite: "I have always felt
that humor was a wonderful vehicle to let us become connected with
each other and ourselves…I try to portray the similarities and
polarities in men and women, so that we can acknowledge and embrace
our collective consciousness." |
