Emmy Award-winning actress and writer Renée Taylor—known to millions as Fran Fine’s food-obsessed mother, Sylvia, on “The Nanny”—will bring her comedy My Life on a Diet to George Street Playhouse beginning November 19. running through December 15. The show is an autobiographical comedy written by Ms. Taylor and her late husband Joseph Bologna, looking back on a life full of memorable roles in Hollywood and on Broadway, and just as many fad diets.
As self-described “diet junkie,” who used to think that if she ate like star, she’d just might look and live like one, Renée dishes out both juicy anecdotes about, and weight loss tips from, Hollywood legends such as Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe and Barbra Streisand. She also shares hilarious and poignant stories about Joseph Bologna, her partner in work and life for 52 years. In telling about her high and lows—on and off the scale—this comedy legend proves the ability to laugh gets you through it all.
My Life on a Diet is one of 22 plays, four films and nine TV movies and series that Renée and Joseph Bologna created together. The couple appeared together on Broadway in their plays Lovers and Other Strangers, It Had to Be You and If you ever leave me … I’m going with you! For film, they received an Academy Award nomination for the 1970 film adaptation of Lovers and Other Strangers. The following year, they co-wrote and co-starred in Made for Each Other. They also co-directed, co-wrote and co-starred in the film adaptation of It Had to Be You and Love Is All There Is (which introduced a young Angelina Jolie). For TV, the duo won Emmy Awards in 1973 for writing “Acts of Love and Other Comedies,” and were nominated once again the following year for writing the TV movie “Paradise.” They co-directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in the HBO movie “Bedrooms” (Writers Guild Award).
Taylor made her professional stage debut at age 15 in a Purim Pageant at Madison Square Garden and earned her Actors Equity card at age 19 for appearing in The Rehearsal at The President Theatre. Her other stage credits include Nora and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Agatha Sue, I Love You (directed by George Abbott); Luv (directed by Mike Nichols); Elaine May’s improvisational revue The Third Ear; and William Gibson’s Dinny and the Witches. Her many film credits also include Jerry Lewis’ The Errand Boy, Mel Brooks’ The Producers, Elaine May’s A New Leaf, Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Lovesick, White Palace, Life During Wartime, Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, and more recently, The Do-Over and How To Be a Latin Lover. Known for her role as Sylvia Fine in “The Nanny,” Renée’s other notable TV acting credits include “Daddy Dearest” and the groundbreaking HBO sitcom “Dream On.” More recently she has had recurring roles on “How I Met Your Mother,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “Happily Divorced.”
The playing schedule is Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8 pm, with matinees Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. To purchase tickets or for more information about George Street Playhouse, visit www.GeorgeStreetPlayhouse.org.
George Street Playhouse’s Arthur Laurents Theater at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC) is located at 11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
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