Philly-Born Two And A Half Men Actress Channels Ann Richards Obsession Into One-Woman Broadway Play

 

NEW YORK TIMES: It is a one-person play, and that one person is most certainly Ms. Taylor, an Emmy winner for “The Practice” and best known as the acerbic motherin the sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” who is giving new meaning to the term “passion project.” “I’ve always been a gun for hire,” she said. “I’ve had some marvelous parts, but I’m also asked to play characters who are kind of superficial people. Here’s a chance to play somebody that would use every single dot of what I could imagine I would ever be at my very best. It’s meant the world to me.” Cecile Richards, one of the former governor’s children, said she had initially been apprehensive about Ms. Taylor’s interest. “She didn’t know anything about any of us,” said Ms. Richards, who is the president of Planned Parenthood. “And now she is practically part of the family. I think she knows more about my mother than I do.” The play, along with a recent biography and documentary, is part a resurgence of interest in Richards, the sassy and plainly passionate governor of Texas remembered for her lacerate-him-with-a-smile takedown of George H. W. Bush — think of “silver spoon,” a line so famous that Ms. Taylor doesn’t even bother using it in her play — at the 1988 Democratic convention in Atlanta. MORE

RELATED:
Dorothy Ann Willis Richards (September 1, 1933 – September 13, 2006) was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Texas. She first came to national attention as the state treasurer of Texas, when she delivered the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Richards served as the 45th Governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995 and was defeated for re-election in 1994 by George W. Bush.[1] Ann Richards was the second female governor of Texas. MORE