Lisa Lampanelli would like to ask you this, “A bulimic, a compulsive eater, a confident overweight gal, and a chronically thin chick walk into a play, what happens?” With signature wit and razor-sharp insight, Lisa Lampanelli’s famously irreverent voice comes to the New York stage with Stuffed, bringing together four women’s disparate stories to paint an acerbically witty and ultimately poignant portrait of the insanity of a world that forces women to address hard-hitting issues like: Is eating an ice cream sandwich in the shower an emotionally fulfilling activity? When it comes to blue jeans, should one opt for a camel toe or a muffin top? And the ultimate question: can food and body-image issues ever truly be conquered or are we all just destined to be ‘stuffed’?
Obie Award Winning actress Zainab Jah (Eclipsed) and rising actress Jessica Luck will be joining two-time Grammy-nominated comedian Lisa Lampanelli (HBO, Comedy Central, The Howard Stern Show) and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Ann Harada (Avenue Q, Cinderella) in completing the cast for the world premiere of Stuffed, a new play written by Lampanelli, with additional material by Ashley Austin Morris. Stuffed is directed by Jackson Gay (These Paper Bullets!), the play kicks off WP Theater’s 2016-17 season at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, with previews beginning Friday, September 23rd, 2016 and an Opening Night of Friday, October 7th, 2016. The limited engagement will play through Sunday, November 6th.
“As a first-time playwright, I can say that I am completely blown away by this cast,” said Lampanelli. “To attract such accomplished, passionate actresses to this piece is enormously humbling, and I’m literally pinching myself that I get to work with Ann, Zainab, and Jessica. Just looking at their Broadway, off-Broadway, and TV credits leaves me speechless, but I’ll try to find my voice by opening night!”
Best known as Comedy’s “Lovable Queen of Mean,” Lampanelli, a former newspaper and magazine writer, switched from journalism to comedy at age 30 but maintained her keen observational skills. A comic’s comic, Lampanelli has compelled comedy great Jim Carrey to say, “By boldly poking fun at everyone, Lisa releases us from a prison of cultural guilt. She’s more than a stand-up. She’s a standout.” Known for saying things that most people are afraid to think, Lampanelli’s raunchy, gut-busting performances are wildly popular at theaters across the U.S. and Canada. This equal-opportunity offender has had several HBO and Comedy Central Specials, was a cast member on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice, is a regular on late-night television, and a frequent guest and guest host on Sirius XM satellite radio shows. She’s earned two Grammy nominations for “Best Comedy Album” to boot.
Lisa Lampanelli shot her fifth stand-up special, Back to the Drawing Board, which premiered on EPIX and was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for “Best Comedy Album.” In the special, she showed off her radically different look after having lost more than 100 pounds. That weight loss, which she has maintained for over four years, inspired her to write Stuffed since, having been every size from 2 to 26, she has firsthand knowledge of the food and body-image struggle.
She became a household name when she joined 17 other celebrities on the fifth season of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice where she advanced to the final four in the competition, raising $130,000 for her chosen charity, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. She also starred as a regular on Bounty Hunters, CMT’s first-ever animated series, and recently stole the show on an episode of CBS’ 2 Broke Girls helmed by Sex and The City creator, Michael Patrick King. She also was recently accepted into and attended the Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors in New Haven, CT.
Lampanelli joined the ranks of comedy greats with her 2009 HBO comedy special, Long Live the Queen, and that same year, released her autobiography, Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat and Freaks. She was also a monthly writer for the Women column in Playboy Magazine and is a contributor to the blog for Kripalu, the world-renowned yoga and meditation retreat center.
Lisa’s rise to the top of the comedy food chain began in 2002 when she was the only female comedian invited to skewer Chevy Chase on the NY Friars Club Comedy Central Roast. She soon became known as the “Queen of the Roasts”, going on to lambaste such names as Pamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, William Shatner, Flava Flav, David Hasselhoff and, most recently, Donald Trump. Due to her success as a roaster, in 2009, Lisa was asked to serve as Roastmaster for the highly rated Comedy Central Roast of friend and fellow comic, Larry the Cable Guy.
One of the few white comedians to perform on BET’s Comic View, Lampanelli has clearly cemented her huge crossover appeal. She went on to appear on Comedy Central’s Last Laugh 2005 and her one-hour special that year, Take It Like a Man, was a hit with the comedy network yet again. The CD and the DVD of the same name hit #6 on the comedy charts. Then, in January 2007, Lisa’s second one-hour special, Dirty Girl, debuted on Comedy Central and Warner Bros. Records, and reached #4 on the charts. Soon thereafter, Dirty Girl was nominated for a Grammy Award for 2007’s “Best Comedy Album”.
Lampanelli appeared in the David Chase-directed feature film, Not Fade Away. She also appeared in Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and had a featured role in Delta Farce, opposite Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, and D.J. Quall. She also starred in the hilarious documentary, The Aristocrats, and played a more maternal version of herself in the Owen Wilson vehicle, Drillbit Taylor.
You can grab tickets for Stuffed which are now on sale right here.
