The original advertising campaign proclaimed “You’ve got to climb the highest mountain to reach the “Valley of the Dolls.” But theatre goers in search of a truly unique experience won’t have to go that far. For one night only, Friday, May 16th at 8 PM in the intimate Red Room at Society Hill Playhouse, 507 South 8th Street, Neely O’Hara, Jennifer North and Anne Welles will take to the stage to do battle with booze, pills, inappropriate men and Helen Lawson, the most infamous, foul mouthed star ever to triumph on Broadway. As she did with last year’s riotous reading of “The Women”, local stage icon Carlotta Tendant, as Neely O’Hara, will head a cast of PGLTF favorites and celebrity guests.

First published in 1966, “Valley of the Dolls” rocketed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list, where it remained for over a year. It went on to sell an unprecedented eight million copies, and turned its author, a second string Broadway and TV actress into what the Times would later lovingly refer to as “a literary trashmeistress par excellence.” In 1967, Susann's risque roman ‘a clef of three pill-popping, Gucci-clad show-biz women, reputedly modeled after Judy Garland, Grace Kelly, and Marilyn Monroe, came to the screen as a bawdy, brazen, over-the-top cocktail of cat clawing and randy repartee starring Patty Duke, Barbara Parkins, the ill-fated Sharon Tate, and an authentic Hollywood legend, Susan Hayward.

The suggested donation for this staged reading is $25.00, with all profits going toward the June Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival. Seating is limited. To reserve your front row seat for the most fabulous Philly theatre event of the season, please call 215-627-6483.