Three seasons ago, LA was treated to a one-woman show about Katherine Hepburn called Tea At Five. Mathew Lombardo was the playwright and Pasadena Playhouse the venue. The last thing you would think Lombardo would want to do is try to top himself by writing another play about a theatrical icon. But that's what he's done. Having heard of a famous tape in which the infamous Tallulah Bankhead looped one line from her camp film "Die! Die! My Darling" but took over eight hours doing so, Lombardo turned it into the premise of his latest endeavor. Looped is having its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse, and a smashing world premiere it is.

Lombardo has found the perfect actress to play Tallulah in Valerie Harper. She drawls, she postures, she shocks, recreating Tallulah in her last days in a pitch-perfect and hilarious performance. Ms. Harper constantly surprises; having just played Golda Meir, she totally switches gear here to present what is bound to become a triumph.

Along the way she and the playwright find time to not only make us scream with laughter but also to present the more human side of Tallulah, a rather tragic figure who became an object of ridicule and was reduced to camp recreation by drag performers (and herself I might add). At one point in her career she was thought to be potentially the greatest actress of her day. Tennessee Williams wrote Blanche DuBois for her. Today, if she is remembered at all, it is because of her reputation as a bisexual bad girl who wasn’t afraid to say anything. (A few examples: “My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine," or "I once introduced a friend of mine as Martini. Her name was Olive,” or “The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.”

Sharing the stage with Ms. Harper is Chad Allen of My Two Dads fame. He does an admirable job keeping up with Harper but is bogged down a bit by his direction and the script. He is belligerent to Tallulah from the beginning in a way that is just not motivated, and besides, he would never last a day if he treated any celebrity the way he heaps scorn on Bankhead. Granted, she is exasperating, but his abuse is too much. When, later in the play, his own private demons are revealed, it is hard to feel much sympathy for him. He also attacks her early on about her “bad” performance as Blanche at the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Later he confesses to her that his mother saw her and thought she was superb as Blanche. This inconsistency further alienates us from his character.

Altogether, though, this is a fun evening in the theater, and even if some of the writing is stiff, audiences will thoroughly enjoy the performance of the extraordinary Valerie Harper. At the Pasadena Playhouse through August 3.