Only in America: Renée Taylor’s MY LIFE ON A DIET

The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts presents the Los Angeles premiere of Renée Taylor’s MY LIFE ON A DIET, the award-winning, autobiographical comedy written by Taylor and Joseph Bologna, which opens its 12 performance, limited engagement on Friday, April 5 and continues through Sunday, April 14, 2019, in The Wallis’s Bram Goldsmith Theater.

Taylor, an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning writer and actress, looks back on a life full of memorable roles in Hollywood and on Broadway, and just as many fad diets.   As one of the co-stars of “The Nanny” television series who played the nanny’s mom, Sylvia Fine, she was depicted as always eating and always on a diet, every second so hilarious and so engaging it could be watched over an over again.

A self-described “diet junkie” who believed that if she ate like a star, she just might look and live like one, Taylor dishes out juicy anecdotes about — and weight loss tips from — such Hollywood legends as Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe and Barbra Streisand. She also serves up entertaining and poignant stories about the late Bologna, her partner in work and life for 52 years. Considered a comedy legend, she tells about her high and lows – on and off the scale – and shows audiences that the ability to laugh gets you through it all.

My Life on a Diet, originally directed by Bologna, made its New York premiere in 2018 with a critically acclaimed, extended run Off-Broadway at the Theatre at St. Clements and has embarked on a national tour. In November of last year, Taylor and My Life on a Diet won the annual United Solo Special Award for her significant contributions to solo theatre during the year.

My Life on a Diet’s national tour is presented by the production’s producer Julian Schlossberg. Scenic and lighting design is by Harry Feiner, sound is by Christopher Bond, costume is by Pol’ Atteu, projections design is by Michael Redman, production manager is Inga McLaughlin and general manager is Richard Martin.

According to Taylor, “A few years ago, I had the pleasure to work with my friend Nora Ephron on her wonderful play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore. I told her that, as a woman who had worn every size from 4 to 18 over the years, my version of the play would be called Love, Loss, and What I Ate. Well, this is that play, but I ended up calling it My Life on a Diet.”

“Renée’s memorable Hollywood and Broadway credentials in film, television and theater as an actress and writer are sure to touch our audiences,” says The Wallis’ Artistic Director Paul Crewes.  In addition winning the United Solo Special Award for Outstanding solo show, Taylor was recently inducted into the Bronx Jewish Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018 due to the success of My Life on a Diet.  She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Hofstra University.For more information about The Wallis, please visit: TheWallis.org.  

Critics have described My Life on a Diet as “fascinating, lighthearted, spicy” (New York Times), and as providing “laughs and unexpectedly tender moments” (Newsday). According to the New York Post, “The inimitable Renee Taylor’s new show is wonderful… an evening laced with love and laughter.”

Tickets, $65, are on sale now and, available at TheWallis.org/Diet. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit: TheWallis.org/Diet.