Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/140592
A&E BRIEFS Mary Testa stars in My Brilliant Divorce. Contributed photo by Barbara Banks TESTA BRINGS ONE-WOMAN SHOW TO THE ASOLO REP Is laughter really the best medicine? The popular adage is put to the test in a "hysterically funny, one-woman tour de force about picking up the pieces of a broken heart and beginning life again, My Brilliant Divorce," now at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, a news release says. In only the second major American regional production of the play, Asolo Rep's producing artistic director, Michael Donald Edwards, directs Broadway star Mary Testa as Angela, "the 40-something housewife blindsided by her philandering husband's desertion," the release notes . Mary Testa, a two-time Tony Award nominee, "is such a wonderfully gifted actress," Edwards says in the release. "I could think of no one better to play the part of Angela. Mary is witty, charming, feisty — hilariously so — and at the same time, vulnerable and engaging. Audiences in Sarasota will identify with her and they will love her," added Edwards. "We've all experienced heartbreak at some point in our lives, so we naturally embrace those rare artists who can inform our own existence and at the same time, make us laugh until our sides ache." My Brilliant Divorce is a very popular play My Brilliant Divorce is Geraldine Aron's throughout the world, although it is not as "engaging, mid-life crisis comedy," the well known in the United States, the release notes. It premiered in 2001 at the Druid Therelease adds.