In commemoration of what would have been Elizabeth Taylor’s 80th birthday on February 27, The Ringwald Theatre is set to celebrate her life and one of her best-known roles in February! You’ve never seen Elizabeth Taylor celebrated until you see how The Ringwald celebrates her!

First up: In the World Premiere of Elizabeth the Beautiful by Kim Carney, we find Elizabeth recovering from back surgery in an elegant Virginia hotel in 1978. After a near-fatal encounter with a chicken bone, she is visited by her ex-ex-husband Richard Burton-or is she? Is he merely a figment of her unconscious mind? During this visit, Burton ushers in notable figures from her past, all with the purpose of teaching her a very valuable lesson about where her life is headed. Elizabeth the Beautiful is a funny, outlandish, and ultimately touching valentine to Ms. Taylor’s life.

Opening one week later will be a campy rendition of Tennessee Williams masterpiece, Suddenly, Last Summer. The sordid tale of Catharine Holly (famously played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1959 movie adaptation, here played by Marke Sobolewski) and her cousin Sebastian whose life meets an unseemly end when they are vacationing together in Cabeza de Lobo. Will Catharine get to tell what really happened before Sebastian’s mother (played by Lauren Bickers) follows through with her threats to have Catharine lobotomized?