Smart Blonde
by Willy Holtzman

Memory and song converge as Judy Holliday, the “dumb blonde” with a genius IQ, charts her experiences from Greenwich Village to Broadway and beyond with notable show business alums, including Leonard Bernstein and Marilyn Monroe.

"In Willy Holtzman's skillfully structured play … it's December, 1964, and Judy Holliday, at a recording session, tells stories of her life and career between takes.

Exquisitely painted scenes show the actress, born Judy Tuvim (Hebrew for 'holidays'), performing cabaret with her friends Adolph Green, Betty Comden, and Lenny Bernstein; auditioning for Born Yesterday

; fighting off the predatory producer Darryl Zanuck; using her wits at a Senate hearing to avoid naming names in the McCarthy era; and encountering Gerry Mulligan and Marilyn Monroe … [The play captures] the depth, insecurity, intelligence, and strength of Judy Tuvim."

—Ken Marks, The New Yorker

"… commissioning Willy Holtzman's SMART BLONDE for this year's Pittsburgh City Theatre season turned out to be a smart move.

Last night's SMART BLONDE opening was (as the critics like to say) a triumph (or, as my saintly mother would have said: 'one for the books!') … [It] was Willy's work up to Willy's high standards — with his usual mix of drama, comedy, character, shameful American politics and, in this case, songs from the American Songbook …" —Frank Gagliano, Stage Voices