Cheryl Strayed anonymously wrote a column called Dear Sugar as part of The Rumpus literary magazine online. She compiled a bunch of the essays from that time and published a book called Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar. The book became a bestseller. Nia Vardalos, best known for writing and starring in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, has adapted the book into the play Tiny Beautiful Things. The show just opened at the Pasadena Playhouse and will run there through May 5th.
Vardalos reprises her role in this play which had its premiere at the Public Theatre in New York. The project was co-concieved by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail along with Vardalos. If Kail’s name seems familiar, he directed Hamilton.
Of course, Vardalos plays Sugar. Teddy Cañez plays Letter Writer #1. Natalia Woolams-Torres is Letter Writer #2 and Giovanni Adams is Letter Writer #3.
And if Strayed’s name seems familiar, her memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, was also a bestseller and was made into the movie, Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon.
Sherri Eden Barber directs this production based on the original direction by Kail.
Tiny Beautiful Things runs 85 minutes with no intermission.
Main photo: Nia Vardalos in “Tiny Beautiful Things.” Photo by Jennifer Graham/Courtesy of the Pasadena Playhouse
For tickets go here.