A revival of the solo show Full Gallop will bring Patti LuPone back to the New York stage as Diana Vreeland, the imperious former Vogue editor in chief. The three-time Tony winner is set to open January 17, 2027, at New York City Center's Stage II, with previews beginning January 8.
A One-Woman Show Built for a Diva
According to The New York Times, the production will run for 12 weeks at New York City Center's Stage II. LuPone will be the only performer onstage, portraying Vreeland in the fashion legend's Park Avenue living room. The Times reports that the play is set just months after Vreeland was fired from Vogue and draws on her earlier tenure as fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar from the late 1930s into the early 1960s, her tenure as Vogue's editor in chief until 1971 and her later work as a consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Full Gallop was written by Mark Hampton and Mary Louise Wilson and was first staged at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego before later appearing at the Westside Theater, according to a press release from The Old Globe. Wilson's Off Broadway performance as Vreeland earned her Obie and Drama Desk Awards in 1998, per the theater's own account of an extended run. Critic Vincent Canby once described the show as “as delicious as it is rich,” the Times notes.
A Role With a Long Theatrical Pedigree
New York City Center in Context
According to New York City Center, the institution has played a defining role in New York's cultural life since 1943 and was founded as Manhattan's first performing arts center. Its City Center In Schools program brings musical theater and dance into classrooms across the city, extending the institution's presenting and educational work beyond its Midtown stages. The venue also has a documented precedent for solo performance: New York City Center's Fall for Dance archive lists Sara Mearns's 2018 “Dances of Isadora Duncan—A Solo Tribute.” That presentation was a dance solo rather than a one-woman play, offering a related but distinct example of a single performer carrying a City Center production.
The upcoming revival will return Full Gallop to the New York stage. Further details about its creative team and producers were not provided.
Full Gallop has a well-traveled history. The New York Times described Mary Louise Wilson's 1996 performance at the Westside Theater as “gloriously wired,” and noted that the play draws on material also found in Vreeland's 1984 autobiography, D.V. The Old Globe's press materials note that the play subsequently had productions elsewhere. A Manhattan Theatre Club production directed by Nicholas Martin opened in March 1998, according to a Variety review, which noted that Vreeland remains the lone character onstage throughout. The Westside Theater run was open-ended, the Times reported at the time.
Other actors have taken on the role over the years. Mercedes Ruehl starred as Vreeland in an Old Globe production, according to the theater. More recently, Sally Edmundson played Vreeland in the Houston premiere at Stages Repertory Theatre, directed by artistic director Rob Bundy, per Playbill. Full Gallop is a single-character biographical work, as is Jay Presson Allen's 1989 play Tru.
LuPone's Return to New York Theater
LuPone, who won Tony Awards for Evita, Gypsy and Company, is now starring in Company, the Times reports. The Times also discusses her recent career.
