{"id":10399,"date":"2026-05-29T14:01:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=10399"},"modified":"2026-05-29T14:01:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:01:51","slug":"south-coast-repertory-raises-funds-with-sex-and-the-city-benefit-performances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=10399","title":{"rendered":"South Coast Repertory raises funds with \u2018Sex and the City\u2019 benefit performances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Break out those Manolo Blahniks, have your Cosmopolitans at the ready, and prepare to brunch \u2014 \u201cSex and the City\u201d has come to town.<\/p>

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And if you have absolutely no clue what that first sentence is about, now\u2019s your chance to get in on one of the most pervasive pop culture phenomena of the past 30 years, explained by the writer who started it all, Candace Bushnell.<\/p>\n

For this weekend only, Bushnell brings her one-woman show, \u201cCandace Bushnell: True Tales of Sex, Success and Sex and the City\u201d\u00a0 to South Coast Repertory as a benefit production for the theater. Performances are Saturday, May 30, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 31, at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really the origin story of \u2018Sex and the City\u2019 \u2014 how I created it, how hard I worked to get there, and why I invented Carrie Bradshaw,\u201d Bushnell said on a recent call from her home in Sag Harbor, New York, where it was a rainy afternoon. \u201cAnd then I tell the real story of the real Mr. Big.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the uninitiated, the character of Carrie Bradshaw is considered Bushnell\u2019s alter ego; an attractive single woman living in New York City who works as a popular columnist and eventually an author, who moves in a constellation of three best friends and their revolving romantic partners, with \u201cMr. Big\u201d being Carrie\u2019s longtime heartthrob. In real life, Bushnell wrote a column for The New York Observer that was adapted into the bestselling \u201cSex and the City\u201d anthology. The books launched a cultural juggernaut, becoming the basis for a long-running HBO series, two movies and a recent reboot of the original series called \u201cAnd Just Like That.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my show, we play the game \u2018Real or Not Real,\u2019 which is video clips from the show contrasted with my real life,\u201d she said. Hint: Reality is rarely like the glamorous show.\u00a0 \u201cFor instance, do you remember when Carrie dated the senator? Well, I dated a senator. But he was a short bald man.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Mr. Big? \u201cBetween you and me, I like (former vice president of Cond\u00e9 Nast) Ron Gallotti a lot, but people have looked up his photos on the internet and they\u2019re like, \u2018Man, he\u2019s ugly.\u2019 I\u2019m like, OK, so he was balding. Most men, I\u2019m sorry, are not as good-looking as Chris Noth (the actor who plays Mr. Big), but whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bushnell recalls that early on, she sensed her writing, which rendered (some) women\u2019s experiences with sex, relationships and career issues with bold candor, would hit the zeitgeist.<\/p>

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\u201cWhen I got the column, before it was even a TV series, I felt like it was going to be big. I felt like it was my big break. I just had this instinct,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I guess it wasn\u2019t until, like, after two years that the show had been on the air that people started saying to me, hey, this is a success, it\u2019s a phenomenon. I mean, we shot the pilot and then a whole year passed before they ordered the series, and then another whole year passed before they ordered the second season.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did she know she\u2019d really made it? \u201cOne time I was in London and I went to the club, Chinawhite,\u201d she said, referring to an exclusive, VIP nightclub popular with celebrities and royals. \u201cThere was an aristocratic guy in there who was saying to me, \u2018Oh, you\u2019ve ruined it for men like me. Now women are on to us. We can\u2019t be (expletive) the way we were before.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Wait, wait, it\u2019s come over here to London? And everyone\u2019s watching it here?\u2019 So that was when I was getting an inkling of how big it was.<\/p>

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\u201cAnd then when they made the first movie, that was pretty incredible because they blocked off a whole street block in the city,\u201d she adds, referring to Manhattan. \u201cThere were all of these barricades, and walking down the street, you know, it was lined with fans who were screaming. So that was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bushnell launched her one-woman show in 2021 off-Broadway. \u201cThat was pretty amazing. I think I was 62 when we started doing it,\u201d said Bushnell, who early after moving to New York once took an acting class. \u201cI went to acting school for maybe four months. I like to say six months, but honestly, I hated it. We had to do things like pretend to be a piece of pepperoni on a pizza. Then we had to brush our teeth in front of the class, and I thought, \u2018I can\u2019t.\u2019<\/p>

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\u201cIt was definitely never on my bingo card to imagine I\u2019d be doing an off-Broadway theater show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, she\u2019s performed it at New York\u2019s famed cabaret lounge Caf\u00e9 Carlyle and all over Europe \u2014 twice at the London Palladium to sold-out crowds \u2014 but said Orange County was always on her list.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Coast Rep was one of the early supporters of the one-woman show. I\u2019d been hoping to come for the last few years, actually, and now we\u2019re finally able to make it happen,\u201d Bushnell said. \u201cYou know there\u2019s (philanthropist) Jane Yada and some other people I know who were around at the beginning of putting together this one-woman show, so it\u2019s very exciting and pretty great to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n