{"id":2735,"date":"2009-04-13T10:15:50","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T10:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2009\/04\/nellie-oleson-strikes-back.html"},"modified":"2009-04-13T10:15:50","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T10:15:50","slug":"nellie-oleson-strikes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/04\/nellie-oleson-strikes-back.html","title":{"rendered":"Nellie Oleson Strikes Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"alisonarngrim.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/import\/imgs\/alisonarngrim.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"218\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/span>A few weeks ago, we shared the news that everyone&#8217;s favorite prairie tomboy, Laura Ingalls&#8211;and her alter ego, Melissa Gilbert&#8211;were hitting the road with a touring company of &#8220;Little House on the Prairie: The Musical,&#8221; a show of great nostalgic value to those of us who valued the stories of the simple, yet challenging, midwestern life. I idolized Laura&#8211;the brunette tomboy with an independent spirit&#8211;as much as I hated her nemesis, the blonde-ringleted and socially deadly Nellie Oleson.<br \/>\nNellie was no shrinking violet, and apparently, neither is the actress who played her. No sooner had the Little House musical news been announced, when Nellie Oleson&#8211; or should I say <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatermania.com\/new-york\/news\/03-2009\/alison-arngrim-to-present-confessions-of-a-prairie_18256.html\" target=\"_blank\">actress Alison Arngrim<\/a>&#8211;announced some stage time of her own: while Melissa plays Ma in the musical, touring Minnesota and other stops, Alison&#8217;s taking over West Bank Caf\u00e9 on Mother&#8217;s Day (take that, Ma Ingalls and Harriet Oleson!) May 10 in New York City for her show &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.spincyclenyc.com\/theaterdance\/090510confessionsofaprairiebitch.php\" target=\"_blank\">Confessions of a Prairie Bitch<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nJust in case you thought the &#8220;Little House&#8221; co-star didn&#8217;t have range, you might be interested to learn that she&#8217;s been doing standup since she was 15, plus she became a prominent AIDS activist in the mid-80s, and after coming out at a survivor of child abuse in 2004, she joined the advisory board of Protect, a group that fights to give children a voice in the war against child abuse. In 2006 she received the prestigious Justice Award from Justice for Children, a national child protection organization and an award from The National Association to Protect Children.<br \/>\nThe play is at The Laurie Beechman Theatre inside West Bank Cafe (407 West 42nd Street at Ninth Avenue). Tickets are $20 with a $15 per person food or drink minimum. For reservations call 212-352-3101 or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spincyclenyc.com\/theaterdance\/090510confessionsofaprairiebitch.php\" target=\"_blank\">buy tickets online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago, we shared the news that everyone&#8217;s favorite prairie tomboy, Laura Ingalls&#8211;and her alter ego, Melissa Gilbert&#8211;were hitting the road with a touring company of &#8220;Little House on the Prairie: The Musical,&#8221; a show of great nostalgic value to those of us who valued the stories of the simple, yet challenging, midwestern&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nellie Oleson Strikes Back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/04\/nellie-oleson-strikes-back.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nellie Oleson Strikes Back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few weeks ago, we shared the news that everyone&#8217;s favorite prairie tomboy, Laura Ingalls&#8211;and her alter ego, Melissa Gilbert&#8211;were hitting the road with a touring company of &#8220;Little House on the Prairie: The Musical,&#8221; a show of great nostalgic value to those of us who valued the stories of the simple, yet challenging, midwestern&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/04\/nellie-oleson-strikes-back.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-13T10:15:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/imgs\/alisonarngrim.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Esther Kustanowitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nellie Oleson Strikes Back","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/04\/nellie-oleson-strikes-back.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nellie Oleson Strikes Back","og_description":"A few weeks ago, we shared the news that everyone&#8217;s favorite prairie tomboy, Laura Ingalls&#8211;and her alter ego, Melissa Gilbert&#8211;were hitting the road with a touring company of &#8220;Little House on the Prairie: The Musical,&#8221; 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