NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Patricia Heaton opens off-Broadway in New York this month in "The Scene," in which she plays a talk-show booker in the midst of a rocky marriage.
The former star of "Everybody Loves Raymond" told The New York Times this week that she was drawn to her character, Stella, and to the play's stance on right and wrong.
Values have been a sticking point for Heaton in recent years due to her perceived right-wing outspokenness in the generally liberal entertainment industry.
Heaton drew fire when she taped a political commercial opposing a stem-cell research measure in Missouri. The incident led to plenty of cocktail-party sniping and even an Internet campaign to boycott "The Scene."
The curtain goes up Jan. 11 on the off-Broadway comedy, which the Times described as "what might have happened if 'Raymond' had been written for HBO and doctored by Dickens."
