HELLMAN V. McCARTHY ...Beverly Hills

A true story.  Back in 1979 on the Dick Cavett Show author Mary McCarthy, who was known for her acid wit, said that Lillian Hellman “… is tremendously overrated, a bad writer, and dishonest writer…” Cavett asked, “What is dishonest about her?” McCarthy replied. “Everything… every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’!” The next morning Hellman, who was famous for her prickly personality and high sense of self-righteousness, started a $2.5 million libel suit against McCarthy, Cavett and WNET-TV. 

Mary McCarthy

Lillian Hellman

In a dramatic ’what if?’ playwright Brian Richard Mori has these two dynamic women confront each other onstage, with Cavett himself there to moderate and instigate - as he always did so well. Calling it A Literary Catfight, the NY Times critic said: “It’s hard to imagine this new play without Mr. Cavett’s astringently funny presence, which adds layers of charm and verisimilitude to a slender dramatic reconsideration of a famous literary feud."

So, Dick Cavett stars as himself, Flora Plumb portrays Lillian Hellman, and, reprising their roles from the New York production, Marcia Rodd is Mary McCarthy and Rowan Michael Meyer is Hellman’s caretaker. The play is directed by Howard Storm, whose fruitful career in TV included directing ‘Mork and Mindy’! and who, as a young comic, appeared on Cavett’s show in 1968.

Marcia Rodd & Dick Cavett

This Theatre 40 production is at The Reuben Cordova Theatre, 241 S. Moreno Drive, on Beverly Hills High School campus. Free underground parking. For tickets call (310) 364-3606 or online www.theatre40.org. 
Plays Feb 6 through 28.

There will also be one performance Sunday, March 1 at the Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills. Tickets at www.ticketmaster.com.

Also written up in the February issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY

THE MEMORY OF WATER ...Santa Monica

If you enjoy family get-togethers that end in screaming matches and only fall short of mass murder this is your kind of show. A hit in London's West End, it won the "Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy" for author Shelagh Stephenson.  Actually, its a great opportunity for female actors who need to go full throttle.  

The only domestic violence was by the women as they rocked the earth with sibling rage while their men were unbelievably forbearing. Mom is dead and apparently she had Alzheimers. Well, she is there from the distant past in one daughter’s memory and seems quite savvy. There’s a family secret – when isn’t there – but what this has to do with dementia one never discovers.

Jasmin De Main - Danette Garrelts - Alexa Asjes

Happily, the cast are all excellent. Danette Garrelts is often moving as the successful but haunted doctor-sister; Alexa Asjes has an hilarious meltdown as the homebody sister, while Jasmin De Main plays the hysterical youngest as possibly certifiable. 

Bette Smith is a little wispy as the gentle ghost of Mom; Frank Krueger is adorable as a philandering lover, and beleaguered husband Ralph Radebaugh has the patience of a saint amid all the ruckus.

Relocated to a wintry New England setting, the play is directed full blast by Vincent Lappas. It was adapted by Stephenson for the 2002 British film, ‘Before You Go,’ starring Julie Walters and Tom Wilkinson and directed by Lewis Gilbert.

At the Promenade Playhouse, 1404 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica.  Tickets at 310.960.7785 or plays411.com/memoryofwater.

Also reviewed in the February issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY

DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER …NoHo

Its very French! The wife will be away for the weekend so he has invited his mistress to visit. His best friend arrives, which shouldn’t spoil the fun, except that the wife is having it off with the best friend. 

Now this setup may sound okay to a European audience, but in America its called infidelity and is not considered a joking matter. (As I am also a paralegal in Family Law I can assure you its not!) Still, it’s a farce, and the actors give it their best try. The tangled web they weave is full of good humor and quite delightful complications, but all sadly negated by the underlying sleazy theme.

 

Patrick Burke is an energetic philanderer and Julie Davis is his not-so-naïve wife.  Patrick Skelton is his friend in-deed and Stephanie Colet his bewildered mistress. Stealing the show is Jennifer Laks as a hired cook who manages to make a proper stew, and J. Christopher Sloan is believably Gallic as her genial husband.

 

Written by Marc Camoletti (author of the acclaimed Boeing-Boeing), adapted by Robin Hawdon and jauntily directed by Drina Durazo. The charming country-home set is by Chris Winfield and plaudits to dialect coach Glenda Morgan Brown. Produced by Bert Emmett and Dan Sykes for the Group Rep.

 

At the Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, through January 25. For tickets: (818) 763-5990 or www.thegrouprep.com. Ample street parking.

BLITHE SPIRIT …Downtown

Superstar Dame Angela Lansbury triumphs in this totally delightful revival of Noel Coward’s 1944 comedy. Set in an elegant English country home, a novelist has arranged a séance as research for his new book. 

He didn’t reckon with eccentric medium Madame Arcati (Lansbury) who, after cycling eight miles to the house,  accidentally summons up his dead ex-wife. This blithe spirit is not approving of his new spouse and is determined to win him back. So Madame Arcati is called on again to exorcise this ghost, a talent she obviously does not possess. However, she is quite willing to give it a try, and she does, with predictably disastrous results.

Lansbury is a bundle of energy, even doing the hokey-pokey to connect with the other world, and taking the stage so completely that the rest are in danger of becoming mere shadows. 

Charles Edwards is a gallant hero caught between warring wives; Charlotte Parry presents a stiff-upper-lip as his beleaguered present wife; Jemima Rooper is a kewpie-doll ghost with a sensual memory; Simon Jones and Sandra Shipley are a neighboring couple of skeptics, and Susan Louise O’Connor is the daftest maid that ever served high tea.

Directed with impeccably high style by Michael Blakemore, the exquisite set is by Simon Higlett, with lighting by Mark Jonathan and sound by Ben and Max Ringham. The costumes are exquisite, with Lansbury’s colorful outfits by Martin Pakledinaz. Delightful interlude vocals of Coward songs by Christine Ebersole.

After winning accolades in London the show is being launched at the Ahmanson Theatre for its North American Tour. At Los Angeles Music Center, 135 North Grand Avenue, through Jan. 18. Tickets: 213-628-2772 or www.CenterTheatreGroup.org or CTG Box Office.

 Also reviewed in January issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY

TRAIN TO ZAKOPANE …Santa Monica

Poland, 1928. Strangers on a train meet and chat and, even through the veneer of small talk, we soon get the picture. The handsome young man is a successful businessman from Russia, and Jewish. The chatty peasant girl is a Polish army nurse and blatant anti-Semite. She boasts that she can spot a Jew from across the room, but he has slipped under her radar. Angry, and with amused contempt, he plans to draw her to him and after their first passionate kiss (or more) tell her he’s Jewish. Ah, the plan is a good one under the circumstances, a well deserved reproof, until he recognizes under her naiveté a fragile girl and falls in love with her. They spend three days in Zacopane, a luxury resort, and the secret that divides them becomes an ominous shadow.

 

Based on his own father’s youthful true story, Henry Jaglom has created a simple yet persuasively real situation where we are like flies on the wall observing people as if in real life. All this is overshadowed by our modern awareness of what the blatant anti-Semitism in Poland led to during the Nazi occupation. Here it is the elephant in the room, and the final confrontation is a powerful statement on the tragedy guaranteed by racism.

Tanna Frederick is superb as Katia, blossoming from a frowsy chatterbox into a passionate vulnerable woman; Mike Falkow matches her as Semyon, a sophisticated charmer opening into an emotionally honest man. Also excellent are Cathy Arden as a worldy-wise actress, Stephen Howard as a bigoted priest, Jeff Elam as a wary doctor, and Kelly DeSarla as a fun-loving flapper.

Written by Henry Jaglom and directed with great sensitivity by Gary Imhoff. The complicated yet  exquisite sets are by Chris Stone. Produced by Alexandra Guarnieri and presented by The Rainbow Theatre Company in association with Edgemar Center for the Arts. At the Edgemar Theatre, 2437 Main Street, Santa Monica. Tickets: (310) 392-7327 or www.edgemarcenter.org. Don’t miss it.
Also reviewed in the January issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY.