What do women want? Award-winning
director Scott Edmiston has an inkling, and the twenty women,
young and old, he's assembled this production of "The Women"
bring Clare Booth Luce's 5th Ave. New Yorkers to vivid life.
The cast includes several Norton and IRNE Best Actresses, including Nancy
E. Carroll, Ellen Colton, Kerry Dowling, Anne
Gottlieb, Maureen Keiller and Alice Duffy. Gottlieb
is the center of the action as Mary Haines, who's fall and rise are
worthy of her previous roles, including Cleopatra.
Carroll is the playwright's take on her
friend and rival Dorothy Parker, here called Nancy Blake, a novelist
with a deadpan wit. They're parts of a "set" which includes Keiller as
the arch-gossip Sylvia Fowler, Dowling as perennially pregnant Edith
Potter, and newlywed Peggy Day played by Aimee Doherty. Veteran
comedienne Colton shows her range as a gossipy manicurist--the purveyor
of Jungle Red nail polish-- the singing? cook, Lucy, at a Reno dude
ranch, and finally as an affronted dowager. Alice Duffy is
Mary's wise and unheeded mother while versatile Mary Klug gets
to shine as the much married, perennially smitten and very rich
Countess de Lage.
The villainess of this gem from the '30s
is Georgia Lyman as golddigger Crystal Allen, who's found out
by Mary's daughter, the
youngest member of the cast, Winsor School student Sophie Rich, last seen in the New Rep's
"Ragtime" as Tateh's daughter. Elizabeth Hayes, back in
town, is Mary's Irish maid while Sandra Heffley plays
Maggie,her gruff Irish cook, and shows up later as a nurse at latest
Edith's lying-in. Sonya Raye plays Miriam Arons, a blues singer
involved with Sylvia's husband. Elisa MacDonald shows up as a
foundation model, a cigarette girl who claims to be a Communist, as
well as Miss Trimmerback, a notary. Amanda Good Hennessey plays
Mr. Haines' very efficient personal secretary. Carly Sakalove
is Sylvia's exercise trainer--to little avail, while Cheryl Faye's
main part is Crystal's French maid.
On the technical side, Edmiston and the
cast are well-served by Brynna Bloomfield's elegant unit set
which morphs seamlessly from Mary's living room to the manicurist's to
an exclusive dress shop to a dude ranch to a posh powder room for the
finale, with the help of Scott Clyve's lighting. Gail
Astrid Buckley clothes the ladies in an array of fashion which
sets the period but has a timeless touch. Jason Allen is
responsible for appropriate hair and makeupDewey Dellay's score
and sound design also supports the period, but the most striking
musical moment is Will McGarrahan's vocal arrangement of Cole
Porter's "Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor" for the entire cast at
the end of the first act, with Carroll starting the tune off, while
Gottlieb becomes the center of the action. This encapsulates this
stunning show. The complex denouement, with the entire cast (minus one)
onstage leading up to Mary's triumphant "Jungle Red" exit, is
nonetheless effective.
Luce's satire has gone through various
stages--and too many screen adaptations--since its first appearance on
the Broadway stage for two years in the '30s. "The Women" gives a
panoramic view of the pinnacle of NY society at the time but underneath
is a well-plotted farce with a great deal of insight into character and
relationships. Purportedly, Clare Booth Luce, who'd previously been
known as short story writer and magazine editor began the play with
observations of her own experiences in Reno. The action extends forward
and backwards from this scene which starts the second half, resulting
in a linear storyline in which seemingly flippant conversations become
major elements. This ensemble production with its high-powered cast
makes the most of her language. This play is a veritable text book on
how to construct a large cast comedy. It's too bad that current
financial considerations in our theatre limit its production. Not even
large community theatres can afford such scale very often. And
collegiate actors just don't have the life experience to make the
characters really convincing. The performances that Edmiston has
elicited have those extra personal touches which only experienced
players can draw upon, the kind that require the sense of being an
actor in real life sometimes called the Method.