Joe & Marilyn at Westwego Performing Arts Theatre
Most people have some familiarity with Marilyn Monroe, the mid-twentieth century movie star and sex symbol whose fame continues to burn brightly as movies, books, songs, etc. about her still tumble forth regularly. Even non-hard core fans may be aware of her early hardscrabble life, celebrity marriages, brief fame in Hollywood (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot, etc.), and early death.
Of those celebrity marriages, one was to acclaimed playwright Arthur Miller, the other to baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Approaching Jefferson Performing Arts’ recent production of Joe & Marilynat the Westwego Performing Arts Theatre, I certainly knew who DiMaggio was–Hall of Famer, Yankee player, Monroe’s husband–but not much more (oh yeah, in later years, spokesman for the Mr. Coffee coffee maker). In fact, I thought his heyday overlapped with that of Monroe’s.
So on the most basic level, Willard Manus’ play, subtitled “A Love Story”, was interesting to me. I learned that DiMaggio’s peak years were before and during WWII, and of his 56-game hitting streak in 1941. Also, that his marriage to Monroe lasted less than a year. One doesn’t necessarily think of the theater as a classroom (tho the explosion of bio jukebox musicals (see below) may contradict that), but when well done, there’s nothing wrong with that either.
In a series of short scenes, Joe & Marilynbats about .500 which would be terrific for a baseball player, not quite for a show, as Wikipedia-esque exposition mixes with real, involving drama. Manus portrays their initial meeting and the chemistry that percolated between them, followed by their marriage, DiMaggio’s controlling and abusive ways, their divorce, and DiMaggio’s continued presence in her life as it spiraled out of control landing her, for a time, in a mental hospital.
Not all of Manus’ dialog is believable but the sex talk using baseball metaphors scores points. DiMaggio may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier but he’s savvy enough to observe to his future wife that she’s “obviously very, very smart.” By all accounts, Monroe was certainly no “dumb blonde”, but Manus shows that she sometimes lacked the sense not to bait DiMaggio as their relationship fell apart. In its later innings, as we see DiMaggio’s dedication to Monroe, even after her death, Joe & Marilynbecame quite affecting.
As Joe & Marilyn, Jonathan Mares and Sarah Colbert Cutrer were both very good, but occasionally were hamstrung by their roles which too often forced them to switch emotions quicker than a fast ball.
Jonathan Mares and Sarah Colbert Cutrer in Joe & Marilyn (photo by John B. Barrois)
Mares may not look like the Italian DiMaggio, yet he provided an acute portrait of a tortured man very much of his time and place when women were supposed to stay “in the home.” One certainly doesn’t excuse how DiMaggio treated Monroe, but Mares made clear why “the Yankee Clipper” acted the way he did with a performance fueled by toxic masculinity and layered with tenderness.
Cutrer started out saying her lines in Monroe’s whispery manner which made her sometimes difficult to hear but, as she went along and Monroe’s fame and confidence increased, she projected to better effect. Without slavishly imitating Monroe, Cutrer nicely showed how Monroe evolved into a self-possessed woman, albeit it a misguided one as she came to rely on pharmaceuticals and people who may not have had her best interests at heart.
One must credit Director Janet Shea for guiding her cast to give such sharp performances. I wish, however, she had staged Joe & Marilyn in a different manner. Manus’ tale projects an almost impressionistic sensibility as these two megastars come together and then explode. Rather than a realistic approach with numerous scene changes, projections and an intermission that merely interrupted the dramatic momentum, I could’ve envisioned a potentially more effective one-act production in which each scene flowed into the next, perhaps using more abstract, multiple locations on the stage, for what could have been a dream-like interpretation, well-suited for the Hollywood “dream machine” in which Monroe found herself caught up.
Joe & Marilyn may not have hit a home run, but it certainly scored a double and drove a man home, not too bad a statistic. (And I’ll only employ further sports metaphors this season if we go into extra innings.)
[JPA’s season continues with Billy Elliot: The Musical at Jefferson Performing Arts Center. More info at https://www.jpas.org/performance/billy-elliot/]
Jersey Boys at Le Petit Theatre through April 6
I sat through the first act of Jersey Boys at Le Petit Theatre waiting for something dramatic to happen. Then I sat through the second act. Then I went home.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed listening to the songs Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (the “Jersey Boys” of the title) made famous as well as all the other ones of that era that fill out the musical, performed in topnotch style by the entire cast at Le Petit.
I couldn’t help wondering, however, how Jersey Boys won the Tony Award for best musical followed by an 11-year run despite its original lukewarm New York Times review.
For, in spite of the involvement of The Four Seasons with mob bosses and assorted personal tragedies, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s book is more history lesson than dramatic narrative as it assigns roughly a quarter of the story to each Season who tells it to the audience as other cast members act it out. The effect is like a Wikipedia entry come to life only less exciting.
At least at Le Petit, unlike the touring production I saw at the Saenger Theatre in 2013, the actors playing The Four Seasons (Sebastian Rohn (Frankie Valli), Brian Sanford (Nick Massi), Bryce Slocumb (Bob Gaudio), Jake Wynne-Wilson (Tommy DeVito)) don’t all look so similar that it’s difficult to tell them apart. Singly and in various combinations, they sound like a million (Rohn, especially in Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, uncannily evokes Valli’s voice), but only occasionally are they able to rise above the cardboard characterizations that the script imposes on them.
Sebastian Rohn, Bryce Slocumb, Jake Wynne-Wilson, and Brian Sanford in Jersey Boys
Directors A.J. Allegra and Jauné Buisson are two of this town’s most talented theater artists. I admired Buisson’s production of Beautiful, The Carole King Musical at Le Petit last year and Allegra’s Good Night, Oscar earlier this year, both biographical shows. Not even their clever minds, however, can overcome the script’s monotony, though they keep the show moving along as set pieces roll on and off the stage.
At least the show’s vocal and musical demands are fully met by Music Director Jefferson Turner and Vocal Director Raion Ramsey as we go from Sherry to Big Girls Don’t Cry and Walk Like a Man and on to Who Loves You and December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).
And two members of the cast spark the stage to life whenever they come on. Scott Sauber as lyricist/producer Bob Crewe (portrayed as openly gay in Jersey Boys but who apparently was more discretely so in real life) and, especially, Daniel Rigamer as the firecracker Joe Pesci (a Four Seasons gofer who would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Goodfellas) excavate nuggets of rich characterization from the script’s otherwise barren mines.
In February 2013, as part of Family Gras on Veterans Boulevard, I saw Frankie Valli give an amazing two hour concert, sounding terrific and covering all his hits. He’ll be returning to New Orleans at the Saenger on May 24. By then he’ll be 91 years young. I don’t want to tell you how to spend your entertainment dollars, but I’d opt for the real thing.
[For tickets and more info, go to https://www.lepetittheatre.com/events/jersey-boys-the-story-of-frankie-valli-the-four-seasons]
