REVIEW: Joan: A New Play About Joan Rivers traces the highs and lows of comedy legend
Through 08/17 @ Boyd-Quinson Theater, Pittsfield, MA
Photos by Roman Iwasiwka
“It’s a very handsome show with a stellar cast that pays sufficient tribute to this outsized American talent.”
Joan: A New Play About Joan Rivers by Daniel Goldstein is making its East Coast premiere at Barrington Stage Company on the Boyd-Quinson mainstage, and it may not be the laugh-filled show patrons might expect of the life of Joan Rivers.
The play is expertly delivered and superbly acted as the entire production has been transferred from South Coast Repertory and directed by SCR’s Artistic Director, David Ivers. The fascinating set by Wilson Chin has a wall that serves as a museum exhibit of Rivers’ career with significant marquees such as Cafe Wha?, The Bottom Line and the Hollywood sign. The exhibit also features library card drawers which hold the thousands and thousands of jokes the comedienne crafted over the decades of her career. Her name in lights is over 10 feet tall, greeting you when you enter the theatre, lighting design by Philip S. Rosenberg. Quick changes feature evocative costumes by Kish Finnegan.
Tessa Auberjonois storms onto the stage as the sharp tongued Rivers and has a ferocious energy throughout the night. She replicates the comedy pioneer’s rushed, breathless, giddy at her own audacious transgressions delivery. Her reactions to her quips and our shock at her line-crossing comedy are the most convincing aspects of her portrayal for me.
She had two galvanizing moments which the script didn’t really explore further. One was her defense (I’m paraphrasing) of “What do you think humor is for if not to get us through the tough times?” The other was her ferocious takedown of a heckler who criticized her shortly after she took the stage following her husband Edgar’s suicide for making suicide a joke. “Oh, please. You are so stupid – comedy is to make everybody laugh at everything and deal with things. You idiot.”
Elinor Gunn plays Joan’s daughter Melissa and the young Joan who is trying out material in Greenwich Village. Melissa Rivers is an executive producer of the show and becomes not just part of the story, but part of her mother’s career and legacy when she joins Joan on the red carpet as the Fashion Police.
Zachary Prince does a wonderful job supporting the women in every role he plays from Joan’s first husband to Jimmy Fallon. Andrew Borba gets the most versatile vote from me for giving a fully-rounded portrait of Edgar Rosenberg (who I also learned the most about) in three or four quick scenes and an uncanny sketch of Johnny Carson in silhouette.
The play moves like a comic “VH1 Behind the Music,” stopping at all the career high and low lights. Guest hosting on Carson, hosting her own late night talk show on Fox, Edgar’s suicide, her plastic surgery and Fashion Police (which I was shocked to learn ran 14 seasons) among other highlights. Noticeably absent is her stint on “Celebrity Apprentice” with Trump.
So, there’s plenty of incidents, much of it familiar, enough conflict with Joan standing up for the right to say anything and everything and quite a few laughs. The woman wrote thousands of jokes. “I have a rule. You know when it’s time to clean the house? When you can’t find the phone.”
What was missing for me was what comedy did for young Joan Molinskey of Larchmont. How did making people laugh become everything she wanted to be? Instead, I felt that Joan Rivers was an indomitable entertainer who would do anything and say anything to get ahead and that nothing would stop her from pursuing her next gig. A show biz groundbreaker scrambling for the top which is kind of grim, actually, but I wished I could have seen more of the woman artist.
Joan is a play about a great stand-up comic, which might not have enough laughs for someone expecting a night at Harrah’s and could leave theater fans hungry for more motivation, but it’s a very handsome show with a stellar cast that pays sufficient tribute to this outsized American talent.
Joan: A New Play About Joan Rivers, the South Coast Repertory production is at the Boyd-Quinson Theater presented by Barrington Stage Company through 8/17. Get tickets at www.barringtonstage.org
