Wrong Time, Wrong Place, Wrong Woman

Slowly but surely, audiences are learning that storytelling is not only shaped by who creates the story, but who gets to tell it. For decades, horribly misinformed narrative tropes reinforced horribly misinformed negative stereotypes.

• If a gay man died, he usually committed suicide.
• If a lesbian died, her death might happen in a horrible accident (in 1967's The Fox, the character portrayed by Sandy Dennis was killed by a falling tree).
• For many years, a popular myth suggested that the first person to die in a horror film was always a black man.

When it comes to television comedy, for years many writers' rooms had no women helping to shape the humor. The rampant sexism and cluenessness plaguing today's tech industry is often attributed to the lack of women in top managerial positions. In some ways, the tone-deafness of male politicians and "bro culture" can be traced back to George Bernard Shaw's characterization of Professor Henry Higgins.


The current "War on Women" was put into sharp focus during Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's recent appearance at a Town Hall hosted by Fox News.


A common trope (especially in workplace situations) is that women will blame themselves or other women whenever things go wrong.


Two recent stories focused the audience's attention on the complex (and often multi-tiered) challenges facing many women. Though the narratives are set in very different times and places, they demonstrate the sheer grit and resilience many women rely upon in order to overcome obstacles that have been cluelessly and carelessly thrown in their path.

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Mistaken identity stories about infants who got mixed up by hospital nurses or identical twins who were separated at birth are always popular. Thanks to a recent restoration project by the Library of Congress, the 2019 San Francisco Silent Film Festival was able to present a splendid digital restoration of 1925's Lights of Old Broadway.

Marion Davies performs in a Lower East Side music hall
in a scene from 1925's Lights of Old Broadway

In his program essay, film historian Matthew Kennedy explains that:

“In March of 1925, MGM bought the film rights to Laurence Eyre’s recent Broadway play, Merry Wives of Gotham, as a vehicle for Marion Davies. Set in Old New York, primarily in 1880, it laces historical drama with comedy, with a plucky heroine at its center. The setup for Lights of Old Broadway is ripe. Two infant girls are found abandoned on a ship crossing the Atlantic to America. Baby Anne is adopted by the wealthy De Rhondes of fashionable Washington Square, while her twin, Fely, is adopted by the O’Tandys, immigrants to Upper Manhattan’s Irish shantytown. Anne grows up to be the very essence of a genteel silver-spooned young lady, while gap-toothed Fely is all rough-and-tumble vivacity. Their lives are destined to intersect when Anne’s brother (Conrad Nagel, well cast as a sensitive, handsome scion) falls in love with Fely. Before complications are resolved in the seventh reel, there are class and ethnic conflicts, a brilliantly realized street riot, romance, noble sacrifice, reversal of fortunes, and ample comedy and drama for the gifted Davies.”

Marion Davies as Fely in 1925's Lights of Old Broadway

“Lights of Old Broadway was made for a princely $321,000 on a 35-day schedule, with a good portion of its budget devoted to two expensive color sequences. To further burnish the entertainment value, famous names of show business, politics, and science from the era are woven into the plot, including vaudevillians Joe Weber and Lew Fields, impresario Tony Pastor, Thomas Edison, and a spunky young Teddy Roosevelt. Reel two features vaudeville acts filmed in two-strip Technicolor, with inserts of the audience tinted in amber. It’s an early example in American cinema of color used to enhance not just visual mood but storytelling as well, the vibrancy of the stage contrasting with the monochrome audience. The second scene features the historic 1880 lighting of New York’s electric street lamps, with a crowd looking on in awe and delight. The large American flag in this scene is finished in the Max Handschiegl process, a kind of spot coloring wherein color was painstakingly added to film prints.”

Poster art for 1925's Lights of Old Broadway

As in classics such as William Shakespeare's 1595 Comedy of Errors and Gilbert and Sullivan's popular 1878 operetta, H.M.S. Pinafore, there is a distinct socioeconomic gap in the lifestyles of the grown twins. As Dirk DeRhonde, the handsome Conrad Nagel becomes the interloper between both social circles when he falls head over heels in love with Fely. Upon introducing the young woman to his family, Fely meets Dirk's adopted sister, who prophetically exclaims "I feel like I've known you forever!"

Marion Davies (Fely) and Conrad Nagel (Dirk De Rhonde)
fall in love in 1925's Lights of Old Broadway

In a display of artistic virtuosity, Davies portrays the two adult twins, one of whom has grown up in a wealthy Episcopalian family, and the other who has found work and fame in the Lower East Side's rowdy music halls. Scenes set at Tony Pastor's restaurant (referenced in Jerry Herman's lyrics for "Put On Your Sunday Clothes") offer a stark contrast to the poverty of recent immigrants. The following two clips from a damaged print of the film reveal some of the era's prejudice against the Irish.




Directed by Monta Bell, the film delivers some hearty laughs as Fely's hot-headed Irish father (Charles McHugh) finds one way after another to insult the wealthy man (Dirk's father) who plans to evict all the squatters from Shantytown. The great comeuppance at the end of the film lies in the fact that the enterprising Fely owns stock in Thomas Edison's new electric light company. When the streets of Broadway get lit by Edison's groundbreaking technology, her financial status soars while the heavy investment Lambert De Rhonde (Frank Currier) made in gas lighting is quickly devalued. As a result, the recently disowned Dirk is now "marrying up" into an immigrant family and Dirk's father has no choice but to be grateful to his newfound Irish in-laws.

With musical accompaniment provided by Philip Carli, Lights of Old Broadway had no trouble charming the audience in the Castro Theatre.

Marion Davies as Fely in Lights of Old Broadway

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Most fans of musical theatre have a bucket list of shows from the past they wish they could have seen. Some choices focus on historic opening nights (Oklahoma! South Pacific, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, West Side Story, Gypsy). Further down the list are shows that ran for fewer than 100 performances yet remain distinct curiosities (Jennie, Rugantino, Foxy). Others are compelling musicals that never received a Broadway production (Martin Guerre, Maggie May).

Clumped into a larger group for me are musicals that had respectable runs when I was too young to see them as an adult (Me and Juliet, Jamaica, House of Flowers, Li'l Abner, Take Me Along, and Fanny). Then there are successful shows that, for either personal or geographic reasons, I never got around to seeing while they were playing in New York (The Life, The Rothschilds, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Your Own Thing, Seesaw, The Goodbye Girl, and The Gay Life).

One musical I truly wished I had seen on Broadway was 2010's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which had a disappointing run of only 69 performances at the Belasco Theatre. Based on Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 film of the same title, the show debuted with an impressive cast (Sherie Rene Scott, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, and Justin Guarini) under the direction of Bartlett Sher. David Yazbek's intriguing music and witty lyrics had a distinctive flavor, as evidenced by these two songs from the show.



Sometimes the gods of comedy and tragedy smile down on wistful fans of musical theatre. In 2015, Sher directed a production of WOTVOANB in London after the show had undergone some revisions. This month, under the artistic leadership of Susan E. Evans, the intimate Town Hall Theatre Company in Lafayette (which will celebrate its 75th season this fall) is staging Yazbek's musical on a unit set designed by Martin Flynn (with costumes by Valera Coble, lighting by Delayne Medoff, and choreography by Roberta E. Inscho-Cox).

Keaton Wilkerson (center) is the taxi driver at the heart of
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

With solid music direction by Lindsey Schmeltzer and sound design by Lana Palmer, Town Hall Theatre is using the revised West End version of Jeffrey Lane's book (which offers a keen relevance to director Dawn Monique Williams). As she explains:

"I am on the verge of 41 (my birthday is next month). I am on the verge of being an empty nester (my daughter just graduated high school and starts college in the fall). I am on the verge of relocating to start a new job. And honestly, I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown. These characters and all their wild contradictions live in me. Their trials as lovers, best friends, and mothers are teaching me to roll with the punches, to laugh at myself, and to go where there is love. This is what I have come to love so much about this musical, these women on the verge of a nervous breakdown are resilient. They are on the verge of life-altering decisions and discoveries, they are on the verge of heartache and joy. They are bold, and fun, and funny."

Patricia Pitpitan stars as Pepa in a scene from
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

"The musical so often pivots, flips everything upside down, and shocks us with the unexpected, each woman faced with her own crisis. Pepa connecting with Ivan, Marisa planning a wedding, Lucia reclaiming her time, and Candela searching for Mr. Right. As they all race to find the answers, we get to laugh. Not at their misery, but at their ingenuity and guile. In Act 2 Lucia sings 'Invisible,' a song that no doubt resonates with many women of 'a certain age.' The moment is filled with a touch of heartbreak, but Lucia also reminds us that there is magic in it, a super power. Invisible and invincible are easily mistaken here."

Sheila Viramontes (Lucia) reminisces about happier times in
a scene from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Casting for Town Hall's production was especially strong. Wearing a horridly comical orange wig, Paul Plain was the skirt-chasing Ivan whose long-neglected wife, Lucia (Sheila Viramontes), has determined that if she can't find and kill her husband, at least she can go after his mistress, Pepa (Patricia Pitpitan). With an appealing tenor voice, Keaton Wilkerson (looking like a wide-eyed, young James Corden) appeared as one of Madrid's most endearing taxi drivers. Marah Sotelo gave a phenomenal performance as the hilariously hysterical Candela.

Marah Sotelo steals the show as Candela in
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Patricia Pitpitan (Pepa) and Sheila Viramontes (Lucia) delivered poignant portrayals of the two middle-aged women who can't stop loving their philandering Ivan. In smaller roles, Steven McCloud shone as Lucia's son, Carlos who, along with his fiancée, Marisa (Madison Gerringer), is hoping to rent Pepa's apartment.

One thing I found very interesting about this show is how it creates juicy roles for character actors. Debbie Lynn Carriger portrayed the frustrated attorney (Paulina) who is trying to shoo Pepa out of her office so she can escape for a weekend with Pepa's lover (and Lucia's husband), Ivan. Melvign Badiola drew hearty laughs while doubling as Candela's terrorist boyfriend, Malik, and the doctor who informs Pepa that when she least expects it (at the age of 42), she is going to have a child.

Lucia (Sheila Viramontes) aims at Pepa (Patricia Pitpitan) in
a scene from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(Photo by: Jay Yamada)

Throughout the performance, one can't help marveling at Almodóvar's biting wit
and outrageous plot twists -- such as the way a frantic Pepa manages to distract a police detective and chief inspector (played by Kathy Ferber and Reg Clay) with samples of her home-made gazpacho, which had previously been laced with a handful of sedatives.

WOTVOANB proves to be a surprisingly solid choice for a community theatre: something fresh and exotic that, with solid casting, offers local actors new opportunities to shine. I was also reminded of Yazbek's versatility as a composer (which I would place on a par with Cy Coleman) and his strength as a lyricist. Happily, this is a show in which audiences cannot ignore the emotional strength of women triumphing over bizarre challenges (nevertheless, they persist).

Performances of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown continue through June 22 at the Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette (click here for tickets).