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Review
CRITIC’S PICK
Joan Rivers
A Work in Progress
by a Life in Progress
directed by Bart DeLorenzo
Geffen Playhouse
through March 30 


Can we talk? Oh sure, Joan Rivers is just about the funniest woman on the planet. She can hold an audience in the palm of her hand during her standup act, at least if that audience is made up of mostly gays and blacks (by her own admission – it must be her big bootie that attracts them!). But what about a play with other people onstage? Can she sustain our interest for 1 hour 45 minutes by playing herself in a project written by herself and about herself?

The answer is an overwhelming, yes! Rivers proves that she is a fine dramatic actress as well as the stellar comedienne that we have come to adore through the years, as she alters the lives of 3 people around her, as well as adjust to the dilemmas that have plagued, but never defeated her. Co-written by Douglas Bernstein and Denis Markell with Rivers, the play takes place backstage in a run-down dressing room on the lot of the fictitious network TV V (not unlike Fox)where Rivers prepares to go out and face another of her red carpet events. Of course, her hairdresser of 30 years and personal assistant have been replaced by novices, a Russian wanna-be pop singing star Svetlana (Emily Kosloski) and a should-be fashion designer Kenny (Adam  Kulbersh), who just happens to be gay and a huge fan of Rivers’ bad-girl tramp Heidi Abromowitz. Everything that could possibly go wrong in the preparations to make Rivers look good for her public appearance do just that, and it is how she resourcefully and miraculously transforms it all that forms the substance of the play. Along the way, she steps center stage to tell stories about her life thus far (or Act I) and then back into the action with the other players. The transitions work beautifully, and Rivers shares the most tragic moments of her emotional roller coaster life, from rejection by Johnny Carson (for whom she offers nothing but the fondest praise), walking out of her own show at Fox, after her husband Edgar (Rosenberg) had been fired, his sudden suicide, the deep depression of daughter Melissa and then her own almost near brush with suicide - all in a quite poignant display of fortitude and courage. Honest and caring woman that she is - a survivor in the truest sense of the word – Rivers delivers a dramatic performance worthy of the highest admiration.

It’s real drama when she faces off with crueler than cruel Ms. Goodheart (Tara Joyce). Rivers admonishes, “This is my life and nobody has the right to take it away from me.” And it’s high comedy when she opens her stuck dressing room door with a fork that her grandmother had always advised her to hold onto, for “the best is yet to come.” The fork serves a dual purpose: it feeds us dessert, and at the same time, becomes the ultimate weapon for a struggling, yet forever triumphant Joan Rivers. Great show!


5 out of 5 stars

 

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