Chicago Theater Review: THE GODDESS (The Artistic Home)

Post image for Chicago Theater Review: THE GODDESS (The Artistic Home)

by Lawrence Bommer on October 14, 2013

in Theater-Chicago

THE STANDARD FOR STORYTELLING

It’s a coup just to get the theatrical rights to this juicy work, the late, great Paddy Chayevsky’s Oscar-nominated 1956 screenplay. But it’s sensational to pull it off to perfection. Cinematic as its source, John Mossman’s adaptation and staging of The John Tower (Daniel McEvilly) and Emily Ann (Lee Stark) share a romantic picnic.Goddess is a gem of make-believe, an engrossing cautionary tale about hunger, hope and humiliation in Hollywood.

Using a dynamic video backdrop on an old-style proscenium screen, performed on a runway in a hall hung with celluloid strips, reels and film-case covers, it’s inventive before it starts (scenic design by Corinne Bass; props/set dressing by Elizabeth Pineda). Chronicling the Marilyn Monroe-like rise and fall of a screen siren named Rita Shawn from 1932 to 1957, this sweeping, sprawling saga renews the reality of a hundred Tinsel Town clichés. They persist because they exist.

Rita's secretary (Katherine Swan) takes care of her damaged charge (Lee Stark).In 140 minutes we watch Emily Ann Faulkner (Ava Morse as her youngest self), small-town hopeful from Beacon City, Maryland, suffer a miserable childhood: She’s hurtfully palmed off by her hysterical anti-mother (Maria Stephens) on her aunt and uncle. In short time this star-crossed starlet, now Rita Shawn, has become a perpetually insecure young lady, ravenous for recognition, deeply unsure of her worth, and undervaluing herself with every compromise she makes for a career she can’t endure. This crude, loud and garrulous “ear bender” bursts with manic energy, which reads as emotional “availability” on the screen, but morphs into loneliness and dependency off-camera.

Emily Ann (Lee Stark) goes to the movies with Lewis (Mike Krystosek).Chayevsky, creator of Marty and Network, knew La La Land’s liabilities (as in lies) like a disillusioned survivor. He lavishes these revelations on behind-the-scenes exposures (the dramatic rather than film kind). We watch a slow-motion train wreck that begins with Rita’s sudden stardom. This ball of misdirected energy evolves from a good-time girl in amateur theatricals to a sodden marriage with the cynical and suicidal son of a movie star (sultry Daniel McEvilly) and a second marriage with a washed-up pugilist/sports spokesman (sad sack Josh Odor) that succumbs to late-afternoon lassitude and gorgeous boredom. All along (and alone), Rita uses her parts to get parts, demanding respect from everyone but herself.

Rita (Lee Stark (center)) joins her friends at the Ham and Eggery. (front-L to R: Skye Shrum and Caitlinn Emmons) (back: l to r: Andy Monson, Flavia Borges, Mike Krystosek, Phil Wasik).Inevitably, Rita–damaged goods on a tabloid tear–has an almost obligatory “nervous breakdown.” She appears nude in Playboy, reaches for the bottle and pops pills, then dabbles in religion as her dementedly devout mother visits from the East and forces her to come clean to Jesus. The play comes full circle as Rita, returning to Maryland, rejects her daughter just as her mother abandoned her without a second thought. At least her first husband has returned: There’s a chance that Rita’s tailspin might just be an emergency landing. But maybe not: The play’s last words: “She never had a chance.”

Dutch (Josh Odor) and Rita (Lee Stark) attempt to make a marriage work under the glare of the Hollywood spotlight.Everything feels right in The Artistic Home’s production—especially the casting and the costumes (period-perfect garb by Lynn Sandberg). The great gift throughout is the “goddess” herself: Lee Stark’s Rita is a force of nature gone very wrong. Exploding with the rapid-fire, machine-gun dialogue that’s a Chayevsky signature, she’s a complex, quicksilver bundle of contradictions, combing Marilyn’s morose self-doubt with the brittle glamour of another Rita and also Ava. (If Stark doesn’t get a Jeff Award, well, as Rita screams at her mother, “There ain’t no God!”) It’s lacerating, agonizing bravura acting, strongly supported by a 17-member cast who, like Rita, can never be loved enough.

Lorraine (Maria Stephens, center) visits her brother George (David Vogel) and sister-in-law Alice Marie (Catherine Chupein).photos by Tim Knight

The Goddess
The Artistic Home, 1376 W. Grand
scheduled to end on November 17, 2013
for tickets, call 866-811-4111
or visit http://www.theartistichome.org

for info on this and other Chicago Theater,
visit http://www.TheatreinChicago.com

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Marlowe October 15, 2013 at 2:56 pm

Thank you for referring to Marilyn, Rita, and Ava in your review. It would suffice to say that “Marilyn” Monroe actually initiated a law suit after reading Chayefsky’s screenplay of “The Goddess” in 1958. It must have hit too close to home for her. For example, Marilyn fans all know she was married to the New York Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio, who loved her dearly but had no use for Hollywood. Chayefsky instead pairs his “Rita Shaw” with “Dutch” a professional boxer who thought she was a nice girl, marries her, and grows to hate her Hollywood life style. Only through fiction can the truth be made known?

Reply

Leave a Comment