“Can we talk?” Joan Rivers’ stand-up tagline had a approach of turning audiences into confidants.
Rivers could also be remembered for her relentless jokes about Elizabeth Taylor’s weight, however she herself was her most relentless goal. Making enjoyable of her appears, her intercourse life, her depressing childhood earned her not solely the adoration of followers but additionally their belief. She was the candid cutup they’d prefer to have on speed-dial.
Making a play concerning the life and profession of Rivers, who died immediately in 2014 whereas present process a medical process, is difficult not as a result of her story wasn’t dramatic however as a result of there was nobody like her. How do you convey her audacious wit, rampaging supply and path-breaking fearlessness again to life?
“Joan,” a brand new play by Daniel Goldstein directed by David Ivers at South Coast Repertory, provides it a shot by divvying up the central function between two actors. Elinor Gunn portrays younger Joan whereas Tessa Auberjonois performs the beloved comedian. The extra well-known model of the character, as you may think, is tougher to get proper.
Auberjonois provides a tough approximation of Rivers’ New York accent however can’t grasp her comedian timing. (Who may?) The jokes Joan tells are humorous as a result of they’re so outrageous — not due to how they’re advised.
The efficiency sticks to the persona. Joan’s costly garments and tight face lend the impression of a Bel-Air battleship. Auberjonois captures the breathless ambition together with the insecurity that fueled Rivers’ drive. But it surely’s Younger Joan who fills us in on the comedian’s origin story.
Rivers knew she was particular, however she suffered from low vanity. Pudgy as a lady and never notably common with the boys, she refused to be judged by patriarchal requirements even when she judged herself harshly for falling quick. Making individuals chuckle was her revenge on society’s shortsightedness.
Her dad and mom, Russian Jewish immigrants, had been as typical as they had been upwardly cell. Dr. and Mrs. Molinsky (performed by Andrew Borba and Auberjonois) labored their strategy to Larchmont, a tony New York suburb, and anticipated Joan to calm down with a well-off husband in a comparably rich city.
Their daughter’s willpower to grow to be a comic book was perplexing to them, to say the least. Younger Joan married younger, however her skilled dream refused to die and the wedding ended not lengthy after she realized that the frenzy of stand-up was extra intense than the reduction she felt at having nabbed a husband.
Goldstein’s background is in musical theater — he gained the Kleban Prize for many promising musical theater librettist — and “Joan” is written within the broad, episodic model that musicals take pleasure in. (Having arrived a couple of minutes late due to crashes on the 405, I learn the script to substantiate my evaluation.) Nobody is holding a automobile like “Joan” to Chekhovian requirements. Audiences are joyful to spend time within the firm of a star protagonist.
Tessa Auberjonois as Joan Rivers and Zachary Prince as Jimmy Fallon in “Joan” at South Coast Repertory.
(Scott Smeltzer)
However a playwright should determine what story he’d like to tug out of the mass of real-life materials. Goldstein opts for the Wikipedia overview. This can be a mistake that Aristotle cautioned in opposition to in “Poetics.” A robust plot, he asserted in his unmatched evaluation of tragedy, just isn’t the identical as an fascinating biography, as a result of “infinitely various are the incidents in one man’s life,” whereas efficient drama is dependent upon consequential motion as a unifying focus.
Goldstein has loads of consequential actions to select from, however he slides right into a recap of a narrative that I largely already knew from interviews and the excellent documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Hacks” — each of which use Rivers’ life, to various levels, as a mannequin for his or her protagonists — have taken us inside the private {and professional} hurdles of being a trailblazing feminine stand-up comedian within the Rivers mode.
“Joan” could be very a lot a licensed bio-drama. The playwright has had the blessing of daughter Melissa Rivers, who just isn’t solely a inventive guide but additionally a central character (performed by Gunn). Not that the play is one-sided. Rivers is just too sophisticated a character for hagiography. Her fallout with Johnny Carson (Borba), who by no means forgave her for beginning a rival late-night speak present after he had made her his present’s everlasting visitor host, is dealt with with distinctive equity to him.
The suicide of Edgar Rosenberg (Borba), Rivers’ second husband and Melissa’s father, who fell right into a horrible despair after Rivers’ speak present on Fox went kaput, is also handled with admirable complexity. The community gave Rivers an ultimatum — both Edgar goes as a producer or the present is canceled. She sided together with her husband however then held it in opposition to him.
It’s tragically unhappy, and it ties again to the central battle of Rivers’ life — success vs. conventional happiness. She wished all of it, however comedy was her true soul mate.
Melissa’s presence in “Joan” is intriguing however in the end distracting. She units up the play, explaining to the viewers how the fluid casting will work. (Zachary Prince rounds out the multitasking ensemble.) She additionally serves as a witness and occasional contradicting commentator.
After the demise of Edgar, Joan and Melissa, now BFFs and work companions, assist one another survive the unimaginable. Joan’s demise yields the summing as much as Melissa. She has an epiphany about her personal ambitiousness, the apple not falling removed from the tree. However by this level, the play has absolutely succumbed to reportage.
Elinor Gunn in “Joan” at South Coast Rep.
(Scott Smeltzer)
I interviewed Rivers in San Francisco when she was workshopping a theater undertaking and had lunch together with her the next yr after I reviewed her play “Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress” on the Geffen Playhouse. She wished to choose my mind on how she may make it higher. I advised her to name playwright and drag artist Charles Busch and ask him to do an overhaul.
The principle impression I had of Rivers was that she was whip-smart — not simply fast however smart. She had no self-importance concerning the hustle of showbiz. She shared with a drama critic she hardly knew simply what went into her choice making. I not solely favored her however admired her frankness.
My earliest reminiscence of Rivers comes from an anthology comedy album that was handed right down to me as a boy. In highschool, I might keep up late at any time when she was on “The Tonight Show.” Once I was an editor on the Village Voice, she used to check out materials at a membership within the East Village close to my workplace, and I generally would go after we closed the paper. This was Rivers unplugged, foul-mouthed in a approach that made me really feel like a squeamish altar boy. (No simple process!)
She by no means performed it protected, although I’ve to admit I discovered her comedy out of sync with the instances once I watched the 2012 TV particular “Joan Rivers: Don’t Start With Me” a few years in the past. She was a First Modification absolutist when it got here to humor, however comedy evolves and one era’s daring hilarity is one other’s insensitive cruelty. (A riff concerning the bodily traits of Mexicans made me cringe.)
In attempting to inform Rivers’ complete story, “Joan” winds up skimming the floor. I might have ended the play sooner. One chance can be when she returns to stand-up after Edgar’s surprising demise, making jokes a couple of tragedy that had ripped her coronary heart out. Her indomitable will to remain within the sport was her noble energy — and maybe additionally her private flaw.
David Mamet would possibly know learn how to benefit from a personality like Joan Rivers, an leisure hero and antihero, whose story was an American one among success at any value. That Rivers bore that value with intrepid humor is worthy of drama. “Joan” doesn’t fairly do her justice, however she was a troublesome act to comply with.
‘Joan’
The place: South Coast Repertory, 655 City Heart Drive, Costa Mesa
When: 7:45 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and seven:45 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Ends Nov. 24. (Examine schedule for additions.)
Tickets: $35-$114
Data: (714) 708-5555 or scr.org
Working time: 1 hour, 40 minutes (no intermission)