• • Since the playwright's title has given away the ending, she has released New York's drama critics from any accusations about revealing "plot spoilers." Instead of throwing herself on the railroad tracks, the fitting final step for an unfaithful wife in Leo Tolstoy's moral world view, our St. Petersberg matron gets a happier ending after two sassy dames show up to school her.
• • Bad Quarto's ensemble cast includes Rachel Marie Kemp as Anna Karenina; Kirsten Egenes as Sophia Tolstoy; James Overton triples as a musician, Vronsky, and Anna's husband; and a vibrant, scene-stealing Brigette Estola as Mae West.
• • Aware that Mae West was interested in seances and spiritualism, Germaine Shames plucks her out of the 1919 vaudeville era and sends the Brooklyn bombshell back in time to the guarded bedroom of unhappy Sophia Tolstoy. After "Comrade Mae" invigorates the bed-ridden widow by teaching her the seductive shimmy schwabble, the ladies decide to transport themselves to St. Petersberg in early 1870s in order to rewrite the plot of Leo Tolstoy's tragic novel. Why not?
• • The Mae West Blog had a few questions for stage director Tony Tambasco.
• • Interview • •
• • Exclusive to The Mae West Blog • •
• • QUESTION: Since I've seen two of my Mae West plays onstage (and I've attended auditions and readings of "Sex"), I know the role is difficult. What qualities were you looking for in the Mae West actress?
• • Tony Tambasco said: A strong actor, first and foremost, with a strong personality. Someone who could really own the stage, and who has the chutzpah to think she could remake one of the greatest novels ever written in her image. And someone who could sing and dance.
• • QUESTION: Mae West changed her delivery and stage presence over her long career. How did you suggest that the actress prepare for her role as Mae West?
• • Tony Tambasco said: It was a fun challenge for us because the Mae West in "Anna Karenina Lives!" is about ten years younger than the youngest version of Mae West we know from her filmography. In my early work with Brigette Estola, who plays Mae West in our production, we spent a lot of time working backwards from the Mae West we know to a younger version of herself, a woman who was still looking for the success she would eventually achieve, but certain she would find it. And so we started with the Mae we know from history, and worked backwards from there to find a slightly less refined, but hungrier and brasher Mae.
• • QUESTION: Mae West learned early on how to upstage other performers. Was the Mae actress directed differently than the Sophia Tolstoy character — — and was there intentional "upstaging" for comic effect?
• • Tony Tambasco said: Aside from the particulars of the characters themselves, no. Although Mae does the majority of the singing and dancing in the play, so Brigette spent more time with our music director (James Overton) and choreographer (Mike Canestraro).
• • Tony Tambasco said: Part of our mission in performing modern plays at Bad Quarto Productions [founded in 2010] is to perform them using the same Shakespearean staging conditions that form the basis of our approach to early modern plays. But that said, and while I am more familiar with Shakespearean staging, my research for the production indicates that plays on the public stages in London in the 1590s probably have a lot in common with vaudeville of the early 1920s: it seems to me that 1920s vaudeville and cabaret theatre is probably closer to Shakespeare's theatre than the Shakespearean playing companies of the 1920s were.
• • QUESTION: What would you most like the audience to know about this production?
• • Tony Tambasco said: It's fun! There are a lot of things I like about it, and at this particular moment, I think it's important that we consider new artistic dialogues with canonical works, and Anna Karenina Lives! is a great example of that. But "Anna Karenina Lives!" is also a window to the beginnings of musical theatre.
• • QUESTION: What did the director learn from directing this play?
• • Tony Tambasco said: I learned a lot about Mae West, Sophia Tolstoy, and Anna Karenina. But I think I've also learned to see a little more clearly the connections between Shakespeare's theatre and our own.
• • "Anna Karenina Lives!" will be onstage at 353 West 48th Street until October 22nd. Brigette Estola really nails her role as Mae West. Brava! Among the Mae-Westian pleasures our readers dote on, you will be delighted to learn that Brigette's Mae sings a very fine rendition of "I'm No Angel" and offers an impressive shimmy while she sings her famous 1918 song, "Everybody Shimmies Now." Don't miss it.
• • Find Bad Quarto on Facebook — — or tweet them @BadQuartoPlays.
Or phone the box office: 646-598-2128.
• • At the new musical by Bad Quarto Productions, Mae West saves the day.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "My play 'Sex' was a work of art."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • Variety mentioned Mae West.
• • Variety wrote: "Pleasure Man," the new play written by Mae West and presented by Carl Reed. was raided at the Biltmore Theatre after the first performance. Legal tactics permitted resumption the following night but at Wednesday's matinee, the curtain was rung down definitely when the police arrived.
• • Variety wrote: Up to then, the box office was prospering as it never did before — — but the notices [i.e., reviews] were distinctly adverse. . . .
• • Source: Item in Variety; published on Wednesday, 10 October 1928
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 13th anniversary • •
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past thirteen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 3,800 blog posts. Wow!
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started thirteen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 3809th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in October 2017 • •
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