Zimbalist Insults Her Audience
Zimbalist Insults Her AudienceImmediately after the performance of Tea At Five I saw last evening, playwright Matthew Lombardo and actress Stephanie Zimbalist participated in what was billed as a post-show “talk back” session hosted by Minneapolis Star Tribune theatre critic Rohan Preston. It’s safe to say that nearly one third of the audience in the smallish McKnight Theatre stayed for their opportunity to talk about the show. Preston and Lombardo amiably discussed the thoughtful evolution of the play while Zimbalist herself was evolving back to that lovable actress we all know and adore. Right!
Once Zimbalist came back to the stage, she announced that hers was not the only role in the show -- that the audience is the other player. She proceeded to berate the audience saying they were an “oil painting” -- essentially an object that wouldn’t or couldn’t respond to her thespian craft. She then went into a rather boring stemwinder on how she never bothered to see a Katharine Hepburn movie until rather recently, but learned in past weeks that she was related to the great actress.
I’m sorry, Ms. Zimbalist, but you should have realized that with such a sizable portion of your audience remaining for a Q&A that it meant that they did appreciate your wonderful portrayal of this great actress. And you should have allowed for more of them to ask you questions. Yet you chose to insult and demean them to their face. Even more so, you demeaned Katharine Hepburn and yourself. As outstanding as your overall portrayal of this iconic actress may have been, Ms. Zimbalist, perhaps now we know why you’ll never be as great as Katharine Hepburn.
If I were rating this supposed talk-back session, it would have merited no more than one star (despite the best efforts of Preston and Lombardo). Thanks for ruining a perfectly nice evening, Ms. Zimbalist.
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Labels: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Play, Stephanie Zimbalist, Tea At Five, Theatre Discussions
posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Thursday, September 28, 2006
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