Zimbalist Insults Her Audience
Immediately 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.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Labels: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Play, Stephanie Zimbalist, Tea At Five, Theatre Discussions
Tea At Five (The SOB Review) – McKnight Theatre, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Saint Paul, MN
*** (out of ****)The late, great Katharine Hepburn remains my favorite actress of all time. I loved her in virtually every film role she ever had thanks to her incredible style, honest wit and often cantankerous spirit. So entering a one-woman show devoted to her instilled me with a brief sense of trepidation, wondering how any actress could adequately portray the woman who arguably was the singular best actress of the 20th century bar none.
During the first act of playwright Matthew Lombardo’s surprisingly revealing look at this grand dame in
Tea At Five -- now touring the country -- I was struck by how much actress
Stephanie Zimbalist reminded me of an actress that I loved from my childhood. Unfortunately, the actress I was reminded of was Lucille Ball in her latter days as Lucy Ricardo -- you know, the Lucy dating from the episodes when the Ricardos and Mertzes moved to Connecticut. Sure, Zimbalist may have mimicked the voice of Hepburn, but I saw red….Lucy red.
That’s too bad considering the wonderful voice Lombardo provided to Zimbalist’s younger Hepburn from her heady days immediately before her “comeback” via “Philadelphia Story.” The actress was considered a has-been flop, and in her Connecticut home, we see Hepburn hoping beyond hope to be cast as Scarlett O’Hara. Along the way, we learn of her romantic dalliances, marriage, abortion and several other issues that left her fodder for the gossip columnists of her time. But most of all, we see the self-doubt that enveloped the once and future great actress (she had already won one Academy Award for “Morning Glory” and would go on to win a record four more throughout her lengthy career).
Fortunately, Zimbalist overcomes the Lucy look in the second act when she so accurately portrays Hepburn in her twilight years -- set 45 years after the first act. Here, Zimbalist is Hepburn, not only in voice and spirit, but also
amazingly in appearance. This most private among stars candidly discusses her family history of suicides and stoicism that helped shape who she was, along with an inside look on her 27 years with the married Spencer Tracy. Here we see the great actress, still full of vim and vigor, yet all alone.
It’s fair to say that no mere mortal actress can take on the storied role of Katharine Hepburn, and it certainly didn’t help that Zimbalist had to win over her audience. But once she did, especially in the second act, you believed you were actually witnessing Kate the great. And that’s no small feat.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Labels: Katharine Hepburn, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Play, Tea At Five, The SOB Review
