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'Answers' better in second act
(by Herb Hammer - April 09, 2009)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
'Answers' better in second act
Through a confusion of dates and names, there's a biography of sorts concerning legendary columnist Ann Landers being staged at the Cleveland Play House Bolton Theatre.
Playwright David Rambo, with help from Ann's daughter Margo Howard, has put together a one-woman show entitled "The Lady With All the Answers." The play appears to be an autobiography of some kind, with Mimi Kennedy playing the one and only role.
Mr. Rambo's script is not an autobiography, although it appears to be. It's more like an evening with Ann Landers, fact and fiction, and what she might have said to an audience filled with her loyal readers, 60 million of them on a Chicago evening in 1975 in her posh Chicago apartment.
The Ann Landers we are familiar with was born Esther "Eppie" Friedman. While working as an assistant to the original Ann Landers, Ruth Crowley, she suddenly found herself thrust into one of those "advice to the lovelorn columns" with the death of Miss Crowley. Eppie Lederer, now married to an entrepreneur, the head of Budget Rent-a-Car, became the daily adviser to everyone, whether it be how to roll toilet paper or how to deal with homosexuality.
Miss Kennedy moves around the stage from her desk to her sofa, occasionally reading some of the letters sent by her readers.
She is often doing her daily exercises while dressed in slacks and a sleek silk blouse. Later, she hauls out a gorgeous mink coat, a present from her loving husband.
In Act 1, Mr. Rambo hasn't done Miss Kennedy any favors. With no plot to speak of and only mildly humorous moments, the act ends in about an hour, leaving us very little to hold onto.
Act 2 is much better. Just when you believe the play to be an empty shell, Mr. Rambo, and so Miss Kennedy, perk up. Our Ann Landers talks to her readers, the audience, asking questions about their sex lives, explaining her worldwide influence and going so far as to ask Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas for advice.
She remembers when, on a television talk show with the then famous Linda Lovelace, she explained exactly what "Deep Throat," the movie, had to do with modern sex.
Now, she is about to write the most difficult column of her life. She reads it first to her daughter Margo to get her approval. Then, after much deliberation, she writes about her broken marriage. After over 30 years, her husband has taken up with a younger woman, younger even than his daughter.
Spending her nearly 50-year career advising women and men to avoid divorce at all costs, she finds that she was wrong.
She spends much time on the phone with her sister Bobo, also known as Dear Abby, who wrote the same type of column as Miss Landers.
And she also speaks with her husband, whom she once thought would love her forever.
Mimi Kennedy plays Ann Landers as though she were living the role. Her every word, her appealing portrayal saves Mr. Rambo's play. Without Miss Kennedy playing the part, he surely would have failed.
Miss Kennedy plays the role as though it belongs to her alone.
She defines herself as a Jewish Joan of Arc, tossing in Yiddish words here and there.
Boxes of letters fill the stage, letters she received by the thousands every day. Her column was read throughout the world, right up to her death in 2002.
Though the play's thin, nearly pointless plot has no surprises or drama, "The Lady With All the Answers" supplies a certain comfort, a time to relax without having to really think all that much. It's mostly pleasant with a touch of sadness and, thanks to Miss Kennedy, an evening of some joy.
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