A small crowd of people crammed into a tiny room near the end of the year to hear the reading of an old film script. The Boulevard Theatre rounds out 2013 with a one-weekend-only staged reading of the script from the old 20th Century Fox film. It's a fundraiser for the Boulevard.
Liv Mueller plays aging mega-actress Margo Channing. My understanding is that Director/Screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz had originally envisioned Susan Hayward for the role in the film. Claudette Colbert was originally cast as Channing, but the role eventually went to Bette Davis. The producer of the film rejected the idea of Hayward playing the aging actress as she looked far too young to be playing someone of advanced age. Mueller looks a bit young for the role here as well, but she's absolutely brilliant with the dialogue. Her attitude in the role is attractive enough to be magnetic. She's got a very understated delivery of very witty dialogue that feels world-weary. It's not easy to effect this kind of attitude and make it seem real. Mueller does so with understated flourish. Mueller has kind of a hip Susan Hayward presence about her. She's younger than the role, but she's got a really stunning attitude about her that's fun to watch.
There area a number of people in minor roles. This is one of those stagings where a minor character appears and is suddenly jaw-droppingly good before vanishing from the center of the stage. Robert W.C. Kennedy is cleverly deadpan as playwright Lloyd Richards. David Flores summons a charming egotistical presence in the role of theatre critic Addison DeWitt. Liz Mistele takes little time to make a charming presence as Miss Casswell. Alison Pogorelc is also effective at rendering a very complex character in a microscopic shadow of time in the role of Phoebe, who doesn't show-up until the very end of everything.
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The reading has its weak moments, but it's interesting to see an old film script staged like this. This is a story very much about the nature of big-time fame on stage and screen. It's weird seeing a story about huge fame brought to the intensely ephemeral format of a three-performance staged reading on the edge of the year. That it's also being performed on the tiniest stage in town only adds to the feel. The is a flickering shadow passing by a tiny theatre between thoughts on the way in to 2014. And it only happens to be about some of the biggest, most glamorous professions in the world.
There is one more reading of All About Eve at the Boulevard Theatre today at 2:30 pm. For ticket reservations, visit Brown Paper Tickets.com.
