In the crazed travelling of Oscar rev-up season it occurs to me that I never wrote about my London theater-going in that blessed October weekend. While I was in that great great city, I saw two favorite actresses in plays centered around their gifts: one was a revelation, the other a canny reminder.
Imelda & Nicole triumph after the jump...
Though "Mama Rose," basically the "Hamlet" of musical theater roles, is an easy vehicle with which to show off your gifts and win critical raves, it's a taxing role which is also easy to not quite fill however well you ace any particular aspect of its supersized abundance. I've seen several Gypsys in my life and nearly every lucky headliner nails something but nobody nails everything. Imelda Staunton, though, expands to fill every nook and cranny of it. A lot of Mama Roses don't quite sell the romance with Herbie, for example, but she nails that with a surprisingly fun and flirty take on the woman's libido and genuine affection, however smothered and sidelined to ambition and practical parasitical show-must-go-on fervor it may be. Many Mama Roses are cast because they're already superstars of the musical theater. This is the standard which I've personally never questioned because it pays dividends. But I was wrong. The revelation of Imelda Staunton's casting and performance is how closely it aligns with Mama Rose's inner tragedy: she's a blazing driven talent who has never been recognized as such. "Rose's Turn" takes on a Shakespearean majesty because Imelda Stauton wills herself from Respected Character Actress to Unexpected Musical Superstar right in front of your eyes. And damn her voice is amazing. At intermission I could barely move I was so blissed out. Actresses who take on Mama Rose usually save up all their starpower for Act Two. Not this one. She attacks every scene like its the climax, like she has infinite reserves for later, without sacrificing nuance or character arc or momentum. Staunton's is the best Mama Rose I've ever seen hands down.
Photograph 51 is a piffle compared to a show that's often been called the greatest of all stage musicals. But that's hardly a fair comparison! What was terrific about seeing the play, even back to back with Gypsy as I did, is how well suited it proved to be for Nicole Kidman without ever feeling like a "star vehicle". In fact, in some ways it's the anti-star vehicle. Her scientist, the woman who captured the first photographic evidence of DNA, is kind of drab. Not the kind of woman who'd require a hugely charismatic superstar to play her. She's a deadly serious scientist with few people skills, who gets written out of history because, essentially, men write it. And she isn't willing or even able to cater to their egos and needs. Kidman, always dramatically gifted, finds just the right blend of driving curiousity, powerful intellect and emotional rigidity to sell all this without simplifying the play's tricky blend of who did what to whom and maybe she self-sabotaged a little on the way to being robbed of her place in history. But Kidman is a savvy gifted actress. She plays what amounts to an "ice queen" exterior without sacrificing any internal warmth, reminding audiences that, not unlike this important woman, she's one of the best there is at what she does but remains misunderstood and perceived as "cold" due to questionable expectations of how a woman should behave.
Future Audiences?
Though Nicole Kidman already took her final bow in the play earlier today, word is that she hopes to take the play to both Australia and Broadway and to mount a film version in the future. Unfortunately this is something any actor enjoying herself would say whether or not any of those things have been discussed outside her own head. But we here at TFE hope a film version does happen. Nearly all of the play's best moment would work like gangbusters in full movie star closeup on film. But given how busy Our Ms Kidman always is -- as anyone who keeps up to date on movie news knows, Kidman never ever stops working -- and she's got three projects to film back-to-back now that her time in London is done for now: the film for John Cameron Mitchell, something with Jane Campion though people keep disagreeing on whether or not that's Top of the Lake season 2 and the HBO thing with Reese Witherspoon.
As for Imelda Staunton's theater-shaking triumph, there doesn't seem to be a Broadway transfer planned (blame Bernadette Peters & Patti Lupone whose revivals must've been too recent for nervous producers to agree that a third revival in 12 years would sell tickets Stateside) so this Mama Rose's November 28th bow will likely be her last. Previous reports suggested that this production would be filmed for broadcast by the BBC but I haven't been able to find verification that that actually ever happened. If London readers know differently please share the blessed news in the comments! In short, how'd I like those eggrolls? Very much.
I realize that actresses going on 60 that aren't a Dame or Meryl Streep aren't exactly ever flavors du jour in Hollywood but Imelda Staunton having no live action film roles on her schedule is unforgivable. This woman is at the peak of her powers. Casting directors continue to be asleep at the wheel in Hollywood.