Sunday in New York, a two-show day after a tasty brunch at the Brooklyn Diner, a justifiably popular theater district eatery.
This afternoon it was I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers, a one-woman show about the mega-powerful Hollywood talent agent of the ’80s and ’90s, starring Bette Midler in her first return to Broadway since appearing in Fiddler in the Roof in her fledgling days as a performer.
As the eagerly expectant crowd took its seats at the Booth Theatre, it faced a curtain with a cigarette pack-like caution, “WARNING: This play contains profanity, smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use and gossip.” The play is as advertised, a dishy, name-dropping, 90 minute biographical comedy with a little bit of substance, written with breezy authenticity by John Logan (Red). He won’t get another Tony for this one, but Midler will certainly be nominated for her performance and the show will run as long as she is willing to stay with it.
Sunday night, Broadway is dark, so I went to a much-touted off-Broadway play, Ike Holter’s Hit the Wall, about the Stonewall riots of 1969, prompted by a police action at the gay bar in Greenwich Village that was a pivotal moment in the gay rights movement. It has been running since mid-March, when I got my tickets, but since then it has posted its closing notice, later moved up to this evening.
It would be great to report that the play was worthy and deserved subsequent productions, but in fact, it was an overwrought history lesson that imparted more heat than light. Very disappointing.
Tomorrow: Back to off-Broadway for Finks, a tale of the McCarthy era blacklist by Joe Gilford, son of Jack and Madeline Gilford, both of whom were blacklisted.