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PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Top Girls — Tony Girls?
By Harry Haun
08 May 2008
Plimpton has a high old time of it as Her Holiness, wearing a smug secret smile and exuding a throaty pomposity. "I'm just delighted to be wearing that outfit, what can I say?" she, in fact, said. "You don't have to do research when you're wearing that hat.
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Alec Baldwin, S. Epatha Merkerson, Keith Carradine and Hayley DuMond, Scott Cohen, Adriane Lenox, Becky Ann and Dylan Baker, Leigh Silverman with Liz Flahive, and Dallas Roberts.
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| photos by Aubrey Reuben |
"First of all, she's sorta like King Arthur — apocryphal. We're not sure she really existed, and the research that is there on her is mostly fiction writing — and not all of it is good, if you know what I mean. There's a Liv Ullmann movie about her, so basically I was very lucky because I was left to my own devices, and I can just listen to the writing of the play itself and the scene itself and see what's needed."
Angie, the rebellious 16-year-old she plays in the other two acts, required a more earthbound approach. "The thing that I like about Angie — even though she's troubled and confused and maybe people thinks she is a little slow or not quite with it — is that Angie is really in tune with the world around her, and she actually does kinda know what's going to happen to everybody. Not everybody else knows what's going to happen to them, but she's the one who plants the seed about getting the sisters together and she's the one who actually leaves and goes to London. She's got chutzpah. She's brave. She may not know exactly how she's going to do something, but she lives purely in the moment, and I love that about her. I love playing that."
Garrison had only kind words for hair designer Huntley. "The man is a genius," she declared. "He gave me four different characters. I'm forever grateful to Paul."
Her favorite character is Angie's playmate, a difficult child as well: "The one that I enjoyed playing the most, I think, is the 12-year-old, for some reason. It's so free because they are so completely unself-conscious in their bodies, and, believe me, that is really great for an actress not to have to worry about that sort of thing."
Top Girls is not just a strong feminist statement, Garrison contended. "I guess that would mean a strong socialist statement. Y'know, Caryl is very active politically, and she's got a brilliant political mind. A lot of her questions here are like, if women are striving so hard to be a part of the value system that Margaret Thatcher represented when the play was written, is that really a value we really want to be a part of?"
Ikeda, who makes the biggest leap of womankind — from feudal Japan to fast-track England, believes that the play "poses more questions than answers, which is one of the great things about her writing. And it is about feminism, but it's also about capitalism so that's where it could appeal to everyone, regardless of gender."
Her joy is two-fold: "I'm not only thrilled to be making my Broadway debut, but to be making it with this piece of writing and this cast of women is truly an honor."
Reeder, likewise, relishes in her 180 degree turn — from a 16th-century peasant woman to a 20th-century career woman. "And I enjoy changing my wig, too."
All of the above had nothing but lavish praise for their director. Plimpton's was typical: "I love working with James Macdonald. He's a brilliant director — very quiet, very understated. He almost sneaks up on you from behind. You're not exactly sure what he's doing when he's doing it, but man! He's great, and he trusts the actors a lot. He gives you a lot of space, a lot of room, and he's patient patient patient."
Macdonald returned the compliment. "I had a very delightful time, yes," he responded. "We have a wonderful American cast here. They were a very powerful and clever bunch of people who are just a pleasure to be in a room with."
Would the British politics of the play be off-putting for Americans? He thinks not. "There is such a parallel between British politics and American politics," he said on opening night. You had Reagan. We had Thatcher. So, in a lot of ways, our destinies are linked. And I think the jobs of the working women, or anyone who aspires to work, is probably the same in this country as it is in Britain."
He is regarded as a foremost interpreter of Churchill, and his work in New York (A Number at New York Theatre Workshop and, most recently, Drunk Enough To Say I Love You at The Public) certainly supports that rep. This is his first try at Top Girls.
"I've done a lot of Caryl's recent plays, but I've never gone that far back in the back catalogue so the pleasure of it was to do a play in which she finishes the sentence."
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The cast of Top GIrls take a curtain call.
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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