MARK AUERBACH
HARTFORD -Hollywood “Superagent” Sue Mengers (1932-2011), advisor to Barbra Streisand, Faye Dunaway, Burt Reynolds, and Ali McGraw, was a Tinseltown legend. A young German/Jewish emigre before World War II, who began her rise to the top in Hollywood as a secretary in a talent agency, Mengers became the first major woman powerbroker in an all-male behind-the-scenes game of show-biz. She cultivated her clients’ careers, brashly offered her clients to directors, and became one of the most important Hollywood influencers, and party-givers. Her meteor crashed and burned, after she put her client Streisand into a film directed by her husband. It flopped, and as the business model in Hollywood changed, her clients went elsewhere, and Mengers lost her seat on the throne.
Karen Murphy as Hollywood superagent Sue Mengers. (Photo by Lanny Nagler)
John Logan, Tony Award-winning author of Red, wrote the play I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers, which starred Bette Midler in her return to Broadway in 2013, her first Great White Way role in a non-concert since she’d been in Fiddler on The Roof in the late 1960s. Hartford’s TheaterWorks presents the New England premiere, this time staged by Don Stephenson (who just directed Guys and Dolls at Goodspeed). Stephenson brought his Guys and Dolls star Karen Murphy, a Broadway veteran, to Hartford to recreate the role originated by Midler.
Karen Murphy is Hollywood agent Sue Mengers in I’ll Eat You Last at Hartford’s Theaterworks.
The character of Sue Mengers is bold, brash, foul-mouthed, grandiose, delicious, naughty, and sometimes pathetic, and Murphy, in this 80-minute solo performance mines Mengers’ barbed quotes, coarse jabs, snarky gossip, and chain-smoking and toking repartee effortlessly. She also hints at the subtle tragedy of Mengers’ out-of-control spiral into view. Mengers has already been canned by Streisand’s people as the show begins; Mengers is waiting for Streisand’s personal call as the show ends.
Stephenson’s direction helps Murphy find her strong performance, but the undercurrent of Mengers’ struggles seem lost in the laughs. I couldn’t help but wonder what she might have been like without an audience, sober, and waiting for the phone which doesn’t ring–the Hollywood legend rejected. Murphy, a gifted musical comedy comedienne, who could mimic the best of Broadway in Forbidden Broadway, plays some of Mengers’ clients well. A brief bit of Streisand is spot on.
John Coyne’s Hollywood Hills set offers lots of playing area, but Murphy as Mengers remains seated, sprawled, and languishing on a sofa centerstage, in a caftan designed by Gregory A. Poplyk similar to those worn by the “zaftig” Mengers. John Lasiter’s lighting and the sound design of Michael Miceli and Hunter Spoede is solid.
This has been a year of fine solo performances in area theatres. David Adkins brought Henry David Thoreau to life at Berkshire Theatre Festival. Mona Golabek told her mother’s haunting story at Hartford Stage, and Hal Holbrook brought Mark Twain to life at The Bushnell. Karen Murphy as Sue Mengers joins the ranks of fine acting.
I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers runs through August 23. One “heads up” for potential audiences. The dialogue is laced with a lot of raunch and profanity. It’s only really offensive it you’re one of the movie stars Sue Mengers is talking about. Come to think of it, some of the best, most trashy gossip is just as naughty.
TheaterWorks presents “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers” by John Logan. Directed by Don Stephenson. Scenic design by John Coyne. Costume design by Gregory A. Poplyk. Lighting design by John Lasiter. Sound design by Michael Miceli and Hunter Spoede. Casting by McCorkle Casting Ltd. Starring Karen Murphy. Through August 23. TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl Street, Hartford, CT.. For tickets: 860-527-7838 or www.theaterworkshartford.org
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
