Finishing the Picture
Miller’s Timebends offers an eloquent and moving–if highly subjective–account of the episode. Now the 89-year-old playwright has turned the Misfits meshuggaas into an existential comedy that could just as easily be titled “Waiting for Marilyn.” In this uneven, ultimately enigmatic world premiere–impressively staged and populated with a fine ensemble of Hollywood and Broadway heavyweights–seven people await the appearance of the Godot-like Kitty, a drug-addled starlet sequestered in her Nevada hotel suite.
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As in his masterpiece Death of a Salesman and much of his other work, Miller seeks to forge a bond between the personal and the political; Kitty is America, “the envy of the world,” being dragged down by disillusion and despair. (The line that seemed to rouse the audience most was a comment on televised political debates: “The presidency is the prize we give to the actor who does the best impersonation of a president.”) Miller carved his reputation as a great playwright by elevating a nobody–Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman–to a tragic hero whose fate had universal resonance. Here, though, he relies on the fame of his characters’ real-life models to make us interested.
When: Through 11/17
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Liz Lauren.
