I should have known better--even the incomparable Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn couldn't save the dreadful 1992 movie. Why should I have expected any more of the formidably talented Megan Hilty and what turned out to be Natalie Charle Ellis understudying Jennifer Simard, a name more likely to be dropped by Broadway cognoscenti than this pop culture maven? But the packed, aged house roared in disagreement on a Wednesday matinee. They probably were fans of Absolutely Fabulous and watch the Real Wives franchise, too, but women dishing women ain't my cup of tea, especially for more than two hours.
My dislike of the show--particularly the excruciating second act in spite of an amazingly acrobatic stair case plunge--has little to do with the quality of its execution. I'm more angry at myself for getting suckered by the Tony Awards broadcast of "For The Gaze," a deliriously punning, over-the-top production number that features the indefatigable Hilty impersonating BOTH Judy Garland and Liza Minelli. It reminded me of a recent article about the vaunted fact-checking department at The New Yorker, now celebrating its centenary. When a writer once described "chaps" as "assless" a discussion ensued: aren't chaps, by definition, assless?
Death Becomes Her only muddies the question; on the boob tube, definitely not (I doublechecked video from the Tony's and Hilty's appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), but at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater chorus boys bare buttocks the size of melons and costume designer Paul Tazewell frames them in technicolor glitter, adding a star to my abysmal rating and winning a Tony Award for proving the fact checker's point!
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