Playwright: Claudia Shear
At: Apple Tree Theatre, Highland Park
Phone: (847) 432-4335; $27-$38
Runs through: Nov. 9
According to Claudia Shear's Dirty Blonde, someone once said of Mae West, 'She makes things stand that never had feet.' Mae West may have said 'Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution,' but she created a real marriage between raunch and wit, and was way ahead of her time. West, practically born backstage to vaudevillian parents, was in show business from an early age. By age 14, she was being billed as the 'Baby Vamp.'
West made only about a dozen films in her lifetime, but left an iconic stamp on contemporary culture that survives to this day. She was a strong woman who wasn't shy about admitting to her passion for men and fame, and her dislike of all things conventional. Trailblazer is a term that could have been coined for her.
Dirty Blonde weaves some of the Mae West mythos into an unevenly paced two and a half hours. Playwright Shear uses a device of having two related stories going at the same time. The first is the story of two star-crossed fans that meet at Mae's gravesite. Their shared passion for West sparks a friendship, and later, a problematic but ultimately fulfilling love. The second is a bio of the star. We see her early years in vaudeville, her arrival on fame's doorstep with her play Diamond Lil, her cinematic triumphs and failures (including an uneasy relationship with W.C. Fields) and finally, her reclusive later years when she clung desperately to her image as a sexual goddess.
There's rich material here. Director Ernest Zulia does a spirited job of juggling two story lines, a multitude of scene changes, comedy, music, and pathos. Zulia has cast three of Chicago's finest talents to play Mae (and her alter ego fan, Jo), Charlie (a man who has been obsessed with West since he was a boy), and many of the men in West's life. Susie McMonagle is in fine voice and does a terrific job of bringing out the depth of her fan character, Jo. As Mae West, she gamely portrays the actress at various ages, but seemed a bit too wholesome to really bring home the character. Michael Lindner is fine as Charlie, giving emotional veracity to a character who borders on the obsessive, but who remains sympathetic. Finally, Greg Vinkler tackles a multitude of roles, bringing life to the men in West's life, making each one unique and making his chameleonic transformations look easy.
I liked that the play brought out how gay men and particularly, drag queens helped Mae West shape her identity and persona (one of her plays was The Drag). I liked how the dual storylines gave us a fan's perspective and more intimate look at West herself.
There's a lot to like here, actually. The only quibble I would have is that Dirty Blonde could be a bit dirtier. There is a kind of tameness in the script and the production that hedges away from giving us a true portrait of West, in all her tarnished glory. For a woman that roused the censors and the law for her bawdy art, this bio plays it too safe.
