Stage on Screen: The Women

This TV filming of the horrible revival of "The Women" is truly painful to watch. Kristen Johnson is caricature; Rosalind Russell she ain't. Jennifer Tilly should not be allowed to speak in public. Cynthia Nixon who is so amazing on "Sex and the City" does not quite hit the mark. Seeing Rue McClanahan in knickers scared me death and reaffirmed my homosexuality. Hallie Kate Eisneberg who was so cute in the Pepsi commercials cannot act.

Having loved the movie so I was so disheartened to see it first on Broadway and then somehow I thought maybe it would be better on TV and it was even worse. The acting was so sub-par the project just should have been shelved.

When the film was made in 1939, the leading ladies of the day populated the cast leaving some big shoes to be filled. These actresses failed.

The premise behind PBS' "Stage on Screen" -- recording a live performance of a Broadway play and broadcasting it for TV viewers at home -- is wonderful. But the source material for this particular episode isn't. The other episode I've seen, "The Man Who Came to Dinner" with Nathan Lane, gave me a great chance to "attend" Broadway and enjoy a quality production. But it had quality not just because the performers, sets, costumes, etc. were good, but because the script had something going for it.

Led to expect the original play of "The Women" to be a profound satire loaded with saucy wit, I found that the smart jokes are actually spread real thin, with lots of dead dialogue. But the melodrama is syrup-thick, to my surprise. The whole thing ends up in a shape resembling a comedy-drama, and an awkward one at that. At one point you'll watch one of the many ashen scenes with Mary Haines suffering the pain of losing her husband to a younger, prettier floozy. Then suddenly Luce throws in a quick low humor routine right at its heels. Fortunately, most of the actresses go into high gear to emphasize the humorous hypocrisy and silliness of their characters. But the script just isn't that funny. Most of the humor consists of familiar, basic gags (e.g. the elderly divorcée hunting for #5) or random bits done by minor players in the many throwaway roles. I can picture the playwright going, "Hmm, what else can I do to punch up this scene and kill twelve more seconds? Oh, why don't I have a Russian seamstress come in and do a silly walk...", after which the seamstress promptly disappears for the rest of the play. Many other minor bits, like Mr. Haines' officious secretary, fall flat.

At any rate, the jokes are outnumbered by the minutes spent on the heavy, "realistic" themes of Mary's heartbreak and divorce. The Mary character is rather a wet blanket, and with most of the attention on Mary and her soap opera plot line, the watching becomes tedious. This is not helped by Cynthia Nixon's portrayal of the character as weepy, oblivious, and ghostly-voiced; it makes her kind of creepy, really. But since the role seems lame from square one, any actress would be hard-pressed to make it interesting. (I haven't seen the 1939 film and don't know how they went about the character and script in that one.)

While all this goes on, you realize that the self-serious play doesn't have anything really notable to say. Perhaps the playwright's career at Vanity Fair and her marriage to the Time-Life mogul helped her get this work off the ground. Hey, if so, it would demonstrate what she presented in her play: women aim to marry rich, powerful men to get the comfort and privileges they want!

One other odd bit of fun. If you watch the PBS presentation, stay for the intermission discussion between program host Jason Alexander and the group of actresses. Things take a bizarre, surreal turn when Alexander, speaking in all seriousness and in confidential tones, gives a lesson on how to deal with marital infidelity, or an "accident" as he calls it. I think it went something like, "If you've had an accident, just forget about it and get over the guilt. But if you're thinking of *having* an accident, then we need to talk."

This is a wonderful version of this classic, but seldom-staged play. Mary Louise Wilson, Kristen Johnson, Jennifer Coolidge, Lisa Emery, and Mary Bond Davis

are all terrific in their roles. Far better than the1939 George Cukor version with watered down and censored script. Furthermore, unlike the 1939 version, the

costuming, lighting, and stage design are fabulous. The program also offers

interesting insights into the actress' work through the "intermission" interview conducted by Jason Alexander. Here's hoping that "The Women" is released on

DVD just like the 2000 Broadway version of "The Man Who Came to Dinner"

was.

Most of the criticism of this production seems to center on the lack of subtlety of the actresses. Were the production a film or television show, I might be inclined to agree, but this was a stage production and meant to be seen by an audience some fifty or more feet away.

I thought the performance good, though its script is dated in its outlook on women and their reliance upon men. The characters are stereotypes and obviously were written to be just that way. The actresses play them with gusto, and the audience's reaction indicates that the performances went over well in that theater - although I agree that Tilly's brassy and nasal portrayal of the 'other woman' left me wondering why any man would be interested in her Crystal for anything more than a quick fling.

The close-up camera work for this video production doesn't do the show justice as the actresses are not playing for a camera, and the video audience therefore sees only the "over-the-top" look of these women projecting for a theater audience.

Long popular with audiences and actresses alike, "The Women" plays as a ridiculous period piece today. The bitchy dialogue is fun for a scene or two, but eventually it becomes a case of diminishing returns. The story revolves around a group of idle society women gossiping, trading husbands, and gossiping about trading husbands. Clare Booth Luce's attitude toward her characters is an enigma: one moment she's clearly ridiculing their idle pettiness, the next clearly admiring their resilience in a powerless state. This production of the play is a high-quality one; the only casting complaint I have is Kristen Johnston. While she's undeniably both a comedic tornado and a good actress, she overwhelms her part here. Best among the cast is Jennifer Coolidge, who has become one of the most important comedic character actresses in Hollywood today. All this talent is pretty much wasted in this fluff piece, however; even viewed as an artifact of a different time "The Women" is of no great impact.