THIS SHOW NEEDS A LOTTA LENYA
I always look forward to the shows of Shelley Cooper at the Hollywood Fringe. They are musical biographies of women who made history not only with their presence but with their voices as well; La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas and Jenny Lind Presents P.T. Barnum were both Fringe standouts. Rag Doll on a Bomb Site takes its title from an early reviewer’s description of the piece’s subject, Lotte Lenya (1898-1981), wife of composer Kurt Weill, star of Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera among others, and one of the great performers of the twentieth century. In her latest production, Cooper not only portrays Lenya, but also provides the book, music, lyrics, and choreography.
As directed by Kelsey Miller, the show focuses on Cooper sharing Lenya’s tragic and inspiring story with the audience, which she does superbly. However, in her prior productions, the personalities of the women she portrayed lacked a distinctive public awareness. Lind was a historical character, Callas was known primarily for the operas she sang, so with the former, there was a clear field, and with the latter, Cooper has the training to convey Callas’ operatic persona.
Lenya is a different kettle of fish.
She is a known quantity due to her film roles; as Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales, her Oscar-nominated role from the screen adaptation of The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone by Tennessee Williams, as the deadly SMERCH agent Rosa Klebb in the second James Bond film From Russia with Love, and in the 1977 football comedy Semi-Tough with Burt Reynolds, where Lenya played Clara Pelf, a spoof of Ida Rolf, who pioneered the structural Integration therapy aka “Rolfing.”
Cooper does not manage, or perhaps even attempt, to capture Lenya’s accent. The songs that Cooper provides for the show are craftsman-like but all somewhat similar in fashion and this works against her. More regrettable is that the show offers none of the songs associated with Lenya, and whose performance is all but inseparable from – “Moon of Alabama,” “Mack the Knife,” or “The Sailor’s Tango.” I was disappointed in not being treated to Cooper’s presentation of these.
In the final analysis, we are left with little sense of either the “rag doll” or a “bomb site.” There is no denying that the show is both informative and entertaining, and Cooper’s talents are undeniable, but the show is hers, not Lenya’s.
photos by Missy Myers
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/12077?tab=details
