A seemingly perfect match between performer and playwright, it’s not surprising that Bombshells is almost 10-years old and still going strong. First staged in Melbourne, Australia, in 2001, the show was a collaboration between Joanna Murray-Smith and Caroline O’Connor. After playing in Scotland and London, the Milwaukee Rep is giving the play its American premiere.
O’Connor, a veritable star in her native Australia, is a formidable talent. But what makes Bombshell’s special is the combination of her star-power energy and intelligence with a playwright of imagination and smarts like Murray-Smith. It’s one thing to write a sketch for an aging lounge-lizard singer (think of the love child of Liza Minnelli and Bill Murray’s “Saturday Night Live” character). But Zoe Struthers, the last of six characters O’Connor brings to life, is not just a one-note drunk act. She starts in annoying Jerry Lewis land, but Struthers slowly works her way into your heart. By the end of this brilliant little playlet, you want to stand up and sing along to the torch show-biz anthem that caps the evening.
It’s that kind of intelligence that sets this show above the usual star-turn, multi-character shows. It opens with a brilliant and frenzied interior monolog by Meryl Louise Davenport, a harried mother of three whose greatest challenge is not her family but the inner voice of guilt that constantly wonders if she’s a good enough mother. The same kind of manic energy permeates Mary O’Donnell, an Irish kid with show biz in her blood who changes her talent show routine seconds before the lights go up.
And both O’Connor and Murray-Smith show the depth of their talents in the beautifully quiet portrait of Winsome Webster, a graceful widow who spins a remarkable tale over a glass of sherry. It’s a scene that recalls Alan Bennett’s vivid monolog portraits, with O’Connor finding transcendence in the simplicity of her storytelling.
Mark Clements direction is first rate. O’Connor is obviously familiar with the material, but her take seems completely fresh (it’s helped by a few contemporary tweaks in the script – references to Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian). And Clements solves the problem of dead space between scenes by having O’Connor do her costume changes behind a translucent screen, with moving lights creating a dreamscape of silhouettes.
With this show and his superb Cabaret, Clements is off to a cracking start as the Rep’s Artistic Director.
