Review - The Heidi Chronicles

The Heidi Chronicles holds a very special place in my heart.  Not only did I read it right after grad school when I was already questioning choices I'd made, but I also did a community theater production of it during my brief return to Ohio.  Truth be told, playing Heidi, and speaking Wendy Wasserstein's eloquent words about living up to your best self (reaching for six and getting six versus reaching for a ten) were what finally convinced me that Ohio just wasn't where I belonged.  I soon moved back to New York and started a (mostly) happy life here.  I was fortunate enough to meet Wendy once or twice through work - I've always wished I told her that she's the reason I moved here.  I'm sure I wouldn't be the only gal of a certain age to have told her that...

When the revival was announced, I was both thrilled and terrified.  Excited and scared, maybe.  (Just to throw in a reminder that a quote from a Sondheim lyric is almost always appropriate in any situation.)  Thrilled that Wendy Wasserstein would finally be back on Broadway where she belonged (seriously, it's taken 18 YEARS to get one of her plays back on Broadway?!?!).  Terrified that the play I've loved for so many years just wouldn't hold up.  Well, I'm here to tell you, it certainly holds up.  I cried through much of the play, not only from what it was telling (and showing) me, but also from noticing how far we haven't come.  And the fact that Wendy is no longer here also added to the weeping.

I'm a big fan of Elisabeth Moss - I find her a very truthful, intelligent and engaging performer.  I enjoyed her on West Wing, find her brilliant on Mad Men and thought she was quite good in the revival of Mamet's Speed the Plow.  So I was very happy to hear that she would be taking on my former role as Heidi Holland.

my mom kept a newspaper article

Just a few side notes about the production I did:  the director was a woman of size who thought she was Heidi.  So she dressed me as a woman of size.  I wore a purple muumuu for the entire play, while everyone else dressed in the style of the era being depicted.  Well, I wore a purple muumuu through most of the show - before the last scene, I changed into a white muumuu.  On stage.  Sigh.  The actor playing Peter and I didn't really get along and the actor playing Scoop was a maroon.  He refused to kiss me onstage because he was afraid I'd fall in love with him.  I kept telling him, "I swear, I promise, I will never fall in love with you.  THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN."  He was so full of himself, he didn't believe me, so there was no discernible chemistry or romance between us, meaning there was a big empty hole at the center of the play where one unrequited romance should've been.  The set was on a rake, and during the big beautiful monologue where Heidi falls apart, I had to 'physically exhibit the distress' by delivering the monologue while running around in circles.  Obviously the fact that Heidi was supposed to be giving a lecture was beside the point.  At least I was allowed to fall to my knees (in a purple muumuu) at the end of the monologue and could find some pathos there.  Despite all that, the production was actually pretty good and pretty successful.  I had lots of woman come up to me after the show and tell me how they were moved.  So...God love community theater.  I've often dreamed of doing the show again, though I guess that ship has sailed.

Getting back to this production - I rather forced my boss to take me as his Tony-voter guest, so we had terrific seats (thank you, Tony-voter boss!).  Being that it was the Wednesday matinee, there was a lot of matinee behavior going on.  The couple to my left had on assisted listening devices, so I heard the show in stereo - both the live dialogue and then the loud feed coming out of their listening devices.  The couple behind us repeated everything back and forth to each other, and a gent to our right needed to get something out of a big paper bag throughout the afternoon.  It was hard to concentrate, but seeing the show, along with reliving my community theater experience, was still a wonderful thing.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

I thought Elisabeth Moss brought a lovely warm and slightly goofy quality to Heidi that was very appealing.  She was proud and embarrassed at being the smart girl and she was immediately recognizable to me.  Her arc was beautifully played and, even as she talks about herself as an observer, you're still completely engaged in how she navigates through life.  Discovering truths about herself and her friends who become her family, Moss moves through the play with grace, humor and empathy.  She's terrific.

I enjoyed Jason Biggs as Scoop, though I thought his costumes were completely hideous.  Bryce Pinkham was excellent as Peter, though maybe a little too 'on the nose' in his early scenes, but he broke my heart in the scenes where he came out to Heidi and where he begged her (without begging her) not to leave him behind.  The gals who played all the other roles were good, though maybe a little too schticky, but I think that can be laid at the feet of the director.

Like A Delicate Balance, which was directed by this same director earlier this season, at times this production of The Heidi Chronicles seemed like a historical re-enactment of the play instead of the play.  The characters were often directed to face out, instead of towards each other, so they were frequently not speaking to each other but rather at each other.  I didn't find that enjoyable.  And the pacing, especially in the first two scenes, was a little too 'stately' for my tastes.  For me, because I was carrying so much love and so much baggage, I could get past the problems.  I know other people who have seen the show who weren't able to get past them.  So...your mileage may vary.

of course I had to get a souvenir

Seeing all of these scenes that illuminated Heidi's dilemmas and her journeys was very emotional for me.  And I was a sobbing mess during the monologue.  It's still so powerful and so true, where you look at other people with whom you should have much in common and just feel so isolated from them.  And then they make you question yourself and your choices, when all you really want to do is be 'one of them.'  And you know you never will be.  That's powerful stuff.  And so well written by Wasserstein.  The whole script is full of truths and turns of phrase that seem funny but are really filled with pain.  Also, in seeing the show as an older person, I was really taken with the 'humanist' angle and the scenes where Peter was demanding his equal rights as a gay man were just as moving as the feminist scenes.  Being reminded that we should all stand up for each other was rather eye-opening.  And it shouldn't be.  Plus, I was frankly surprised at how prescient the show was - Wendy really hit the nail on the head with how reality tv would dominate entertainment and how economic inequity would pull people apart.  And there probably still aren't as many female artists displayed in major museums today.  Perhaps that should be my social experiment for the summer - visit museums and check out the gender issue.  I'll admit, when I did the show, I didn't know many of those women artists, either, and I had taken art history in college.  Sometimes it takes just one thing to open your eyes to so many other things.  My eyes are open.  The fact that this play filled them with tears is another matter entirely.