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Photo by Don Kellogg

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Now Playing over at the Cherry Lane Theater hidden down on a charming Greenwich Village street is a gem of a situation comedy written by Israel Horovitz.  

The story revolves around a dead man (the star of the show who we never see) and his many ex-wives and girlfriends who are congregating in his Paris apartment one by one for his funeral and learning, at times, more than they cared to know about each other and the life they all shared throughout the decades with this man.  

Stage and screen veteran the indomitable Estelle Parsons (Evelyn) is the oldest of the wives and the first one to the apartment (well, the oldest alive, actually).  She's sharp tongued, sassy, and brassy - just like Ms. Parsons herself.   Judith Ivey plays the next in line - Evvie - slightly more hip but still sassy and bold.  Then there was Janice (Angelina Fiordellisi) who is quite the psychologically challenged woman who may or may not repeat jumping out a window - something she did when she was married to our invisible host character.  Fast forward through some other now dead women to a young 20 something young woman who appears and announces she was his latest wife.  

Hilarity ensues with the introduction of each woman to the equation.  Generational differences are discussed, analyzed, bitched about and thrown against the walls to see what will stick.  We slowly learn he was a womanizer who aged to 100 but always liked his wives between the age of 20 and 25ish.  These ladies all loved their husband, all are curious about the other women but deep down hate each other except for the last young chippy (Francesca Choy-Kee) - she loves everyone and wants to make a home in Paris for them all.  

Hilarious and entertaining!  These women will make you laugh about being loved, jilted, and replaced.  If only we could meet the dead guy - who remains unnamed in the script!  In an interesting twist -i do not know who's idea this was - there are 26 pieces of artwork on the set (as a proper Paris apartment would have) that are done by celebs themselves including Eve Plumb, Rosie O'Donnell, Joel Grey, Tina Louise, and others.  A secret art gallery right there on stage alongside the show!