[NEohioPAL] Review of "Hillary" at CVLT

[Bob Abelman]

CVLT's fast and light 'Greek Tragedy' proves a-musing

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald on 12/3/10

 

Many influential and interesting women have been immortalized on the stage.

 

Slave-turned-abolitionist Harriet Tubman (Harriet), opera singer Maria Callas (Master Class) and Prime Minister Golda Meir (Golda's Balcony), among many others, have been the subject of dramatic one-woman shows.



Stripper Gypsy Rose Lee (Gypsy) and First Lady of Argentina Eva Perón (Evita) have been featured in grand musical productions.

Thanks to playwright Wendy Weiner, former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been delegated to a wacky satire grounded in ancient Greek mythology.

 

The play, Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy With a (Somewhat) Happy Ending, had an off-Broadway run in 2008 and is currently on the River Street Playhouse stage at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre.  

 

The ancient Greeks had a wonderful way of dealing with life's great mysteries.  They created myths to explain them.  What's an earthquake?  Well, that's the wrath of Poseidon.  Where does creativity come from?  That's provided by the muses.  Human desire?  Inspired by the graces.

 

In Hillary , our heroine joins the ranks of other illustrious morals-including Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey and Jason from Euripides' Medea-who have had their fates fudged and destinies dictated by mischievous gods.  Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, takes a young, promising Hillary Rodham under her wing so she can assume her rightful place as ruler of the modern world's leading democracy.   Out of spite, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, introduces the ultimate distraction-a man of mythical charm and, uh, appetites named Bill Clinton.  

 

If you stop and think about it (though not too hard and for not very long), divine interference is an absolutely plausible explanation for the mystery that is Hillary and her unlikely journey.

 

Why else would an intelligent, driven, Yale Law School graduate sacrifice her own ambition in support of her husband's and then tragically stand by him during history's most public and humiliating sex scandals?  What else could account for her rapid rise from a punch line in dirty limericks to the U.S. Senate?  

 

Unlike traditional epic tragedies, Weiner's Hillary is obviously built for laughs.  It is a very silly romp that offers no life lessons to be learned and no significant morals to be pondered.  Despite the historical context, Hillary simply serves to a-muse and it does so effectively.

 

Amy Pelleg and Mark Moore are wonderful as Hillary and Bill.  Playing real-life people in a comedy is a tightrope walk.  Performers can't lean too far toward caricature or the play becomes a Saturday Night Live sketch, nor can they sharpen their acting chops and do an accurate impersonation or the play becomes one big insult.  Pelleg and Moore find the right balance, and their comic timing is impeccable.  

 

Mark DePompei and Catherine Remick play the cherubic Greek Chorus (and other roles), and have a balancing act of their own to contend with.  As the play's narrative voice, they must be both erudite and asinine-that is, they need to create the pretense of serious storytelling while winking and nodding throughout.  They are very successful at both tasks, although some opening night jitters kept them from being as playful as they seemed to want to be. 

 

The diminutive Don Edelman is a treat in his against-type portrayal of Zeus.  Erin Scerbak and Kacey Durbin are delightful as the dueling deities Athena and Aphrodite.

 

Clearly, the whole ancient Greek gimmick can wear real thin real quick if the gags lag and the audience is given the opportunity to make sense of this silliness.  Because Hillary unfolds in a series of short vignettes that require minor set changes, potentially deadly pauses between scenes occur.  Fortunately, under the astute direction of Yvonne Pilarczyk, this CVLT production moves quickly and pauses are kept to a minimum.  As such, this play flows and is an awful lot of fun.  

 

Due to some mature subject matter (aka Monica Lewinsky), Hillary borders on being adult fare.  Feel free to drop the kiddies off at the CVLT's main stage for a heaping helping of holiday treacle-the musical Annie.   

 

Hillary continues through December 11 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre's River Street Playhouse in Chagrin Falls.  For tickets, which are $10, call 440-247-8955 or visit www.cvlt.org.
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