Two months from today Marilyn Monroe fans will celebrate
what would have been her eighty-seventh birthday. It’s hard to imagine her at
such an advanced age, considering her beauty, vivacity, and girlish manner. Her
death was indeed tragic, but it has left us with an image of Marilyn with her
charms undiluted by advanced age.
Since her death,
there have been innumerable books, several movies, and a number of stage plays
about her. Her latest stage incarnation is on view in “Marilyn—My Secret” at
the Macha Theater in West Hollywood, which
opened March 30.
The play,
co-written by its producer/director Odalys Nanin and Willard Manus, is a short
(eighty minutes) and mostly enjoyable two acts that take place in Marilyn’s
Brentwood home after her death in 1962. (We’re seeing Marilyn reminisce in
heaven, apprently.) The writers have done their research about Monroe, but
several times they succumb to the understandable temptation to run with the
most sensationalistic assertions about the woman—twenty abortions, a baby at
14, a long and meaningful lesbian relationship with a drama coach, flings with
Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, and the most celebrated stripper of the
late forties, Lili St. Cyr, who teaches Marilyn how to be sexy. None of these
rumors has come close to being proved. (The play introduces St. Cyr [played by
Katarina Radivojevic] with a complete strip routine, which I found gratuitous
and overlong, especially since St. Cyr is a minor cog in the play’s machinery.)
Even more controversial will be the scene in which Marilyn performs fellatio on
Bobby Kennedy.
Those reservations
aside, the central question is, Does the actress who plays Marilyn do a
convincing job? Here I have more positive things to say. She’s Kelly Mullis, a
veteran actress and acting workshop director at the Complex Theater. Her
program notes say she has been a Marilyn fan since she was nineteen, and her
affection for Marilyn shows. In this nearly one-woman show (she’s the center of
attention for seventy-five of the eighty minutes), she gives us a multi-layered
sexy symbol, conveying Marilyn’s highs and lows, her sweetness and her guile, with
equal sympathy. She sings a number of Marilyn’s songs, using her own voice, and
it’s close enough. Whether acting or singing, she rivets the audience’s
attention every moment, just as Marilyn did on screen, and that’s the
definition of a star.
If I have one complaint
about the performance it’s that when Marilyn is delighted by something Mullin
gives a short, high-pitched squeal that reminded me of Jayne Mansfield in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Marilyn
never did that, on or off screen.
This is a
multi-media show, with the stage backdrop being a screen that frequently shows
us clips and photos of the real Marilyn, as well as one Photoshopped image of
Marilyn with JFK, something else that will displease some. There are two
supporting actors who supply most of the evening’s laughs. Monique Melissa
Lukens plays both Natasha Lytess, Marilyn’s first acting coach, and her last,
Paula Strasberg, wife of Lee. Paula is amusingly covered in black, including
head scarf and sunglasses, which isn’t that far from the way Paula often
appeared, being the avatar of serious
drama. Jamie German plays Bobby Kennedy and a cowboy Marilyn picks up for a
one-night-stand while in disguise. The athletic I-cant-wait jump he does on top
of the couch on which she lies brings the evening’s biggest laugh.
Some Marilyn fans
will have serious qualms about this show, but I would urge those wondering
whether or not to see it to attend a performance and decide for themselves.
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