Synopsis Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress By a Life in Progress is a four-handed, part-confession, part-performance comedy drama based on Joan's own larger-than-life rollercoaster life. While it hilariously presents the Joan that we know, from her biographies, TV appearance and live stand-up shows, it also, quite movingly, reveals the woman behind the public face that the public have never seen before. It's fierce, funny and unforgettable... Set in Joan's dressing room backstage at the Oscars ceremony, Joan is preparing for one of her legendary annual TV catwalk commentaries on the fashion hits and disasters at Hollywood's biggest night of the year. But all is not well... her dressing room is B, not A!!; her complimentary cheese is puny, not plentiful; and her producer is the bigwig's nephew, not the bigwig! The tension and drama are the catalyst for an introspective look at aging, going through life's ups and downs and being a woman in Hollywood. After Joan's five amazing decades in showbusiness, the topics fly by - some familiar, some not. The famous breakup with Johnny Carson is there, her husband's suicide, the feuds and firings, several backstabbings, sidesteps and full frontal calamities. You may think you've heard it all before, but you'd be wrong... The Big Joke - A Comedy Festival. £75.00 VIP Diamond Package includes a seat in roped off front rows and an aftershow 'meet and greet' with Joan Rivers.
American comedienne Joan Rivers’ (pictured) auto-biographical show, Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress, hit London last week (5 September 2008, previews from 29 August), opening at the newly relaunched Leicester Square theatre (formerly The Venue), where it runs initially until 18 September, and then returns from 2 December to 29 January 2009 prior to a Broadway transfer.
During Rivers’ second stay in London performing her self-penned, autobiographical comedy, the American comedienne (pictured) will also be performing hostess duties at the launch party for the 2009 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards at the Café de Paris on 5 December (See News, 26 Jun 2008).
Part-confession, part-performance comedy drama, A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress presents the public Rivers from TV appearances and stand-up shows, as well as the private one. In her dressing room backstage at the Oscars ceremony, Rivers is preparing for one of her legendary annual TV catwalk commentaries on the fashion hits and disasters at Hollywood's biggest night of the year. But all is not well...
Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress is directed by the Right Size’s Sean Foley. Rivers is joined in the cast by Emily Kosloski, Carrie Paff and Mark Philips. The play had its world premiere in Los Angeles this past February and ran at last month's Edinburgh Fringe, in the Underbelly Cow Barn venue from 7 to 25 August 2008.
The show – structurally described as “cleverly disguised stand-up” – was warmly received by both London and Edinburgh critics. Rivers - labelled as a “brilliantly funny clown” and America’s “most impossibly youthful-looking comedienne” - strikes the right balance of humour and poignancy with her septuagenarian stories. Although some found her “demands for pity and applause” to be “more distasteful than the profanity”, the overwhelming response was one of appreciation and respect that Brooklyn’s most notorious daughter can still deliver a “five-star lick” with her famously pointed tongue.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) – “She’s bold, she’s sassy and she’s 75 years old. What more do you want? A great show, perhaps, but this is an interesting mix of stand-up and stand-off in sitcom … The best thing is her vulgarity, though I rather miss her gag about the big white stain on her small black dress as an aftermath of a one-on-one interview with Bill Clinton. This was the woman who said that without her own bra she’d be kicking her own chest all the way to the bathroom … She’s a brilliantly funny clown, supported here by Emily Koskoski as her stooge, Carrie Paff as a semi-romantic rival and Nathan Osgood as her co-producer. Her unseen daughter Melissa features, too; boy, what a pain in the butt she sounds. They’re all good and dutifully conspiratorial … The event is billed as a work in progress by a life in progress. Where next? Who cares? I was happy enough to be stalled in the stalls for an hour and a half with radiant Rivers in full flood.”
Bruce Dessau in the Evening Standard (three stars) – “Anyone hoping for conventional theatre last night soon had their expectations trampled. Rivers immediately addressed the audience directly and throughout proceedings slipped into filthy stand-up mode, sticking the Manolo Blahniks into the likes of Russell Crowe, Sophia Loren and Victoria ‘does this tampon make me look fat?’ Beckham. Some gags were nearly as old as Rivers, yet she spat them out with such venom they still merited a laugh … Above all this story is about surviving in an industry where youth is the ultimate commodity. As she talks of nobody going to Mae West's funeral because she ‘outlived her fame’, it is clear that Rivers is determined to avoid the same fate. Every time she has been knocked down she has fought back and she is not about to give up now. If the energy dips slightly towards the end, that is understandable given the star's age. And if her face is not the most mobile we know why that is. Yet somehow, reasonably reined in by director Sean Foley, this works. Maybe because it is all true.”
Rhoda Koenig in the Independent – “Although Rivers' schtick is her paint-blistering contempt for creeps and phonies (Mel Gibson and Victoria Beckham get a few quick kidney punches), she talks to the audience as to an old friend whose sympathy is guaranteed … In this work of metafiction, Rivers tells us anecdotes while preparing, in her dressing room, to appear on TV. A shabby gofer and an all-thumbs makeup artist wind her up, and her clock is stopped for a moment by a slinky female producer who sacks her: ‘You're too old’. It's a wonder Rivers didn't make the woman wear a swastika on her back … The demands for pity and applause, the pretence that her troubles are the same as ours are more distasteful than the profanity and gynaecology. Rivers is more likely to get us on side – indeed, is more lovable – when she drops the quivering victim business and goes for the throat with an expertise Count Dracula would envy ... In the end, Rivers' energy and earthiness triumph over the rest. Her frankness may be qualified, but it's more than we get from most performers: ‘I can't lie to you,’ she says. ‘I don't want my nose to grow back.’”
NOTE: The following reviews were in response to the show's run at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2008.
Dominic Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph – “This is a thoroughly entertaining hour and three quarters of cleverly disguised stand-up … In the twilight of her years - she hit 75 this summer - America's most famous, and most impossibly youthful-looking comedienne, continues to spin conversational gold from a life lived under an artificial showbiz sun. There's affecting tittle-tattle about the low points in her life and career: being shunned by Johnny Carson, the suicide of her producer husband Edgar, her own dark moment staring down the barrel of a gun. She's a survivor, a trouper. We get all that, we applaud her for it, but it wouldn't matter a nickle if she didn't have one-liners that stick in the mind like perfume-tipped darts: ‘I've kissed so many asses in my time, sometimes I don't recognise the celebrities until they're bending over,’ she rasps … The whole thing is flimsy as a postage stamp - but it's the viciously amusing spittle of Rivers' tongue that gives it that five-star lick.”
Brian Logan in the Guardian (three stars) – “To accuse Joan Rivers of ego is like complaining that the Pope is Catholic. It comes with the territory. But even by her standards, this is a remarkable exercise in self-mythologising. The show is ostensibly a play, set in Rivers' dressing room on Oscars night. There are two supporting characters, a Russian makeup artist and a gay producer, to whose careers the fictional Rivers generously gives a lift - even as the real-world Joan totally monopolises the limelight. ‘I wrote this,’ she reminds everyone. ‘Like I'm gonna give them the best lines? Fuck them!’ … The show's most eye-catching aspect is Rivers' account of her husband's suicide, and of her own suffering at the whims of sexist, ageist TV bosses. The jokes stop, tears well in her eyes: her emotional frankness is striking. But the theatrical effect is to generate sympathy for the indefatigable Rivers, so that when she tells us, climactically, that ‘performing for you is my life, and no one has the right to take it away from me’, the standing ovation might as well have been pre-programmed. The sheer force of personality is almost irresistible.”
- by Theo Bosanquet
** DON’T MISS the chance to sponsor the 2009 Whatsonstage.com Awards & get exclusive access to the Café de Paris launch party - hosted by Joan Rivers in ‘true’ Oscars style!! - click here for more info! **
She’s bold, she’s sassy and she’s 75 years old. What more do you want? A great show, perhaps, but this is an interesting mix of stand-up and stand-off in sitcom. Joan Rivers may look like Ruby Wax made over as Nancy Reagan, with a sinister facelift touch of the Wildebeest woman, but she ain’t complaining, even if her mirror might.
The best thing is her vulgarity, though I rather miss her gag about the big white stain on her small black dress as an aftermath of a one-on-one interview with Bill Clinton. This was the woman who said that without her own bra she’d be kicking her own chest all the way to the bathroom.
Now, she’s kvetching about her reduced status on American chat show television and the confusion over sex in the over-sixties. Her first marriage failed, her television show was dropped, her second husband committed suicide. But, like Elaine Stritch in Company, she’s still here.
The new Leicester Square (formerly the Venue) producer Martin Witts has been clever enough to install really comfortable new seats from Poland - the place has a promising Eastern European arena/rave-up feel to it now - and to hire Sean Foley of the Right Size as Rivers’ director. Foley adds a funny new backstage element of rivalry, understudy-ism and agent provocateur. Dammit, he nearly turns the show into a play of some kind.
Will Joan make it to the Oscars? Does it matter if she doesn’t? It’s not a cliff-hanger, exactly, but it does allow for a wonderful half-serious exploration of notions of seniority in showbiz, bitchy takes on Judi Dench and Joan Crawford, and getting her own back on Johnny Carson.
She’s a brilliantly funny clown, supported here by Emily Koskoski as her stooge, Carrie Paff as a semi-romantic rival and Nathan Osgood as her co-producer. Her unseen daughter Melissa features, too; boy, what a pain in the butt she sounds. They’re all good and dutifully conspiratorial.
Rivers plays tantalisingly with the idea of show business celebrity on the wane, seen from a viewpoint of both cynical detachment and eagerness to sign up once more. The event is billed as a work in progress by a life in progress. Where next? Who cares? I was happy enough to be stalled in the stalls for an hour and a half with radiant Rivers in full flood.
Just come back from seeing the show in Leicester Square, London. Just brilliant. Having been quite ambivalent about Joan in the past, this show just took me completely by surprise – funny (hilarious!), and moving by turns, with a glimpse of the real, probably quite lovely Joan underneath. Standing ovation, naturally. Thoroughly recommended show... I'm certainly going to try to catch it again. See it! - Paul Vyse
05 Sep 08
Saw in Edinburgh. The "play" is poorly thought through. Even though she wrote all the lines and is playing herself, when she interacts with the other actors she is entirely unconvincing. Nasty (not funny) theme of her falsely accusing anti-semitism left a bad taste as well. - Sharon Phipps
05 Sep 08
Also saw this in Edinburgh and also felt a little uneasy but am now a devoted fan. The show is sensational and the woman completely driven, she can't get off the stage after nearly two hours. Don't miss it ! I'm only sorry you folks in London will have to pay such obscenely high prices. - joesmith
05 Sep 08
I saw this in Edinburgh. At 75, Joan Rivers could easily be getting skin cancer in the sun in Palm Springs or standing on stage telling autobiographical stories and smutty jokes. Instead, she creates a play based on a episode of her life when she was fired and steps in and out of it to talk to the audience in the first person as if we were her therapist. It doesn’t entirely work but you can’t help admiring her balls (!) and there are some very funny lines. I felt a bit out of place in a reverential audience of fans, but didn’t regret going. - Gareth James
Sept 2008 - After a £600,000, three-month renovation, the new multi-purpose complex now houses houses a 395-seat main stage and a permanent 90-seat studio, called The Basement, in addition to a digital screening facility, new seating, bars (including two, with 2am late licenses, in the main auditorium) and air-conditioning and expanded dressing rooms and backstage areas.
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