Evelyn (Estelle Parsons), Evvie (Judith Ivey), and Janice (Angelina Fiordellisi) don’t like what they see in OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES (photo by Carol Rosegg)
Cherry Lane Mainstage Theatre
38 Commerce St.
Last performance July 6; closing announced July 14
212-989-2020
www.cherrylanetheatre.org
Four women gather in a Paris apartment to mourn the death of the hundred-year-old love of their lives in Israel Horovitz’s hilarious comedy Out of the Mouths of Babes. (The show’s very successful run had been extended at the Cherry Lane through July 31 but abruptly closed after one of its stars, Estelle Parsons, fell ill on July 6. Parsons was later declared to be in good health but was advised by her doctor not to continue in the show.) Eighty-eight-year-old Evelyn (Parsons), sixty-eight-year-old Evvie (Judith Ivey), and fifty-eight-year-old Janice (Angelina Fiordellisi) arrive one by one at the elegant Paris apartment where each used to live with the never-named Don Juan, a professor at the Sorbonne, and are soon joined by thirty-eight-year-old Marie-Belle (Francesca Choy-Kee), who was his current lover. As the funeral approaches, Evelyn and Evvie lace into each other in a skillful heavyweight verbal boxing match while the dour, depressed Janice considers jumping out the window again and the bright and cheery Marie-Belle claims that the deceased keeps visiting her, plying her with kisses and tickles. “Uh uh. Never got married,” the perpetually single Evvie says, to which Evelyn responds, “Nobody ever asked?” Evvie: “That’s kinda bitchy, don’t you think? Or did you mean it in a bitchy way?” Evelyn: “No, I meant it in a bitchy way.” The four women share various stories about their relationships with the dead man, which get a wee uncomfortable since Evvie had a long-term, on-and-off affair with him during his marriages to both Evelyn and Janice; meanwhile, his first wife, whom he called Snookie, his nickname for Evvie as well, committed suicide after finding out that he was cheating on her with Evelyn. Evelyn, Evvie, and Janice want to hate him, but they just can’t, especially with all of the positive energy emanating from Marie-Belle. “I’m getting zero sleep! What is this screaming match?” Evelyn cries out at one point. “I didn’t fly halfway around the world to die from no sleep before his funeral! This is a funeral I plan to enjoy!”
Marie-Belle (Francesca Choy-Kee) shares her stories of love and sex in OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES (photo by Carol Rosegg)
Out of the Mouths of Babes was commissioned by Cherry Lane founding artistic director Fiordellisi and written specifically for Ivey (Hurlyburly, Steaming) and Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde, Miss Margarida’s Way), who have an absolute field day hurling biting insults at each other. (Two-time Tony winner Ivey was also nominated for her performance in Horovitz’s Park Your Car in Harvard Yard, while five-time Tony nominee and Oscar winner Parsons starred in Horovitz’s 2014 play My Old Lady, which with Babes forms the first two parts of a trilogy about Americans in Paris.) Longtime Horovitz director Barnet Kellman wisely just stands back and lets the two stars go at it, and it’s a joy to behold, which makes it even sadder that the production had to close early. Choy-Kee’s (Disgraced) and Fiordellisi’s (Zorba, Nunsense) characters tend to veer into caricature, not feeling quite as real as Evelyn and Evvie. Neil Patel’s Paris apartment set is filled with competent artwork by some relatively famous people, including Rosie O’Donnell, Joel Grey, Tina Louise, Billy Dee Williams, Clive Barker, Eve Plumb, and Patel himself (as well as two pieces by noted French artist Sonia Delaunay). A bit of physical comedy involving Evelyn and Evvie holding Marie-Belle out a window doesn’t quite work, but just about every other moment is utterly delightful, from Joseph G. Aulisi’s costumes to the loud French rap music that blasts out between scenes. The play also has an intriguing subtext about doubling, from character names and nicknames to subtle parallels (involving suicide, twins, and mirrors), as if everyone has another side that they keep hidden. It’s no coincidence that the first Snookie wrote a popular book called The Voice Inside. Now seventy-seven, Horovitz (The Indian Wants the Bronx, Sunshine), who lives in New York City but spends a lot of time in Paris, does not present many plays here anymore, preferring the less-hectic pace out of town, so it’s unfortunate that this fabulous world premiere, one of the best, and funniest, new plays of the year, had to cut short its run. “We love Estelle and want her to have the rest and peace of mind she needs,” Fiordellisi said in a statement about the closing. We couldn’t agree more.