It isn't often that a play simultaneously appears in Milwaukee and Off-Broadway. Such was the case (for awhile) with The Woman with All the Answers. The lady in question is legendary advice columnist Ann Landers, whose syndicated column appeared in newspapers around the world until her death in 2002. That the New York version of this solo show starred Judith Ivey, a Tony Award-winning actor with many substantial Broadway credits, gives you some idea how tricky this play might be. Even the renowned Ivey couldn't pack 'em in for the full length of the limited run (yes, that's how they say it). The show closed about two weeks early.
In Milwaukee, veteran actor Laura Gordon tackles the character with the appropriate tough-as-nails temperament. The script portrays Ann in an extremely sympathetic light; we might have liked her better with a few warts thrown in.
Milwaukee theater patrons can take a smidgen of hometown pride in the fact that Landers Eppie Lederer in real life lived here for a short time. More notably, she became a king of the state's Democratic Party when she lived in Eau Claire, Wis. Her ties to Hubert Humphrey (Minneapolis) and the dazzling array of famous figures she met during trips to Washington became the perfect ammunition for earning the advice columnist position at the Chicago Sun-Times. Never claiming to be an expert in anything, Ann simply went to her star-studded Rolodex and asked a famous person to answer the reader's question for her. The formula seemed to have worked, since at her peak Landers' column attracted an estimated 60 million readers.
The play takes place one night in Landers' sumptuous Chicago apartment. Dressed impeccably -- as if she were waiting to depart for an important business event -- Landers is, instead, home alone. She is struggling to write what she calls "the most important column of her career." After many years of suggesting that couples work out their differences, she must confess that her own marriage has failed. Sadly, the audience never learns the intimate details of her marriage's collapse. One must assume that Jules, her husband, had a mid-life crisis. In any case, he bowed out on his 36-year-old marriage to one of the world's most famous women. All we know is that his current female companion is a couple of years younger than the couple's own daughter.
While Landers struggles with writer's block in Chicago, wrapped in a pale mink coat her husband once gave her, Jules and his nubile companion are cavorting in Hawaii. One thinks Landers must now regret the valentine to her marriage she wrote on the occasion of the couple's 30th anniversary. It appeared all over the world as a daily installment of her column. Now, six years later, even Landers says she doesn't fully know why her marriage has fallen apart. How is she going to explain it to her readers?
As she reminisces about her life, many of the episodes are quite funny. Some are surprising, such as her under-the-radar trip to Saigon during the Vietnam War. She visited hospital wards and promised the soldiers she met that she'd be happy to call a loved one back home for them. Ann was as good as her word. She made 2,500 phone calls around the country as soon as she landed in Chicago. She never wrote about that trip in her column.
The script shows only a character with an incredibly stiff upper lip. In addition to her philandering former husband, Ann also steers clear of any malice toward her twin sister, who became "Dear Abby." Although Ann talks about her competitive nature throughout the play, she never directly bares her teeth in her sister's direction. In truth, their rifts were common knowledge.
For these reasons, it's difficult for an audience to feel emotionally invested in a familiar character they've come to "know" through years of reading her columns. Laura Gordon does all she can to enhance the material, abetted by director J.R. Sullivan. Every gesture and movement produce a near-seamless production. Those who like seeing Gordon perform she's a member of the Resident Acting Company might be fully satisfied by this production. Others may be relieved that the play stays in "safe territory" that's meant to be light entertainment and nothing more. However, one suspects that there's much more to Landers than is revealed in The Lady with All the Answers.
A final note: In a solo show, production elements take on an extra burden since there is no dialogue between characters to distract the audience. Thankfully, the Milwaukee Rep's standards more than meet this challenge. The elegant look of Landers' Lake Shore apartment is particularly memorable, as are the subtle lighting changes that signal a shift in time as well as Landers' topics.
