Mia Farrow plays Sharon, a recently divorced woman in rural Iowa. Sharon’s never had a roommate before. Patti LuPone plays Robyn, the roommate from New York City, who upends Sharon’s placid Life.
I enjoyed Jen Silverman’s quirky one-act play, The Roommate, with its wit and surprises in a situation of developing rapport between two troubled women from exceedingly different backgrounds. Patti LuPone doesn’t sing in this play, but she’s convincing as a conniving woman with a dark Past. Mia Farrow morphs from a stereotypical housewife…to something much more liberated and dangerous. The ending did not satisfy me, but what came before it did. GRADE: B
I’ve not seen nor read anything by Silverman that I recall, but that’s certainly a cast that commands attention.
Silverman apparently not related to the comedian/comic actor Silverman sisters–rabbi Susan, comic actor Laura and comedian Sarah. Jen has kept themself pretty busy nonetheless. https://www.jensilverman.com/
Todd, I’ll be looking forward to more plays by Silverman. She has a unique perspective that made THE ROOMMATE unusual and memorable. She needs to work on her endings, though…
So off Mia Farrow these days that I wouldn’t see it. Love Patti LuPone, on the other hand.
We have seen Mia on stage, with Tony Perkins in Bernard (SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR) Slade’s ROMANTIC COMEDY in 1980. I remember it opens with Perkins naked (hidden by a suitcase) on stage. It was enjoyable, as I remember – very vaguely – but it was no SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR.
We’ve seen LuPone in:
EVITA – in San Francisco in 1979. (Loved her, not the show.)
SWEENEY TODD Christmas Eve, 2005, playing an instruemtn as well as singing.
As Mama Rose in GYPSY in 2008.
AN EVENING WITH PATTI LUPONE AND MANDY PATINKIN in 2011.
SHOWS FOR DAYS off-Broadway (Lincoln Center) in 2015. This was teh show where she snatched a woman’s cellphone to shut her up, and where they had her record a message to be played before the curtain went up “instructing” the audience to turn their phones off NOW!
Lastly was the sex-changed version of COMPANY in 2021. She was terrific as Joanne, but no one can touch Elaine Strich in the original.
Jeff, I have at least three or four of Patti LuPone’s music CDs. I love her version of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”! In an interview on CBS SUNDAY MORNING recently, LuPone revealed she was NOT the first choice for the role of Robyn in THE ROOMMATE. But, she was glad she could work with Mia.
I’m all in on LuPone’s actions toward audience members who don’t silence their cell phones. They should be thrown out!
I always get confused between Mia Farrow and Susan Sarandon.
Neeru, Mia Farrow was married to Woody Allen and appeared in seven of his movies. Susan Sarandon won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995).
Sarandon is criticized usually for her support of the Green Party in the US (I can see doing so, though Jill Stein is not my favorite politician); Farrow for not working fast enough to challenge, or for challenging at all, Woody Allen’s apparently depraved tendencies in re: their kids (Not Officially His Kids! as his protectors choose to note A Lot).
Not entirely different careers, but they don’t resemble each other too much.