Diane and I had so much fun going to the Shaw Festival with Patti and Phil to see An Ideal Husband that we decided to return and see The Women, a play about women and divorce. First presented on stage in 1936, The Women went on to have a couple of movie incarnations. This Shaw Festival version brought out plenty of laughter from the audience. The all female cast captured Clare Booth Luce’s wisdom and frivolity. If you get a chance to see a stage version of The Women, take it. This insightful play holds up. GRADE: A
Oh, what fun–and I love the costumes!
The 1939 movie is fantastic–despite it’s now rather anachronistic claim that a wife should simply forgive her husband’s infidelity by likening it to a case of flu or chicken pox–with a cast of greats (Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Godard, the list goes on), wonderful costumes and sets, and crackling dialog. Please seek it out if you haven’t seen it. I couldn’t even bring myself to see the version from a couple of years ago–some attitudes are better left in the past.
You’re right about the “men are just men” theme in this play, Deb. But the interaction among the women characters is priceless!
Deb, the remake was literally unwatchable to me. Excruciatingly awful.
And I’m a guy.
😉
THE WOMEN is pretty much a social artifact, Jeff. It captures the mood of the 1930s when easy Reno divorces were a novelty.
I am so jealous!
Diane and I found THE WOMEN to be funnier than AN IDEAL HUSBAND, Patti. Clare Booth Luce wrote some comic lines!
I’m glad you did this and had a great time. I really wish I got to the theater to see more things on stage, but these days it seems such a hassle and tickets are so expensive unless one buys a season ticket. I’ll just live it vicariously through you and others, George.
We’re lucky we live so close to Niagara-on-the-Lake where the Shaw Festival is held, Rick. We love live theater. I’ll try to make our play-going lively so you can enjoy it vicariously. I wish we had Patti and Phil with us when we saw THE WOMEN. They would have loved it.
Rick, we see almost all the shows we see (both on and off-Broadway) through TDF (Theatre Development Fund), which also runs the TKTS half-price booth. For $27.50 a year we pay anywhere from $20-$36.50 a ticket, and we’ve seen such shows as MEMPHIS, SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, RACE, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSICand FELA! within the past six months.
They also have tickets to off-off-Broadway (which we’ve never used) for $9 each, with no service charge.
Obviously, the TDF trumps the Shaw Festival, Jeff! Such great theater there in NYC! You and Jackie are really lucky.
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