By Cynthia Citron
WEST HOLLYWOOD, California— Girls Talk is an uproariously funny play—for about 20 minutes. Then it turns from affectionately teasing banter to passive-aggressive vitriol and it isn’t funny any more.
Roger Kumble‘s new play, now having its world premiere at the Lee Strasberg Theatre in West Hollywood, brings together three high-end matrons from Bel Air to plan a fundraiser for their children’s pre-school.
Two of the women, Lori (Brooke Shields) and Jane (Andrea Bendewald), are Jewish. The third, Scarlett (Nicole Paggi), is what Jane calls a “shiksa convert” who greets everyone with a boisterous “Shabbat Shalom!” no matter what day of the week it is.
Lori’s best friend and former television writing partner, Claire (Constance Zimmer), has dropped in as well. She, at 39, is unmarried and childless, as the others keep reminding her, and she spends much of the time trying to talk with various agents and studio people from an erratic cell phone that doesn’t get much of a signal inside Lori’s home in the hills.
Lori has two brand new twin boys as well as a four-year old daughter who is away on a play date with Tom and Katie Cruise’s daughter Suri. This, of course, impresses Jane, the social climber and former actress who is in charge of the school fundraiser. Jane, who is yoked to a poop-laden baby of her own, also has a website from which she dispenses inviolable wisdom as the “Mommy Maven.”
As a self-imposed mentor to Lori, Jane has manipulated her into accepting the role of co-chair for the fundraiser. Which seems to work out okay until the second act, set six weeks later, when Claire returns to the house to tell Lori that she has convinced their former agent to accept Lori as her writing partner for a new television sitcom.
Lori, who had been suffering from new-mommy blues, is excited about this turn of events until she realizes that the critical meeting she needs to attend conflicts with the date of the fundraiser. The conflict would seem to be a no-brainer, but Lori, who is naively intent on trying to please everyone, instead allows them to bully her into desperate indecision.
At this point decorum collapses and all the claws come out. The subdued viciousness among the women accelerates into an atomic explosion and devastates everyone in its path. Whether they deserve it or not. And this is where the motivation—and the play—falls apart. No matter how much resentment, or envy, or disdain each of the women has been harboring toward the others, the punishment far outweighs the crime. They wreak damage on each other that is not only deadly, but also irreversible. Such an overwrought scene would seem to be pretty improbable—even in Bel Air.
But aside from the plot, Mrs. Lincoln, writer/director Roger Kumble has led his players into a nice bit of ensemble acting. Which includes a fifth member, Eileen Galindo, who nearly steals the show as a ditzy housekeeper trying to stay ahead of Lori’s contradictory demands. And set designer Tom Buderwitz has placed them in a light and tasteful living room, while Ann Closs-Farley has identified them quite appropriately by the costumes she has put them in.
Girls Talk, which starts out as a laugh riot, turns into an actual riot at the end. But in the end, unfortunately, no one is laughing.
Girls Talk will continue at the Lee Strasberg-Marilyn Monroe Theatre, 7936 Santa Monica Blvd., in West Hollywood, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 through April 24th. Call 1-800-595-4849 for tickets.
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Citron is Los Angeles bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World. She may be reached at cynthia.citron@sdjewishworld.com