Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
'Intimate Apparel' Succeeds as Effective Melodrama
Vanessa Williams and David St. Louis in the Pasadena Playhouse production of 'Intimate Apparel' (Photo by Jim Cox/Used with permission)
()
There's a lot to be said for the virtues of a compelling tale well told. It hearkens back to the initial reasons people get interested in narrative art in the first place: the seduction of story. While it's great that some plays have important messages and others are triumphs of style and wit, it's worthwhile to remember the considerable pleasures of investing in the trials and tribulations of a sympathetic character. Such is the appeal of Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, receiving a solidly satisfying production right now at the Pasadena Playhouse.In 1905 New York City, African-American seamstress Esther (Vanessa Williams) is known particularly for her skill in crafting lingerie. She's saving up money to start up her own business someday, but in the meantime in her mid-thirties she feels that love may have passed her by. She's pleasantly surprised, then, to receive a letter from George (David St. Louis), a man she's never met who's working on the Panama Canal. They strike up an epistolary romance, aided by her amiable white client Mrs. Van Buren (Angel Reda) and her black friend Mayme (Kristy Johnson), who works as a prostitute. When George arrives in New York, however, reality proves different than her dreams.
Williams does a nice job of taking a character who is often soft-spoken and undemonstrative and conveying her emotions with piercing clarity. St. Louis has a role that by its very nature is played broadly, but he manages to give George unexpected depths and shadings. Reda is bright and amusing as the chirpy Mrs. Van Buren, and Johnson is moving as Mayme, a woman whose lot is worse than Esther's. Dawnn Lewis brings brassy charm to landlady Mrs. Dickson, and Adam J. Smith is superb as textile shop owner Mr. Marks in a subtle and moving performance.
Sheldon Epps' direction and all technical credits are professional but seem somewhat muted. I believe the success of Nottage's play is that, although it initially seems like it may be a social message play about the plight of African-American seamstresses in 1905, in fact it is a classic melodrama. This saga of an underappreciated woman dealing with the ups and downs of her love life is universal enough that you could change the ethnicities completely and it would still work. And it does work in the current production, which audiences will very likely enjoy.
"Intimate Apparel" plays at the Pasadena Playhouse through Dec. 2. Tickets are available online.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist