Midtown St. Louis may be in the midst of one of its many revivals and revitalizations, but the fabulous Fox Theatre has long been the crown jewel on the Midtown strip. If you have yet to catch a Broadway play or concert at the Fox, find an excuse and venture north of Frost campus.
If you choose to visit the Fox between now and Sept. 29, you’ll find the Broadway smash The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife playing to a crowded house. The popularity of the play is due, in no small part, to its star, Valerie Harper, best remembered for her title role in the TV show “Rhoda.” Younger generations may remember Harper best as starring opposite a pre-Teen Wolf 2 Jason Bateman on “Valerie,” which was rechristened “The Hogan Family” after her departure.
The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife concerns Marjorie (Harper), a middle-aged housewife in the throes of a mid-life crisis. Despite her love of literature and philosophy (she quotes Franz Kafka and Herman Hesse regularly), she feels like an intellectual dullard, with no original thoughts and no drive to improve herself.
The allergist in question is her husband Ira (Mike Burstyn), a retired physician with a more-than-healthy self-image. Marjorie’s mother Freida also adds to her list of woes, with her constant nagging and complaints of constipation and other bowel ailments.
Just as Marjorie is on the brink of a nervous breakdown, her grade-school friend Lee (Jana Robbins) mysteriously appears at her door. They quickly rekindle their friendship, as Lee, who fancies herself an international sophisticate, begins to inspire Marjorie to realize her ambitions.
Soon after Lee arrives, her outrageous stories (she claims to be close friends with Pat Nixon and Andy Warhol’s muse) and flamboyant sexuality begin to wear on Marjorie and Ira. Her plot is uncovered–for the sake of suspense, we won’t give away too much, but if you’ve seen The Grifters, you’ll get the drift.
Though Lee’s persona and her stories turn out to be fictional, her effect on Marjorie is revelatory, and the once-depressed woman is revived and independent by the play’s end.
The play was enjoyable enough, but watching a play about middle-aged Jewish women, I felt that perhaps it would have been more funny/relevant/understandable had I been middle-aged, Jewish or a woman.
Harper did a decent job but was by no means outstanding in her portrayal of Marjorie. The character was a departure from the smart-ass she usually plays on television, so it was nice to see her outside of that role. Her delivery wasn’t as snappy or wry as it could have been, and her desire to project her voice made her lines a bit stilted.
Sondra James did a fine job as Marjorie’s mother, Freida, though her character was limited mostly to making poop jokes. Most of her comments revolved around her irregular bowels and the pain they caused her. Not that we are above bathroom humor, but after awhile the jokes were as funny as a colonoscopy.
All in all, it’s a nice play about self-discovery and the actualization of one’s dreams and the characters come to these realizations in a humorous and not overly sappy fashion. It is also the kind of play you take your mother, and not a hot date, to see.
