Broadway Blog - Phylicia Rashad & Marilyn Maye (Though Not Together)

While the casting of Phylicia Rashad as the manipulative, pill-addicted matriarch of Oklahoma's abundantly dysfunctionAl Weston family in Tracy Letts' epic comedy/drama, August: Osage County may seem an odd choice for those who only know the actress from her television roles as the elegant Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show and... uh... Clair Huxtable II on Cosby, she might be considered a natural for the part by New York playgoers who have seen her rip up the stage as the anguished and dominating Bernarda Alba or have observed her communicating silent volumes as a symbol of African heritage in Gem of the Ocean.

There is, of course, the biology-defying factor of casting a black woman as the mother of three white children, but while certainly a playgoer has the right to object to the color-blind casting as unrealistic, there's nothing in the play's content that didn't allow me to suspend disbelief and accept the production's parameters of reality.

This is my first visit to Letts' swiftly played (under Anna D. Shapiro‘s direction) three and a half hour Pulitzer winner since its Broadway opening and the production is in solid shape with a mixture of original cast members and well-known replacements. John Cullum, so masterful at these grizzled and literate characters gets us started "round a prickly pear" as poet Beverly Weston, the family patriarch whose disappearance brings his three daughters and their families together under one roof, where issues of betrayal, abandonment, infidelity, pedophilia, addictions, incest, suicide, family secrets and inheritance threaten to blow the roof off the place.

At the center of the play is the struggle for control of the household between Rashad's Violet (whose addictions to her assortment of cancer-treating medications have left her mentally unstable) and the wonderful Amy Morton as eldest daughter, Barbara. As played by the role's originator, Deanna Dunagan (who won a Tony for her efforts), Violet's abrasive behavior seared with a sometimes outlandish anger-on-her-sleeve intensity. Rashad, however, gently simmers. There is more a sense of deep hurt in her Violet; a quiet vulnerability and sadness that draws you in. This interpretation offers a change in the dynamic between the two characters, especially when Barbara's forceful actions meant to restore family order start to look like bullying. The play is less funny this way, but more involving.

Picking up some of the laugh slack is Elizabeth Ashley, who has been playing a broadly comical Aunt Mattie Fae since shortly after her Dividing The Estate engagement. Original cast members Sally Murphy and Mariann Mayberry (as the younger Weston sisters) and Kimberly Guerrero as the peacefully serene Cheyenne housekeeper, deliver strong character work.

Sadly, a June 28th closing date has just been announced for the Broadway production of August: Osage County. This sterling piece of drama shall be missed.

Photo of Phylicia Rashad by Robert J. Saferstein

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