Review: BIG HAIR: A RAD AND WILD LOVE AFFAIR at Whitefire Theater

BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair was a hit at the Whitefire Theater in Sherman Oaks on March 13th.  Next up on the BIG HAIR tour is The Den Theatre in Chicago on April 5th and the Binge Fringe Festival in Santa Monica in October.

BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair is a thoughtful, poignant, laugh out loud funny one woman show, a bittersweet slice of nostalgia and a heartfelt homage to the gorgeous, offbeat love story between iconic comics Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner.  This one-hour vaudevillian solo play is written and performed by Maegan Mandarino.  There are also thoughtfully curated clips from Radner and Wilder’s work and their historic interviews mingled with Mandarino’s performances.

Gene Wilder is probably best known now for his starring role in the 1971 classic film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, as well his collaborations with Mel Brooks in iconic comedy films like The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.  Gilda Radner was one the one of the seven original cast members of Saturday Night Live, a pivotal comic of her generation and a trailblazer for women in comedy.  They meet and fall in love on the set of the 1981 film Hanky Panky.

Radner is married to someone else, but as she explains her failing marriage to Wilder in BIG HAIR, “he’s a rental.”   Their love story is bumpy, punctuated by the friction of two big personalities and by irresistible electricity.  As Radner herself describes the impact of Wilder on her life, “It felt like my life went from black and white to Technicolor."

BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair is narrated by Wilder’s and Radner’s on-screen comedy personas, Young Frankenstein’s Dr. Frankenstein and Saturday Night Live’s Roseanne Roseannadanna.  Mandarino is hilarious, nimble and fiendishly inventive as she switches back and forth between them, and even, in one scene with ingenious lighting and costuming, plays both at the same time. At the Whitefire Theater, Mandarino had a bit of a slow start warming up to the frenetic pace and screwball comedy antics of the show, but then settled in to the flow with artistry and flair.  She taps, sings, tells dirty jokes, drag kings, does stand up, falls in love, and tells an offbeat love story that is hilarious and heartbreaking.   

BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair is a powerful testament to Mandarino’s talent, her vision and her sensitivity as a writer and performer.  This is a nuanced, tender, life-affirming story about love and loss that you would not expect from a retro stand up vaudeville show, and I cherished every strange, hilarious, moving moment of it.

Photo Credit is Maegan Mandarino

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