Review - Mrs. Warren's Profession: The Life

Three quarters of a century before a Frank Rich review had the power to close a Broadway show on opening night, New York City Police Commissioner William McAdoo accomplished the same feat with his pan of the 1905 American premiere of George Bernard Shaw's, Mrs. Warren's Profession.

"The whole play, to my personal view, is revolting, indecent and nauseating where it is not boring," wrote McAdoo in his official report the next morning, noting, "That the audience last night did not hiss the play off the stage or engage in mob demonstrations against it was due I think to the fact that the audience was not a representative one. Even in the galleries seats sold as high as $5, and in the afternoon $35 was asked for one seat in the orchestra. There was nothing during the evening that could really be called applause. Some young women present, from foolish bravado, applauded a little at certain points; but as the dialogue grew stronger and ranker, even this ceased. I think the play is distinctly against public morals, and decency, and utterly discreditable to the managers and those taking part in it. If artfully and cleverly acted, so much the worse."

The next morning there was a sign on the theatre door saying future performances of the play "will be abandoned," and inside the company had begun rehearing an emergency production of Shaw's Candida.

Written in 1893, Mrs. Warren's Profession didn't even make it past the British censor until 1902, using the loophole of being presented privately in a members-only club. But 21st Century audiences who, given the play's reputation, might expect to see girls in pink tights or the occasional exposed ankle, may be surprised to learn that the play actually takes a negative view of the title character's livelihood. It was Shaw's insistence that society's treatment of women, especially wives, was what drove them into the field that so shocked and angered the authorities.

Doug Hughes' sturdy revival reunites the director with his Doubt star, Cherry Jones, in the title role but the play really revolves around Mrs. Warren's daughter, Vivie. A Cambridge grad, very pleased with her life as an actuary in a firm she co-owns, Vivie is perfectly content to remain single so as not to subject herself to Victorian laws that would make her thoroughly dependant on a husband. Of course, her current suitors aren't exactly prizes; the young and irresponsible Frank (Adam Driver), son of a clergyman (Michael Siberry) with a not completely holy past, is after her money, and her mother's sleazy older business partner, Sir George Crofts (Mark Harelik), is basically looking for a young babe for the last years of his life in exchange for a fat inheritance. The fact that Vivie has rarely seen her mother and has no idea who her father is makes her a bit suspicious of any of mom's male acquaintances of a certain age; all except Mr. Praed, the only sympathetic guy in the bunch, whose preference for platonic relationships with women was certainly taken by those in the know as code for "homosexual" a hundred years ago. Hughes uses a more contemporary code by having the role played by Edward Hibbert, an actor most known for playing cultured characters of pronounced affectations which are presumed to telegraph their sexuality.

Vivie's rejection of traditional femininity in favor of whisky, smokes and a passion for numbers is played with a humorously geeky appeal by Sally Hawkins, and despite the character's distaste for sentiment, her independence is partnered with warmth and spirit. She effectively makes the transition into realistic horror as Vivie gradually discovers that the upbringing that helped her establish a life as a free-thinking and independent woman was financed by a profession she believes to be disgracefully abusive towards her sex. Though Shaw never has anyone refer to the profession by name, Mrs. Warren defends it as a suitable alternative for less-advantaged women whose only other options might be the abuses of factory work or the chains of marriage.

Cherry Jones plays the title role with a smooth and secure combination of haughtiness and naughtiness that suggests a blend of Margaret Dumont and Mae West, but when confronted by her daughter for the choices she made, we see the self-preserving grit and determination that made her the success she's become.

While Shaw's politics might be easily spotted on the sleeves of his leading ladies, the eventual clash between mother and daughter sets off theatricAl Sparks with exciting immediacy. Mrs. Warren's Profession may no longer shock, but Hawkins, Jones and Hughes still provide plenty of electricity.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Sally Hawkins and Cherry Jones; Bottom: Cherry Jones and Edward Hibbert.

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"If you're lucky enough to have two smash hit shows, the traffic of the world goes through your dressing room."
-- Carol Channing

The grosses are out for the week ending 10/31/2010 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (8.7%), DRIVING MISS DAISY (1.7%), BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1.5%), WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1.0%), THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (0.7%), WICKED (0.1%),

Down for the week was: Colin Quinn: LONG STORY SHORT (-39.6%), LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (-23.3%), MEMPHIS (-18.2%), RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATTLES ON BROADWAY (-16.5%), MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (-14.3%), NEXT TO NORMAL (-14.2%), MAMMA MIA! (-12.5%), LA BETE (-12.3%), A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (-11.6%), AMERICAN IDIOT (-11.3%), PROMISES, PROMISES (-11.2%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (-10.4%), TIME STANDS STILL (-10.1%), BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON (-9.4%), ROCK OF AGES (-9.3%), A FREE MAN OF COLOR (-9.1%), CHICAGO (-8.4%), BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL (-7.4%), A LIFE IN THE THEATRE (-7.2%), MARY POPPINS (-6.5%), IN THE HEIGHTS (-6.3%), MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION (-5.9%), THE LION KING (-5.2%), WEST SIDE STORY (-4.2%), LOMBARDI (-3.9%), THE PITMEN PAINTERS (-3.7%), FELA! (-3.5%), JERSEY BOYS (-3.0%), THE ADDAMS FAMILY (-0.1%),