Ann Landers Gives Good Advice at Nora Theatre

The Lady With All The Answers

By David Rambo Drawn from the life and letters of Ann Landers with the cooperation of Margo Howard

Directed by Daniel Gidron, Set Designer Brynna Bloomfield, Costume Designer Gail Astrid Buckley, Lighting Designer John Malinowski, Properties Coordinator Ronald J. DeMarco, Stage Manager Tori Woodhouse

Starring Stephanie Clayman as Eppie Lederer ("Ann Landers")

Performances through June 26 at The Nora Theatre Company at Central Square Theater Box Office 866-811-4111 or www.centralsquaretheater.org

One thing is clear - that David Rambo was and is a fan of the late "Ann Landers" and The Lady With All the Answers wears his heart on its sleeve. Eppie Lederer, the woman behind the beloved syndicated advice column, died in 2002 and Rambo resolved to write a play about her. He sought and received permission from Lederer's daughter, Cambridge resident Margo Howard and unveiled the show in 2005 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. The Nora Theatre Company production is the Boston-area premiere and stars Stephanie Clayman under the direction of the Nora's Associate Director Daniel Gidron.

The play is set in the elegant study of Lederer's Lake Shore Drive apartment in Chicago one night in late June, 1975. Brynna Bloomfield creates an ambiance of style and taste, with a crystal chandelier, crown molding, European furnishings, and works of art intermingled with personal photographs of celebrities and family. Accoutrements of the decade include a stereo console, an electric typewriter, and a classic corded desk phone. Frank Sinatra sings us into the scene with a recording of "Chicago," and Clayman appears, wearing the characteristic bouffant hairdo. With that singular mantle and her use of the broad, flat Midwestern twang, the actress slides into a solid characterization and knocks down the fourth wall to talk comfortably to the audience as if we were her readers.

Rambo's conceit is that this lady with all the answers is struggling to find the answer to her own problem. After nearly twenty years of dispensing advice in her daily column about everything from relationships and sex, child-rearing and finances, to the proper way to hang the toilet paper, Ann Landers and her husband of 36 years are ending their marriage and she must compose "the most difficult column" of her career. In an effort to find the right words, and perhaps to procrastinate just a little, she rifles through files of her past letters and reads some of them aloud to share her particular brand of wisdom. A mix of common sense, natural wit, and life experience, as well as a rolodex bursting with names of experts, gives her the ability and confidence to tackle just about any subject.

Clayman is a gracious guide for the walk down memory lane. Onstage alone for approximately an hour and forty minutes, she manages to make her monologue take on the nature of a conversation by making eye contact with individual members of the audience as she asks survey questions. She has a few one-sided telephone calls with her daughter, sister, and estranged husband. Gidron's blocking makes good use of the roomy study, moving Clayman from the desk, to the settee, to the hi-fi, to the file cabinets, and around the perimeter. She even does a series of calisthenics while filling in some of the back story about Eppie becoming "Ann Landers," the rivalry with her sister Pauline ("Dear Abby"), and meeting and marrying Jules. The script calls for her to exude passion or go deep into her heart only a handful of times, but Clayman is up to the task.

For those of us who grew up reading "Ann Landers," The Lady With All the Answers combines nostalgia with revelation. The columnist never disclosed much personal information, striving to keep the public and private separate. Rambo pulls back the curtain just enough to show us some of the inner sanctum, but the emphasis is on the letters from readers and the no-nonsense, but caring responses they received. Lederer believed that people need to be heard and often had nowhere else to turn. She took her responsibility seriously, but never herself, and continued to evolve and grow throughout her career of nearly fifty years, taking on Richard Nixon, the Viet Nam war, homophobia, and AIDS among a litany of tough subjects.

Playwright Rambo, with the cooperation of Margo Howard, has crafted a loving tribute that touches us all due to the universality of the letters submitted to Ann Landers. Much of the humor and drama is contained in those missives, but there would be no play without the columnist's reactions and commentary as the thread that ties them together. It takes Rambo two acts to get to the point that we know is coming, and he might have used some of that ink to reveal details about Lederer's relationships with sister, husband, and daughter and how that informed her column. However, from what he does tell us in The Lady With All the Answers, it's pretty clear why Ann Landers at her peak had 90 million readers. Who else will call you "Honey" or "Bub" and settle the toilet paper issue?

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Stewart (Stephanie Clayman as Ann Landers)

 

 

 

 

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