Review: I'LL EAT YOU LAST: A CHAT WITH SUE MENGERS Garners Large Laughs at the Unicorn Theatre

The hilarious one-woman play I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers currently plays as a season extra at the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City. John Logan (writer of Tornado!, Star Trek Nemesis, and The Last Samurai among others) wrote the one-act play specifically for Bette Midler who starred in the Broadway production in 2013 and later in Los Angeles.

Sidonie Garrett directs the Unicorn production that appears on the intimate Jerome Stage. Through Garrett's direction Mengers does not leave her couch, set in her Hollywood home, until the end of the show. She interacts with the audience to the point that she asks an audience member in the first row to come on stage and get a box off a shelf and bring it to her.

Sue Mengers is the topic of the tribute to the super-agent who by her own telling played a pivotal role in such legendary carreers as Gene Hackman (she claims to have been instrumental in him getting the part in The French Connection), Barbara Streisand, and Faye Dunaway among others. The play created a stir in the Hollywood community when Mengers stated that Jane Fonda turned down the role of Evelyn in Chinatown. Faye Dunaway starred in the part, which played a defining role in her career. Fonda countered that director Roman Polanski had not offered her the part, and that the part was specifically written for Dunaway.

Name-dropping is the meat of the dialogue with Mengers relaying tales of the demise of some infamous stars, and encounters that changed the lives of others. One such tale is that of Ali MacGraw and her relationship with Steve McQueen. Mengers claims that the controlling McQueen, who starred with MacGraw in Getaway, ruined the promising career of the Academy Award nominee. The play is like a cheap tabloid coming to life in rib-tickling fashion.

The play opens with Mengers awaiting a phone call from Barbara Streisand, after Streisand's attorney tells her that the superstar was firing her. Streisand was the first client Mengers signed early in both their careers. Mengers is also preparing for one of her famous A-list parties that evening. Each time the phone rings, she becomes wracked with disappointment when it is not Streisand, but another of the elite advising they will not be attending. She struggles through the disappointments with wit, sarcasm, and just enough foul words to bring an air of reality to the small stage.

Donna Thomason is magnificent returning to the stage as Sue Mengers. Her comedic sense of timing is spot on as she throws barbs out about the stars. She brings a cocky and somewhat arrogant attitude to the character that one might expect from a person in that position. Thomason returns to the stage after an absence of over four years. She was last seen at the Unicorn in The Little Dog Laughed. She made her Broadway debut as Grace Farrell in Annie, appearing in over 2,000 performances in New York and on National Tours.

I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers continues at the Unicorn Theatre through December 28. Purchase tickets by calling 816-531-7529 extension 10 or online at the Unicorn Theatre website. There will be no performances on December 24 and 25. Photo by Cynthia Levin courtesy of the Unicorn Theatre.

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