Ft. Lauderdale REVIEW: I Am My Own Wife - Grounds for Divorce

Having just attended the opening night of I Am My Own Wife at Fort Lauderdale's Parker Playhouse, I find myself severely disappointed, somewhat bewildered, but very glad to be home.

With all due respect to those whom respect is due, I can not believe that this work won so many important prizes in the theatrical world. Among many other of our theater's most prestigious awards, I Am My Own Wife won the Tony for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. Well, all I can think of to say right now is, Pulitzer Schmulitzer.

Doug Wright is, I am sure, a talented, hardworking writer. He is also a very lucky young man. I Am My Own Wife is 'vedy, vedy' politically correct. It is clever, perhaps too smugly so.

The basic story of this one man play, who takes on many characters, including the character of the playwright trying to develop the play with the central character (I told you this play was 'vedy vedy' clever,) is about a man who was a transvestite in Nazi Germany. The transvestite amassed a museum, salvaging treasures from the Nazis, but ultimately, it is the transvestite himself, and the life he has endured, that are the museum's true centerpiece.

Based on this play's award winning history, I frankly expected an exciting evening of theater. To call this evening's proceedings dreary, would begin to be accurate. Everything was dreary. Even the ushers were dreary. Somehow, these things spread in a theater.

Granted, the subject matter alone for this play, clearly make it most likely for a select, or shall we say limited audience, in general. The audience at tonight's opening at the Parker was embarrassingly sparse. One wonders why the powers that be did not do more to "paper the house." In non theater parlance, why the heck didn't they find some way to fill more seats for tonight's performance? Anyway, those who were not invited to help "paper the Parker" tonight, well, they were the lucky ones.

Have you noticed that when a play gets a bad review, the critic seems to dislike everything about it? I find that when a critic is negative about a show he or she is usually also non praising of the play's set design, costumes, etc. Add this play to the list.

Jeffrey Van Curtis is credited with Costume Design. Are they joking? It would be more appropriate to put a credit in the Playbill for the person who keeps the black dress laundered and keeps the strand of pearls from becoming entwined. A shame really. Did the director Anders Cato dictate this kind of minimalism? I do not know. Perhaps exciting costumes, props and effects to enhance the different characters portrayed would have helped get through the evening's drudgery.

The scenic design by Hugh Landwehr? It seems Mr. Landwehr may have had a thousand dollar budget with which to work; actually I suspect the set designer had no budget. Perhaps an imaginative set, with different playing areas could have helped bring this play to life. The set looks as creaky and dingy as the play being performed.

This play, to say the least, never grabbed me. I had to force myself to keep my mind from straying. This was at times interrupted by those deciding to leave the theater during the first act. Tonight's performance of I Am My Own Wife at the Parker had the highest drive away (those who get in their car and flee the theater at intermission) factor since the dismal, Disney's On The Record. The valet was hopping at intermission.

Mark Nelson as the central character demonstrates that he is clearly a very fine, professional and energetic actor. I wish there had been a better platform on which to mount Mr. Nelson's talents. They are lost here amid the boredom and the missed opportunities.

I Am My Own Wife's last performance at the Parker Playhouse is February 5, 2006.

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