The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: The Humanities Girls

Though I'm sure many a student has had the urge to call a teacher a fascist at one time or another, few outside of Mussolini's Italy would have taken the comment as complimentary as the title character of Muriel Spark's 1961 novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. 

Jay Presson Allen's stage adaptation, which premiered on the West End in 1966, built its reputation on being a showcase for grandly gestured and inflected performances by the likes of Vanessa Redgrave (London), Zoe Caldwell (Tony winner on Broadway) and Maggie Smith (Oscar winner in the film adaptation).   Cynthia Nixon is now placed at the center of The New Group's Off-Broadway revival, directed by Scott Elliott, but unlike her illustrious predecessors, her less theatrical performance, though a perfectly legitimate interpretation of the role, offers no distraction from the play's nagging flaws. 

A progressive-minded teacher in a conservative girls school in early 1930's Edinburgh, the charismatic Miss Brodie is devoted to molding young minds into lovers of art and the humanities; ignoring lessons in history and math to allow her pupils to benefit from her experiences as a woman living in her prime. 

"Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life," she proudly pronounces in her intention to enrich the lives of her girls.  Having returned from a summer in Italy, she is enraptured with Benito Mussolini's Fascisti, and although her understanding of his politics seems limited to appreciating the cleanliness of Italy's streets and his embracing of the country's artistic heritage, her teaching methods reflect the type of leadership that seduced Italians and Germans into seeking world domination.  She dresses stylishly in bright colors, distinguishing herself from the drab school surroundings and offering herself as a pert role model for her girls.  Her lessons, meant to inspire the desire to defy convention and achieve individual greatness, drop scintillating names such as Florence Nightingale, Joan of Arc, Charlotte Bronte and Anna Pavlova without providing any educational content.  Most importantly, she instills into her brood the belief that they are the crème de la crème – an elite group superior to the rest of the student body simply because they are Miss Brodie's girls. 

But it seems some are crème-ier than others.  She favors Jenny (Halley Wegryn Gross), the pretty one, as destined to be "famous for sex" teaching that her looks justify allowing her to enjoy different moral standards from the others.  Brodie is, in fact, grooming Jenny to replace herself as lover to Teddy Lloyd (Ritchie Coster), a painter in his forties who is married with six children.  Classmate Sandy (Zoe Kazan) is also held in high, if less glamorous esteem, as someone who is insightful and dependable. 

"Scenery chewing" is a phrase often used in describing the desired interpretation of Miss Jean Brodie, but Nixon floats like a glittery butterfly showing off her wings; all girlish and excitable.  (The only thing weighing her down is a thick semi-Scottish brogue that takes too many side trips to Eastern Europe.)  Looking flirtatious in a clingy peach-colored number when we first meet her (costumes by Eric Becker) she is soon gracefully crossing her legs atop her desk, seducing her pupils with both a great pair of gams and the promise that they too can be as attractive and interesting as her someday. 

But the most attractive and interesting aspect of Nixon's performance is that the seduction doesn't register beyond the lip of the stage.  This is a fragile Brodie, quick to lose her composure, who is most likely giving her best impersonation of the artists and intellectuals she met on her trip to Italy.  Her efforts may work on school kids and the weak men blinded by her pretty face and figure, but the audience, watching a subtle, natural performance, is no longer sucked in by blazing theatrics (by both the actress and the character) and we can now be horrified by Brodie's capabilities instead of being entertained by a future grand dame's performance. 

But the unchewed scenery exposes what a mediocre adaptation this is of a rather brilliant story.  At two hours and forty minutes, it's Allen's overwriting and not Elliott's staging that contributes to the evening's sluggishness.  Her decision to tell the story in flashback, as the adult memory of one of her students, adds little to the play but time.  The plot peters out, rather than concludes, as Allen does not include Spark's ending.  And though the ensemble of supporting players does fine work, they have trouble filling holes in the text.  Miss Brodie's interest in a sexual relationship with the dullard Mr. Lowther (an appropriately dreary John Pankow) is never satisfactorily explained.  Kazan impressively overcomes character underdevelopment and personal overexposure in her role as the student who defies the teacher. 

  Perhaps Lisa Emory benefits the most from the less showy interpretation of the title role.  As the brusque, matter-of-fact headmistress trying to get Brodie to conform, she now seems rather heroic instead of a spoilsport.  Another beneficiary is Coster, who noticeably heats up the stage as the painter so obsessed with Brodie that every portrait he paints looks like her. 

Although Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie could certainly make for a fine play, Jay Presson Allen's stage adaptation is better served when treated as a star vehicle.  And though New York audiences have seen Cynthia Nixon grow up on stage, she's an actress who is rarely called upon to "be a star." There is much to be admired in her Jean, as there is in the entire production, but the play itself is not what you would call prime. 

 Photos by Carol Rosegg: Top:Cynthia Nixon
Center: Halley Wegryn Gross, Sarah Steele, Zoe Kazan, Betsy Hogg and Cynthia Nixon
Bottom:Cynthia Nixon and Lisa Emery

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