The Oldest Profession Review Opening Night Jan 5, 2008

The Oldest Profession Review Opening Night Jan 5, 2008
By LeeAnn Sharpe

The Algonquin Theater Company presents “The Oldest Profession”, Paula Vogel’s pert and passionate play, directed by Robert Harper at Phoenix Theatre’s Little Theatre, January 4-20, 2008, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday matinees.

First, I must be honest and qualify myself as a lifetime fan of Ms.Gaston. So know I will be biased about anything she does. But from what I hear and see, I’m not the only one. A lifetime of acting, directing and teaching reveal a professional performance, second only to her charisma and beauty, now more pronounced than ever.

Pulitzer Prize winning Playwright Vogel describes “The Oldest Profession” as her only pattern play. She is successful in the overlay of painful experiences with humor. Five acts set in a New York City park in the early 1980’s follows the lives of five over-the-hill hookers sitting on a bench near the Broadway and 72nd Street subway station. Their enterprise not only continues to lose customers, but its own members. And so, the five "blackbirds" become four, then three, then two until only one is left, and the park bench scenes end with a song from the last departed, reminiscent of their New Orleans bordello days long past. Costumes slip back to cinched up bordello bustiers and sexy stockings, a wardrobe that took guts for these actresses to wear, especially in such and intimate theatre setting.

The award winning cast of five thoroughly professional actresses, who manage to be funny and emerge as real people who tug at our heartstrings, include Mae (Sharon Collar), Edna (Jacqueline Gaston), Ursula (Barbara McGrath), Lillian (Judy Rollings), Vera (Jo Ann Yeoman) and Piano Man (Toby Yatso). Director is Robert Kolby Harper.

Scene One: A sunny day in October, one week before the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 features "Love for Sale" by Cole Porter sung by Lillian (Judy Rollings). Scene Two: A week later, a day with a hint of winter and "I Am Built for Comfort, I Am Not Built for Speed" by Chester Burnett sung by Mae (Sharon Collar). After Intermission, Scene Three: Three months later, a chilly winter's day "If I Can't Sell It, I'll Sit on it, 'Cause I'm not Going to Give it Away" by Hill/Razaf sung by Ursula (Barbara McGrath). Scene Four: A crisp day in summer, several months later. And last Scene Five: Many months later with "Come Up and See Me Sometime" by Johnny Mercer and Robert Emmett Dolan sung by Edna (Jacqueline Gaston). And the finale is "On the Sunny Side of the Street" by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields sung by Vera (Jo Ann Yeoman).

Sharon Collar (Mae) has a long and varied career in theatre, film and television. Her professionalism served her well when opening night flubs, she confessed, resulted in “minor on the fly rewrites to the script.” This reviewer never noticed, and the mark of a great actress was it never showed in the performance and her fellow actresses never revealed the rewrites either. Mae is the Madam at the start of the show and manages the finances of all the ladies, who plied their trade above Zabar’s on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Collar portrays her as a caring madam concerned for her ladies long term safety and well being. They live pretty well under her wing, but regret their diminishing clientele, as the old gents die or move to Florida. They consider advertising in The Village Voice or getting the AARP Mailing List. In the end, Mae must cope with Alzheimer’s.

Judy Rollings (Lillian) Judy is a founding member of Actors Theatre of Phoenix and served as its Artistic Director for nine years. She is presently Director of the Lunch Time Theatre at the Herberger Theater Center. Lillian an aspiring actress, is the first to die, surprising the other ladies as they never expected her to be the first to go. She reappears in spirit as the others follow. Rollings has a great voice and kicks off the first musical number in the show "Love for Sale".

Barbara McGrath (Ursula) first acting at age nine, has been acting, teaching, and directing in the Valley for over thirty years, and has received four ariZoni awards. Her character Ursula is Mae’s antagonist, and is thrilled to take over when Mae departs. Her investment scheme has Edna and Vera irate, knowing their retirement is lost. McGrath portrays Ursula’s all business know it all ambition well.

Jacqueline Gaston (Edna) an actress since age three with over 200 shows in the Valley, a Charter Member of the Algonquin Company. She says, “I thought I was auditioning for a different part. When I learned I would be singing and dancing at my age… well I figured it's my last shot.” Gaston’s portrayal of Edna brought balance and stability to the production. Edna played off each character, especially when the cast had been whittled down to just Edna and Vera. Their interaction was truly sad and bittersweet; seeing even McDonald’s had no place for an old hooker when the manager finds her "May I help you?" too seductive.

JoAnn Yeoman (Vera) Yeoman is a Professor of Practice and Musical Theater Specialist at ASU and also works with the Arizona AGMA ensemble, the Sonoran Desert Chorale. and can be heard as co-host of KBAQ's ASU in Concert. Vera is the slower quiet one of the group, but the last to go. Her life reaches the depths of poverty and brings to light the plight of the homeless and unappreciated in society. Yeoman brings a deep and beautiful tenderness to a woman whose life had been hard and desperate in the end. She had chances for stability when she gets a proposal, but makes the mistake of inviting the man’s daughters to the ceremony. They quickly whisk him into a retirement home. Yeoman’s beautiful powerful and sensitive voice was the perfect finale.

Toby Yatso (Piano Man) recently finished graduate work in musical theatre, music theory and bassoon performance at ASU. His piano and few lines carried the production well from scene to scene.

Vogel uses the characters to send a message of elderly prostitutes as a way to talk of the economic situation of women in a male society, the need for security in old age, the fears of death and change, and the age-old notion that a woman's best, and sometimes only, bargaining chip is her body. The characters reminisce about their past in New Orleans’ famed red-light district, Storyville, when courtesy and elegant houses with piano players were the order of the day. They lived well and cared for one another. But now they needed to be responsible for themselves and the result of not doing so was the sad desperation of an elderly homeless woman.

I very much enjoyed this production of The Algonquin Theater Company’s “The Oldest Profession” and encourage all to attend. Rated for “adults” subject matter.
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