A renowned character actress and the world’s most celebrated sex symbol form the most unexpected of friendships as a grown son celebrates his mother’s memory in Luke Yankee’s fascinating, informative, deeply moving Marilyn, Mom, and Me, now getting its long-awaited World Premiere at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.

 The Mom in question is Oscar-winning character actress Eileen Heckart, who shared the screen with blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe in 1956’s Bus Stop, just one of Heckart’s twenty film roles in a career that comprised nearly two dozen Broadway appearances and countless TV guest spots.

We first meet Eileen (Laura Gardner) a few months before her 80th birthday when Luke (Brian Rohan), then in his mid-thirties, approaches his cancer-battling mother on a mission to learn more about her life and career.

It takes more than a bit of friendly persuasion from Luke (“I feel like it’s going to help me understand us better”) for Mom to finally acquiesce to her son’s request, but acquiesce she does, and we cut to the first of multiple flashbacks, one that has director Joshua Logan (Noah Wagner) cajoling “Heckie” into accepting the role of Vera, specifically written for the film version, opposite Monroe’s aspiring chantoosie Chérie.

Cut to the film’s table read, one at which Marilyn (Alisha Soper) shows up two hours late, her iconically breathy voice replaced by a nasal southern twang, Marilyn’s acting coach having advised her to stay in character on set throughout the shoot, much to “I-am-not-a-method-actress” Eileen’s dismay.

Hardly an auspicious start for a friendship between a 37-year-old character actress and a 26-year-old superstar, but Marilyn’s charm, and her vivacity, and her genuine sweetness prove impossible to resist despite the misgivings of Eileen’s fellow character actress bestie Rosetta LeNoire (Jacquelin Lorraine Schofield).

Monroe is, after all, a star with the power to insist, over director Logan’s strenuous objections, that Paula Strasberg (Schofield again) be on salary (at about $17,000 a week in today’s currency) as her on-set drama coach (“Marilyn, don’t you see how that would be like having two directors?” he begs to no avail.)

 And forget about getting started on time, or having a scene cut and printed in less than a dozen takes, or persuading Marilyn to simply be herself between scenes.

And yet scenes do indeed get shot, and a film does indeed get made, and Marilyn does indeed show real acting chops, perhaps for the first time in her career.

Playwright Yankee gives us a Marilyn with a heart as big as her smile and the determination to right injustices when she sees them, as when she persuades night club owner Charlie Morrison (Wagner) to invite jazz great Ella Fitzgerald (Schofield) to headline the Mocambo, something he had previously refused to do simply because of Fitzgerald’s girth.

All of this adds up to a play that celebrates two amazing women, one remarkable friendship, and a son’s undying love for a mother whose own upbringing meant holding back as much as she gave.

Director Yankee elicits five all-around fabulous performances, beginning with a possibly career-best Gardner, who positively disappears into the irascible Eileen, trademark rasp and all, Soper matching her costar every step of the way, her exquisite, fully realized Marilyn the next best thing to reincarnation.

Rohan does subtle, authentic, touching work as the playwright-director himself, and Schofield and Wagner merit cheers of their own for distinguishing between a grand total of ten roles including Wagner’s Arthur Miller and Laurance Olivier.

Dan Volonte’s multipurpose set (backed by a series of vibrant, scene-setting projections), Donna Ruzika’s vivid lighting design, Dave Mickey’s accomplished sound design, and Patty and Gordon Briles’ just-right properties are all topnotch, though this time round it’s Kimberly DeShazo’s transformative costumes, and Anthony Gagliardi’s character-defining hair and wigs that steal the show.

Marilyn, Mom, and Me is produced by caryn desai. Michael Gribble is assistant director. Don Hill is production stage manager and Jessie Marie Bender is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA and Richie Ferris, CSA. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Like 2011’s Oscar-nominated My Week With Marilyn, Mom, and Me treats audiences to a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse at a screen legend as seen through the eyes of someone who knew and loved her. It’s also the best possible love letter any mother could ever wish for from a son.

International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach.
www.InternationalCityTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
February 24, 2024
Photos: Paul Kennedy

Tags: Eileen Heckart, International City Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Luke Yankee, Marilyn Monroe