My first impression of “Joan,” a play about Joan Rivers playing at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA, was that it felt like a juke box musical without any music.
The assumption rang true after reading the biography of playwright Daniel Goldstein who won a prestigious award for being the “most promising musical theater librettist”. Two of his collaborations, “Unknown Soldier” and “Row” have been produced at Williamstown Theatre Festival.
“Joan” is like seeing one of those lazy juke box shows that adds fabricated drama to selectively chosen highlights about a career in show business. Such shows try to redeem the ticket price with exciting music connected to the talent.
The few comic moments in “Joan” cannot redeem an hour and forty minute self-indulgent show that feels like it takes three hours to sit through. And there’s no intermission offering the opportunity to flee.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about “Joan” is its shallow, dispassionate approach to Rivers’ life. As many people despised her comedy as liked it. Still, she had a full career, thanks to her ability to reinvent herself to new audiences. She did have the ability to make you laugh.
Love her or hate her, Rivers was a driven woman with problems of self-image which she covered with acerbic, bordering on cruel, wit. Her life was tempered by issues that might have been of her own making. Little of this is explored in “Joan.”
This work feels like a biography written by a press agent as it’s presented as bullet points of a career. You get highlights, not insights.
Young insecure suburban girl enters the field of comedy performing in clubs in Greenwich Village. In the play, it’s suggested her commitment to comedy cost her her first marriage. (The time span in the play is apparently an exaggeration as her 1955 marriage was annulled also in 1955.)
She later betrays her mentor Johnny Carson by starting her own late night show on a competitive network, without notifying him beforehand. After her producer husband Edgar Rosenberg is fired from her show, he commits suicide.
None of the above are spoilers. They are facts that anyone who, even a decade after her death at age 81, knows intimately. Rivers was not a reclusive, private person.
The only thing worse than spending time being told what you already know is not using that information to make drama from the material. “Joan” lacks any insight to Rivers’ comic vision or understanding about what drove her. Absent are signs of honest remorse at some of these terrible events. You will not leave the production knowing - or liking - Joan Rivers any better than you did when you entered the theater.
The production originated at South Coast Repertory in California. It is directed by David Ivers, the company’s artistic director. Three of the four actors are members of the original cast. This makes for a smooth, if bland, night of theater. The production values support the meager content offered in the material.
Incidentally, the production’s Executive Director is Rivers’ daughter, Melissa Rivers.
“Joan” continues at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA through August 17. For tickets and schedule information go to barringtonstageco.org
Bob Goepfert is theater reviewer for the Troy Record.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
