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Double Exposure
by Deidre McFadyen
Andy and Edie reviewed June 5, 2004
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| Thomas Blake and Misha Sedgwick |
| Photo Credit:Peter Braunstein |
| Andy and Edie, Chelsea Girl Productions' new play about the 1960s pop artist and his doomed muse Edie Sedgwick, opened on a wave of publicity that would have made Warhol proud. New York Magazine and the Post's Page 6 recounted the stampede of actresses who answered the casting call for Edie, the most sensational of the female doppelgangers to grace the Factory, Warhol's studio-cum-party den. The play ranks No. 1 on Vanity Fair's "30 Things to Do in June." Page 6 even ran a second item on how playwright Peter Braunstein was briefly committed to a mental hospital by his then-girlfriend following a "post-coital clash."
Don't trust the hype. Andy and Edie is a sprawling, curiously flaccid play that falls short as both drama and cultural history. At three hours, it strains under a surfeit of characters (an uneven cast of 21 actors playing 33 roles), and extraneous scenes and dialogue.
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| Thomas Blake and Misha Sedgwick |
| Photo Credit:Peter Braunstein |
| The germinating idea held promise. Warhol met Edie in 1965, when his best years as an artist were already behind him and he was turning his attention to experimental filmmaking. Throughout his career, Warhol presided as impresario over an entourage of beautiful people and eccentrics who did his bidding--and created much of his art--while they basked in his reflected glory. The elfin Edie, who died of a drug overdose at age 28, became his new "superstar" for a year. She gave Andy the sheen of beauty and old money that he craved, while he gave her the fame and public adoration that she most desired.
The play, gamely directed by Jessica Rotondi, opens with dueling monologues about whether Warhol should be blamed for Edie's death, delivered by Warhol himself, Vogue's Diana Vreeland, Factory denizen Brigid Polk (delightfully caustic Pat Ceasar), and George Plimpton (kudos to Ben Beckley for his spot-on vocal mimicry). The pair's story then unfolds in piecemeal scenes that generate little momentum.
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| Thomas Blake and Misha Sedgwick |
| Photo Credit:Peter Braunstein |
| The large ensemble struggled with their thin parts. Misha Sedgwick [no relation] offers glimmers of Edie Sedgwick's magnetism and sometimes plumbs the darkest reaches of her character, but mostly settles for the sex kitten's purr. Thomas Blakes's Warhol (whose blond hair strangely stuck out under his silver wig) is a wan, whiny man with little charisma or evident genius.
The play's Factory is a pale facsimile of the overtly gay and sexually brazen original. Kara Zeignon's black cubes--stacked in different ways in each scene--serve as flexible building blocks for the set, but she receives little help from Scott Sullins's tame lighting and Christopher Rummel's unimaginative sound design (mostly pop songs played to bridge the numerous set changes).
Andy and Edie is most convincing in charting Edie's downward spiral. In one of the most compelling segments, two men hector Edie, drugged out and wearing only panties, to confess her darkest fears on film, revealing both the pathos of the character and the psychic invasion of Warhol's prying camera. But eluding capture is the play's real quarry: that enigmatic chameleon of an artist who was happier as voyeur than object of our gaze.
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Shetler Theater
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Category: Drama
Written by: Peter Braunstein
Directed by: Jessica Rotondi
Produced by: Peter Braunstein
Opened: June 3, 2004
Closed: June 13, 2004
Running Time: 180 minutes with one intermission
Theater: Shetler Theater
Address: 244 West 54th St., 12th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Yahoo! Maps Directions
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Tickets: $20.00
Preview night 6/3, we will be offering a discounted rate of $15 per ticket for non-press guests.
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Creative Team
Written by: Peter Braunstein
Directed by: Jessica Rotondi
Produced by: Peter Braunstein
Light Designer: Scott Sullins
Sound Designer: Christopher Rummel
Set Designer: Kara Zeignon
Costume Designer: Rabiah Troncelliti
Cast
Misha Sedgwick as Edie Sedgwick
Thomas Blake as Any Warhol
Pat Ceasar as Brigid Polk
Bryan Rucker as Paul Morrissey
Paul Newport as David Bourdon/Edie's Director
Jesse Rider as Paul America/Fred Hughes
Adam Cohen as Bob Dylan/Minty
Barbara Drum Sullivan as Diana Vreeland/Mean Nurse
Lee Briggs as Gerard Malanga
Morgan Breen as Viva
Ben Beckley as George Plimpton
John Miller as Dr. Robert
Jessica Johnson as Ingrid Superstar/Suzanne, D.V.'s secretary
Ethan Aronoff as Ondine/Mumford/Edie's Cameraman
Bill Drain as Fuzzy, Edie's Father/Dr. Fielding
Bettina Bryant as Nico
Sarah Bunker as Valerie Solanas/Andy's Nurse
David Dotterer as Lester Persky/Andy's Doctor
Meredith Ross as Young Edie/Andy's Nurse
Adrienne Gandolfi as Susan Bottomly/Waitress at Max's
Myra Thibault as Susan Bottomly (2)
Crew
Stage Manager: Katy Moore
Assistant Stage Manager: Brad Gore
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