by Michele Markarian
“Who is Eartha Mae?” by Jade Wheeler. Directed by Caitlin Doran. Scenic Design by Esme Allen; Costume Design by Kathleen Doyle; Wig Design by Rayo Cole; Lighting Design by Laura Hillebrand; Sound Design by Jason Rosenman; Properties by Joe Stallone. Presented by Bridge Repertory Theater, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, 41 2nd Street, Cambridge, through February 23.
You know you’re in for an intimate experience when producing artistic director Olivia D’Ambrosio urges you, during her charmingly disarming curtain speech, to introduce yourself to your closest neighbor. Something about the gesture of doing so is relaxing, open, and prepares you well to receive the very talented and engaging Jade Wheeler, in her entertaining and revealing one woman show, “Who is Eartha Mae?”
As the show opens, Eartha Kitt is getting ready to perform in front of a London audience. Backstage, she tells us, “’Who is the real you?’ someone once asked me.” Answering her own question in the third person, “She was an orphan until an audience adopted her”. Eartha Kitt feels that her adoptive audience, us, is deserving to know Eartha Mae, the underside of the sexy and self-confident Eartha Kitt. It’s a good, well written device that allows the actress to use the audience to tell her story to. And what a story! Eartha Mae, born of a white man and a black woman, was sent by her mother to live with various abusive aunts, as her mother’s boyfriend didn’t like her “yalla” color. One of the aunts lived in New York, which was an exciting place for a girl from South Carolina to discover. After running away and working in a factory, Eartha Mae eventually found herself dancing for Katherine Dunham’s dance troupe. The last leg of the tour was Paris, where Eartha Mae was told by Dunham, “Your chest is too large. You’ll never be a real dancer”. Eartha Mae decided to stay in Paris. Soon she was headlining shows. And in a clever turn of script and direction, we see Eartha Mae become Eartha Kitt.
It’s a timely piece, and a wonderful showcase for the talented Wheeler, who is a triple threat – she sings, dances, and acts. Although I found her too conventionally beautiful to completely pull off the more exotic-looking Kitt, she does a terrific job of playing both sides of the performer – the self-confident persona and the vulnerable orphan. Wheeler’s voice is stunning. Like Kitt, she sings in different languages effortlessly. Should Wheeler ever decide to stage a cabaret show as herself, I would be there in a heartbeat. Music director and talented pianist Seulah Noh is the perfect match for Wheeler’s voice and movements. Director Doran uses the cavernous space well; Wheeler moves from the balcony to the stage to the floor with ease and grace. The high ceilings and higher spaces make you feel as if you’re backstage in a large, London theater.
“Who is Eartha Mae?” makes you realize just how ahead of her time Eartha Kitt was. After a luncheon at the White House, where she criticized the Vietnam War and caused Ladybird Johnson to burst into tears, Kitt’s career is derailed. She returned to Europe, where sensibilities were more rational and less racist. Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen – they too had spoken out about the war, but only Kitt earned these words from President Johnson: “You erase that woman. I never want to see her again.” She comes back during the Carter years. Neither fully accepted by blacks or whites, she says, “Eartha Kitt has no color, and that is how barriers are broken”.
“This girl should write a full production, with characters, and get it on Broadway,” said my friend after the show. “Like ‘Beautiful’. I think people would see it, don’t you?”
“I think so,” I said. Jade Wheeler, if you’re reading…
For tickets and information, go to: http://bridgerep.org/
