The Lady From Dubuque

The Pershing Square Signature Center is a new building designed by Frank Gehry that encompasses an entire city block on west 42nd Street.  It has 3 main stage theaters, a studio theater, rehearsal studio, cafe, bar, bookstore and concierge desk.  Begun in 2005 the center has committed to providing a ticket incentive for the next 20 years; so seats are $25 for the initial run of every production.  They devote an entire season to the work of one playwright, and there may be as many as 9 playwrights in residence at any one time.
This season has showcased Athol Fugard.  The plays of his they are doing are 'Blood Knot', 'My Children My Africa', and 'The Train Driver'.  They are also doing Will Eno's Title and Deed, Kenneth Lonergan's Medieval Play, and Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque.

The play was excellent.  I had seen 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' on broadway with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin.  I've also seen Broadway productions of 'Seascape' [2 productions], 'Three Tall Women', 'The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia' and some others off-Broadway.  Virginia Woolf is my favorite because the language is so beautifully poetic, and the characters are remarkably original and neoteric.  'The Lady' would be #2.  It has the bite of Virginia Woolf, the sparing.  It has the humor, the drama.  It's more overtly metaphysical then his plays that I have seen.  But the early revelation that the main character is dying of cancer empties the play of some of it's drama.  Still a wonderful show.  The name performer is Jane Alexander, who is The Lady From Dubuque, not one of the great Albee roles for an actress.  She and her companion [very well done by Peter Francis James] are mysterious visitors, who give comfort and eventual release to Jo.  The great 'Albee Actress Role' goes to Laila Robins as Jo.  Jo is hard, biting, sarcastic, cruel and dying.  I have not seen Ms. Robins before and that is my loss.  She is exceptional: compelling, sympathetic and always real.  I have been having seasonal allergies and Kidney stones so I almost cancelled but I am glad I went.  I had 2 hours without pain.
The title, as one character makes reference, comes from Herbert Ross, the founder of the New Yorker.  When he was asked who he thought his readership was, he said:  "Certainly, not the lady from Dubuque".