Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins

Geffen Playhouse

Los Angeles

(310) 208-5454

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It’s no stretch to think that journalist Molly Ivins “might have felt at home on a stage,” said Les Spindle in Backstage​.com. The late Texas-based columnist possessed “larger-than-life charisma” as she exercised her talent for skewering wayward politicians both in her home state and on the national stage. But while the role could easily lend itself to caricature, Kathleen Turner avoids that pitfall. Instead, Turner offers a “finely shaded portrait” that makes the most of Ivins’s boisterous wit while “tapping into the script’s occasional opportunities for poignancy.” Turner’s “joie de vivre proves infectious,” even as the play itself, written by sisters Margaret and Allison Engel, becomes disjointed and episodic.

This is actually less a play than a “straightforward tribute to Ivins,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times. Still, “if you can get past some of the hokier dramatic touches,” it’s a pleasure to spend an evening with Turner’s re-creation of the brash pundit. The husky-voiced actress has a bit of trouble duplicating Ivins’s Texas drawl, but she helps us see why the writer was so feisty. The script at least avoids painting its subject as a saint—Ivins was a heavy drinker who had a short temper and often frustrated her editors. Yet the way she used anger to, in her words, make herself “a pain in the ass to whatever powers come to be” was unforgettable. All the more so now thanks to Turner’s memorable portrayal.