Southern Comfort
Someone once sent me a card that said, “friends are the family you choose." This is the theme of our very enjoyable experience in seeing Southern Comfort in its final week at The Public Theater - so I’ll write quickly.
The story takes place in a tiny town in rural Georgia, not exactly a haven for this small community of transgender characters and their various relations. Southern Comfort is based on a 2001 documentary of the same name. The documentary Grey Gardens, the story of Jackie O’s relations living on the fringes of life and society, was unexpectedly brought to life in a Broadway musical. Similarly, this is a true, documentary based story that has been put to music and thus given life.
A folk and bluegrass group that is onstage throughout the performance provides the music. Several band members wandering into and out of the action fill various speaking roles. Our main characters are Robert and Lola Cola. Robert, played by Annette O’Toole, the red-headed beauty from numerous movies and TV shows (my favorite of which was as Nick Nolte’s love interest in 48 Hours) is a man in the terminal stages of ovarian cancer - ironic, yes - remember this is art imitating life. Her gender transformation is extraordinary as is her acting and, unexpectedly, her singing.
Annette O'Toole as Robert
Lola, her lover is played by none other than a man among men, Jeff McCarthy, last seen by me as Don Quixote over the summer past at the Barrington Stage (and recently featured in a New York Times piece Jeff McCarthy: Actor, Artist, Beast, Beauty). Lola, a transvestite, seamlessly transfers back and forth between the role of Robert’s lover and her day job as the owner of a heating and air conditioning business.
Southern Comfort refers the actual largest annual gathering of the transgender community in the world. It is Mecca for our cast of characters and that, along with the meaning and power of family (both good and bad), is the foundation of our story. As zany and offbeat as it all sounds, it turns out to beautifully provide a heart-warming story that brings the audience in and makes the emotions something we can all share.
Joel outside The Public Theater
All of our players are excellent. Similar to the pang of pain we feel upon leaving a wonderful family gathering, you will feel a twinge of that as you file out of the theater. It is a bold, wonderful and challenging story that is mind expanding in many ways.
Why we went: Jeff McCarthy, Annette O'Toole, The Public Theater
Review by JMG
Side Notes:
We met up with our cousin, Nancy, after the play at Cloister Cafe. Located in the East Village, the stained-glass windows and a greenery-lined courtyard bring to mind medieval times. The menu is eclectic and everything we ordered was delicious - smoked salmon salad for Melissa, pita and baba ganoush for Nancy, and chicken marsala for Joel.
