Primal Scenes' SIREN'S HEART Continues 7th Month Off-Broadway at the Actors Temple
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SIREN'S HEART - Norma Jean & Marilyn in Purgatory, presented by Primal Scenes Productions, continues the seventh month of its open run in February, with one performance a week, Saturdays at 5pm. SIREN'S HEART, which opened on August 5, 2012, 50 years to the day that Marilyn Monroe died, is directed by Lissa Moira. This one-woman Off-Broadway play with music, written & composed by Walt Stepp, stars Louisa Bradshaw, with Gregory Nissen as Musical Director & Arranger & Donald Garverick as Choreographer. Set is by David "Zen" Mansley, Costumes by Ryan Matthieu Smith & Lighting by William Giraldo.
SIREN'S HEART is not the too-familiar victim narrative about Marilyn Monroe. This musical fantasy imagines her as Norma Jean Baker, still alive & looking great in Purgatory these past 50 years. Expiating unnamed sins through the study & education she always wanted, she says she's been in "celestial rehab" & she's a much happier woman now. Now that the crushing weight of being an American Goddess has been lifted, she's glad to be "Normal Norma." She's unhaunted & undaunted now.
Now, she reflects on her life in song: "If You Could See Me As I Am," a torchy ballad to Arthur Miller; "So Sorry, Joe," her apology to Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, the Love of her life; "The Mask," a sexy disco number, based on the poem by Yeats; "Looking At Her," gazing at the stranger within & "Love is Blond," a thrilling , gutsy blues number. To the child she lost, she sings a Victorian lullaby: "Margaret, Are You Grieving, Over Goldengrove Unleaving?"; & "The Shiksa Strip," an ode to Jewish Boys ("I know it wasn't your decision/ But I just love your circumcision") by the star of the show, Louisa Bradshaw, rounds out this sampling of the older, wiser Norma Jean's reflections on a Siren's Heart.
Louisa Bradshaw has had a career as an actress & chanteuse that spans the globe, starring in her own show at the premier Berlin cabaret & varieté venues, BarJeder Vernuff & the Chameleon. In NYC, she has worked with TONY Award-winning director/choreographer George Faison on If This Hat Could Talk & starred as the Countess Analise in Who Murdered Love? Other credits include Donald Arrington's If This Ain't It & Walt Stepp's Only Love Will Do. Film credits include John Gallagher's Cupidity & Michael Bergmann's La Primavera. On TV, she played Fay in "All My Children."
The show plays Saturdays @ 5pm at the Actors Temple Theatre ~ 339 West 47th Street. Prices: $35.50-$49.50. For reservations, visit www.telecharge.com or call (212)239-6200.
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