Review Roundup: AVA: THE SECRET CONVERSATIONS Starring Elizabeth McGovern Opens at City Center

Following a run at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, AVA: The Secret Conversations, written by and starring Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern is making its New York premiere! Read reviews for the production!

The production, directed by Tony Award nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel and produced by Karl Sydow, will also feature Aaron Costa Ganis.

At the height of the Golden Age of Cinema, starlet Ava Gardner sat for a series of interviews with writer Peter Evans for him to glean the juicy details about her life story, her marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, and her turbulent relationship to Howard Hughes. Initially barred from publication, Evans’ account of a bygone era was published twenty-five years later with permission from Gardner’s estate and is now reimagined on stage.

With AVA: The Secret Conversations, McGovern returns to the NY stage for the first time since 2017. Best known for her role as Lady Cora in the “Downton Abbey” series and films, McGovern will be seen this fall on screen in the sequel, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. She also stars in Anne Rice’s “The Talamasca” on AMC this fall.

Scenic design is by David Meyer, costume design is by Toni-Leslie James, lighting design is by Amith Chandrashaker, sound design is by Cricket S. Myers, projection design is by Alex Basco Koch, and wig design is by Matthew Armentrout. Production Stage Manager is Avery Trunko. General management is by Pemberley Productions.

Charles Isherwood, The Wall Street Journal: Her performance captures with precision the voice that emerges in the book: mercurial; still vain but gloomy about her diminished looks; instinctively or merely reflexively seductive and flirtatious. But, more enjoyably, also self-deprecating, realistic about her wayward path through life, and, as noted, flaunting a vocabulary heavily larded with salty humor. It’s an accomplished performance that captures the woman in all her complexities and contradictions.

Austin Fimmano, New York Theatre Guide: Nearly always barefoot, McGovern shines in Ava’s skin, relishing the quirkiness and entitlement that comes with having been famous and beautiful. (Argues Evans’s agent, played by Chris Thorn, when the journalist tries to protest the ghostwriting assignment: ‘Of course she’s bonkers! She was the biggest star in the world!’)

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: McGovern delivers a capable performance, laced with dark humor, with Gardner flirting provocatively with her interviewer and reflecting ruefully on the failed relationships in her life… But she’s never quite convincing as the legendary beauty, and the writing… fails to provide much depth or illumination.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: What Gardner is shorn of in McGovern’s piece are too many of the quotes that might have come up in a straightforward interview. That’s way too unfortunate. Here for the record is only one lively remark: ‘I do owe Mickey one thing: he taught me how much I enjoyed sex.’

Elysa Gardner, The New York Sun: Ms. McGovern’s performance is immaculate in its detail, from her alternately slinky and strained movements, evoking Ava at different stages of life, to the way her ultra-polished, almost stilted pronunciation… can slide back into a Southern drawl when conversation turns to her youth, or when she’s piqued.

Matthew Wexler, 1 Minute Critic: McGovern acutely embodies Gardner’s magnetism and toxicity. Foul-mouthed and flirty in her youth, frail and ferocious in later years, the Oscar-nominated actress (both subject and star) is a force to be reckoned with.

Average Rating: 68.3%