It is a moving tour-de-force portrait of a woman who resists being silenced by embracing her tenacity, humor, and fiery imagination.
Call Me Izzy is a darkly comedic story about one woman in rural Louisiana who has a secret that is both her greatest gift and her only way out. It is a moving, tour de force portrait of a woman who resists being silenced by embracing her tenacity, humor, and fiery imagination.
Smart’s performance lives up to her name: measured and nuanced, both vulnerable and full of rage, depending on which of the handful of characters she’s inhabiting. Her adjustments, under the direction of Sarna Lapine, shift seamlessly from one to the next. Perhaps it’s the clipped cadence of friend Rosalie, or a broadening of the shoulders as she embodies Izzy’s menacing husband. Smart pulls us into the conversation—not an easy task in a 1,000-seat theatre.
As grim as all this sounds – and the lighting design by Donald Holder and sound design by Beth Lake never let us forget Izzy’s captivity – Smart draws us in with an amazing grace and good humor that in real life would make for fine best friend material. No, she never dismisses the pain that underscores her existence, and when good things happen – she makes a friend in the trailer park, who encourages her to come along to an adult literature class at the local college, and to get a library card in secret that serves as a passport for imagination – we know the risk, but knowing doesn’t prepare us for the shocking “whack” that Smart verbalizes when the cruel husband learns at least one of her secrets.
| 2025 | Broadway |
Broadway |
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