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.
All that is to say “Call Me Izzy” is not a total bust, especially given Smart’s formidable acting chops. Monologic shows like this with no explicit person being addressed require deeply conversational kinds of performance, as if the audiences were all your best friend who just happens to be outside the bathroom door. Smart is skilled and experienced enough to forge such a bond. I believed her entirely as a woman from small-town Louisiana capable of both great stoicism (often a feature of those in abusive relationships) and profound artistic yearning. Her performance is somewhat under-scaled and under-vocalized for so large a Broadway house (and why are we here in so huge a space, one wonders), but then it has been 20 years and the deeply honest Smart is clearly immersed in her character, with nary a note of condescension.
'Call Me Izzy’ offers pockets of humor, and an opportunity for Smart to demonstrate her versatility as an actress. There is even at least one poem that Izzy recites that is worth listening to. But a play that revolves around domestic violence evokes comparison to such seminal dramas as ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ and such popular musicals as ‘The Color Purple’ and ‘Waitress.’ This new play, which veers between the predictable and the implausible, adds little to the conversation, and pales beside that canon.
| 2025 | Broadway |
Broadway |
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