LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE REIGNS

Nora: “I hate my purse. I absolutely hate it. This is for women who hate their purses, who are bad at purses, who understand that their purses are reflections of negligent housekeeping, hopeless disorganization, a chronic inability to throw anything away, and an ongoing failure to handle the obligations of a demanding and difficult accessory -- the obligation, for example, that it should in some way match what you're wearing.”

Although the above is not the opening “reading”, it’s the funniest monologue from the Off-Broadway play, “Love, Loss And What I Wore”. Directed by Karen Carpenter, it is a collection of stories based on the best-selling book by Ilene Beckerman, as well as on the recollections of the Ephrons’ friends. Like the popular book, Love, Loss, and What I Wore uses clothing and accessories and the memories they trigger to tell funny and often poignant stories that all women can relate to.

There is a cast of five rotating all-star actors performing in four-week cycles. The month of March has Carol Kane (although Monique Fowler subbed for her in this performance), Jayne Houdyshell, Fran Drescher (who got the role of Nora), Didi Conn and Natasha Lyonne, each sitting on a chair, dressed in black, with a stand set in front of them to hold the script. Some have memorized much of their monologue or sometimes, dialogue, but even with the reading, the show is more than the trying-to-find a-backer presentation.

Back to Nora. She then describes the contents as “a mess of loose TicTacs, Advils, lipsticks without tops, little bits of tobacco even though there has been no smoking going on for at least ten years, tampons that have come loose from their wrappings, boarding passes from long-forgotten airplane trips, hotel keys from God-knows-what-hotel, leaky ballpoint pens, Kleenexes that either have or have not been used but there's no way to be sure one way or another.”

Nora continues with talking about not having a purse. “When I went out at night, I managed with only a lipstick, a $20 bill and a credit card tucked into my bra. But unfortunately, there were times when I needed to leave the house with more than just the basics. So I bought an overcoat with large pockets. This, I realize, turned my coat into a purse, but it was still better than carrying a purse.”

Back to more about the contents of a purse, “there's a half-drunk bottle of water, along with several snacks you saved from an airplane trip just in case you ever found yourself starving and unaccountably craving a piece of cheese that tastes like plastic. Perhaps you can fit your sneakers into your purse. Yes, by God, you can! Before you know it, everything you own is in your purse. You could flee the Cossacks with your purse. But when you open it up, you can't find a thing.” What she ends up with is a $26 blue and yellow vinyl “purse” – a Metrocard bag.”

The show actually opens with Gingy’s story (the either Kane or Fowler role) as she sits on the left. Her stories center a great deal on clothing with visuals of the clothing on posters placed there via a stagehand. At one point, Gingy shows us how to draw a figure as part of the audience’s hand out of a piece of paper that says, “Draw A Picture Of Yourself in your favorite item of clothing and tell us about it! It gets handed in and may be used in their lobby display or on their website.

Along with the talk of clothing, the subject of relationship losses is the basic topic for the approximate 30 scenes with no intermission. Then there are the most amusing talks about the body.

In this production Didi Conn and Fran Drescher stood out the most, not only for the humor as scripted but also for owning their character so well. The script had actually called for mentioning that Jewish girls don’t pierce their ears and at one point, Drescher’s earring fell off. She got off the chair, picked it up and said, “See, Jewish girls don’t pierce their ears”.

The production will continue to be performed by a rotating cast of five all-star actors, who will perform in four-week cycles.

A portion of the production’s proceeds will benefit Dress for Success, a charity that provides work clothing and job support for low-income women. Audience members continue to be invited to donate their gently-used purses and other accessories in the theatre lobby.

The current performance schedule is as follows: Wednesday and Saturday at 2 p.m. & 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8:00 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. Beginning April 4th, 2010, the performance schedule will change to: Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday at 2 p.m. & 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. (There will be additional performances on Sunday, April 11 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 2 at 7 p.m. and no performance on Tuesday, March 30 and Tuesday, April 27.)
Tickets ($75.00) are available via Telecharge.com (212-239-6200) and in-person at the Westside Theatre Box Office (407 West 43rd Street). Same-day general rush tickets ($25.00, cash only) are available at the Westside Theatre box office, beginning at noon. (Limited to two rush tickets per person. Seats are based on availability; some are limited view.)

At the end of the show I waited outside the theatre to meet Fran Drescher. I told her that she keeps me up until three in the morning watching reruns of The Nanny and gave her a hug. She looks just great! Here's to your health, Fran.